COLLECTIONS FOR CHARITABLE PURPOSES (MISCELLANEOUS) AMENDMENT BILL

Final Stages

The Legislative Council agreed to the bill with the amendments indicated by the following schedule, to which amendments the Legislative Council desires the concurrence of the House of Assembly:

No. 1. Clause 5, page 4, lines 6 to 9—

Delete subsection (2) and substitute:

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply if—

(a) the person—

(i) only collects or attempts to collect money or property from persons know to the person or with whom the person regularly associates; and

(ii) provides all of the money or property so collected to the holder of a section 6 licence; and

(iii) is not a paid collector; or

(b) the person—

(i) only collects or attempts to collect property for the purpose of affording relief to a particular person or to the dependants of a particular person; and

(ii) provides all of the property so collected to that person or to those dependants; and

(iii) is not a paid collector.

No. 2. Clause 5, page 6, lines 29 to 40—

Delete proposed subsection (3) and substitute:

(3) If any speaker or other performer at an entertainment to which this section applies is to be paid a fee or commission of an amount that exceeds, or is likely to exceed, the prescribed amount, the holder of the section 7 licence under which a person is authorised to conduct the entertainment must, at the request of any person, tell the person the amount, or likely amount, of any such fee or commission.

Maximum penalty: Division 6 fine.

(3a) For the purposes of subsection (3), the value of any non-monetary consideration to be provided to a person (including the value of any travel or accommodation costs to be paid in respect of the person's attendance at the relevant entertainment) must be taken into account in determining the amount of the fee or commission that is to be paid to the person.

Consideration in committee.

The Hon. P. CAICA: I move:

That the Legislative Council's amendments be agreed to.

I apologise to the shadow minister in that I have given him only a very brief explanation—in fact, it is a bit far reaching to say that I have given him an adequate explanation. These amendments were moved in the other place and are supported by the government. They were initiated by the government following consultation with some members of the Legislative Council.

As noted in the previous debate in both places, this bill was prepared after extensive consultation with the charity sector. It improves the disclosure arrangements, and provides donors with the opportunity to make more informed decisions about making donations for charitable purposes. The bill also puts in place a set of minimum standards that can assist in building the public's confidence in making donations. The first amendment protects South Australians who collect from people they know, and who deliver all of the proceeds to a section 6 licence holder. Of course, the government, as I know is the case with all members of the house, supports caring Australians who wish to provide assistance to others in this particular manner. In essence, it means that if we are in a workplace and a single person wanted to collect money amongst his cohort within that office space on behalf of a section 6 licence holder, and pass that money on, he could do so without being a licence holder him or herself.

The second amendment makes clearer that which needs to be included in calculating a fee or commission paid to an entertainer for the purposes of disclosure under new section 7. Again, in essence an anomaly existed in the drafting, where a person who was being paid a commission as an entertainer for the purposes of charitable collections could be paid $4,999 in cash, $4,999 in kind, and that would not meet the requirements of disclosure. They have been amalgamated in such a way that anything to the value of $5,000 or above constitutes a component which is either in kind or money required to be disclosed. That is the essence of the amendments that were moved by the government in the other place following consultation with the initiators of those amendments. I believe both amendments improve the bill.

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: I thank the minister for briefing the committee on the amendments. It is clear that the government has the numbers to get the bill and the amendments through. The nanny state is alive and well.

Motion carried.