University of Western Australia
When the Federal Labor Government came to power in 2022, one of its election commitments was to ‘double philanthropic giving by 2030’. The Productivity Commission was subsequently tasked with undertaking the heavy lifting to determine how this might be achieved. Given the range of services supported by philanthropy, from aged-care and disability services, to health organisations, educational institutions and child care providers, the success of reform to philanthropic settings is critical to the health and wellbeing of the nation, being a research priority area for UWA.
In response to its very broad terms of reference, the Productivity Commission released a draft report proposing major reforms to Australia’s deductible gift recipient system, such as rolling out donation concessions to most – but not all – charities. The draft report also recommends a range of regulatory changes, such as applying governance standards to basic religious charities, expanding information collection and enhancing the powers and coordination of Australia’s federal regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission with state regulators. Regulation of structured giving vehicles, such as foundations is also under the microscope.
In conjunction with Professor Ian Murray from the UWA Law School, the Institute of Advanced Studies hosted a workshop in late 2023 for Western Australian experts to provide evidence to the Productivity Commission. The experts were drawn from a range of WA universities, government and industry and came from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds.
This year, on 19 February 2024, the IAS and Professor Murray welcomed the Productivity Commission back to campus to hold public hearings on the proposals in its draft report.
Professor Murray (pictured) was one of a number of expert witnesses who spoke to the Commission.
He emphasised the importance of recognising the process benefits achieved by the philanthropic sector and the charities that it funds. That is, the sector does not just produce goods and services, but the very way that organisations operate can have benefits. For instance, emphasising altruistic modes of acting, rather than market-based modes of maximising self-interest. Also, the voluntarism of the sector can enhance civic participation and in building social capital – the loss of which has been lamented by Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone, and (in Australia) by Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. These principles should feature in the selection of worthy recipients of deductible gift recipient status. In terms of regulation of philanthropic organisations, Professor Murray noted the potential application of principles of intergenerational justice to help determine temporal settings about how much we might expect philanthropic intermediaries to distribute now or save for the future. Finally, Professor Murray discussed regulatory approaches, endorsing the Productivity Commission’s proposed strengthening of coordination mechanisms among the various regulators, but warning that there are risks of mission drift and loss of civic participation if regulatory settings require too much professionalisation of organisations.