Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am glad Family First has taken up the Greens’ position on this. We have always been opposed to tax deductability for political parties. That goes back to the concessions earlier on. But what is happening is that the government and the opposition want to support tax deductability going from $100 in any given year from a donor for a donation to $1,500 a year.

Senator Fielding is quite right. Community groups have been warned that they must not get involved in political partisanship or it will threaten their tax deductability. That warning needs to go to church groups like the Exclusive Brethren, which has become blatantly involved in partisan politics, and Family First itself, which became part of the Howard government’s election machine at the last election. I think Senator Fielding is dealing with the potential hypocrisy there by saying, ‘We don’t expect tax deductability for that effort.’ It is a consistent and credible position that donors to political parties should do so because they want to support that political party and because they do not expect taxpayers to effectively fund it as well through the tax deductability process. The Greens support this amendment.