Renee Coffey (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of the strengths of our national life is the quiet, steady work done every day by charities and not-for-profits in communities right across Australia. They are there in the local service helping a family get back on its feet; in the organisation supporting someone to navigate housing, legal support or mental health care; in the volunteer-run group creating connection and belonging; and in the community organisation stepping in early to provide practical help before problems deepen. These organisations are woven into the life of our communities in ways that can be easy to overlook if we focus only on formal institutions or headline economic indicators, yet they make an enormous contribution to the strength, resilience and generosity of Australian society. They provide practical assistance, but they also build trust, dignity and a sense that people are not facing life's challenges alone. Seen in that light, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering an Efficient and Trusted Tax System) Bill 2026 takes on real significance. It contains a number of measures, but for me the most significant are the reforms that support charities, not-for-profits and philanthropy. If we want a more generous, connected and resilient Australia, we need a framework that makes it easier for people to give, easier for good organisations to attract support and easier for the sector to keep doing the work that it does so well.

This is an area I speak about with a deep personal connection. Before coming into this place, I spent around 20 years working across the not-for-profit sector alongside another seven years grounded in the public service, and that experience has shaped how I understand the role which charities and community organisations play in Australian life. My work in this space has taken different forms but has always been driven by a commitment to fairness, opportunity and, really importantly, community. I was most recently the CEO of the Australian Kookaburra Kids Foundation, supporting young people impacted by family mental illness. I've also led Reconciliation South Australia, and I worked for more than 13 years with the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. Just prior to coming into this place, I also served on the board of directors for the Fundraising Institute Australia. The FIA, as the national peak body for professional fundraising, sets the standards that ensure integrity, transparency and accountability across the sector. Their training, accreditation and advocacy support thousands of fundraisers to do their work ethically and effectively, building confidence among donors and strengthening the impact of every dollar raised. I want to acknowledge their important work in this sector.

Working across these organisations gave me a close understanding of what purpose-driven leadership looks like in practice—balancing mission and management every day, stretching every dollar while keeping sight of the people behind the numbers, and building trust with communities, team members, volunteers and supporters. Charities and not-for-profits are part of how Australia works at its best. They support people in moments of vulnerability, create opportunity, advocate for fairness and strengthen social cohesion, all with remarkable creativity and commitment.

I also want to express my sincere thanks to the workers, volunteers, leaders and board members across our charity and not-for-profit sector. I say to you all: the work you do is valuable, demanding and deeply community minded. You support people through crisis, build stronger foundations long before crisis arrives, and create connection, trust and possibility. Thank you.

When we talk about productivity and the strength of the economy, we should remember that a healthy society depends on more than markets and institutions alone. It depends on participation, social trust and people being able to contribute, connect and find support when they need it. Charities and not-for-profits mobilise volunteers, attract private giving, deliver trusted local services, innovate in response to need, identify gaps early and connect government with communities and lived experience, often while working under intense pressure with very limited resources. They really do a lot of the heavy lifting. So, when systems make it easier for Australians to give, easier for charities to raise support and easier for not-for-profits to navigate the rules around them, that strengthens not only the sector itself but the broader social economy. It helps direct time, effort and resources to where they can do the most good.

In Griffith, I had the great pleasure of hosting a charity and not-for-profit roundtable last month alongside the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, the member for Fenner. The roundtable brought together representatives from dozens of organisations and around 80 participants in total, all working within Griffith. I want to sincerely thank each of those organisations for taking the time to be part of the conversation and for the work they do in our community every day. These organisations covered a wide range of sectors, including health, arts and culture, multicultural affairs, environment, legal and community services. It was a great opportunity where we talked about delivering frontline services, building sustainable funding models and working through administration, compliance and workforce pressures while continuing to meet the rising need in our community. I want to thank the assistant minister for joining me and the Griffith community for this event and for the consultative way that he has engaged in this area. His work has helped ensure that policy conversations about charities, philanthropy and civil society are informed by evidence, experience and genuine respect for this sector.

Schedule 1 of this bill is a clear example of practical support for the charity and not-for-profit sector. It removes the requirement that a gift to a deductible gift recipient must be valued at $2 or more before a taxpayer can claim a deduction. That threshold has been in place since 1927, reflecting a very different era, when issuing receipts and keeping records was a manual process and the mechanics of giving looked nothing like they do today. That world has changed, and these changes enable our laws to catch up with that reality. They treat donations equally regardless of size, support innovation in fundraising and remove a threshold that no longer reflects how Australians contribute.

It also forms part of the government's response to the Productivity Commission's Future foundations for giving review, which examined the opportunities and barriers in Australia's philanthropy system. One of the ambitions flowing from that work is to double giving by 2030, a goal that I have been a very passionate supporter of for a very long time. Reaching that goal will not come from one dramatic change alone. It will come from a series of practical reforms that make giving easier, more accessible and more suited to the way Australians live now. Removing the $2 threshold is one of those measures. It is sensible, contemporary and overdue.

There is something important in recognising the small acts of generosity. Philanthropy is sometimes spoken about in terms of large donations and major foundations, both of which I have been incredibly grateful to be on the receiving end of in charities. They can be absolutely transformational gifts. Those contributions absolutely matter, and they should be encouraged. But a strong culture of giving also depends on everyday participation and on a system that recognises how people actually give now: in the small moments woven through ordinary life. Today, charitable giving often takes place while we are in the middle of something else. It happens when the cashier at the checkout asks whether we would like to round up our groceries by 80c for a local charity. It happens when a parent is booking tickets online for a community event and sees the option to add a small donation before checking out. It happens when someone, buying a coffee, paying for school raffle tickets, registering a local fundraiser or finalising an online order, chooses to add a dollar or two to support a cause that they really care about.

These are not grand gestures. They're quick, quiet choices made in the rhythm of everyday life. But across a community, across thousands of transactions and across thousands of Australians, these choices add up to real support for organisations doing important work. By removing the $2 threshold, the law catches up with today's healthy culture of giving. It also broadens participation, reaffirming that giving is not reserved only for those with really substantial means. And in a time when many households are feeling pressure, it recognises that small contributions are still meaningful contributions.

Since coming to government, there has been a clear commitment to supporting charities and not-for-profits through practical reform. That includes streamlining the deductible gift recipient system by returning four key categories to the Australian Taxation Office. It includes creating the new community charity category to encourage more local and place based giving and broaden the pool of regular Australian donors. It includes giving the charities commissioner greater discretion to comment on compliance activity. It includes expanding the ACNC Advisory Board so it is more representative of the sector and strengthens the network of charity regulators across the Commonwealth and the states and territories. It includes lifting distributions from giving funds so more philanthropic money reaches existing deductible gift recipients sooner.

Each of these steps reflects a consistent approach to making systems easier to navigate, more responsive to the sector and better aligned with how organisations actually operate. Complexity carries a real cost. It can divert time and energy away from service delivery, slow down fundraising, create confusion for donors and administrators alike, and place additional pressures on organisations that are already managing lean budgets and growing demand. Reducing unnecessary complexity is part of building a stronger social economy. It allows charities to focus more of their time on what they do best, which is supporting people, strengthening communities and delivering meaningful change.

The broader frame for this bill is productivity, and that is worth speaking to directly. These reforms are not isolated technical fixes but part of a broader effort to lift productivity across the economy after a wasted decade of stagnation under those opposite. One of the clear lessons from that period is that excessive complexity drags down productivity. Complexity consumes time, raises compliance costs and slows down good ideas, and it affects not only businesses and investors but also communities and community organisations. Productivity growth depends on broad participation across the economy, including in the not-for-profit sector. A stronger social economy contributes to national wellbeing. It helps communities function better, helps people stay connected to support and opportunity, brings private capital into areas of social need and often delivers outcomes that are preventive as well as responsive. Removing the $2 donation threshold is one small but meaningful example of that broader principle. It encourages microgiving with digital donations, supports modern fundraising tools such as round-up systems, helps mobilise private generosity towards social outcomes, and recognises that building a more productive nation also involves building a more connected and more generous one.

This bill complements wider work the government is doing, including broader regulatory reform measures, tariff reductions and financial sector data streamlining. The common thread is simple: good systems should be fit for purpose, reflect how people and organisations operate now, reduce needless friction and support effort where it can deliver the greatest value.

That same principle is present in other sections of this bill. Schedule 2 modernises tax administration by streamlining how trustees of closely held trusts report the tax file numbers of beneficiaries so that this occurs at the same time the trust tax return is lodged. Schedule 3 makes minor and technical amendments to Treasury legislation. These kinds of changes rarely attract headlines, but they matter. Good government is not only about large reforms. Schedule 4 excludes activities related to gambling and tobacco from the research and development tax incentive from 1 July 2025. That's a sensible reform. Productivity is not just about supporting any activity that can be labelled 'research and development'; it's also about directing public support where it delivers the greatest long-term value. Tobacco- and gambling-related activities are associated with serious harm, including addiction and poorer health outcomes. Public resources should not be subsidising research and development in those areas through this program.

These changes modernise patterns of generosity, support a broader and more inclusive culture of philanthropy and back charities and not-for-profits by making it easier for Australians to give in the ways that Australians give now. They sit within a broader commitment of this government to support a stronger, more responsive and more confident sector. For the charities, not-for-profits, workers and volunteers across Griffith and across Australia, this is a practical step towards a system that better reflects and supports the work that you do.

I would just remark that we recently heard from the member for Goldstein saying that he believes—and it is encouraging that he believes—that government should stand up and fight for the future of this country and that we need a government of strength, confidence and hope. I'm really proud to say that is exactly what we have here in the Albanese Labor government. We have a government of confidence, of real heart and of commitment to ensuring that Australians can receive the assistance that they need where they need it and that we're able to have a thriving philanthropic sector in the Australian community that is supported by government to do the important work that only they can do. I give a big thank you to all of the volunteers, workers and organisations in Griffith. Thank you for everything that you do to support Australia.

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