Survey reveals sector sees advantages with minority Labor

The online poll conducted during the last Not-for-profit Agenda news webcast last month showed 16.5% thought a majority Labor government would deliver for the sector. Just 3% thought a minority Coalition government would be good for achieving sector goals, while 6% thought a Coalition majority government would be best for sector interests.

About one quarter (26%) of respondents were undecided.

Attendees also heard recorded video clips from several sector leaders who were quizzed at the recent Community Tax Summit about the prospect of reforms under different governments.

'We care about outcomes'

Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers said her organisation was open to any government that could address poverty and housing affordability, among other key priorities.

“We’ll be looking to work with whoever’s in government after the election.”

“We actually don’t care what politician it is who brings these policies to the fore. We’re about outcomes, and we’re about the policies that achieve those outcomes.”

Chambers said Anglicare Australia “would not be averse” to a minority government, adding, “I think there are good things that come from minority governments.”

She said major reforms such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) had been introduced during a minority government.

“I think a minority government does allow some more sensible conversations. It does mean that the government of the day, whatever colour they are, does need to delve deeper into democracy, have conversations, and have that parliament working for everybody.”

Chambers forecast that such a government would “mean more work for some of us, because those of us that have that role, that privilege of actually talking to politicians, we talk to more in a minority government.”

“So I don’t think it’s [minority government’s] necessarily a bad thing for anybody, apart from perhaps people who are enmeshed in the two-party system.”

Governments must be more accountable

Oxfam Australia policy and advocacy lead Josie Lee stressed that her organisation was not specifically advocating for a change of government, but said a minority government could be “a positive opportunity to bring, I guess, greater pressure on the major parties to represent what the community wants and the interests of the broader community”.

“We feel that the current government, both the current one, the previous governments have been too influenced by kind of vested interests and ultra wealthy or big corporations.

"And we want to see them really being more accountable to the people on a range of issues including the need for tax reform and to address the growing inequality and poverty crisis we have in Australia."

ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie said voters going to the ballot box should question which future government would best tackle the needs of struggling Australians.

“The public will make their own decision on election day, but I think there is genuinely many people out there in Australian society today asking ‘Who is really going to help me?’ And that's the contest that we want to see."

Single Mother Families Australia (SMFA) chief executive Terese Edwards said, “My biggest hope is that whoever is our next government, that they will keep building upon the need to really place a gender lens and to understand that poverty is feminised and it’s been worn too long on the shoulders of women.”

Why NFPs would be better served by a minority

Victorian Senate candidate Fiona Patten, the headline guest on the recent Not-for-profit Agenda webcast, argued that NFPs would be better placed to influence federal policy under a minority government.

The Legalise Cannabis Party Senate candidate said a minority government would rely on minor parties – and therefore more negotiation – for legislation to pass.

“We can look back to the last time we had a minority government, which was when we had Prime Minister Julia Gillard. An awful lot of progressive legislation was enacted in that time.

“The government was challenged, the government needed to play with others, to work with others to achieve their agenda. But it also meant that they had to listen to the objectives of others. And that does provide that opportunity for a greater number of voices to take part in the decision making, to take part in the development of legislation and regulation.”

Why NFPs should be pushing for a majority government

But Charities Minister Andrew Leigh, speaking to the Community Advocate at the National Press Club in Canberra last week, said only a Labor government would deliver on significant reforms.

“If you're keen on reform, you want majority governments because majority governments can get things, get things done more expeditiously than minority governments.

“We need to get a whole lot of reforms through in order to help the charity and not-for-profit sector. We've got the reports done: now's the time for action, and that legislative action will happen more speedily under a majority government.”

The Not-for-profit Agenda was streamed live from ICDA headquarters to an audience of hundreds of not-for-profit leaders. (Watch a full replay here.)