SENATOR DEAN SMITH
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY
LIBERAL SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA
ADDRESS – CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS PRE-ELECTION FORUM – NATIONAL PRESS CLUB
23 April 2025
***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***
INTRODUCTION
Thank you, Julie – and thank you to both our sponsors and all of you from across the Australian charity and not-for-profit sector joining us today.
I am grateful for the opportunity to continue this vital conversation with you.
Since becoming Opposition charities spokesman, my door has been wide open to the sector – listening to your challenges and sharing your hopes for the future.
And I have been out in the community, starting with visits in late 2022 and early 2023 to Adelaide, Moree and WA’s Kimberley region, to name just a few locations.
The challenges organisations faced were real and the need for practical solutions was, and continues to be, urgent.
Three years have now passed under the Albanese Labor Government.
I have been visiting many charities again recently – in Queensland, Western Sydney, the Mornington Peninsula – especially those with a focus on food relief.
Their situation has not improved.
After three years of this Government, it is more desperate than ever.
Labor policies heralded three years ago have been allowed to lag, practical initiatives are nowhere to be seen, and process has been dressed up as outcomes.
The sector has been left to feed, clothe, house and counsel record numbers of Australians – many of them for the first time – through the Government’s cost of living crisis.
Our charities and not-for-profits are, in many cases, literally keeping people and communities alive.
And while the Albanese Government remains in power, they are doing it alone.
FOOD RELIEF CHARITY FUNDING
That is why I was in Brisbane’s south last week with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, announcing $19.5 million from an elected Liberal Government to build a new Foodbank Queensland distribution centre.
It is part of a $69.5 million commitment to the food relief sector over four years from the 1st of July this year.
The $50 million announced in the Budget in Reply will be made up of:
- $20 million over one year – $10 million to the three nationally funded food relief charities of Foodbank, OzHarvest and SecondBite and $10m for other charities also providing these services around the country – for the new freezer or delivery truck they desperately need; and
- $10 million annually for three years from 1 July 2026 for Foodbank, OzHarvest and SecondBite.
The Coalition believes it is significant, immediate initiatives such as these that will changed the lived experiences of local charities, volunteers and those in need.
THE SECTOR AND ECONOMY UNDER LABOR
I don’t need to tell you that the sector and its clients are doing it tough – you are living it.
But look at the numbers.
Real household disposable income has collapsed by 8 percent under the Albanese Government and ABS statistics reveals basic foodstuffs, including bread, breakfast cereals, fruit, eggs, cheese and cooking oils all jumped in price by more 20 percent.
Nearly 2 million households experienced severe food insecurity in the past 12 months, more than half with at least one person in paid work.
And RBA data confirms the number of Australian mortgage holders running at least three months late on their repayments has increased in every state and the ACT during the past couple of years.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
There has been opportunity alongside the challenges – opportunity for genuine reform, to improve giving, to build a stronger sector by making it easier, rather than harder, for charities and not-for-profits to operate.
These are goals we all support.
Frustratingly, these opportunities have largely been lost.
Great expectation surrounded the Productivity Commission’s efforts and the ambition of doubling philanthropic giving by 2030, but the Report was underwhelming.
At best, it represents refinement over transformation – but its work is not completely lost.
Many of you will be interested in how to progress the proposed DGR system reforms and the Coalition will listen intently to your position.
But it is also important to recognise that the Report expressed some caution, noting that “making assessments about which classes of charitable activities should be within the scope of the DGR system is challenging, subjective and contestable”.
Key policy makers, including the Government and Opposition, have rejected commendations affecting the DGR status of school building funds.
And, importantly, the Report also observed that “the effects on the overall level of giving are expected to be relatively modest” – adding there would be a net fiscal cost to the Budget.
DGR reform is still very much a work in progress, but the real opportunity for transformation is not with the DGR but through philanthropic giving.
The Coalition has a strong record of tangible policies to support philanthropy, including:
- introduction of prescribed private funds by the Howard Government; and
- provision of DGR status to 28 entities associated with community foundations by the Morrison Government.
It is to the philanthropic part of the giving equation that the political effort must be applied if we are to realise a genuinely new world of giving in this country.
The Coalition’s first step will be to engage with the Fundraising Institute and Philanthropy Australia on a clear, agreed plan to uplift giving.
The ‘Not-for-Profit Sector Development Blueprint’ will also be top of mind for many in the room.
Let me tell you that the Coalition understands:
- the need for a plan that looks to the medium and longer term;
- the importance of strengthening relationships between government and the not-for-profit sector;
- that effectiveness depends on an enabling environment; and
- the centrality of decisions around funding and procurement.
I commit that an elected Coalition Government will engage in comprehensive consultation with the sector on the Blueprint across all its 18 key initiatives.
But more than this, I announce today that a Coalition Government would escalate our consultation with the sector by convening two Ministerial-level round-table discussions within the first six months of being elected.
The initial round-table will be convened in the first three months.
The discussions will focus on improving cyber security, reducing the regulatory burden and establishing greater contractual certainty in the charities and not-for-profit sector.
These are issues that have been identified in discussions with you – and, importantly, are key themes throughout the Blueprint.
The timing of this process is a conscious one and would allow for matters to be progressed through the Budget processes in year one, providing for timely implementation.
GOVERNMENT DAMAGING THE SECTOR
I want to highlight two experiences in 2024 that confirmed the Albanese Government’s refusal to consult with the sector before making major policy decisions or acknowledge when policy implementation was failing.
In both cases, it was left to the Coalition in the Senate to give impacted charities and not-for-profits the voice that the Albanese Government denied them.
Having mismanaged the roll-out of new not-for-profit tax reporting requirements, the Government left hundreds of small community organisations in limbo.
Stakeholders reported a lack of careful implementation, conflicting information from the ATO and an unsustainable administrative burden.
Some considered winding up.
Understandably anxious, these stakeholders attempted to raise the issue with the Albanese Government through their peak bodies – but with no success.
Frustrated, they came knocking at my door.
With the support of Independent and Australian Greens Senators, the Senate agreed to establish a Senate Economics Committee inquiry into this issue.
The Government and the ATO maintained their silence, but affected organisations, many of them small and volunteer run, could finally have their say.
Their verdict was overwhelming:
One witness assessed the Government as “so far out of touch”, while the Community Council for Australia’s David Crosbie told the ATO: “You call that a consultation, I call that a dismissive approach to our sector”.
The Committee’s final report now provides a pathway for improvement – one that is more sensible and proportionate in reconciling the policy ambition with the burden of implementation.
And, if elected, the Coalition will:
- introducing thresholds that exempt smaller, low-risk not-for-profit entities from completing the self-review assessment, capturing only those with a turnover above a certain amount;
- extending the deadline for the return of the not-for-profit self-review assessment; and
- explore with the ACNC the appropriateness and practicality of the Commission managing the self-review assessment regime in place of the ATO.
My second example will be more familiar to this audience.
It goes to heart of whether this Government is really listening to your calls for improved funding certainty and building a professional workforce capacity – whether it really does appreciate and value the uniqueness of the sector.
Last year, the Albanese Government embarked on changes to the Fair Work Legislation that limited the ability to hire staff on repeated short-term contracts.
As you know, these contracts are widely used by in the sector because they generally align with annual funding arrangements.
Peak bodies shared their concerns with the Government, attempting to consult on the proposed changes.
The real-world urgency of the issue fell on deaf ears, doors were again closed when they should have been open.
And, again, the Coalition came to the sector’s aid using the powers of the Senate.
The Government was forced to the negotiating table and the sector secured a temporary exemption while an acceptable longer-term solution is found.
The Community Council for Australia’s newsletter noted that the Coalition had “helped force the issue on to the Government’s agenda and ensured our voice was heard”.
The current exemption expires in November 2025 and it is now time for the Albanese Government to explain to the sector what it is doing to find an acceptable ongoing solution.
CONCLUSION
Australians are already making their choice at the ballot box, with early voting opening yesterday.
That choice is between a Government that has overseen an historic fall in living standards – and the Coalition, which has a plan to restore budgetary discipline and get our economy back on track.
It is also a choice between a Government that has failed to progress key reforms for the charity sector, failed to consult with it and, at times, actively damaged its interests – and the Coalition, which understands the sector’s needs, has responded with decisive action and results when asked to and has made serious commitments to advance it.
Let me finish were we started today, the Australia We Want Report.
I refer to a comment made by AMP Foundation’s Nicola Stokes in her section of the Australia We Want report, where Ms Stokes notes “Persisting with the same approaches to the same issues often results in limited effectiveness of our interventions.”
I close by paying tribute to the Australian charities and not-for-profits sector.
To the charities, large and small, across the nation, the peak bodies representing them here today, to Commissioner Sue Woodward and her team at the ACNC – a heartfelt thank you.
ENDS