Australia’s charities say their fear of political retribution for criticising government has “dissipated to some extent” after the Coalition’s election defeat, but have called on the new Labor government to enact reforms to protect their right to engage in political advocacy.
The charity sector has complained for at least five years that many non-government organisations were avoiding dissent or criticism of government policy due to fears they would be punished financially, either through the loss of funding agreements or by compliance action from a hostile regulator.
Those threats were amplified under the government’s hand-picked charity regulator, Gary Johns, who was a staunch critic of charities that engaged in political advocacy before taking up the role in 2017.
The Coalition tried to introduce regulations giving Johns sweeping new powers to deregister charities, which Zed Seselja, assistant charities minister at the time, said was aimed at stopping “unlawful behaviours promoted and engaged in by activist organisations masquerading as charities”.
The election result and subsequent resignation of Johns has prompted widespread relief in the sector, according to Hands Off Our Charities, an alliance of more than 100 charities established in 2017 to fight to maintain the right to engage in advocacy.
“A lot of charities are relieved, and we had a lot of charities self-censoring out of fear of being targeted by the regulator, or being targeted directly by ministers or the government,” the group’s coordinator, Ray Yoshida, told Guardian Australia.
“That fear has dissipated to some extent, but I think really we need the new government and the new minister to back up their words with action, to give confidence to charities that they can be critical of government policy when they need to be, and that that’s not going to threaten their charitable status and nor would it threaten any funding agreements they have.”
On Tuesday, the new assistant charities minister, Andrew Leigh, addressed the sector at the Australian Progress conference, saying “the war on charities ended with the election of the Albanese government”.
He compared the appointment of Johns to “putting Scott Morrison in charge of ensuring safety at kids’ soccer games”.
“We’ve seen a huge attack on charities over the last nine years,” he said.
Leigh said Labor wanted to “celebrate the role of charitable advocacy” and didn’t “unnecessarily seek to crack down on charitable advocacy”.
Yoshida welcomed that tone, but said he wanted to see concrete reforms that protect the sector’s ability to advocate, and clarify how the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) would treat advocacy.
“How we can do that is by shifting the legislative environment to really enable charitable advocacy in Australia. Some key areas we’re really interested in are reforming charity and election laws so that it’s unambiguous that community voices are not only welcome but encouraged to participate in election debates.
“And also we’re interested in reforms to DGR [deductible gift recipient] status and access to charities, so that charities who do advocacy can actually secure the important, long-term funding.”
Asked about the resignation of Johns, Yoshida said: “There’s absolutely a sense of relief.
“We need a new commissioner that respects the political advocacy that charities do. And really, this is an opportunity for the new minister for charities to strengthen our democracy by resetting the ACNC’s relationship with the sector and by restoring civil society voices to the centre of public policymaking.”
Leigh has previously said a new commissioner would be selected through an “open and transparent process to identify the best qualified candidate”.
