Onya, Twiggy.
We give business leaders a deserved slap when they put their hand in the till. So let’s give credit where it’s due to Andrew Forrest, who, when he puts his hand into his bulging pockets, often hands out cash to a cause more worthy than his personal luxury.
The whopping $65 million donation from the Forrests — perhaps the largest philanthropic offering in Australian history — will be invested in scholarships for PhD and post-graduate students at the University of Western Australia. Twiggy, admirably, wants to build the academic excellence of the West.
As Crikey has long reported, Aussies by and large are a generous lot. But the really rich, Forrest and a few others aside, let us down. Australia’s select group of billionaires — no need to name names, they know who they are — rank poorly in terms of their contribution to philanthropic and charitable causes.
Twiggy told ABC Radio today that he reckons Australia is at the “early stages of a philanthropic culture”. He needs to convince a few of his mega-rich mates first.
Good on Twiggy for coughing up and here’s hoping he starts a philanthropy bidding war among Australia’s idle rich. But I’m going to put on my cynic’s hat (and leave myself open to accusations of xenophobia) and point out that the donation provides $50 million for scholarships for international students. Like many other developed countries we have a lot of trouble getting locals to study science, technology and engineering (and medicine – the so-called STEM disciplines) degrees, to do research and build careers in those fields. And like many other developed countries we’re trying to fill the gap with people from India and China. The US, for example, is setting aside thousands of Green Cards for STEM graduates. So we’re facing increasing international competition for the best talent – but where are the initiatives to get more Australians into these fields? Where is the philanthropist putting money into building Australian talent?
It’s a start. Who is going to cough up for the lab equipment, consumables and so on. Buildings and scholarships are the glory parts of it. Actually being able to do something requires money that is increasingly hard to get. I have an idea: how about we get all citizens to contribute and then fund the universities out of a central fund. The more you earn the more you pay, what could we call it….?
Pardon my senile, pickled brain but hasn’t he made various announcements bigging up his altruism (and not mentioning tax deductibility) in the past about jobs for boongs and similar PR focussed pabulum?
If it’s for real, well done but, breath not being held at present.
Yeah. He complains about his company having to pay tax. Then donates an amount that was probably less than the tax… Gets a pat on the back…
But mining executives do not represent the interest of the people.
If the tax was paid our elected representatives would have the resources to address the priorities the community considers important. (political complexities and stuff aside).
Australia collects less tax as a percentage of GDP than most other developed countries. We are limiting our capability to do good things because of this.
What would the amount of tax Twiggy have paid had the mining tax gone through on its original level?