SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

NZ Charities Commission – to be disestablished – Update

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Last night (29 May 2012) the House of Representatives voted by a strong majority (71 to 49) to split the Crown Entities Reform Bill into three: The Charities Amendment Bill No. 2; The NZ Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill and the Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill. The first of these, passed through its committee stages on the evening of 23 May (see earlier post). All three will be treated as one piece of legislation when they come before the House for the Final Reading and vote (they are on the Order Paper for today).

The Charities Amendment Bill No. 2, once passed into law will see the Charities Commission disestablished on 1 July 2012 and its functions transferred to the Department of Internal Affairs.

(Note: The Charities Amendment Bill, which came out of the Statutes Amendment Bill No. 2, had its third reading and was passed on 16 February 2012. It has received the Royal Assent).

Disestablishment of Charities Commission – Update

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“Cabinet recently decided to transfer the Charities Commission’s functions to the Department of Internal Affairs. It is expected that this transfer will take place from 1 July 2012, subject to legislation [The Crown Entities Reform Bill] being passed.”

This statement appeared in a special “note” attached to a Charities Commission job vacancy advertisment for “Manager, Monitoring and Investigations Team” – first published in the Dominion Post on Wednesday 16th November. (applications close midday Monday 28 November 2011).

There has been an open call for public submissions to the Government Administration Select Committee which is considering The Crown Entities Reform Bill – a call made prior to the dissolution of parliament on 20 October 2011. If enancted into law, it will disestablish the Charities Commission and the registration and deregistration of charities will be carried out by a new independent decision-making board of three people. (The Commission was established under The Charities Act 2005).

Disestablishment of the Charities Commission

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There has been an open call for public submissions to the Government Administration Select Committee which is considering The Crown Entities Reform Bill – a call made prior to the dissolution of parliament on 20 October 2011. If enancted into law, it will disestablish the Charities Commission and transfer its function to the Department of Internal Affairs. Under the proposed new legislation, the registration and deregistration of charities will be carried out by a new independent decision-making board of three people. 

The Society (SPCS), a registered charity (CC20268), is currently finalising a detailed report to be submitted to the select committee and Minister responsible for the Commission, focusing on the practices and activities of the Monitoring and Investigation Team of the Charities Commission.

The recent overturning by the High Court (via a judicial review) of the decision of the Charities Commission to deregister the charity Liberty Trust – which has charitable purposes based on biblical principles of debt-relief – has in part prompted some politicians to seriously question the functions of the Commission and the independence of the decision-making processes that its Monitoring and investigations team engage in. A number of controversial deregeistration decisions and public disquiet have prompted politicians to call for changes.

 The SPCS has strongly endorsed the charitable activities of Liberty Trust (Charity Reg. No. CC11287), which won an appeal by way of High Court judicial review of the Commission’s deregistration decision. The Charities Commission was set up under the Charities Act 2005 and it registered Liberty Trust as a charity on 8 October 2007.

Further reading:

Liberty Trust – Resurrected as charity by High Court ruling

https://www.spcs.org.nz/wp-admin/post.php?post=2574&action=edit

Liberty Trust website

www.libertytrust.org.nz