SENATOR DEAN SMITH
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY
SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA
MEDIA RELEASE
15 November 2024
LABOR PUTS POLITICS BEFORE HUNGRY AUSTRALIANS
Labor has abandoned vulnerable households and the food relief charities supporting them as Christmas fast approaches.
In a Senate Economics Committee report released today, the Albanese Government signalled it would reject proposed legislation incentivising food donations and reducing waste at a time when both are desperately needed.
Labor’s ongoing cost of living crisis has resulted in more than 2 million – or 19 percent – of Australian households experiencing severe food insecurity during the past year.
82 percent of those households reported increased living expenses as a contributing factor.
Meanwhile, more than 7.6 million tonnes of food, most of it fit for consumption, are dumped annually because it is cheaper than donating it.
The Tax Laws Amendment (Incentivising Food Donations to Charitable Organisations) Bill 2024, introduced as a Private Senator’s Bill by Senator Dean Smith, offers tax offsets for expenses incurred through donations to food relief charities.
In opposing it, Labor has ignored both years of advocacy for a food donation tax incentive and the recommendations of multiple Senate inquiries – including those run by its own committees.
A letter of support for the tax incentive, signed by more than 60 food industry organisations and companies, was sent to Treasurer Jim Chalmers in March 2023.
That letter remains unanswered.
The Labor-led House Standing Committee on Agriculture recommended a food donation tax incentive in a report a full year ago and passage of the Bill is a recommendation of the Senate Cost of Living Committee’s final report, which was released today.
Labor has not only failed to act but is blocking the efforts of those trying to.
The Albanese Government’s position is at odds with the overwhelming support received from stakeholders and witnesses who appeared at a Canberra public hearing into the Bill last month, during which food relief charities and industry organisations stressed the urgency of delivering the tax incentive.
They observed the “game-changer” potential of the Bill, and its ability to support struggling households, charities fighting to meet demand, and farmers and other primary producers battling Labor’s cost of doing business crisis.
Some enhancements to the Bill were suggested by stakeholders and experts, including the Food Relief Sector and KPMG, who observed that definitions in the Bill excluded both potential donors and charities from being able to access its benefits, and that thresholds needed to be increased to reflect the high turnover but low profits of many farmers.
To address this, the Coalition recommended in the report that these enhancements be seriously considered subject to budgetary implications.
Concerns were also raised about the possibility of the major supermarkets using the tax incentive, despite both Coles and Woolworths confirming in writing that they would not.
Given current public expectations regarding the supermarket sector, the Coalition still recommended an amendment to the Bill specifically excluding signatories to the Mandatory Food and Grocery Code, which will include the major supermarkets.
Perhaps worst of all, Labor used the report to attack the charitable organisations it continues to slap in the face – expressing a view that the Bill “preferences” large food relief charities at the expense of others.
The Coalition’s final recommendation in the report was for Labor, given it had rejected this opportunity to support those in need, finally introduce its own alternative policy to boost food donations and reduce dumping.
Until that happens, Australians will continue to suffer under the Albanese Government.
Quotes attributable to Senator Dean Smith:
“The cost-of-living crisis that Labor has failed to address has caused pain across the community, with record food insecurity one of the most visible and urgent examples.”
“Labor has shown its true colours in this report, revealing just how little it cares for Australian charities and the millions of people they are trying to feed.”
“The Government has failed to act and now it blocks others from doing so, and it needs to explain to 2 million hungry Australians why it puts politics ahead of helping them.”
ENDS