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Louise Walsh

Biography:

Louise is the Director of Artsupport Australia, a joint initiative of the Australia Business Arts Foundation and the Australia Council to grow cultural philanthropy. Launched by the Prime Minister in August 2003, Co-Chairmen of Artsupport Australia are James Strong and David Gonski. Louise began her professional career in 1991 as a lawyer at Allens Arthur Robinson, then held positions with the Sydney 2000 Olympic Bid and SOCOG, the City of Sydney and the Sydney Symphony.

Statement:

Australians should give so it hurts a little. We are very lucky we have the life we do. We should give more back.

Australians can be generous. Volunteer hours for the 2000 Olympic Games and funds donated to tsunami appeals show we pull together when we're needed. But are we really as philanthropic as we could be? The results of the Giving Australia report released in October 2005 are encouraging. Australians are donating more to charities but we're still a long way behind the US. Giving in the US in 2004 as a proportion of GDP was 1.6% compared with 0.68% in Australia.

In recent years there have been significant tax reforms to encourage greater philanthropy, in particular the introduction of prescribed private funds (PPFs) and pre-tax workplace giving or payroll deductions. It is exciting that in the first four and a half years since PPFs were introduced, over 350 new charitable foundations have been established. In the first two years of workplace giving, over $12 million has been donated. These trends are encouraging, but we cannot be complacent.

My ever-increasing passion is growing philanthropy, especially to arts and culture. This will be the main driver of my professional career in years to come. As Director of Artsupport Australia, I have been fortunate to work closely with David Gonski who has been instrumental in Australia's growth in philanthropy.

Where to from here? The bleakest picture of philanthropy is our wealthy Australians. The wealthiest Americans donate about 14.5% of their wealth to their charitable foundations while in Australia it is only 1 to 4%. Australians are getting wealthier. Every day, 47 new millionaires join the pool of 134,000 Australians who have more than $1.33 million in assets, apart from their family homes. In last year's BRW Rich List there were six new billionaires.

The Australian Taxation Office suggests there are about 3,000 families with net worth over $20 million. If those families put 10% of their wealth into PPFs there would be $12 billion invested, resulting in $1 billion per year in cash going to not-for-profits. It would have a huge impact.

PPFs are a great innovation that need to be better promoted to wealthy Australians and their financial advisers. While this 'carrot' approach targets the wealthy, there is scope to target the broader community through workplace giving. It is anticipated that workplace giving could boost donations to not-for-profits by $200 million a year if 10% of the Australian workforce forgo $2 a week from their pay. We have just begun the journey. Currently, Americans raise A$16 per capita each year from workplace giving programs compared to A$4 per capita in the UK, and just A$0.65 in Australia. The Australian Government should introduce a significant and sustainable campaign to promote workplace giving, like the successful Life Be In It campaign.

We have only 'scratched the surface' in our quest to encourage greater giving in Australia. Why can't we donate frequent flyer points to not-for-profits? Why can't taxpayers directly donate some or all of their taxation refund cheque to not-for-profits? Why doesn't the media regularly profile giving?

There is much work to be done. Australia's wealth needs to be applied to bettering society. Let me at it.