ANNA VIDOT:
The launch of ABC Gives and our partnership [with Vinnies] actually coincides with Vinnies’ launch of their own Christmas appeal, which was formally opened yesterday by the Assistant Minister for Charities, Andrew Leigh, who is of course also the Member for Fenner in north Canberra. He's my guest this afternoon. Andrew Leigh, thanks for your time.
ANDREW LEIGH:
Real pleasure, Anna. Great to be with you. And congrats to ABC Canberra for again doing the Day of Giving on the 30th of November. It's a really important community spirit that you engender among all of your listeners.
VIDOT:
Well, I've got to say it is. Congratulations to our listeners. Canberrans every year show up with such extraordinary generosity to support charities like Vinnies. How important are those charities in supporting people across our community?
LEIGH:
Well, they're absolutely vital. We were hearing yesterday that Vinnies this year has helped some 60,000 people in Canberra, Goulburn and across the region. They do that through their retail stores and through fundraising efforts such as the CEO Sleepout and their drive that they're putting in place just before Christmas. I've got to credit Vinnies with the coldest and most uncomfortable night that I've slept out this year. I joined a bunch of CEOs at the National Museum to sleep on a couple of sheets of cardboard, a great way not only of raising money, but also raising awareness of the many people in our community who have to do it tough and for whom that is their reality.
VIDOT:
We heard that there are more people struggling yesterday from Vinnies and that the cost of living crisis is making it harder for charities kind of at both ends. They've got more people coming to them for help, but they're also paying more, just like everyone else, for those essentials, food and fuel that they need in their operations, which they are providing to people as well. How concerning is that for you and the government, coming up to what is traditionally a busy time for charities anyway?
LEIGH:
As the Assistant Minister for Charities and a member of the government's economic team, I'm certainly getting a strong sense of this. I speak to a lot of charities who are feeling the pinch on donations, but also getting more people walking through the door for foodbank services and the like. As a government, we've sought to provide cost of living relief. Tripling the bulk billing incentive, the biggest increase in bulk billing expenditure in the 40 year history of Medicare came into effect yesterday. The childcare changes that we put in place saw childcare costs go down 13 per cent in the latest quarter, where otherwise the Australian Bureau of Statistics said they would have gone up 6 per cent. What we're doing in housing and in energy has been assessed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as reducing inflation. We are still copping a lot of pressures that the world is throwing at us right now, and that's particularly a squeeze for lower and middle income Canberrans.
VIDOT:
What is the Government doing for the charities who are under increased pressure right now?
LEIGH:
Well, we've engaged on a whole range of fronts in order to rebuild the relationship with charities. We ended the former government’s war on charities, which saw charities having to put a lot of energy into having to fight the government rather than work with it. Under us, we’ve set a target to double philanthropy by 2030 and asked the Productivity Commission to conduct a once‑in‑a‑generation review of philanthropy that'll hand down its draft report in the coming months. We've just kicked off work on a blueprint for strengthening the capability and capacity of Australia's charities. Submissions are open for that, they’re running until the 20th of December. I'm engaged in the largest ever charity consultation right across the country. In Albert Hall, yesterday, we held our 15th charity town hall, and I'll hold more town halls in Sydney and Melbourne next week. We're working with states and territories to harmonise charitable fundraising laws to make it easier for charities to raise money online so they spend less time doing paperwork and more time helping the vulnerable.
VIDOT:
How do you double philanthropy by 2030? It's not very far away, really, now, right?
LEIGH:
Absolutely. You got to have what basketballers call a full court press. You've got to be pushing on all fronts. Part of the Productivity Commission will look at the tax settings, but partly also Anna, will look at social norms around giving. Initiatives such as Kids in Philanthropy, that aims to start school students on a culture of giving back, even in a small way. Workplace giving, which allows people to donate to a favourite charity through a set‑and‑forget approach where they don't have to worry about keeping receipts to claim at tax time. For those who are more fortunate, encouraging more Australian billionaires to sign up to the Giving Pledge put in place by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, which asks high net worth individuals to commit to giving a more significant portion of their income. I'm quite influenced by the Australian philosopher Peter Singer, who says that he started off giving a tenth of his income, then moved to a third and then moved to a half, and he said, ‘Give till it hurts’. Now, you can only do that if you've got your other bills under control, but I think for those who are fortunate enough to have some spare income. That philosophy of giving really is something that benefits the community.
VIDOT:
I guess philosophically, giving is an interesting one also in this cost of living environment, isn't it? Because we also seem to be seeing the cost of living potentially reducing the donor pool. People who might have been on the edge of being able to have money to donate to charitable causes now feeling like they need to pull back from that. Do you expect that to have sort of an immediate impact over the summer?
LEIGH:
I suspect it'll have an impact on the number of donors. I hope it doesn't have an impact on the number of dollars. So, what we see now, Anna, in terms of the cost of living squeeze, is many households moving to home brands, moving to cheaper supermarkets such as Aldi. At the other end of the spectrum, you've got a lot of people who have money to spend going on international holidays, some of those high‑end expenditures are still holding up. So you really do have a bit of a two‑track economy when it comes to the cost of living squeeze. And I hope that those who are fortunate enough to not be feeling it are generous enough to give back to their fellow Australians at this time.
VIDOT:
Dr Andrew Leigh is my guest on ABC Radio Canberra at 4:14 PM. Of course he's not only the Member for Fenner in north Canberra, but also Federal Assistant Minister for Charities, among other things. Andrew Leigh one of the other issues for any charity, of course, is labour and they run overwhelmingly thanks to volunteers who do volunteer their time. One of the things that's been raised with me is that a lot of these volunteers in a lot of these charities are women over the age of 50. This is also a cohort who have in many cases very, very little superannuation. And it's been put to me that perhaps one way of helping people to help out might be for the Federal Government really to offer some kind of super contribution sweetener for women over 50 who are volunteering. Are these the kinds of ideas, or is that a particular idea that has crossed your desk and have you thought about something like that?
LEIGH:
Volunteering Australia has been tasked with coming up with a national volunteering strategy to boost the volunteering rate which has been falling as part of the overall collapse in civil society. We have seen a drop in the share of people volunteering. It was about a third at the start of the century. Now it's down to about a quarter.
I'm not sure the government's minded to pay volunteers because once you're paid, I'm not sure you're a volunteer any longer. But we need to make sure that other impediments aren't getting in the way. To allow people to volunteer as part of their mutual obligations if they're a JobSeeker. People should be encouraged to find suitable volunteering activities that really use their skills. The best of volunteering is where you feel as though an organisation is benefiting from something you do that other people couldn't. The worst is where you've got a bunch of professionals being asked to repaint a fence on a Friday afternoon because the organisation providing the volunteers and the organisation using the volunteers just didn't have time to find a more suitable form of volunteering.
VIDOT:
Andrew Leigh, before I let you go, Lucy in Weetangera has texted to say I need to ask you about the ABS Fun Run and Walk you just completed for the ACT Cancer Council. How did that go?
LEIGH:
This may well have been Lucy who organised the ABS Fun Run. And if it is Lucy, thank you very much for your hard work. We had over 100 of us out on the shores of Lake Ginninderra today going for a run. The ABS Fun Run is best known for its statistical adjustment. It's not only about who wins, but it's about who wins the age‑adjusted category. And as you'd imagine from the Bureau of Stats, they have a very complicated age‑adjustment formula. I didn't manage to win, but I've still got my fingers crossed for the age‑adjustment coming in for me. But great to see so many public servants out there supporting a great local charity.
VIDOT:
Congratulations, everyone, supporting the Cancer Council this afternoon. Andrew Leigh, thanks very much for your time.
LEIGH:
Real pleasure, Anna. Thank you.