The importance of walking the talk
Posted on 18 Feb 2025
By David Crosbie
Charities and not-for-profits deserve to be taken seriously. That means governments investing in the sector, not just offering supportive words, writes Community Council for Australia CEO David Crosbie.
Some days I feel a little like a farmer in a drought, desperate for much-needed rain. Time and again I look up and see promising clouds moving across the horizon, but they pass overhead bringing no rain and barely even casting a shadow.
And so it is in the charity sector, desperate for reforms that will enable us to better fulfill our purpose and serve our communities. There are so many words, findings and recommendations that seem to float above us, and so few efforts or resources being directed to acting on what we know needs to be done.
We enter into each successive round of inquiries or reviews or drafting of plans or even new election cycles with naïve hope and energy: maybe this time we will achieve real change? Generally, we’re disappointed, and most of our efforts will amount to not much more than yet another set of words we can all agree to.
The clouds float by, brief shadows if we’re lucky, and no rain. Productivity Commission reports, parliamentary inquiries, independent expert panel reviews, blueprints, and even political party policies in support of the sector – all seem ephemeral, fleeting, untouchable.
When the Community Council for Australia (CCA) surveyed sector leaders at the end of last year to find out what they thought of the government’s progress in implementing the policies they took to the last election, the results were not surprising. While most welcomed the positive rhetoric from government and the forward-looking policies it committed to, delivery was another story.
In many critical areas the government has made little to no progress. Lots of words, not much change.
It’s this gap between rhetoric and reality, between good intentions and actions, that is most frustrating to sector leaders.
It’s not just one government or one minister, but a long-standing recurring pattern of government inaction, grounded in the dogma that the charity and community sector is not a priority for governments.
How else do you explain decades of failures to harmonise charity fundraising regulations, or the seemingly impossible ask for governments to pay charities and community groups the full cost of providing the services they are required to deliver?
Why is there no support for our sector’s energy transition, cybersecurity, or climate adaptation?
The CCA survey revealed just how disappointed many leaders felt about the way they are treated by governments. Here are just a few de-identified quotes:
“There have been lots of consultations and review processes, but we are yet to see much action. Apart from the Charities Minister, members of the Albanese government rarely talk about the role of the NFP sector despite its centrality to many of their social, environmental, and economic priorities.”
“When are they going to start doing things?”
“Words mean a lot, and it has been great to see the positive tone and engagement with the NFP sector from the Albanese government. However, actions speak louder than words, and commitments need to be followed through.”
It’s partly our fault that we are largely ignored in national policy. We tend to be so busy advocating for our purpose and our communities that we rarely collectively advocate for ourselves.
And there’s always a case to be made that the government has done some good things or increased funding in important areas for charities and not-for-profits. This government is no exception, having made important improvements in areas such as aged care, health, early childhood, and other key areas, all of which is to be welcomed. We also have an improved Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
The problem is that if nothing much changes, more charities and community groups will struggle to survive. A majority of the sector leaders in the CCA survey identified rising costs that were not being met by rising incomes as a real concern for their organisation in 2025.
CCA will be releasing the full findings of our sector leaders survey next week, and this will mean being critical of government inaction – because that’s what the survey findings highlight.
The policies of the ALP leading into the last election were positive for our sector. The words were good, the policies sound, and had they been implemented, they would have delivered real benefits for our sector and the communities we serve across Australia.
Unfortunately, as the CCA survey found, the pre-election policies of the ALP generally did not translate into significant changes for our sector. The policies were not "fully funded", the resources needed to make substantive progress have not been allocated, and progress in sector support and reform has been, at best, limited.
In the lead up to the election in the next few months, CCA will be seeking to have dollar signs put against the election commitments of all political parties.
Our sector deserves to be taken seriously. This means governments investing in our sector, not just offering supportive words. Anything less than a genuine commitment to real investment risks being yet another set of words we can all agree to, but no more. We need real reform, not transitory clouds of rhetorical good will.
David Crosbie has been CEO of the Community Council for Australia for the past decade and has spent more than a quarter of a century leading significant not-for-profit organisations, including the Mental Health Council of Australia, the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia, and Odyssey House Victoria.