What was claimed
The federal government has given tax deductibility for donations to the Voice’s Yes campaign but not the No campaign.
Our verdict
Misleading. The No campaign didn’t apply for tax deductibility until March 2023. It then withdrew its application after it was granted.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott says the government is trying to give the Yes campaign for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament an advantage by granting it tax deductibility status, without doing the same for the No camp.
This is misleading. The only No campaign group to apply for tax deductibility did so in March 2023, but later withdrew its application. Eligible organisations can apply for tax deductibility at any time.
Abbott, who was a special envoy on Indigenous affairs in the previous Coalition government, made the claim during an interview with conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs in February 2023.
“[Anthony Albanese] is also trying to, as it were, tilt the playing field by giving tax deductibility for Yes donations without tax deductibility for No donations, by putting tens of millions of dollars into a publicly funded campaign against misinformation which will ultimately be propaganda for the Yes case,” the former Liberal leader said.
Tony Abbott says the No campaign wasn’t granted tax deductibility.
Clips of the interview are circulating on social media, as seen here, here and here.
Other users have made the same claim without referencing Abbott’s comments, see here, here and here.
At the time of the IPA interview, deductible gift recipient (DGR) status had been approved for one Yes campaign group, allowing donations of $2 or more to be tax-deductible.
No groups opposing the Voice had been approved for the same status, but only because none had applied.
When AAP FactCheck asked for evidence to support the claim, a representative for Abbott said: “In the October 2022 budget the Albanese government announced tax deductibility for Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition, the chief fundraising body for the Yes campaign.”
“Between that time and March 22 … there was no announced policy that the No side would receive DGR status.”
Abbott’s representative referenced a March 22 news article about the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill, which quotes Special Minister of State Don Farrell as saying the No campaign “would be treated in the same way as the application for the Yes campaign organisation”.
Senator Farrell told AAP FactCheck: “As I’ve said before, applications for DGR status are treated under exactly the same process. This applies to both Yes and No campaigns.”
A Treasury representative confirmed to AAP FactCheck that “an entity may submit a proposal for DGR specific listing to the assistant minister for competition, charities and Treasury at any time”.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is responsible for DGR endorsement. In order to be eligible, organisations must meet relevant requirements set out in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, which often include being a charity.
An ATO representative told AAP FactCheck there are two ways to apply for tax deductibility — through the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) if the organisation is not yet registered as a charity, or directly to the ATO if they are.
Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition (AICR) — the group leading the Yes23 campaign — registered as a charity in October 2019.
Emeritus Professor Myles McGregor-Lowndes, an expert in nonprofit taxation and regulation at the Queensland University of Technology, told AAP FactCheck AICR had also applied to be registered as a public benevolent institution (PBI), which offers certain tax benefits.
The charities commission rejected the PBI application, which AICR appealed in the Federal Court.
Prof McGregor-Lowndes said AICR withdrew its case after the court declined to make a maximum costs order to protect it from paying litigation fees.
A Treasury representative confirmed to AAP FactCheck that AICR applied for DGR status on June 20 2022, which was announced in the 2022/23 budget in October (page 17).
The Voice No Case Committee, also known as Recognise a Better Way, submitted an application for DGR status on March 6 2023.
However, the group contacted Treasury on May 8, the day before the budget, to advise it wished to withdraw the proposal.
Because the papers had already been finalised, an announcement of the Voice No Case Committee’s DGR status, pending registration with the ACNC, appeared in the 2023/24 budget on May 9 (page 24).
The group withdrew its application in order to merge with another No campaign group, Fair Australia, under the new name Australians for Unity.
Australians for Unity will be required to seek DGR status as a separate entity. The ABC has reported that this process is underway.
The verdict
The claim the government granted tax deductibility status for donations to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament Yes campaign but not the No campaign is misleading.
At the time Abbott made the claim, the No campaign had not applied for the status. The Treasury confirmed this could be done at any time.
In March 2023, the No campaign’s Recognise a Better Way group applied and was approved for deductible gift recipient status. It withdrew the application in order to merge with another group.
Misleading. The claim is accurate in parts but information has also been presented incorrectly, out of context or omitted.
Like his successor, Morrison, Abbott has the art of outright lies, half truths, and misleading nonsense, down to a fine art. How on earth did the LNP reckon either of these utter imbeciles deserve a spot as “leadership” of this country? What shines through clearly, is that for all of them, the welfare of the population, or the nation and its future, is near the bottom of their list of priorities.
Abbott’s training as a Jesuit gave him a head-start in the lies, half-truths and misleading nonsense department……………..
………I suspect Morrison may have been an autodidact.
Ha Ha. Yes, the Jesuits have a hell of a lot to answer for!!!! Abbott is the least of the problems they have caused the world.
Tony Abbott tells a lie. And this is news, how? It would be far more newsworthy if he told the truth.
It is quite possible he is allergic to the truth…………….
…. I reckon truth’d be allergic to him….
I’m sure that anything that bites him dies a horrible death………………….
I felt for that onion….
Weirdest of all is that he took a second bite, having enjoyed the first so much – and unpeeled.
Abbott all over. No taste …
Ahhh, Old Rictus strikes again.
Where would we be if we didn’t have the Idiot searching for his village, to help him foster his delusions of adequacy? 😉
You bet you are, you bet I am.
We’re lucky he has the UK Tories and related offshore, he can present at Koch linked think tanks in UK & US (like IPA), act as a UK Trade Advisor and also visit similar think tanks supported by the Hungarian government of PM ‘mini Putin’ Orban in Budapest; one of the think tanks in the ‘architecture of influence’ is running an event demanding Ukraine declare ‘peace’.
We’re lucky he has the UK Tories and related offshore, he can present at Koch linked think tanks in UK & US (like IPA), act as a UK Trade Advisor and also visit similar think tanks supported by the Hungarian government of PM ‘mini Putin’ Orban in Budapest.
Is anyone surprised? I know that Philip Adams thinks that Howard was our worst-ever PM but I always give that ignominious title to Abbott.
There is very little to choose between Howard, Abbott and Morrison at the bottom of the cesspit. Howard was better at it than the other two, particularly Morrison whose harm was limited by his laziness and incompetence.
I believe the Lying Rodent did more lasting structural damage.
The Mad Monk is just a bull in a china shop.
Thank dog SfM didn’t have a Credlin controlling him.
Mr Abbott cares not a whit that his statements are not at all or only partially true. His purpose is to create confusion and doubt, just like all the other prominent naysayers.
It’s all in Little Johnny’s Big Guide to Disrupting Referendums. I’m with Philip Adams. Little Johnny was bigly nasty.
Abbott following in the mendacity of The Lying Rodent©Senator George Brandis is akin to Smirko and his mendacity.
Not surprising as it was SOP for the Early Christian Church wherein those Fathers of the Church, Eusebius, Clemen , Jerome, John Chrysostom, had no compunction concerning lies and were all adept at justifying deceit/lies for the good of the poor sinner.
Smirko , Brother Stuie and others in the Pentecostal Cohort obviously believed in such, as it would set the people of Australia on the path of righteousness of the Lying Nasty Party
As John Chrysostom, he of the Golden Mouth, given the name as he was so eloquent in his preaching. is also credited in leading the mob which carried out the second and final destruction of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,
“…For great is the value of deceit, provided it be not introduced with a mischievous intention. In fact action of this kind ought not to be called deceit, but rather a kind of good management, cleverness and skill, capable of finding out ways where resources fail, and making up for the defects of the mind … “
“…And often it is necessary to deceive, and to do the greatest benefits by means of this device, whereas he who has gone by a straight course has done great mischief to the person whom he has not deceived…”
Chrysostom, Treatise On The Priesthood, Book 1.
So when we think of Spin Doctors let us recall those early ones they who set the standard, The Doctors of the Church
Oooh. Lovely quote, Mr Maberley.
You don’t hear that one tossed around by church bigwigs intent on convincing the benighted masses that the truth can be found only in their particular teachings.
Got any more bonbons like that one?