The Albanese Government has launched town hall consultations with the charity sector. 

The ‘Building Community’ roundtables will be run in all capital cities, and could set up meetings in regional and rural areas too.

Assistant minister for competition, charities and treasury, Andrew Leigh, says the sessions are an important step in reconnecting with the charity sector, which he says was neglected by the previous federal government. 

“Their nine years of neglect and undermining of the sector prompted a succession of open letters from the charity sector calling on successive Liberal prime ministers to back off their attacks on charities. Charities even wrote to the United Nations,” Mr Leigh said. 

Last year, 12 charities wrote to the United Nations special rapporteurs over a proposal to amend charitable governance standards, which would have seen charities deregistered if they were involved in summary offences such as trespassing or vandalism. 

The letter was written by an alliance called Hands Off Our Charities, which has since welcomed Australia's change of government. 

“In the new Australian Government, charities have a true partner. Labor respects the role of charities, and wants to empower them to help the community. We will continue to work collaboratively with charities to reconnect Australia,” Mr Leigh said this week.  

Mr Leigh has also welcomed the resignation of commissioner of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) Gary Johns, whose appointment Mr Leigh described as being “like putting Scott Morrison in charge of ensuring safety of kids”.

Mr Johns - a senior fellow of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) - had been described as an “anti-charities campaigner”, who grossly claimed that  pregnant Indigenous women were being used as “cash cows” to obtain government benefits.

Acting ACNC commissioner Deborah Jenkins says she is focused on a co-design approach to working with the sector.