
Documents tabled by MP Andrew Wilkie claim to show church used jobkeeper funds to help purchase Melbourne’s Festival Hall

Documents tabled by MP Andrew Wilkie claim to show church used jobkeeper funds to help purchase Melbourne’s Festival Hall

Since Abbott this government has made every effort to silence those who question what it is they are actually doing. The ABC, The UNHRC, and Independant Charities. But “don’t look in the rear vision” is Morrison’s catch cry because history reveals an ugly truth. You see just how downgraded Australia has become these past 8 years on every social metric and began with Abbott and has accelerated with Morrison. The only rapid advance we have made is down and when compared with other countries fast. We have done the LNP bungee jump and any seeming improvement has been from the bottom.
From the moment the Abbott government won office, the Coalition has waged war on charities. One of their first acts upon getting elected in 2013 was to try to demolish the charities commission, a one-stop shop for charities. Australia’s charities haven’t been silent in the face of the onslaught. They’ve written three open letters to successive Liberal prime ministers, complaining about the attempt to undermine the voluntary sector. They’ve held rallies and lobbied crossbenchers – most recently managing to see off a measure that would’ve allowed the commissioner to deregister charities if they held a protest that led to the blocking of a public footpath. Charities are sick to the gills of having to fight off the Morrison government. Through a recession and a pandemic, charities have supported vulnerable people, despite a precipitous decline in the rate of volunteering. When Australia was ranked last in the advanced world for action on climate change, environmental charities and business groups kept up pressure on the government for a meaningful response to the climate crisis.
Source: Charities are sick of fighting off attacks by the Morrison government | Andrew Leigh | The Guardian

The Coalition is cracking down on charitable organisations. However, the Australian charity promoting arms deals on behalf of weapons makers that profit from humanitarian catastrophes is unlikely to be in the government’s sights. With the weapons expo LandForces wrapping up in Brisbane this week, Michelle Fahy delves into the charity behind LandForces.
Source: Landforces’ brothers in arms: how a weapons peddler qualified for charitable status – Michael West

The charity sector is struggling in the face of unprecedented demand from those the Coalition refuses to help. There are now fears that many charities won’t survive. But if they go down, a big chunk of Australia’s social safety net will go with them, as will large numbers of jobs. Julie Macken reports.
Australian charities are struggling with demand: the Coalition will rue turning its back on them – Michael West
Turnbull’s Grant
The Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the charity controversially granted $443 million by the Turnbull government to co-ordinate reef research, has finally bowed to pressure to reveal the names of its four founding members.
The foundation, which had just six full-time employees at the time of the grant’s announcement, is expected to collect at least $22.5 million of the funds in payments for its operations.
Secretive Great Barrier Reef Foundation reveals four founding leaders
Will the Charities Commissioner have reason to investigate this operation for it’s politicization?(ODT)
More than $22 million in taxpayer funds will be paid directly to a private foundation hand-picked by the Turnbull government to dispense Australia’s largest single Great Barrier Reef funding package, raising fresh questions over the controversial deal.
It has also emerged that the foundation will pocket interest earned on the record-large funding windfall, despite previous claims the interest would be directed back into projects to help rescue the natural wonder.
via Cherry-picked charity to pocket at least $22.5 million in taxpayer funding for reef