Near the end of Ballina Shire Council’s last epic meeting, Cr Eoin Johnston put forward a motion to pursue the idea of tax deductible donations from the public to fund essential local council services.
He wanted support from his fellow councillors to take his motion to the Australian Local Government Association.
What initially sounded like a thought bubble turned out to be a serious proposition, which Cr Johnston said was inspired by Kerry Packer, Thargomindah and Karratha, and had been ‘in his head for quite a few years’.
The next ALGA meeting will be in Canberra in June. ‘I’m happy to go down there and attend that meeting and present this,’ said Cr Johnston. ‘It certainly has obstacles and there would be a lot of debate and it might have little chance of getting through to the taxation heads in Canberra, but that’s where it has to go.’
Mining money
Eoin Johnston then spoke about the spectacular council-provided facilities in the outback town of Thargomindah, despite a very small ratepayer base in the area. ‘The mayor met took me around and said, ‘Well, we have one very good ratepayer and that’s Santos oil.’
Cr Johnston next spoke about remote Karratha, WA, which has a world class swimming complex, largely funded by iron ore companies, before moving on to the late media magnate and gambling enthusiast Kerry Packer, who once told a Senate committee he minimised his tax because ‘I don’t like what you do with it.’
Eventually Cr Johnston got to the point, saying’ ‘I would think some people in this community have a lot of money and pay a lot of tax, and I think some would like to give it to the local government… [if they had the option].
‘It’s up to the councillors here and the staff to decide what is the most need. So that’s my altruistic venture, and I think it has merit. I ask for your support.’
Support was not forthcoming from Cr Kiri Dicker, who said she had to speak against Cr Johnston’s idea. ‘What a story! I mean, we’ve got ultra wealthy people not paying tax. We’ve got fossil fuel companies, paying off small communities to, you know, sedate them into accepting the destruction of the environment.
‘I want to support this because I do believe it’s well intentioned, but they do say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
‘This is just way too novel for me to be able to support the implications of something like this, to give wealthy people influence over essential council services.’
Cr Phil Meehan was less critical, suggesting Cr Johnston’s proposal was not too dissimilar to the way wealthy people like Florence Price had supported the community in the past.
On the fence
Cr Simon Chate said he could see positives and potential negatives at the same time. ‘It would be great to have some way, via a tax deduction at the end of the year, to support my local council. I think that’s a great thing.’
But, he wondered, what if a developer put in a heap of money just before we were going to be debating a development application?
Cr Steve McCarthy worried that if the idea was carried state-wide, ‘you would find a rich area would get richer and the poor area would suffer.’
Cr Rod Bruem, who seconded the motion, suggested all these concerns would be ironed out with further discussion, and the idea was worth exploring.
‘Obviously, it can’t happen if it’s going to be leading to favouritism or fraud or anything else,’ he said.
‘But as Cr Johnston’s pointed out, there are people out there with money to burn, and we live in an age where there’s a growing awareness of philanthropy, and where we’re seeing more and more billionaires wanting to do great things for communities, providing a little bit of credit for them or their foundation.’
Money for nothing and your roads for free?
After more discussion, Ballina GM Paul Hickey confirmed that there were already ways for wealthy individuals to get tax deductions for various cultural and environmental programs, although not currently for things like roads and stormwater management.
He suggested that if the scheme went ahead, Ballina Council would potentially be able to refuse ‘inappropriate’ donations, to avoid obligations to donors.
The Northern Rivers Community Foundation was raised as a model, where the capital was never spent, but only the interest, which might support a swimming pool, or children going overseas to represent the region, or something else.
Cr Eoin Johnston then said, ‘It’s not a matter of rich people trying to avoid tax. They’re still paying the tax, not avoiding it at all, but paying it to someone who we would like to support.’
Wrapping up, he said, ‘I can’t be sure it’s ever going to get past first base. But first base is today…
‘I’d ask you to vote for it. Then we’ll take it to Canberra. It may get pilloried by the group down there, I may get 20% of the vote. So we’d like to take it down there and give it a crack. And if I leave no other legacy in local government, that could be it.’
When the motion went to the vote, it got over the line with the support of Crs Johnston, Bruem, Cadwallader and Meehan. Crs Jeff Johnson, Nigel Buchanan and Eva Ramsey were all absent at this stage.
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