E&OE..................
Thank you very much Senator Vanstone, my other parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
I';m delighted once again to have the opportunity of participating in this very important award presentation. This is the fourth year of the Prime Minister';s Awards for Excellence in Community Business Partnerships and the awards are a great opportunity to recognise those who are contributing in a very direct way to what I have called the social coalition.
And as I look around the Great Hall today, I see people from the welfare sector, people from Government, people from the business community, and philanthropic individuals who are moved by a sense of commitment and service and generosity to try and do something to improve the lot of their fellow Australians. And Amanda in her introductory remarks has outlined some of the remarkable things and some of the innovative combinations that the Community Business Partnerships have brought together, and the finalists today are a wonderful metaphor for what has been achieved.
And I believe that over the past few years we have brought about something of a cultural change. We still have a long way to go but I find within corporate Australia the idea of partnership and the idea of contributing to other than the economic growth and strength of our country, which is of course very important – critically important in its own right – I think there is a growing sense of its role and its responsibilities. And there';s also a growing appreciation of the need for all of us to work together because each of us has something to offer uniquely from our own perspective – the Government of course has a basic and ongoing responsibility to provide not only a social security safety net, but also policy and national leadership.
We need to continue to nurture and encourage the great welfare organisations of Australia whose coalface understanding and experience of people';s adversity and life';s challenges is unrivalled and unmatched by the experience of other sectors of the community. We need also to harness the generosity of individuals and we need of course to tap the generosity and the spirit of those within the business community who wish to play a full role in our community. And I was reminded when I was coming here of perhaps the impact of some of the measures and some of the changed attitudes by some figures I was given which analysed donations to charities between 1999/2000 compared with 98/99 – the immediately preceding year. And these are the latest years for which comparative figures are available, and they show in that period an 11 per cent increase in the giving between those two years. A small indicator, perhaps not the final story. There may be other explanations and there may be, just maybe, some of the initiatives that we have sponsored and some of the spirit that has come out of the Community Business Partnership movement has also played a contribution. And as a direct result of the tax initiatives suggested by the Community Business Partnership to allow prescribed private funds, about 81 new foundations have been established. Once again a small but very important beginning.
Last year';s winner in the Large Business Category was the partnership between the Smith Family and Cisco Systems. The Smith Family is now reaping the benefits of this partnership, and as part of the Smith Family';s Learning for Life program, thousands of student updates are produced each year to provide feedback to the sponsors. These updates each need an internal review to ensure that there is no information that may reveal the identity of the sponsored child. And in the year 2000, 12,000 updates were checked in-house and each update took just under eight minutes of processing in total. Two years later, with substantial growth in the program, 18,000 updates are being checked at an average of just 40 seconds each, generating a saving of $45,000 annually. And this 90 per cent reduction in processing time has been made possible through an Internet-based system built with the assistance of volunteers from Cisco.
I';d like to take this opportunity of announcing a number of additional taxation initiatives which build on earlier initiatives the Government has announced to encourage Community Business Partnerships. In the past, key reforms in this area have included a range of income tax and capital gains tax incentives to those who make donations of property and providing business, families and individuals with greater flexibility to start their own private trust funds for philanthropic purposes. Today I announce that from the 1st of July next year, taxpayers will be able to spread deductions for cash donations made to deductible gift recipients in instalments elected by the taxpayer over a period of up to five years. This will make it more attractive for individuals and businesses to make donations to deductible gift recipients sooner and it will also make sure that donors receive the full benefit of deductions for their giving and will ensure that cash and non-cash gifts are treated the same.
And second, and in line with the Partnership';s consistent encouragement of tax incentives to promote workplace giving, employees will no longer have to wait until they receive their tax returns to benefit from the tax deductions associated with their donations. They will in future be able to receive the benefit of the tax deduction in their weekly or fortnightly salary. The new arrangements will encourage more employers and employees, I hope and believe, to enter into workplace giving arrangements.
Ladies and gentlemen, these awards and this little but very important ceremony is an important date on the Government';s calendar of events here in the Great Hall and in Canberra. We have many functions here in the Great Hall. We honour the work of many Australians and others in many walks of life. None engenders the great collaborative spirit of the Australian community more effectively than the Community Business Partnerships. I';m very proud of what has been achieved to date. I want to thank all of the members of the Community Business Partnership committee or group that advised me and Amanda Vanstone. I valued their work. We take most of their advice, not all of it, and the bit we don';t take is not that we don';t think that it';s good advice but sometimes not everything that is asked of Governments can be delivered because of other obligations.
I thank all of the groups in the community and all the sectors for the contribution you make and I';m delighted to once again welcome you and to congratulate and thank you for what you have done over the last year.
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