CCA commends the government on pursuing an Open Government agenda. Greater transparency, participation and accountability in government will drive real improvements in performance and better outcomes for the Australian community. However, this requires governments to commit to collecting and making public a much higher level of outcome and impact reporting, not just of the services they contract, but of their own performance in achieving government policy goals.
News
CCA provides media commentary on issues important to charities and NFPs and CCA CEO David Crosbie writes fortnightly in Pro Bono News on sector issues. We keep our member CEOs and senior staff up to date via CCA's Daily Diary - a frank daily analysis of the national context, issues and news of interest to charity leaders (all in a two-minute read). Charity leaders who would like to know more, please contact our Partnerships Manager, Deborah Smith, info@communitycouncil.com.au
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security tabled its report on 25 June, with bi-partisan support for 52 recommendations regarding the Foreign Influence Transparency Bill.
CCA and charities across our sector welcomed the Committee's recommendation to provide an exemption for registered charities to ensure the Bill does not unnecessarily snare and impede Australian charities simply going about their work, in pursuit of their charitable purpose.
Governments need to recognise that national security is about much more than international threats. If they focused more attention on the safety of women and less on curtailing freedoms in the name of national security, Australia would not only be safer, but more like the Australia we all want to live in., writes CCA CEO, David Crosbie in Pro Bono News, 22 June 2018.
CCA generally welcomes the intention of the amendments proposed by Attorney General, Christian Porter - but calls for areas of uncertainty to be resolved - and remains confused as to why charities pursuing their charitable purpose are not excluded when business groups, non-charitable peak bodies and others are exempt. The cost to Australia of reducing international collaboration by charities and their engagement in the public policy process would be extremely high. Ideally the Bill will exclude Australian registered charities engaged in their normal activities and pursuing their legitimate charitable purpose, even if they have engaged in international collaboration.
The government approach to electoral reform is not about good policy or real reform, it is about maintaining and extending political advantage, writes CCA CEO David Crosbie in Pro Bono News, 7 June 2018.
In the wake of the New Zealand federal budget CCA CEO David Crosbie imagines an Australia where governments also set targets that relate to the kind of Australia we want to live in, Pro Bono News, 24 May
This Budget is about a political contest – with the Government backing self-interest over community interest. When politics dominates, when popularism and nationalism are in ascendancy, good policy making is diminished. Our democracy suffers, writes CCA CEO David Crosbie in Pro Bono News, 10 May.
To realise the vision of an Australia that embraces its dreamers, we need to enhance and strengthen the role of charities and broader civil society, writes CCA CEO David Crosbie in Pro Bono News, 26 April.
CCA joins eleven leading national peak bodies working in the charity sector to launch a Model Policy to improve how charities handle and learn from complaints.
Following CCA’s submission last October and an appearance before the Senate Select Committee on Political Donations, CCA was invited to address questions from the Committee including on the adequacy of current laws governing third parties and their political expenditure; the most appropriate means, if any, of further regulating third party actors to improve the integrity of decision-making; and how additional third party regulation might impact charities to fulfil their purpose under the ACNC Act.