Trouble in the Land of Giving

The charities sector in Australia is big. There are over 600,000 not-for-profit organisations which together in 2015-16 generated more than $150 billion in income—fifty per cent more than the agricultural sector. De Maria’s book is the first to chart the history of the sector and the way in which it has been transformed from a government-led system for providing support to people experiencing need across the society to a neoliberal business operation, the underlying goal of which is the privatisation of welfare.

De Maria shows that the changes in the sector have increased its vulnerability to corruption, which is now present at disturbing levels. He describes key ways in which corruption in charities is carried out. Case studies are presented drawing on detailed historical and forensic evidence, where appropriate using police and court documents.

The book also includes a valuable review of the role of the national charity regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. De Maria argues that, rather than providing the solution, the regulator itself has now become part of the problem. His provocative challenge for a review and renewal of the sector and the way in which it is regulated will inevitably generate intense debate.

William De Maria is a Queensland academic with a long history of social activism. He is the author of “Deadly Disclosures: Whistleblowing and the Ethical Meltdown of Australia” (Wakefield 1999). He is represented in “Radicals in Australian Social Work” (Connor Court 2018).