I am pleased to announce that public donations to the Stolen Children's
Support Fund are to be made tax-deductible.
The Government will amend the income tax law to allow deductions for
gifts of $2 or more to assist in the counselling, educating and monitoring
of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders who were removed from their
families.
The Fund's objectives also include the wellbeing of descendants
of children separated from their parents, with particular emphasis
on the recommendations from the National Inquiry into the Separation
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families:
Bringing Them Home report.
After the Fund has satisfied the usual public fund requirements, a
date will be nominated from which gifts will be tax deductible. Legislation
will be introduced as soon as practicable after that time.
The Government has already responded to the Bringing Them Home report
by allocating approximately $63 million on initiatives over four years.
These initiatives are targeted at the Report's major recommendations
to assist in family union. Today's announcement adds another
dimension to that response.
My Government is committed to improving living conditions for indigenous
Australians. We will spend almost $700 million more in real terms
on indigenous-specific programmes during our first four years in office
than was spent in the last four years of the previous Labor Government.
Commonwealth funding for indigenous-specific programmes will increase
from $1.7 billion in 1995-96 to almost $1.9 billion in 1998-99, representing
a real growth of 2.4 per cent.
This funding will be directed towards the Government's priority
areas of health, housing, education and employment to address the
severe socio-economic disadvantage suffered by indigenous Australians.