The Australia Institute made a brief submission to the Treasury discussion paper on Tax deductible gift recipient reform opportunities.

The Australia Institute is a Canberra-based think tank, registered as a charity with the ACNC. We conduct research on a wide range of economic, policy and political issues.

We commented on Consultation question 12:

Stakeholders’ views are sought on requiring environmental organisations to commit no less than 25 per cent of their annual expenditure from their public fund to environmental remediation, and whether a higher limit, such as 50 per cent, should be considered? In particular, what are the potential benefits and the potential regulatory burden? How could the proposal be implemented to minimise the regulatory burden?

It is concerning that the Discussion Paper ask for views about the potential benefits of requiring environmental organisations to direct funds towards remediation, without also asking for consideration of the negative impacts of such restrictions for advocacy, or the policy rationale for doing so.

The Australia Institute has a long history of work on the important role of advocacy in our political system and the economic basis for providing DGR status to groups conducting such advocacy. More recently we have conducted research into the case for DGR status for environment groups. Our submission brought the relevant reports to the attention of Treasury.