Stop the Abolition of the ACNC

The Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced that his government will abolish the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). His government is preparing legislation to scrap it.

The ACNC, which is the independent national regulator of charities in Australia, has existed for only 15 months and is supported by over eighty percent of Australia's 600,000 charities and Not for Profit organisations surveyed. Last week the Prime Minister received a letter signed by the heads of a wide range of Not For Profit charities, which he appeared to dismiss out of hand.

Currently the ACNC is working to lift levels of accountability and transparency and to reduce red tape in the sector. It is in the process of compiling a register of all NFPs which is available for public scrutiny.

However, the Federal Government seems determined to scrap it despite overwhelming support for the ACNC from within the NFP sector.

Without the ACNC there will be no body to both resource the sector effectively and to hold Australian charities accountable. The Centre for Excellence with which the government plans to replace the ACNC will not provide any governance or reporting oversight for the charities sector.

I have worked in Not for Profits for almost 30 years and believe that scrapping the ACNC makes no sense when it is making such a significant contribution to the NFP sector.

So I invite you to sign this petition as a way of signalling our support for the retention of the ACNC, or a body like it.