Senator Dean Smith
Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury
Liberal Senator for Western Australia
TRANSCRIPT – INTERVIEW WITH NADIA MITSOPOULOS, ABC RADIO PERTH
TOPICS: ABC gives; Food Donation Tax Incentive Bill; supporting Charities sector
E&OE
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
Well, should there be tax breaks for companies who donate to food charities? WA Liberal Senator Dean Smith introduced a Private Senator’s Bill to try and make this happen, but the Albanese Government has indicated it will reject this proposed legislation. I’m keen on your thoughts if you think this is something worth doing. And I have Senator Dean Smith on the line now. Good morning, Senator. Thank you for your time.
DEAN SMITH:
Good morning to you, Nadia. It’s great to be with you. And can I just congratulate the ABC on what’s a fantastic initiative, and the generosity of West Australians who have given so generously thus far. I think it’s a fantastic opportunity and a great partnership with Foodbank.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
Senator, thank you and we look forward to your donation!
DEAN SMITH:
Indeed you will! Please send me the link.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
We will do that right now. Let’s look at some context. I guess 7.6 million tonnes of food is dumped annually. We understand most of that is fit for consumption. Why isn’t more donated?
DEAN SMITH:
The reason that generous primary producers like our farmers and food manufacturers are not making this food available to food relief charities like Foodbank, Ozharvest and Secondbite is because it’s cost prohibitive for many of them to do that. So, what I mean by that is the transport costs that it might take to shift this food from where it’s being made or where it’s been produced to a food relief charity. Those costs, those additional labour costs, are so inhibitive that people decide to dump that surplus food into landfill. We just heard that from your previous interview. At a time when we know that cost of living pressures are pushing more families to food relief charities like Foodbank and others than we’ve ever seen before. The Salvation Army has come out yesterday and supported my initiative. Anglicare has come out and supported the initiative. Saint Vincent De Paul has come out and supported the initiative. This is an initiative that Foodbank and Ozharvest and Secondbite have been talking about for some time. And unfortunately, the only people that seem to stand in the way at the moment are the Federal Labor Government, which is very disappointing. At such a critical time, they are putting politics before people.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
So, Senator, explain what your Private Senator’s Bill proposes?
DEAN SMITH:
It’s very simple and practical in its construct. And that’s why I remain optimistic that perhaps early in the new year we will get this legislated. But put very simply, it provides for companies with a turnover of less than $20 million the opportunity to get a refundable tax offset of 45% for costs that are incurred to shift food to a food relief charity. A company with a turnover of over $20 million but less than $50 million would get a tax offset of 40%, and then a company in excess of $50 million turnover would get a tax offset of 30%, up to a cap of $5 million. Those numbers might sound large to your listeners, but what’s important about this is that we’ve had the National Farmers’ Federation come out and support the initiative, recognising that this will support farmers. AUSVEG, which is a key industry association for vegetable produce farmers, has come out and supported the initiative. So, an important feature of this, Nadia, is that we hope that the cost-of-living crisis ends at some point. And that’s why I’ve put a time limit around this initiative. We would hope that within three years, cost of living pressures might improve, and that an incentive like this would not be necessary anymore. But we have a collision of significant factors, huge food waste in our community at a time when families are very vulnerable. Probably the most vulnerable they’ve ever been. And food relief charities are asking for more help.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
And this is very different to the tax deductions that corporate sponsorships and donations already get, because we’re talking about covering the cost of transporting the physical food. That’s the difference here, right?
DEAN SMITH:
That is correct. And, importantly, the Bill has integrity measures. So, companies will not be able to double dip if they are getting other sorts of tax benefits, they wouldn’t be able to double dip from this particular initiative. The Senate Economics Committee, we had a public hearing, well supported by many organisations across the country. KPMG, Chartered Accountants of Australia, and others also came or made contributions. So, it enjoys very wide support. People can be very confident that this is a prudent use of their taxpayer dollars at a time of critical need in our community.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
My guest this morning is WA Liberal Senator Dean Smith, saying the time has come to provide tax breaks to companies who donate to food charities. So, we’re not talking about the money. And thank you for those that are sending me messages about how they already get tax deductions for their corporate sponsorships and donations. We’re talking about the physical moving of food because it all ends up getting dumped. And so, there’s food waste issues here as well. And I wonder if you think this is a good idea and is it something the Government should be considering? The number is 1 302 720. The charities that you’ve spoken to who support this, what have they said to you about the difference this would make in regard to their donations?
SENATOR DEAN SMITH:
I’ve been doing committee work in the Senate for a number of years now. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the clarity with which food relief charities and other organisations have come and said that this would be transformative. Some of them have called this a game changer. It is something that’s been talked about for several years. The food relief charity sector wrote to Jim Chalmers last year and hasn’t received a response in regards to this particular initiative. When they came and spoke to me about this, 8 to 12 months ago, I was surprised that other people had not yet taken up this initiative. Now, one of the reasons I remain optimistic, Nadia, is this. The House of Representatives Agriculture Committee released a report last year. It is dominated by Labor Members of Parliament. The chair is a Labor Member of Parliament. That committee itself came out and recommended that this was an initiative that the Government should take up. In addition to that, the Senate Cost of Living Committee issued its final report last week. Again, it came out and recommended that this was an initiative that the Government should take up. So, I remain optimistic. I hope the Government will be generous of spirit, because this is a well-designed Bill that is fiscally responsible at a time when there’s overwhelming community need. And, you know, taxpayers in our community in Western Australia can be very confident that this would be a good and prudent use of their money.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
And finally, Senator, there was some concern that the big supermarkets who have been in the news a lot lately, Coles and Woolies, who are making some pretty decent profits, would use this tax incentive when maybe they shouldn’t be. Was that something you dealt with?
DEAN SMITH:
So, this was Labor attempting to play politics and muddy the water. It has never been the intention of this Bill for Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, etcetera to be able to utilise this. But to protect the initiative, I will bring an amendment to the Bill to explicitly cut them out. That’s always been the intention. They’ve always said to me that they’re not interested in participating in a scheme like this, because they do their own particular food donation projects. But I’m happy to meet Labor’s attempt to muddy the water by quickly amending the Bill and give taxpayers a higher level of certainty that this won’t be abused by Coles and Woolworths and others.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
We’ll leave it there and I appreciate your time.
ENDS