ROWLAND:
Now to another story, and a national body to regulate charities and not for profit organisations is being launched today. There are more than 56,000 such groups operating and it is hoped the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, the ACNC, will help maintain trust and confidence in the work they do.
CARVALHO:
Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury is the Minister responsible for the Commission and he's with us this morning. Good morning, thanks for being here.
BRADBURY:
Good to be with you.
CARVALHO:
Now why is this new body needed and what's its role?
BRADBURY:
Well look this is something that the sector itself has been calling for for many years, we've had numerous inquiries whether it be the Productivity Commission, various inquiries over the years that have all recommended that this is something that is really important for the sector. Why is it important and what will it do? Well it is important because I think all Australians want to know that they have confidence and faith in the charities sector. That is important because so many of us either donate our time or our money to the charities sector. It is important that there be sufficient accountability and transparency in the way in which charities operate but equally one of the big issues for charities is the regulation that they have to deal with and there is so much regulation and red tape across state and territory boundaries, if I can just give you one example – for a charity that might be a fairly modest charity that establishes with a website that has a national presence they're collecting donations from a range of states, you don't have to be a big charity to do that but you do have to get a charitable fundraising licence with most of the states. So we hope that this national body will provide the impetus to cut down on that red tape, to bring about a greater harmonisation of arrangements and ultimately allow charities to do what they do best and spend more of their time raising funds for good causes.
ROWLAND:
and that is exactly the point, how much of this is driven by concerns that some charities, not all of them by any stretch, spend too much money on administration and not on those good causes?
BRADBURY:
Well clearly it is important for the Australian community to have confidence that the money they are contributing to the charities sector is getting to the good causes that they believe they're donating to. Now that is something that if there are any particular allegations of mismanagement from a charity, what we have seen in the past is that sometimes it is very difficult to have those issues dealt with and resolved. By having a single dedicated national regulator we believe that there will be a very effective mechanism through which any of those issues can be dealt with and ultimately we think it will make our charitable sector much stronger moving forward into the future.
CARVALHO:
So will this body have any teeth?
BRADBURY:
Well it does. It is a regulator, it is one of the key regulators that we have in the landscape now, so where we have particular instances of organisations not doing the right thing then they can be deregistered. And what are the implications of that? Well one of the big things for charities is they rely on tax concessions and to lose those tax concessions obviously would have a profound impact on the charities. There are also a range of powers that relate to being able to remove particular officers that may be in breach of their obligations as an officer of that organisation. I think it is about striking the right balance here. We're not going after the charities sector, we're not using a sledge hammer to crack a nut but we think it is important that we have a regulator that has the teeth to act when it needs to.
ROWLAND:
Just on another couple of quick issues, David Bradbury, we were just reporting on the outcome from the Doha climate change talks. Does Australia feel increasingly isolated here? A lot of countries, including Russia and Canada, refusing to sign up to the second stage of Kyoto?
BRADBURY:
Well, no I don't think we do take the approach that we're isolated. I think that this is something that, if you look at all of the matters that we've discussed at the conference, it is clear that there is a growing sense of urgency that action needs to be taken. Now we can defer the point at which we chose to act, here in Australia we haven't, we have managed to get in there to introduce a price on carbon and in the end this is not just about going to conferences and signing up to agreements with other nations, as important as international action is, this is about making sure that we begin to ween our economy off its very high dependence upon fossil fuels as we move forward. If we want to strong economy into the future and we want to be able to preserve the environment that we all enjoy, then I think moderate long term action is what's required. And we've put in place the building blocks for that.
CARVALHO:
What about this proposed $100 billion fund for poorer nations that are affected by severe weather disasters. What's Australia's contribution going to be to that?
BRADBURY:
I should say some of the reports in the papers this morning are just plain wrong in terms of the suggestion that we're signing up to some open ended exposure when it comes to climate financing arrangements. In terms of our commitment to assisting developing nations, whether it be through mitigation or adaptation works, we've got some runs on the board. We have done this in the past largely through our foreign aid budget and we have often been very focused on our region. And if you look at our region the south pacific in particular there are many countries that simply do not have the capacity to cope with the impacts of climate change and frankly we play a significant role in the region. I've been to various meetings with other members of the South Pacific, they all look to Australia we're the big kahuna if you like in the region and it's important that we play our part to assist them as they cope with the impacts of climate change.
ROWLAND:
And just before we go we'll be joined in the program later by a spokesman for a new group – the Fair Competition Coalition – which is a collection of small retailers increasingly concerned about the dominance of Coles and Woollies I notice Rod Simms, the ACCC boss, is in bit of a battle at the moment with Woolworths about licences and abilities to buy new hardware stores and liquor stores around the place. Do you believe that Woolworths and Coles are too powerful, they exert too much market dominance?
BRADBURY:
Well, certainly they have considerable market power. I think Blind Freddy can see that, you don't have to be a competition law expert to make that observation. But we are confident that the competition laws that we have in place give our regulator the ACCC the power it needs to make sure that that strength within the market place doesn't become abusive in the way in which they deal with competitors and ultimately take away the positive impacts that consumers face. I think one point that I would make is that we're seeing some pretty strong competition between Coles and Woolies out there in the supermarkets space, something that I think we're seeing as strong as I've seen in my life time.
ROWLAND:
That is only two companies though 80% of the market.
BRADBURY:
That's true, that's trues and that is a difficult structure of the market that we have some people out here suggest that you should go and break it up and break up Coles and Woolies. That is much easier said than done, certainly not something that I think would ultimately assist consumers but that is not say there are not real concerns here and we want to make sure that the ACCC, who are independent from Government but we give them the laws to deal with, if they come back to us and said that the laws are not adequate to deal with the problem then of course we will consider any future changes that are needed.
CARVALHO:
David Bradbury, thanks for your time this morning.
BRADBURY:
Great to be with you.
ROWLAND:
Thank you.