Australian Charity Reporting Reforms: Serving Private or Public Interests?

In June 2013, the proclamation of the Financial Reporting Regulations (the ACNC Regulations) associated with the Australian Charities Not-for-Profi t Commission Act 2012 (the ACNC Act), marked the end point of the Rudd/ Gillard/Rudd Labor government’s fast-paced legislative programme of comprehensive national regulation of charities, which had commenced in earnest in 2010. It was also a watershed in the development of an Australian public policy issue that has attracted considerable attention over two decades since the landmark report of Industry Commission (IC) Inquiry into Charitable Organisations in Australia in 1995. This chapter explores a major aspect of that reform: the development of reporting requirements for Australian charities.