Andrew Leigh:
Thank you very much for coming along. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Charities and I’m here with Genevieve Jacobs, the CEO of Hands Across Canberra. Today, the Albanese government is making 2 exciting announcements.
The first is that we are going to be listing 34 new community charities. This is the biggest number of new community charities to be added since the category was created in 2024. These community charities do a power of good across Australia. They’re working in areas like Ballarat and Albany, in areas like Bass Coast and Geelong, and of course, right here in Canberra, with Hands Across Canberra. And I’ll ask Genevieve to say a few words about the work that Hands Across Canberra does.
These are charities that are out there trying to solve some of Australia’s toughest challenges. Australia is a great nation, but we face challenges like mental health, environmental degradation and community cohesion which we know has been under pressure for decades. Robert Putnam’s work in the United States in Bowling Alone, and the work that Nick Terrell and I have done in Australia shows the decline in some measures of social capital. And the answer to that in large part, is a rebuilding of community spirit through organisations like community charities.
We’re also announcing that the government will increase the minimum distribution amount for giving funds. Giving funds are set up by donors who receive a tax deduction when they create a fund and are required to make a minimum distribution every year. The government’s decision today will increase that minimum distribution rate to 6 per cent. This will see, on our estimates, more than $100 million in additional funds flowing to Australia’s great charities. Now giving funds in the government’s view, shouldn’t be set up in perpetuity. But even under these changes, it will still be possible for a giving fund to exist for a very long time without putting in additional resources. On one estimate, a giving fund that was set up in 1980 and distributed 6 per cent of its total assets every year would by 2024 – 44 years later, still have around 3 quarters of its additional amount.
We already have two-thirds of public giving funds and about half of private giving funds that are donating above this amount. There’s plenty of need in the community. Today’s taxpayers have provided a tax deduction, and it’s appropriate that today’s taxpayers see the benefits. This is a reform which was discussed in the Productivity Commission’s Future Foundations for Giving report and also in the Community Sector Advisory Group’s Not‑for‑profit Sector Development Blueprint on Australian charities.
The government is listening to Australian charities. We understand the good that Australian charities can do. And with these 2 announcements today around new community charities and a higher distribution rate for giving funds, we’re ensuring that more generosity flows to more Australian communities. I’ll ask Genevieve to say a little bit from the perspective of Hands Across Canberra, and then we’ll take questions on this announcement and anything else.
Genevieve Jacobs:
Thanks so much Andrew. Hands Across Canberra is the ACT’s Community Foundation. It’s one of more than 100 community foundations all around Australia, ranging in size from the Lord Mayor’s charitable fund in Melbourne to tiny new community foundations in places like Molomeen in Far Western New South Wales. Community foundations are perhaps better known in Canada and North America where they are a key piece of social infrastructure, but we’re very welcoming of the government’s significant moves to make it much easier for private foundations to give to public foundations like ours and to empower our work. We currently work with 350 different charities here in the ACT covering human need of all kinds, from people living with disabilities to youth who are at risk of phasing out of education to women and children who are escaping domestic violence.
So this level of reform is critically important, as is the decision to change the giving level to 6 per cent. We want to build a grassroots philanthropy right across Australia that unleashes people’s generosity and in which people bring all the gifts and talents, whatever they may be.
Leigh:
Thanks very much Genevieve. You didn’t even give a plug to the Canberra Day Appeal which is coming up!
Jacobs:
My bad Andrew! The Canberra Day Appeal is currently running here in the ACT, and we’re encouraging everyone to give where they live so that we can support 87 local charities who are participating. This is an incredibly important way to build our local community strength to make a better and a fairer Canberra for all of us working together.
Leigh:
Fantastic. Any questions on this announcement?
Journalist:
Genevieve, Andrew said the government’s listening to charities. How much lobbying did you have to do to get to this point?
Jacobs:
Thank you Chris. It’s been a very long process, but we’ve had enormous support from the Assistant Minister. I can’t overemphasize how helpful it is that the Assistant Minister is also our local MP. But I will say that the government has been very proactive in the last couple of years in ensuring that this really urgently needed reform goes through. Previously, we’ve had a real barrier between generous private foundations being able to give to public foundations and that has stymied the generosity of many people who set up private foundations for just these purposes. So, we’re really glad that this roadblock has been cleared. It’s been many years in the making but the government has executed it for us, and we’re delighted with that outcome.
Journalist:
I just have some questions on some other matters if that’s okay?
Leigh:
Sure. Thanks Genevieve, really appreciate your time. Genevieve is off to chair an International Women’s Day lunch.
Journalist:
Oh great!
Jacobs:
I am. I’m off to The Property Council. It’s a busy day – International Women’s Day and Canberra Day Appeal! Thank you so much.
Leigh:
Thanks so much.
Journalist:
Posters that were seized from a Canberra venue last week under the new Commonwealth hate speech laws are being returned to the venue with no criminal charges. Is this a sign that critics were right and the laws were rushed and ill‑thought through?
Leigh:
It’s up to the police as to how they administer the laws, and I’m very aware of the importance of the separation of powers. ACT policing will operate as they choose to do and will answer directly for any of the investigations that they put in train. But I would say about the new Commonwealth hate speech laws is that it was a response to the worst terrorist attack in Australian history – a terrorist attack that deliberately targeted Jewish Australians. Labor has always stood on the side of minorities, against vilification and the vilification of people based on race in a way that could incite hatred was at the core of the laws which passed through Parliament.
Journalist:
Are you concerned about the message this incident has sent about artistic freedom?
Leigh:
Again, I don’t want to comment on particular police actions that they take. I’m happy to stand by the laws which I voted for in the House of Representatives and which passed through the parliament in the wake of the Bondi tragedy.
Journalist:
And just finally, are you confident that police forces around the country have an understanding of how these laws are to be applied and used? Has that been communicated effectively enough between government and police forces?
Leigh:
As part of any law change, we always engage directly with the Australian Federal Police and any relevant state or territory police agencies. That’s the way in which a considered government gets things done. These reforms were called for by Jewish Australians in the wake of the attacks that took place in Bondi.
We had an investigation for the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security Matters. Labor had previously strengthened hate speech laws. My party is the party that put in place the Racial Discrimination Act. My party is the party that fought against the Coalition’s attempt to water down racial hatred laws when you had George Brandis saying that there was a right to be a bigot. So, I am from a party which stands very strongly in favour of racial tolerance and the multicultural society which makes Australia so well admired around the world.
No other questions? Thanks for coming everyone.