The Australian Government this week kicked off discussions on a new Code for consultation with the Not-for Profit (NFP) sector.
Minister for Social Inclusion Mark Butler said the Consultation Code will be a practical guide to effective ongoing consultation between the Government and the NFP Sector and will sit under the National Compact: working together.
"The Government has asked the Reform Council, headed by former Queensland Attorney-General Linda Lavarch, to lead workshops with the sector," Mr Butler said.
"This will build on recent work with the NFP sector, including the removal of gag-clauses from Commonwealth contracts, new low-risk grant agreement templates, a simplified contract for low value procurements and the adoption of a national Standard Charter of Accounts."
"These workshops follow an online survey conducted in March that saw over 500 organisations have their say on where they want to see improvements in government consultation practices."
Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said the Government would also use these consultations to start a discussion about governance within the sector.
"Our approach in developing a set of principle-based minimum governance standards will be to start by asking the sector what works," said Mr Bradbury.
"We know that there are a number of governance codes already being used by the sector to run strong and effective organisations."
"These governance standards are a critical part of our new smarter regulatory arrangements to deliver a single national regulatory approach. We want to draw from existing governance codes to create effective national standards under the new regulatory framework to be administered by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)."
The ACNC will commence operations once its enabling legislation passes through the Parliament.
The ACNC will initially register and regulate charities across Australia seeking access to Commonwealth tax concessions and other exemptions, concessions and benefits.
The ACNC taskforce, which is led by Interim Commissioner Susan Pascoe AM, will also participate in ongoing consultations with the sector.
The ACNC's role in supporting charities to understand the governance requirements will recognise existing good practice governance arrangements in the sector.
The Government will also bring together sector stakeholders and governance experts and examine similar sets of standards from other jurisdictions in developing the principle-based standards under the ACNC Act. These will come into force from July 2013.
The Commonwealth will also continue its work with the States and Territories on governance standards through COAG's NFP Reform Working Group.
Workshops are being conducted between 17 October and 1 November 2012 in all capital cities and Port Hedland. Registrations remain open at the National Compact website. For organisations unable to attend the workshops, an online forum will also be open for three weeks on the same website.