The Federal Coalition has reiterated its election pledge to “abolish” the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) and replace it with a less “heavy-handed” centre for excellence.

“We’ll put in place a centre for excellence which can look at how we continue to raise governance standards,’’ the Federal Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews told ABC radio this week after announcing the government’s plans last week to repeal the ACNC Act.

Mr Andrews is yet to spell out what elements of the ACNC Act could stay and what the implications will be for the schools, P&C associations and other school-related bodies in Australia registered with the Commission.

However, many smaller school-related charities, which are incorporated associations, will no doubt be pleased.

Since the ACNC Act’s governance requirements were implemented, smaller charities had to know, understand, and comply with two sets of regulatory requirements: their States/territories incorporated associations’ legislation and the ACNC Act.

The previous government was betting that its negotiations with the other jurisdictions would result in them passing their power over charities (or at least having consistent legislation like South Australia) to the ACNC, to stop the duplication.

But the latest news is not so good for school-related charities who were previously under the Corporations Act.

Their governance requirements had substantially dropped when they were moved from the stringent (but sporadically enforced) Corporations Act to the ‘‘softly, softly” approach of the ACNC Act.

They will once again have to negotiate the arcane requirements of Related Party Transactions and other corporate hurdles. But they will probably face far less actual scrutiny and enforcement by an over-stretched ASIC.

Kevin Andrews in his speech to the National Disability Conference last week indicated the government would conduct formal consultation with the charities sector to determine the way the ACNC would be dismantled.

A clue to the future direction came from Susan Pascoe, the inaugural (and probably the last) ACNC Commissioner in her regular column. After meeting the Minister she advised charities that they were still required to lodge their Annual Information Statements.