Page 2850 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 1991
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association may be formed before being eligible for incorporation, this Bill provides for associations to be incorporated if they are formed for a lawful purpose and are non-profit-making.
This Bill will enable associations to be incorporated in a more convenient and less expensive way than by forming a company. As a result of incorporation the association gains a separate legal identity and the powers of a natural person, while the liability of members remains limited. This Bill contains provisions more in accordance with current company law than those in the 1953 Act. There are more detailed accounting and audit provisions. More guidance is given as to the duties and responsibilities of officers and members of incorporated associations. There are additional provisions which allow for the amalgamation of incorporated associations and for voluntary winding-up.
Under this Bill, administration will remain with the Registrar of Incorporated Associations. This Bill contains requirements that the registrar be kept informed, through the lodgment of appropriate forms and annual returns, of details of the management and financial circumstances of each association. That information will then be available to the public, including members of the association, by way of a search at the office of the registrar, in much the same way that such information is obtainable about companies.
Public comment was sought in November last year on this Bill while it was still in draft form. The comments received were very useful and were taken into consideration by the Law Office in bringing this Bill to its final form. An underlying theme of a number of the comments was that some of the requirements were too onerous for small organisations. We must bear in mind that the majority of associations incorporated under this legislation are very small sporting clubs, social clubs and the like, whose office bearers are all volunteers. In particular, the lodgment of documents with the registrar within short time limits and the size of penalties for infringement were of concern.
As the intention was to provide a framework for proper regulation of incorporated associations and some protection for members, but not to make incorporation an unattractive option for these groups, nor to discourage people from accepting positions as committee members, the Government responded to those comments by reducing penalties and allowing longer periods for lodgment of notifications. Another suggestion was that associations be given the option of having a registered office as an address for service of notices, and this has been adopted. Clearly, this will be of more benefit to those larger clubs which have staffed premises, rather than the small local cat club or stamp collecting club that operates out of committee members' front rooms.
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