Charities watchdog eyes ACF over Bill Shorten’s Adani trip

The charities regulator has been asked to investigate Bill Shorten’s $17,000 Adani tour funded by the ACF.

Bill Shorten in Cairns. Picture: Brendan Radke

The charities regulator has been asked to investigate Bill Shorten’s $17,000 tour of the Great Barrier Reef and Adani coalmine site funded by the Australian Conservation Foundation to determine if the lobby group broke laws governing payments to third parties.

The two-day tour including snorkelling and charter flights — during which the Labor leader gave assurances to the ACF that he would move against the Adani coalmine — was solicited by Mr Shorten, but paid for by the not-for-profit green organisation.

The trip has now been referred to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission because of concerns it may have breached provisions banning payments for a private benefit. Penalties for breaches of the ACNC’s standards, which cover the use of a charity’s resources for the private benefit of a third party, can in extreme cases result in the deregistering of an organisation.

The ACNC yesterday confirmed it had received a request from a government member of the joint standing committee on electoral matters, Ben Morton, to clarify the governance standards in light of the trip being declared by Mr Shorten as a gift.

“The ACNC takes all concerns raised regarding registered charities seriously,” the regulator said.

“In 2017, the ACNC investigated over 200 registered charities, and took a range of compliance action. In 2017, the number of concerns received by the ACNC grew by 42 per cent to almost 1700, and the majority were raised by members of the public.”

In his letter to ACNC chief Gary Johns, Mr Morton asked that the matter be investigated for “transparency”.

“Mr Shorten has declared this travel as a gift,” he said. “I request that you investigate whether the Australian Conservation Foundation is in breach of their charitable purpose and the provisions of their charitable status, by providing gifts of private benefit, of this nature. I do not allege any wrongdoing. I am keen to better understand what is and what is not permissible under the Act.”

The ACF was “confident” it had “complied with all relevant laws applicable to us. All ACF’s activities are in pursuit of an environmental protection outcome.”

Chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Kelly O’Shanassy said that Mr Shorten met with independent scientific experts on his trip to North Queensland who “explained the threat the Adani coal mine poses to groundwater, threatened species and our climate.”

“These types of trips are not uncommon. Charities periodically take our elected representatives to areas of environmental damage, human suffering and communities of need. These are not holidays,” she said.

“They ensure that when our elected representatives return to Canberra to make laws and policies that affect us all they understand firsthand the high stakes of their decisions.

“ACF is funded by generous donors, ordinary Australians giving what they can, who want our environment to have a strong voice in our country. Ensuring our elected representatives understand the breadth of environmental damage occurring in Australia is a component of our work.

“We have made similar invitations to Coalition and crossbench MPs and we hope they are also prepared to see firsthand the damage climate change is doing to our reef.”

The ACF is not the first green group registered as a not-for-profit to be referred to the ACNC over the Adani mine. In January, Mr Morton referred the climate group 350.org under unlawful-activities provisions for allegedly encouraging protesters to break the law.

On February 27, Mr Shorten listed the ACF-funded tour and charter flight in his register of member’s interests.

Malcolm Turnbull yesterday accused Mr Shorten of being “completely two faced” over the $16.5 billion Adani project, saying he was overthrowing the mine in an attempt to win green votes in the Batman by-election in the inner city of Melbourne.

“You can see what a risk that is to jobs, to investment to the economic future and security of Australia, because it is completely two-faced,” the Prime Minister said. “What Bill Shorten is doing is not just threatening that project, he is threatening every other project.”

Mr Shorten has come under fire from unnamed members of his own frontbench who say he has “lost the plot” and is “freelancing” after the Opposition Leader said he was personally opposed to the project on Monday.

The Labor-aligned mayor of Rockhampton, Margaret Strelow, yesterday said Mr Shorten’s lack of support for the mine had the potential to undermine domestic and international confidence in the project. “A federal leader talking about the project in the way that he has done certainly doesn’t help with confidence nationally or internationally,” she said.