The Government is seeking the views of NFPs (including charities) and other stakeholders on appropriate governance arrangements for the sector into the future. The consultation builds on work previously completed in the Final Report on the Scoping Study for a National Not-for-profit Regulator (Final Report) which discussed streamlining the governance arrangements in the sector.
The Final Report highlighted some areas of duplicative, burdensome and unclear governance arrangements across the Commonwealth and the states and territories. This paper goes into more detail and seeks views from the sector and other stakeholders on what the core governance principles that apply to all registered entities across the sector should be.
NFPs make an invaluable contribution to society, which is why they receive a range of government and other support.
“This work is about making compliance with governance arrangements less burdensome so that NFPs can continue to thrive and help the community. We want to make the sector’s dealings with government as streamlined and user friendly as possible,” Mr Shorten said.
As NFPs are in receipt of this generous support, the community has high expectations that NFPs are run in an efficient and accountable manner.
Improving the governance frameworks of the NFP sector will help to promote a strong and sustainable NFP sector, through increased transparency and accountability. This will, in turn, encourage a strong philanthropic engagement by the community.
The Government wants to hear from the sector about how a single governance system can best serve the needs of NFPs and their clients. The Consultation paper is available at the Treasury website www.treasury.gov.au. Submissions are due on 6 January 2012.
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