Page 3427 - Week 09 - Thursday, 21 August 2008
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The second recommendation we made was that:
… section 93 of the Associations Incorporation Act 1991 be amended to allow the registrar general to begin the process to remove an association’s incorporation if the association has not lodged an annual return with the registrar-general in relation to each of the last 2 years.
Finally, recommendation 3 was that:
… section 93 of the Associations Incorporation Act 1991 be amended to allow the registrar-general to begin the process to remove an association’s incorporation if the association has submitted three consecutive annual returns with qualified audits and the reason for the qualified audit is not merely technical.
So there are concerns. There are always concerns that the office of regulatory affairs lacks the resources to properly do this job, which is in a sense a policing job. We know that a sizeable amount of funds is given by people all over the world—certainly by Australians; we are a fairly generous crowd—to charities and other non-profit organisations. It is fair that they know that the organisations that they are donating to are safeguarding that funding, are spending it well. While we are aware that there is not a general problem across the sector, there is always the damage that a few bad apples can do. We need transparency, and properly audited books are a major part of that.
I commend our report to the Assembly and I look forward to the response of the next government.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Public Accounts—Standing Committee
Report 16
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (11.25): I present the following report:
Public Accounts—Standing Committee—Report 16—Review of Auditor-General’s Report No 5 of 2006: Rhodium Asset Solutions Limited, dated 15 August 2008, together with a copy of the extracts of the relevant minutes of proceedings.
I move:
That the report be noted.
I know that there is a great deal of interest in this report. We are aware that in 2005 the Auditor-General was asked to do an inquiry into Rhodium and that the subsequent report that she produced became the focus of a great deal of interest because of the concerns that she raised.
I want to thank, first of all, all the other members of the committee who were involved in the public accounts committee inquiry into the report. Karin MacDonald and Brendan Smyth are the current members. I want to acknowledge Richard Mulcahy,
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