Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this debate virtually. I am keen to say a few words on the record, particularly in relation to charities and the role that they have played during COVID-19. The issues raised in the Treasury Laws Amendment (2021 Measures No. 2) Bill 2021 are raised with me frequently, and I will talk about how the two relate. I will also speak to the second reading amendment that has been moved , because it does highlight how contradictory this government can be.

Firstly, I turn to the situation that we're in. We all have spoken at length about the impact of the pandemic on our community and the vital role that our charities have played on the ground, at the grassroots, helping people each and every day. In my own community of Bendigo , we 've been in and out of lockdown for the past two years, we are faced with restrictions, people have work one week and not the other, and small- business owners who have never in their life required support or charity are reaching out.

During the peak of the pandemic last year , Bendigo Foods hare , which is an organisation that helps agents on the ground , and they are a charity , distributed over 6,000 meals to people in need in my community. They did so through innovative means , not just through the traditional means of food banks that might happen at faith based organisations. Those services still coordinated last year and this year , but they also distributed food through hampers at La Trobe University, Bendigo TAFE and cafes. This pandemic and the way in which it impacted work affected people who 'd never before received charity , i nternational students who had lost hours and work , people who were here on temporary work visas and people who didn't qualify for government support. Without the network of our charities on the ground in Bendigo, many of these people would have gone hungry.

I also need to mention the great work that was done at the Eagle h awk Community House cooking meals. It was lucky that they received a Stronger Communities grant to purchase a new freezer , because last year and this year their kitchen has not stopped cooking, freezing and delivering meals to people in need. They've changed the way that they do their regular community lunch. Usually we gather in their space to share a meal. These days , the community lunch is delivered to people's front doors. But, j ust as vital, there is still that social connection and making sure that people don't go hungry.

Another example that I wanted to share about a charity that is doing work in my community that has been hit hard by the pandemic and is finding ways to get around it is Uniting Vic. Tas. During the peak of the pandemic last year , the Forest Street service delivered over 3,000 parcels to peop le in need in a COVID- safe way. Their food relief program, whilst it is funded by another part of government—and they did receive some top-up from government—is cross-subsidised by the money they make through their op shops. These are op shops that were closed for significant chunks of last year, op shops that are staffed largely by volunteers who weren't engaged or who were encouraged to stay at home because they were in the high-risk category for most of last year. As a result, their donations are down and their receipts are down. It has put the service at risk, and they are now seeking ways as to how they can continue to deliver food relief to people in need.

The charity sector is going through unprecedented change, being hit hard by the pandemic. Whilst there was some support from the government last year, it hasn't continued. It also hasn't been enough. While they are going through these radical changes—changes to the donations that they're receiving, changes and interruptions to how they can support people—now, more than ever, they need a government that's on their side. Now, more than ever, they need to have the confidence to speak up publicly about what their clients and volunteers are experiencing, and be part of the public discourse. That is why it is disappointing that, although, in this bill, the government seek to help charities through these minor changes to Treasury law, they also in another area seek to attack our charities through trying to silence them or limit what they can say. Contributions made by government members don't hide that fact.

As previous speakers on my side have said, we should be embracing our charities being part of the discourse. They are helping to share Australia's story, our narrative. Particularly in these difficult times, we need them to be publicly speaking up and telling us what needs to change. You cannot support charities on the one hand and then say that limits you or stops you from being able to speak publicly about the very sector you are trying to support. It is not just our emergency relief and faith based organisations that are feeling this pressure; it's also organisations who are speaking out about family violence—who are speaking out about supporting women and children who are fleeing domestic and family violence. They, too, do vital on-the-ground work and find it hard to divorce that vital work—the work where they need government support, need government funding—from being part of the public discourse about what needs to change to help their clients. The government shouldn't be afraid of this accountability that's been put forward by the charities and not-for-profit sector. They should be embracing it, bringing them into the fold and helping them be part of the conversation for change.

Our charity sector across our country is what is holding us up through these difficult times. Whilst business is under attack, whilst workers are under attack, whilst we are in this health crisis, our charities are filling the gaps—quite often, gaps that have been created by the complexity of the government's social welfare system, where far too many people are falling through the cracks. I urge the government to consider what we've put forward in our second reading amendment and to drop the attacks on the charities sector that they've waged in other areas. Although these reforms are welcomed, they are only minor and do not make up for the huge attacks on our charities sector, particularly in relation to services like emergency relief, over the last few years that the coalition have been in government.

The second set of changes before us is supposed to target multinational tax. It takes me back to one of the first reports we received in parliament—a representation that was made back then by the United Workers Union, who prepared a report to say who was paying for our Commonwealth. Tax avoidance by multinationals and big business has been on the agenda for years now, for decades, yet all we see from this government are these minor amendments before us today. They just don't go far enough to do the reform that we need. There is an opportunity here for the government, at a time when our country needs it, to be really progressive, to be really bold and to ensure that big companies and multinationals are paying their fair share of tax. Our country needs it. We need this for our economic reform. We need this for our post-COVID recovery. It's simple maths: if wages are down, if tax receipts are down and if GST is down because people aren't spending in small businesses because workers aren't earning what they used to earn, let alone getting a pay rise, then we will have less when we need more.

An area where this government has been lagging has been multinational tax reform and ensuring that companies pay their fair share of tax. The statistics are alarming. One-third of large companies in this country pay no tax on their profits. They can afford the big accountants. They can afford to work out how to avoid their tax. Some of them are paying tax; some of them are making donations through charities—they're choosing where they want their tax to go. That's a debate for another day about whether we think it's fair that they decide where their gifts—their tax, so to speak—go. Whilst it's welcome that they're being charitable, they're also receiving a tax deduction, which means they are contributing less towards the broader Commonwealth.

The Treasurer talks a big game when he talks about supporting global tax reform, yet we've seen very little come forward. It is another one of those great marketing exercises and a lot of spin. We know the Australian people want to see fairness in our tax system. We know that they agree that big companies should be paying tax. Many of these big companies who've paid no tax have also benefited from JobKeeper rorts in the last year. This, again, is money that could be going back into our Commonwealth and back towards the businesses and the workers that have so desperately needed it this year.

As we get to the end of this pandemic and once we reach the finish line of vaccinations, we are going to need reform to our tax sector to ensure that we have the resources, the dollars, that are required for the recovery. If we don't have them, then we will have a patchy recovery. We will have a recovery that sees many continue to miss out on opportunity. We won't have the resources that we need to boost our TAFE, to boost universities and to make sure we invest in industries that will deliver the jobs of the future. There is such opportunity for us if we can just get our tax system right.

For the average worker, it's about fairness. It's about making sure that that large company pays its fair share of tax. It's pretty alarming when we think that it was a group of cleaners, a group of guards and their union that, back to 2014, put forward a paper that challenged our thinking about who's really paying for the common wealth. We live in a broken system when workers who are on minimum wage are contributing more towards our common wealth than big multinational companies or big companies. Just because you have the means, the capability and the smart people to work out how to avoid paying tax doesn't make it right. It just makes you rich and it just makes you able to use the system.

This isn't the politics of envy, as the Prime Minister would say; it's the politics of common sense and it's making sure that everybody pays their fair share. That's how we ensure that our Commonwealth has the resources for a universal health system, which has really been put to the test this year and last year. It's how we ensure that our Commonwealth has the resources for a well-funded university and TAFE sector that ensures that nobody misses out on a university place.

I strongly urge the government to do more work both on tax avoidance and on support for our charities. Whilst Labor supports the bill that has been put forward, there is a real opportunity here to do more. Our charities sector needs support, our charities sector needs fewer attacks and our workers and our Australian community expect the Australian government to do more when it comes to ensuring large companies pay their fair share of tax.

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