Kevin Andrews’ last big contribution to Australian public life was when he was Immigration Minister and totally botched the Dr Mohamed Haneef case, defaming and wrongly imprisoning the innocent doctor. The indications are that he intends to pick up in the style with which he left off, this time as Family and Human Services Minister.

The current target of Mr Andrews’ zeal is the vast bulk of the charity and not-for-profit sector. As Royce Millar very nicely reported, Andrews seems to have carriage of Cardinal George Pell’s desire to scrap the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission, a body that’s actually designed to help the bodies it watches over.

Kevin Andrews is planning to scrap the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. Credit:Andrew Meares

The ACNC was set up in December with one Susan Pascoe (no relation) as its inaugural commission. Among those who take these things seriously, the ACNC is considered a healthy improvement for the sector - the result of five major inquiries over more than a decade recommending such a thing. It’s something the Labor government seemed to get right.

Kevin Andrews, as the shadow minister for families, housing and human services, ran a particularly ill-informed, ideologically-driven and hugely ignored campaign against it, including a waste-of-space filibuster over the legislation. Despite the ACNC’s subsequent success, Andrews remains unrepentant and promises an Abbott government will scrap it.