17% of all registered charities (over 8,000) are 'Basic Religious Charities' - exempt from any financial reporting or compliance with governance standards. Now, at last, the Productivity Commission has recommended they be required to meet the same financial reporting and governance standards other charities have to meet. The PC has
also recommended (at last!) that charities with only the category of “advancing religion” would be ineligible for “deductible gift recipient” (DGR) status.
Sounds like progress, right? But these are only recommendations and the feds have yet to say whether they will accept them. Worryingly, the Charities Minister, Andrew Leigh, has said, "Religious organisations are anchors in our communities, we’ll listen closely to their reactions to the Productivity Commission’s report."
We may need you to write to Leigh and urge him to accept the recommendations of the Productivity Commission.
