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

It is easy to mention health or one of the other categories that the parliamentary secretary listed, but we need to know what philanthropic activities are involved there. Putting money into, for example, infrastructure may not be philanthropic, but putting money into research which is not taken up by the private sector will be philanthropic, by and large. My amendment is seeking to get at the philanthropic nature of the outcome of these trust funds. There are many more trust funds in Australia which have much more invested in them than the $1 billion to $2 billion that the parliamentary secretary just spoke about, but we know that they go to a whole range of private activity and the sky is the limit with them.

These funds were set up as philanthropic trust funds. I want to be assured that the parliament has the information which will show that the money being expended—$471 million in this case, as Senator Stephens informs the committee—is being expended on philanthropic outcomes. Maybe she could give examples from the ATO site or the site she refers to that will reassure me and the committee that it is in fact a philanthropic outcome that we are getting here.