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. The book also includes a valuable review of the role of the national charity regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit 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.
