Charities & Associations Law (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2025 (No 65)

Thursday 3 September 2026

Ms ARMITAGE (Launceston) - Mr President, I thank the honourable Leader for bringing this bill forward again and I note -

Ms Rattray - It has taken a while to get to the Council.

Ms ARMITAGE - Well, I'll be asking you about proclamations as well. I note that this is not the first time we've actually seen it. I know that certain circumstances have intervened, but I'm glad that we're finally getting the opportunity to examine the bill and implement the changes it seeks to make to charities, legislation and policy. As the honourable Leader said, this bill will help to align Tasmania with national registration and harmonisation reforms when it comes to undertaking charitable collections and other associated activities. Importantly, it further seeks to improve enforcement powers, boost public trust in charitable institutions and organisations, and make regulatory burdens on charities a little easier and lighter. Given the important work charities do in our communities, it's only fair and reasonable that, as far as possible, we get out of their way and let them get on with their work. Therefore, we need legislation that's relevant, contemporary and fit for purpose.

It's very clear that in the past couple of decades, the ways charities collect donations, particularly money, has changed. What were once one-off donations now look a bit more like ongoing pledges and involve far more use of electronic funds than things like cash or cheques. Moreover, many charitable collections take place online and there's an increasing use of third parties being used to collect and distribute donated funds. The whole nature of fundraising has changed quite a lot and public policy and laws need to reflect and properly facilitate that. I know at a recent fundraiser I went to, I tried to give a cheque and they don't accept cheques anymore, so all of a sudden we discovered it's all very different. The administration of charities has also changed and a consequence of that is ensuring that funds that are donated to charities are being used for their intended purposes. People who make donations to charities rightfully expect that the funds they donate go towards the causes they were told about when making their donation. Updated legislation is, therefore, required to ensure that more funds being donated go towards their intended charitable cause than are spent on compliance, administration and management of those funds. These two things are closely linked.

The honourable Leader mentioned the bill's support of the national fundraising principles that require charitable organisations to ensure that their employees, volunteers, contractors and anyone else who they engage to raise funds on their behalf adhere to the principles. This will be implemented through a new mandatory code of practice to be made as regulations under the Collections for Charities Act 2001. The national fundraising principles are a set of 16 nationally consistent conduct requirements agreed to by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments in February 2023. The purpose of these principles is to streamline fundraising rules across Australia, by reducing administrative work for charitable organisations and making it easier for them to comply with different state-based regimes.

These principles include:

• Purpose, ensuring that the representatives of a charitable organisation clearly explain the purposes of their fundraising activities and that those representatives are clearly and individually identifiable, including names of individuals and appropriate contact details;

• Ensuring that written records are properly made and kept;

• That solicitation requests are made respectfully and that representatives comply with requests to refuse a donation, stop future solicitations and marketing, to contact a person at a different, better or more convenient time, and to limit the number, type or frequency of solicitations;

• Acknowledges that things like door‑to‑door and telephone fundraising is prohibited outside of sociable hours and limited on weekends, additionally, fundraising activities are not permitted on public holidays unless the public holiday is closely related to the fundraiser's purpose, such as the example the honourable leader gave us earlier;

• Ensuring that the representatives of charitable organisations adhere to the truth and do not mislead, deceive or use false or inaccurate information;

• That representatives don't place undue or unreasonable pressure on a person, or act unconscionably to obtain a donation from a person;

• Ensuring that vulnerable people are protected and that representatives never exploit a donor's trust, lack of knowledge, capacity, or vulnerable circumstances;

• That it's made clear to people whether a donation is a one off or ongoing, and including clear instructions on how to end in the ongoing commitments;

• Mandating that commercial fundraising organisations must explain their role, and if and how profits from fundraising are being obtained before a donation is made to them;

• That due diligence must be conducted by charitable organisations when engaging third parties for the purposes of fundraising;

• That charitable organisations must maintain written records of total funds raised and how they are applied;

• Requiring charitable organisations to take reasonable measures to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of both fundraisers and the public;

• Requiring charitable organisations to establish and maintain a complaints process that allows for proper investigation and redress accessible to the public;

• Ensuring that commonwealth privacy legislation is complied with; and

• Ensuring that charitable organisations ensure that remuneration paid to commercial fundraisers are not excessive.

These are all very reasonable, but also necessary to implement through a mandatory code of conduct. There are many charities operating in Australia, all of different sizes. Having these principles ensure that they are all operating to the same expected standards.

Additionally, this bill seeks to adopt cross-jurisdictional recognition for charities. As we know, many charities take donations for people all over the country, even though their activities or purposes might only be geographically limited. As the honourable Leader said, this cross‑border model means that registration with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission will automatically authorise a charity to fundraise in each participating jurisdiction. This does not affect the ability of individual state-based regulators to require such organisations to comply with local financial auditing requirements where applicable.

In addition, this legislation seeks to harmonise the reporting thresholds for all charities. This includes changing the auditing exemption threshold from the current $250,000 to $500,000, which also aligns to ACNC reporting thresholds, which reduces the regulatory burden on small organisations.

I've just asked the Leader with regard to solicitation. Under the interpretation, 'solicit' means to seek a donation by a request communicated in person by mail, facsimile, telephone, email, by the internet, by a document left on premises, or by any appeal through the media. But actually, I'm looking at the interpretation and the term 'solicitation' and I'm just wondering about the term 'digital solicitation,' because I noticed that 'digital' also includes things like Txt2Give, SMS campaigns, mobile donor apps, QR codes, and contactless donation kiosks at live events. So, I'm just wondering, is that captured by the interpretation that's in the current act? Because I just noticed there appears to be a difference between 'internet solicitation' and 'digital solicitation', and I don't see 'digital' actually in the current act. I'm just wondering whether that might be something that needs to be there, or whether it's actually already incorporated, if that could be explained.

Finally, I'll comment on the improved enforcement and compliance provisions contained in the bill. The bill empowers the commissioner to undertake several functions that will ensure that charitable organisations are working properly, effectively and fairly. Importantly, it includes a provision giving effect to an infringement notice regime that pairs with improved investigative abilities for potential offences or contraventions of the Collection for Charities Act or the Consumer Affairs Act 1988. This may include allowing an authorised officer to issue infringement notices for breaches and the construction of a framework for Magistrate Court orders and potentially Supreme Court injunctions.

As the honourable Leader mentioned, these measures are designed not just to ensure that all charitable organisations operate on an even playing field, but to enhance public confidence in them. This is necessary if we want charities to continue doing good work in our communities, as they're important and needed. We want people to donate to these sorts of organisations and causes if they're able to, and it's in everyone's interest to ensure that those funds are going where they're supposed to go.

As mentioned at the beginning of my contribution, leader, I do note this act is to come into effect on a day to be proclaimed, and as I have mentioned here, I found a very large number of acts that have been through this place that are yet to be proclaimed dating back over 10 years some of them, a great deal of time. If I could have some advice as to when this is likely to be proclaimed, and I certainly will keep an eye on it as well, now that I realise that everything that goes through this House receiving Royal Assent isn't necessarily proclaimed. Thank you.