Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A charity sector helping Australians through one of the most challenging economic periods in nearly a century, and a Labor government failing to support it, even actively making its job harder. An opportunity for desperately needed reform, and a Labor government that has missed its chance and wasted every opportunity, incapable of delivering on a single commitment. This is not a good story—not for Labor and not for Australians. The discussion is an urgent one because of the economic environment Australia's charities and not-for-profits sector finds itself in. Labor has fuelled tandem cost-of-living and cost-of-doing-business crises. It's a brutal circle, with more Australians taking charitable support than ever before and charities fighting for their lives as their expenses soar.

The latest RBA Statement on monetary policy observes that community service organisations in Australia are 'now supporting a broader range of clients, including dual-income households and those with mortgages who are often seeking support for the first time'. In May, the second interim report of the Senate Select Committee on the Cost of Living found:

As demand for charitable services increases, there is a parallel downturn in the ability of charities to meet this demand due to increased overheads for these organisations and lower levels of charitable giving.

Maybe the new Philanthropy Australia CEO, Maree Sidey, put it most effectively when she said, 'The stakes have never been higher.'

The charity sector has a right to ask how it found itself in this compromising situation. The answer, for the most part, is simple: Anthony Albanese 's Labor government. There have been 13 interest rate rises on its watch, each one a failed report card for Treasurer Jim Chalmers from Australia 's central bank, and Labor still cannot get sticky, homegrown inflation in check, with its economic mismanagement making things worse rather than improving them.

Two and a half years ago Labor talked a very big game, pledging to shape a brighter future for charities and not-for-profits in our country. Labor called its policy 'building capacity, building community'. Labor said it would 'work to double philanthropic giving by 2030'. Labor said it would appoint expert panels to develop a charities blueprint and a sector development plan. Labor said it would harmonise fundraising laws. On every measure, Labor, in the person of the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment, Dr Andrew Leigh, has failed, and in many cases it has failed because it has failed to act. The coalition has supported the goal of doubling philanthropic giving for a long time. Under Labor, whether it is achievable is now in doubt.

The Treasurer wrote to the Productivity Commission in February 2023, instructing it to inquire and report on reaching this target. It took until May this year for the commission to hand its final report to the government, which then sat on it until July. That was 2½ years, a painfully long time during one of the most uncertain periods in the sector's history. It wasn't worth the wait. There were more than 3,000 submissions and comments and two weeks of public hearings, with 50 interest groups appearing. Despite more than 450 pages and 20 recommendations, not to mention its title, Future foundations for giving, the report features no immediate plan to increase donations and giving in our country. What was included was a drastic proposal to reshape Australia 's deductible gift recipient system, including for school building funds and religious charities. Dr Leigh has since said that school building funds will remain untouched for now, but religious charities remain firmly on the hook. When I questioned Productivity Commission officials during Senate estimates recently, they confirmed that the Productivity Commission had not even modelled the economic benefit of changing the DGR regime. It betrayed the government's real agenda: ideological attacks over meaningful, lasting, transformative reform.

The concerns of the charities and not-for-profits sector are immediate. The fact that the second pillar of the Albanese government's vision to develop a charities blueprint and sector development plan is still a work in progress means it has completely missed the mark. An expert reference panel supported by a working group was appointed in October 2022 to develop the blueprint. A second panel was appointed to the development of an issues paper that would lead to the sector development plan. Two years on, we still have not seen either.

This is not a criticism of the sector participants in this process but rather one of Labor's lack of urgency. Feedback received on the blueprint issues paper noted many of the questions asked of the sector had been answered more than once and subjected to rigorous analysis by government and independent agencies over the last 30 years. No matter how good it is, when or if we ever see it, the reality now is that the blueprint and the development sector plan may come too late to make any difference for Australia's charities and not-for-profit sector.

The Productivity Commission report recommended that a council on financial federal relations should:

This was it—confirmation that the Albanese government's election commitment to harmonise state and territory fundraising laws had floundered. Consumer ministers from across Australia met in September 2022 and confirmed their support for these reforms. In February 2023, Dr Leigh, in a media release painting a positive picture of progress, announced that there would be an implementation plan by the middle of last year. There wasn't and there still isn't. At a time when Labor holds power in all but one Australian state, how can the Albanese government possibly have failed to get this election commitment across the line? As it is, barriers and compliance issues remain in place, making charitable donations far harder than they need to be, costing charities money they cannot spare.

Not an election promise but an example of the Albanese government's ignorance of how the sector operates was the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs Better Pay) Act 2022. The legislation among other things blocked the use of repeated fixed-term contracts, which are widely used by Australian charities and not-for-profits because they align with the way many of them receive their funding. Labor was initially oblivious and then, once the Community Council for Australia and other peak bodies began voicing concerns, belligerent. That is why in July I lodged a motion on the coalition's behalf referring the negative impacts of this legislation to the Senate Education and Employment References Committee for inquiry. It was only after this threat of parliamentary scrutiny that Minister Tony Burke conceded he must work collaboratively with the sector. That motion was deferred by me only after stakeholders received a written undertaking from him to work with them, and Labor remains on notice that the coalition will relaunch this inquiry if it fails to honour its word to the sector.

The sector deserves leadership and clear priorities. What is now clear is that only the coalition can provide this. Since the election, we have worked practically and proactively with Australian charities and not-for-profits, not just in the cities but in WA's Kimberley, the Queensland Gladstone region and northern New South Wales. We've listened to their challenges and to their needs and how Labor has done nothing to address them. We'll continue to support the sector as it navigates these new workplace relations laws. Where the government has failed to keep its word, the coalition will hold it to account as we have done before. We'll protect the existing DGR status of school buildings, funds and religious charities, recognising the role they play in education and the wellbeing of so many Australians. And we'll pursue a back-to-basics economic policy, putting Australia on track to thrive, making this both an easier place to run a charity and a place where people are less likely to need one. As long as the Albanese government remains in power and the economy suffers under its mismanagement and skewed priorities, the situation will continue to deteriorate and our hardworking charities will continue to bear the brunt of it. Given the inspiring and remarkable contribution they make, the coalition believes they deserve better and they deserve better now.