There is much our current leaders could learn from the views of Australia’s longest serving prime minister, Sir Robert Menzies about how to make Australia a better place, writes Community Council for Australia CEO David Crosbie in Pro Bono News, The Forgotten People, 17 August 2017.
Recent events in Australian politics have focused attention on internal divisions within the Liberal party and how differing ideologies play out in government policy.
As part of a move to ban foreign donations to political parties, the Government has flagged that it also intends to ban overseas funding to other organisations. The impact of this wider push may mean that registered charities are prevented from accepting international philanthropy.
This position paper has been prepared by a consortia of charities, led by the Australian Council for International Development, Philanthropy Australia and the Community Council for Australia.
If we want stronger communities, a more prosperous, productive and happier Australia, inclusive education must be a higher priority, writes David Crosbie CEO of Community Council for Australia (CCA) in Pro Bono News, 3 August 2017, Making Education Our Business:
Building the Australia we want starts with education
Building the Australia we want starts with education
CCA, with the support of partners Origin Foundation and PwC Australia brought together 30 leaders in the first Australia We Want Solutions Forum in Melbourne on 2 August, 2017. This exceptional gathering of change-makers and thought-leaders focused on the #AusWeWant measure of educational attainment, an indicator for the #AusWeWant value of equal opportunity (and of course with relevance across other values).
This Community Council for Australia (CCA) submission briefly outlines some of the key issues for Australia’s not-for-profit sector in response to the Productivity Commission Inquiry Into Introducing Competition And Informed User Choice Into Human Services and the Draft Report May 2017.
Begin with what the policy is trying to achieve – what is the goal of DGR concessions?
The goal of the DGR process should be to encourage community involvement, engagement and ownership of issues they are concerned about. Encouraging civil society to own their issues of concern is not only good public policy, it is very good economic policy. Governments around the world acknowledge the benefit of community involvement and actively seek to promote philanthropy.
If the charity sector accepts government restrictions on its public voice, it will be a sad day for Australian democracy and it will mean that free speech is for sale in Australia, writes David Crosbie, CEO of Community Council for Australia in Pro Bono News, 20 July 2017:
Calling charity CFOs..
We are inviting your interest in a CFO Roundtable with Treasury in Melbourne (20 July) or Sydney (21 July).
At hand is an important issue that could affect capital flow into the sector: Treasury are considering the implications of changes to the treatment of ancillary fund loans and other forms of investment to DGR charities.
A successful and transparent charity delivering on its purpose should not be sucked into discussions about whether it should be spending 10 per cent or 15 per cent on its overheads, writes David Crosbie, CEO of Community Council for Australia in Pro Bono News, 6 July 2017: Give Me Knowledge, Not Numbers.