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I have spent the last couple of years working quite extensively on transparency in the NFP sector with a particular focus on religious organisations, which enjoy many privileges in law that secular organisations do not. https://ausgov.info/index.php?Topics=charities
In 'The Hidden Wealth of Basic Religious Charities', I looked into the challenges faced by the charity regulator est. only a few years ago, the exceptions carved out for religious orgs to make that happen & the implications. https://ausgov.info/index.php?Topics=Charities&Article=THE%20HIDDEN%20WEALTH%20OF%20BASIC%20RELIGIOUS%20CHARITIES
The former Charities Commissioner Susan Pascoe had a real battle on her hands after the Abbott govt introduced legislation to abolish the regulator after Labor had established it, then lost power. https://ausgov.info/index.php?Topics=Charities&Article=THE%20HIDDEN%20WEALTH%20OF%20BASIC%20RELIGIOUS%20CHARITIES
At the end of her 5 year term, despite weathering all this, Ms Pascoe was not reappointed, but succeeded by ex IPA Senior Research Fellow, Gary Johns. I wrote about his failure to appear at the Senate Estimates, a potential contempt of Parliament. https://ausgov.info/index.php?Topics=Charities&Article=IPA%20APPOINTEE%20FAILS%20TO%20ATTEND%20ESTIMATES
But that's the easy stuff. The more difficult topics are analysing the concessions & spending that religious charities are privy to. This article traces the history of tax law as it relates to tax concessions enjoyed by charities. https://ausgov.info/index.php?Topics=charities&Article=Of%20Death%20and%20Taxes
I had another look at the Commissioners Interpretation Statement on Public Benevolent Institutions (the largest sector of DGR recipients) to try to clarify the implications for charities with a religious purpose which are also PBIs. I realised it is clear as mud.
"An entity’s motives are not directly relevant to determining its main purposes. For example, if an entity’s main purpose is advancing religion it will not be eligible to be registered as a PBI." 1/ wait, there's more
"However if the entity is motivated by religious faith and its main purpose is benevolent, it may still be eligible." 2/
Because I work with the charities data it means I can run queries that list charities that declare a main (or secondary) purpose as religious activities & match that against those which are PBIs AND BRCs. Basic Religious Charities can not be PBIs- yet there seem to be a few.
Basic Religious Charities have the least reporting requirements of all charities, thanks to an exception carved out for them after the ACNC legislation was put together. Providing this fig-leaf to the churches is possibly the only reason Labor was able to establish the regulator.
Which the Libs then tried to destroy the moment they gained power. The ACNC just had a 5 year review where the ACNC Committee RECOMMENDED the removal of the BRC exception. Treasury refused.
