Win a free registration to the PilchConnect Seminar of your choice!

We want to know how easy (or difficult) you find it to understand and comply with Victorian laws and regulations for incorporated associations and fundraisers. What could be done to make things easier, simpler and better for Victorian community groups?

Last month, we launched a survey designed to understand the compliance challenges of Victorian not-for-profit organisations. The responses we've received so far have been enlightening. We now know, for example, that the majority of survey participants find it hard to keep up to date with new developments in the law. Feedback like this is invaluable to the work we do - and there is still time for you to have an input.

PilchConnect will analyse the survey data and share the results with the Victorian Government, for the purposes of identifying key compliance challenges and suggested improvements to relieve regulatory compliance burdens for the Victorian community sector.

It will only take a couple of minutes and everyone who completes the survey can go in a draw to win a free registration to the PilchConnect NFP Seminar of your choice (valid for 12 months).

Please help us by completing the survey - simply click on the link below.

Survey closes Friday 15 June.

June Seminar - Legal Duties of Board and Committee Members

This popular ‘back to basics' training is suitable for new or existing not-for-profit board/committee of management members who are seeking a refresher on their roles and legal responsibilities. Attendees will work in small groups on practical, hypothetical scenarios which are common to many community organisations. We encourage multiple board members to attend this seminar - but hurry, places are filling fast!

Details of this Seminar are:

Date: Wednesday 27 June 2024
Time: 9.30 - 12.30 (registrations open 9:15am)
Venue: Lionel Murphy Centre, 360 Queen Street, Melbourne
Administration fee:
$50 per person for small organisations (up to 10 EFT employees)
$100 per person for large organisations (over 10 EFT employees)
(Please note due to costs outlayed no refund can be offered within 3 days of the event)   

To register for this seminar, follow the link: 

July Seminar - Making decisions: running meetings, AGMs, and changing your constitution

Do you shiver at the thought of organising your group's AGM? Do you quail at how to handle those tricky questions from the floor of the meeting, or how to deal with the persistent interjector? How do you go about changing the Rules?

This interactive seminar will address how to plan for and run an AGM and put a special resolution to the members to change your Rules, covering the requirements for both companies limited by guarantee and incorporated associations. Come along and feel prepared for when your next AGM rolls around!

Details for this Seminar are:

Date: Thursday 19 July 2024
Time: 9.30 - 12.30 (registrations open 9:15am)
Venue: Freehills, Level 42, 101 Collins St, Melbourne
Administration fee: 
$50 per person for small organisations (up to 10 EFT employees)
$100 per person for large organisations (over 10 EFT employees)
(Please note due to costs outlayed no refund can be offered within 3 days of the event)  

To register for this seminar, follow the link:

Model Work Health and Safety Laws

As e-bulletin readers will be aware, in 2008 the Commonwealth Government, together will all States and Territories, committed to nationalise the work health and safety laws by 2012. The Work Health and Safety Bill (the Model Bill) was initially expected to be introduced by the Victorian Government by 1 January 2012. Following the election of the current Victorian Government, the introduction of the Bill was deferred pending a review of the legislation.

As a part of the 2012 State Budget, the Government announced that Victoria will not sign up to the proposal for harmonised legislation for occupational health and safety. In light of the Government's announcement, PilchConnect understands that the national work health and safety laws will no longer be implemented in Victoria.

PilchConnect will continue to update readers of this e-bulletin with any updates or changes to the State Government's approach to the national harmonisation process. Readers are encouraged to register for an upcoming and comprehensive seminar on OHS and your organisation with leading OHS expert, Barry Sherriff of Norton Rose lawyers, in August 2012.

Details for the seminar are:

Date: Thursday 23 August 2024
Time: 9.30am - 12.30pm (registrations from 9.15am)
Venue: NAB, Docklands, 800 Bourke St, Melbourne
Administration Fee:
$50 per person for small organisations (up to 10 EFT employees)
$100 per person for large organisations (over 10 EFT employees)
(Please note due to costs outlayed no refund can be offered within 3 days of the event)  

To register for this seminar, follow the link: 

Revised exposure draft regarding the special conditions for tax concession entities (including the ‘in Australia' conditions)

In July 2011, the Federal Government released for consultation an Exposure Draft restating the ‘in Australia' requirement for tax concession entities. The consultation process revealed a number of concerns from the sector. Responding to these concerns, in April the Assistant Treasurer released for public consultation a revised Exposure Draft of legislation that will restate and standardise the special conditions for tax concession entities (including the ‘in Australia' conditions). The proposed legislation would introduce requirements for entities to operate ‘in Australia' for the purposes of tax concessions, and introduce a standard definition of ‘not-for-profit'.

Whilst PilchConnect acknowledges that a number of our original concerns (as set out in our previous submission, available here) have been addressed by the Revised Exposure Draft, we remain concerned about the impact of the proposed measures on small/medium not-for-profits. In particular, the proposed test for the ‘in Australia' requirement is unclear. The additional requirements on DGRs to pursue their purposes solely in Australia is unnecessarily restrictive and the effect of failing to comply with the special condition particularly harsh.

To review our submission, follow the link:

The Assistant Treasurer this week announced that Ms. Susan Pascoe AM will be nominated to the position of inaugural Commissioner of the new ACNC.

Ms Pascoe has held a number of statutory appointments, board memberships and senior management positions in Victoria, in both the private and public sector. From 2003 to 2006 Ms Pascoe was the Chief Executive of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria. In 2006, she became Commissioner of the State Services Authority, and in 2009 was appointed one of the three Commissioners for the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. Since July 2011, Ms Pascoe has been the Head of the ACNC Implementation Taskforce.

Following passage of the legislation, the appointment is subject to approval by the Governor General. It is the Government's intention to recommend to the Governor-General that Ms Pascoe be appointed for a five year period commencing 1 October 2012.

We welcome the Government's decision to nominate Ms Pascoe as the ACNC Commissioner, which will enable her to build on the excellent work she has done as Interim Commissioner to date. We also congratulate Ms Pascoe on her appointment.

Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission Update

Following the 2011 Budget announcement regarding the establishment of the national regulator, in December 2011 the Assistant Treasurer released for public consultation an exposure draft of legislation to establish the Australian Charities and Not‐for‐profits Commission (the ACNC).
Since this initial consultation, The Treasury has engaged in more targeted consultation with the sector. Recently, the Federal Government announced that the draft legislation will be referred to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, for an inquiry over the Winter Parliamentary Break. It is hoped that the legislation will then be passed in the July sitting, in time for the ACNC start date of 1 October 2012.

In addition the Treasury announced that governance standards for charities registered with the ACNC will not commence until 1 July 2013. The Government also announced that the first financial reports for medium and large registered entities to the ACNC will now begin to fall due after 1 July 2014.

Further information on Federal law reform and policy can be found in The Treasury's latest NFP newsletter, available at the link:

This month, we were delighted to announce that PilchConnect has successfully secured recurrent funding from the Victorian State Government to the tune of $1.2million over the next four years.

The announcement by Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional and Rural Development Peter Ryan at the Communities in Control conference last week is an acknowledgement of the important work that you, as not-for-profit organisations, undertake and its value to Victorians. It's also an acknowledgment of the help and support that you need to continue to do that work.

This funding will go along way to sustaining our service, which is designed to help you achieve your mission and build an effective, sustainable and vibrant community sector. We look forward to continuing to work with you.

Further information on our funding news can be found by following the link: 

New websites for NFPs

Volunteering Victoria has recently launched their new website, with a range of valuable tools and resources to help you:

• Find a volunteer position
• Find people to volunteer at your community organisation
• Arrange workplace volunteering
• Improve how you manage volunteers in your organisation 
• Understand your legal and regulatory responsibilities

And much more. To visit the website, follow the link:

 volunteeringvictoria.org.au

The Activists Rights Website 2012 was recently launched, and contains up to date legal information about all aspects of community actions including organising, legal support and dealing with the police. Whether you want to set up a stall, put up a poster, hold a rally or blockade a building you may need to deal with the police or legal system. The gap between what is ‘lawful' and ‘unlawful' is often vague and is always changing. This website is designed to assist your community organisation understand your rights and obligations under the law.

To visit the website, follow the link:

 ActivistRights.org.au

A new website to educate Victorians about their human rights under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities was launched on Sunday 27 May at the 2012 Human Rights Film Festival by Acting Commissioner Karen Toohey.

The website outlines the 20 fundamental rights the Charter protects and uses real people and their stories to explain how these rights are protected. As a further resource, there is also a range of fact sheets explaining key elements of the Charter available on the Commission website at www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/charterfactsheets

To visit the website, follow the link:

 Protecting us all - humanrights.vic.gov.au

From the end of May 2012, the new National Business Names Register replaces state and territory business name schemes. This means that now businesses will only need to register their name with a single national register.

Under the new scheme, people or entities wishing to register a business name must now apply through the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), rather than Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV).

Further information on the National Business Names Register is available on the PilchConnect webportal:

Changes for incorporated associations - Public Officers and the new Act

As readers of this e-bulletin will be aware, the new Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012 (Vic) was passed by the Victorian Parliament in late April. The Act has a delayed commencement date (which means the new laws don't apply yet). It is expected that the new Act will begin on 1 December 2012, but this start date could be brought forward to as early as 1 August 2012.

Over the coming months, we will be providing you with information on what some of those changes will mean for your organisation. This month, we're focusing on the merging of the role of public officer and secretary.

1: I'm currently the public officer and secretary of an incorporated association. Will my role substantially change when the new Act starts?

Not really. When the new Act starts the term ‘public officer' will be replaced by ‘secretary'. While this is mainly a change in the terminology, it could cause confusion if your organisation currently has a separate secretary.

Also, as the secretary is now considered to be an ‘office holder' under the new Act, you will be under clear legal duties in relation to how you carry out your role.

2: I'm currently the public officer but our association has a separate secretary. Who becomes the secretary under the new Act?

This is where it can get confusing! Until your association has new rules that clarify the matter, you will be referred to as the ‘secretary' under the new Act. However, the current secretary will continue to be the secretary under your organisation's rules. Essentially, then, you'll have two secretaries (ie, one under the Act and another under the rules!). Each will have separate responsibilities - for example, the secretary under the Act must lodge the association's annual statement, but the secretary under the rules will conduct secretarial tasks (e.g. organising documents for the AGM).

To avoid this situation, we suggest your organisation appoint the same person as both the secretary and public officer.

PilchConnect is currently developing resources to assist orgnaistions through the transition to the new Act. Further information will be made available on our webportal:

The Not-for-Profit Project at Melbourne Law School is delighted to announce that it will be hosting a major international conference on defining, taxing and regulating the not-for-profit sector in Australia on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 July, 2012.

The aim of the conference is to enable academics and other experts to reflect, from theoretical and comparative perspectives, on the theme of defining, taxing and regulating the not-for-profit sector. The conference coincides with a very active period of not-for-profit law reform in Australia, with the establishment of a new national regulator, the statutory definition of charity and other changes to the taxation and regulation of charities and other not-for-profit entities.

For the conference flyer and details, follow the link:

PilchConnect is a specialist legal service which provides legal help to not-for-profit community organisations.

The service provides free and low cost legal information, training, advice and legal referrals for Victorian not-for-profit community organisations. We also undertake law reform and advocacy work about the wide range of legal issues that affect the not-for-profit sector.

To find out more about our legal services, visit our website below:

 PilchConnect - Legal help for community groups. 

Have you missed an earlier edition of PilchConnect's e-bulletin and want to get up-to-date? All of our previous newsletters are available on the PilchConnect website.

 PilchConnect e-bulletin

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