The Office of the Ombudsman of Western Australia has commenced a major new function as the Western Australian Charitable Trusts Commission.
Chris Field, President of the International Ombudsman Institute and Western Australian Ombudsman said: “It is a great privilege for my office to be entrusted to undertake a major new function as the Western Australian Charitable Trusts Commission following the proclamation of the Charitable Trusts Act 2022. There is a particular importance to charitable trusts in Western Australia given many are established for the purpose of advancing the interests of Aboriginal Western Australian communities and can amount to tens of millions of dollars arising from settlements and determinations of Native Title claims”.
“As with all new functions undertaken by our office, we have been fully funded to discharge this important new role, including in this case, to undertake investigations with the power of a standing Royal Commission and to travel to regional and remote Aboriginal communities to engage directly with the intended beneficiaries of the trusts in order to ensure that charitable trusts operate to further the interests of the communities they were designed to assist”.
“Following the passage of the Bill, the Honourable John Quigley MLA Attorney General stated that “These new laws give Western Australia the most rigorous and comprehensive charitable trusts legislation across Australia and in New Zealand." This new law is not just welcomed on the basis that it will significantly assist to ensure that monies are spent lawfully for their intended beneficiaries, but also because it will advance the inalienable and fundamental human rights of Aboriginal Western Australians”.
Source: Office of the Western Australian Ombudsman