CANBERRA - 11 August 2021
I begin my contribution to the debate on the Treasury Laws Amendment (2021 Measures No. 2) Bill 2021 by acknowledging all of the different charities around Australia and everything that they've done to support Australians during this very difficult period with the pandemic and the effects it's had on Australians and Australian families around this country.
Australian charities have supported and continue to support so many hundreds of thousands of people, particularly those who have become vulnerable because of insecure work or casual work and those who haven't been supported by the Government's actions.
At the outset I want to address something that was said by the member for Barker, who was scoffing at the idea of Catholics processing on Palm Sunday.
He suggested that it was fanciful that people processing could ever lead to a situation
where a government that was overly focused on control and silencing dissent could use this legislation against its own citizens, including those of the Catholic faith—my faith—and other Christian faiths.
On Palm Sunday in Darwin we have a procession down Smith Street where Anglicans, members of the Uniting Church and members of the Catholic congregation come together and walk down that street with palm fronds.
At times during these processions we speak out against injustice because we are led by the message of Jesus.
Another clear example where this legislation could be used unfairly against, in this case, Christian charities. At the moment in Darwin, we have citizens of Iran who fled their country and came to Australia to save their lives.
Some of them are Christian and some are not.
Regardless, they have been in detention for around eight years.
And what members of various churches, including the Catholic Bishop Charles Gauci, do is go to the fence because every day we have a rally at the fence at 5 pm in solidarity with these people who are imprisoned within the Darwin airport.
Some of them have been released into community detention.
But there is still one family in detention, and we do not know why the minister is not releasing that last family.
Their health and wellbeing have been deteriorating steadily in the time that I've been visiting them.
This is a blight on our nation.
The people that I represent are sick of the injustice, the wilful damaging of human beings whose only crime, in the eyes of those opposite, was to seek asylum.
They will be settled overseas, but until then it escapes us why those opposite would not release them into community detention while they await settlement in another nation.
My point is that, if someone at one of those 5 pm rallies in Darwin in solidarity with these genuine refugees were to come into contact with a member of law enforcement because they happened to go onto the road during a rally and that person was a member of a charity such as St Vincent de Paul, a fine charity that I'm a member of, under this legislation that charity could have its charity status taken away.
I say to the Member for Barker: you shouldn't scoff at the traditions in our Christian faith and you shouldn't try to belittle in any way the passion of the members of these charities for human rights and justice.
This bill amounts to a continuance of the Federal Government's crackdown on charities.
All of us in this place should know how important and valuable charities are to our community.
But just think about this for a second: at the moment in the Northern Territory our not-for-profit sector is worth more to our community than mining.
I hope that changes in the future as we open up more mines in the Northern Territory, but it is significant.
That's the point: it is a significant part of our community and a significant part of our economy.
So this is about respect.
This is about respecting charities, because where do so many billions of dollars of donations to these charities come from?
They come from the Australian people, and the Australian people decide to support these charities because they believe in what they're doing, they believe in advocacy and they believe in holding government to account.
So you've got to ask yourself: why is this government, after eight years, continuing to try to crack down and silence charities?
More than 10,000 people are employed by Northern Territory charities, with another 11,000 volunteers on top of that.
Out of our relatively small population, that's significant.
And the charities sector feeds over $615 million back into the local economy each year.
As I said, I'm very proud to volunteer with Vinnies and veterans organisations.
Veterans’ organisations with the deductible gift recipient status—are we saying that if a member of one of those veterans’ organisations, which are fighting for a better deal for veterans, comes foul of this legislation then the RSL, are going to get their charity status taken away?
Mates4Mates? Soldier On? Think about it.
There is a lot, after eight years of this government, that veterans have endured.
We had to drag the government, kicking and screaming, to announce a royal commission when we had more veterans take their own lives than we've had die in combat over 20 years in Afghanistan.
So I again say to the government: think. Think about what this sector does.
There are many charities I could mention in the Northern Territory that do not deserve to be cracked down on.
An Aboriginal men's shelter that I'm working with; Foodbank; Variety; PAWS, which is looking after animals; and Aboriginal organisations—one of which, a philanthropic organisation, is putting its hand into its own pocket to help the Northern Territory Government implement the Aboriginal Justice Agreement.
That is new news; it's happened today.
That's the not-for-profit sector joining with the NT Government to work through and implement the Aboriginal Justice Agreement.
I ask the minister that's sitting here with us at the moment: are those opposite really saying that someone who is advocating, using their voice to speak up—as we know, the Closing the Gap update just happened this week—and protest about deaths in custody, about the shocking rates of Indigenous youth suicide and about human rights abuses?
Are we really saying that if any of those individuals use their voice to speak out then the deductible gift recipient status of some of those organisations will be taken away?
Let's think about this and think about who we're silencing.
I think that the Morrison Government's proposed governance changes in this sector are alarming and unnecessary, and I do believe they will do real damage.
Unfortunately, they've got form in that they rarely pay attention to this sector, the charities sector, until they want to slap another gag on the sector's ability to speak up for the Australian people.
In the past four years, just two of almost 60,000 charities have been disqualified for breaking the law.
That's 0.003 per cent, so you've got to wonder what is driving this legislation.
There is no such thing as a charity crime wave.
The changes would merely give the coalition another set of tools to shut down any criticism—they want charities to be seen but not heard.
Charities can already be deregistered for breaking the law and their staff members and
volunteers can face penalties.
The coalition—those opposite—want to go even further.
Their proposed unfair new rules go far beyond anything that applies to political parties, businesses or other organisations.
If this is enacted, a charity could be deregistered for the most minor offences imaginable.
The member for Barker scoffed at one such minor incident that might have been caused, willingly or unwillingly, by a religious organisation. It's absurd.
What's more, a charity could be shut down if the charities commissioner believes a minor breach could occur in the future.
That is absurd.
It's wading into Minority Report territory. Do you remember that film with Tom Cruise, Mr Deputy Speaker? They go around and get people before they've even committed a crime.
That's the sort of territory we’re getting into here.
I want those opposite to stop using our charity sector as a shield.
They see it as good for a photo op but then say, “don't say anything. Don't advocate, because if any of your members do anything wrong, we'll take your DGR status from you.”
DGR status is the very thing that citizens of our nation use to make donations to those organisations, because they believe in what they're doing.
Stop using these shields.
Mr Deputy Speaker, this is the final Tom Cruise reference.
It goes to another movie: A Few Good Men.
We need a few good men, because they're mostly men on the side, to say: “We can handle the truth! We can hear what members of the charity sector have to say. We're not afraid of criticism, and we're not going to strip away your ability to operate if you step over the lines that we keep drawing in front of you.”
Even the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commissioner himself, Gary Johns, has said under questioning during Senate estimates that he has seen no evidence to support the changes to the regulations.
The Liberals' own review recommended the existing regulations around unlawful conduct be scrapped.
Instead, the Morrison Government wants to expand dramatically the scope of the activities the regulations could capture.
I believe these changes will be terrible for our democracy.
Freedom of speech is important.
We hear that from those opposite all the time, but that belief is inconsistent with what they're doing with this legislation.
Deb Di Natale, the CEO of NTCOSS, the Northern Territory Council of Social Service, which is the peak body for our local community sector in Darwin, said:
“The regulations are a case of extreme overreach, and that it's not clear what problems they are meant to solve”.
With only 0.003 per cent of charities having incidents in this area, it is hard to see what problems they are meant to solve.
Commissioner Johns has criticised Beyond Blue and Recognise, and sees Australian charities as being rife with impure altruism.
Scott Morrison should not give him more tools to strip charitable status.
We don't want Commissioner Johns to have more tools to strip the charitable status of organisations that only raise their voices to criticise governments, whether it be the current Government or a future Labor government.
In summing up, I've worked in the not-for-profit sector, and I stand with faith groups and the community sector, who oppose these very concerning changes.
Labor values the contribution that charities and not-for-profits make to civil society, public discourse and the democratic process, and we'll do everything that we can to protect that
important role.
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ENDS
