The federal government plans to introduce sanctions for charities that fail to join the National Redress Scheme for victims of institutional child sexual abuse.

The changes include a new governance standard and an amendment to the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission Act 2012 .

Under the new standard, registered charities will be required to take all reasonable steps to become a participating non-government institution in the scheme if a claim has been, or is likely to be, made against them.

The amendment to the ACNC act will mean that religious institutions will fail classification as 'basic religious charities' and exemption from ACNC governance standards if they have been named in an application but have not joined the scheme.

'Affected charities risk losing charity registration and access to a range of Commonwealth charity tax concessions, which is a serious penalty', ACNC commissioner Gary Johns said.

He added that no action would be taken until these changes became law.

Minister for Families and Social Services Anne Ruston said the ACNC would be given the power to deregister a charity that did not take reasonable steps to participate in the scheme.

Senator Seselja said a new ACNC governance standard would require registered charities to take all reasonable steps to become a participating non-government institution in the scheme if a claim had been, or was likely to be, made against them.

'The Government will also introduce legislation this year which amends the definition of a basic religious charity in the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission Act 2012 to remove a religious institution's eligibility to be classified as a BRC if it has been named in an application but refuses to join the Scheme,' he added.

Charities failing to join the scheme will be subjected to ACNC compliance powers, including deregistration. Deregistration would result in the entity losing access to a range of Commonwealth benefits, tax, and other concessions.'

Relevant legislation was introduced into parliament through the Treasury Laws Amendment (2020 Measures No. 6) Bill 2020 to give effect to changes to the BRC definition.

A consultation period closes on 8 January.

About 80 institutions which provided an intent to join before the 30 June 2020 deadline are reminded that they have until 31 December to complete the steps to sign on or they will be named and face sanctions.

To date, the federal, state and territory governments, and 358 non-government institutions are participating.
Further information about the National Redress Scheme is available on the website: www.nationalredress.gov.au .