Page 1315 - Week 04 - Thursday, 30 March 2017
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We want to make sure that charities in the ACT have more time and resources to focus on delivering services to the community and spend less time worrying about unnecessary paperwork. The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, the ACNC, was established in 2013 under commonwealth legislation to be the national regulator of charities. It has a clear role to promote public trust and confidence in the sector through increased accountability and transparency.
Currently, charities that are registered with the ACNC and incorporated in the ACT or licensed to undertake charitable collections in the ACT are subject to similar requirements under both national and ACT legislation. This bill addresses this duplication, saving charities time and money, and making it clear for the public that the ACNC is the primary regulator for these charities now that the federal government has finally committed to continuing funding of the ACNC to undertake this important role. Charities often rely on volunteers and public support to do great things for this community. This bill reduces the administrative burden for those charities registered with the ACNC by removing the requirement that they are licensed in the ACT and report to two bodies.
As part of this bill, firewood merchants in the ACT will no longer have to apply for an authorisation to carry out their work and will be regulated more appropriately through existing regulations. The only practical difference will be a reduction in the paperwork and the removal of fees for those entities carrying out activities related to the preparation, sale and supply of firewood in the ACT.
This bill also reduces paperwork and fees by removing the unnecessary duplication involved in obtaining a waterway works licence for entities that already have an authorisation or agreement to carry out the work under the Environment Protection Act. This removes the need for the applicant to fill in two applications for the same work and in no way increases the risk to our waterways.
The bill makes amendments to the ACT energy industry levy that will improve transparency in the energy industry sector and remove barriers to competition. These amendments result from the government’s investigation of the levy, which found that small providers were being disadvantaged and competition in the energy sector was being stifled. The energy industry levy is directly levied on energy utility companies, including all gas and electricity distributors and retailers, supplying energy in the ACT. Currently, the levy is not fairly distributed among the suppliers and this amendment seeks to rectify this. The result of this change will be a decrease in the levy charged on smaller firms. This will, in turn, encourage smaller firms to enter the industry, which is a good thing for the ACT. Increased competition has been shown to be a key contributor to lower energy prices. Furthermore, the bill removes ambiguity, corrects errors and increases transparency by now requiring the levy administrator to publish guidelines and annual accounts.
The bill enhances the integrity of the legislation that we administer concerning licensed agents, including in the real estate industry, and the regulator’s ability to address issues of noncompliance when it comes to the auditing of trust money. The legislation is clear—and licensed agents will know this—that the onus is on the agent
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