Hands Off Charities
The federal government is seeking to muzzle environmental and community organisations by threatening their charity status if they support civil disobedience or cross paths with any minor offense.
Many of the most beautiful and iconic natural places in Australia, from the rainforests of the NSW North Coast, to the Franklin River, to the Daintree Forest, were protected because of brave acts of civil disobedience.
If this new regulation becomes law, then organisations like the Nature Conservation Council could lose their charity status if they even tweet that someone is conducting a tree-sit to protect a forest from logging. Even that single tweet could be deemed ‘support of an illegal action’ and the organisation deregistered as a charity, harming their financial viability.
Amazingly, instead of focusing on the vaccine roll-out, the government is pushing through unprecedented new regulations that would create risk and red tape for all Australian charities.
These changes would give the Charities Commissioner sweeping powers to deregister charities for even the most minor offences, like blocking a footpath while holding a vigil. Charities could even be deregistered if supporters or volunteers engaged in these kinds of activities without the charity’s knowledge. And what’s more, they could be deregistered for things they haven’t even done yet but that the Charities Commissioner ‘reasonably believes’ they could do in the future.
Public activism organised and supported by charities clearly demonstrates to communities and governments that organised opposition exists and that those involved are committed to the cause. So why is the government trying to crack down on how charities like the Nature Conservation Council help amplify the voices of communities?
This attack on charities is an extraordinary overreach that will have a chilling effect on the vital work that charities do in this country, for justice, for nature, for the vulnerable and disadvantaged. It's so bad, big Australian charities have even appealed to the UN to get them stopped!
If we speak out now, we still have time to stop these regulations from becoming a reality.
We need to ramp up the pressure now on the Morrison Government to get them to back down from these regulations.
NCC is working with an alliance of over 60 well respected charities to condemn these laws. We are calling on the Morrison Government to abandon these attacks. We know Prime Minister Morrison has a lot of important issues to worry about and more important things to do than silence charities who speak out for and represent their communities. Will you add your voice?
Without noisy opposition from across the community the government will think they can get away with this. That’s where you come in.
Charities in Australia have been working tirelessly throughout the pandemic to support vulnerable communities and people in need. Right now the government should be doing everything it can to help charities, not using this moment to crack down on the very things that are needed for a healthy democracy.