Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo spends $88m on charity – and $200m on COVID-19 tests and PPE

The Minderoo foundation is the biggest charity spender among members of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 after distributing almost $90m in 2020.

Andrew Forrest pictured along Swan River, Perth WA. PHOTO: MARIE NIRME

Billionaire Andrew Forrest is likely to now have more than $2bn of assets in his Minderoo Foundation, having spent almost $90m on charitable causes last year — making it the biggest individually backed foundation in Australia.

The latest Minderoo annual report, obtained by The Australian, shows the foundation also undertook about $200m in transactions on behalf of Australian governments securing COVID-19 test kits and personal protective equipment at the height of the pandemic in the middle of last year.

According to the foundation’s 2020 annual report, $88.3m was spent on projects and partnerships in the year to June 30 — about $13m more than was doled out in the previous 12 months.

Net assets for the foundation increased from $1.34bn in 2019 to a record $1.87bn as at June 30. The Minderoo annual report showed it spent about $199m procuring $170m worth of COVID-19 testing kits and another $29m in PPE from China, mostly on behalf of the federal government — for which it was later reimbursed. The foundation has pledged $320m for COVID-related endeavours.

The Minderoo efforts raised controversy last year when Mr Forrest appeared at a press conference with federal Health Minister Greg Hunt in April, inviting Chinese diplomat Long Zhou to speak alongside him.

Writing in the Minderoo annual report, Mr Forrest said the process of procuring kits and equipment would “ordinarily have taken years” but Minderoo was able to quadruple daily testing capabilities in a few weeks.

“When we were told that Australia could not compete against the might and deep pockets of the US and Europe to secure personal protective equipment and COVID-19 … testing equipment, we succeeded, despite considerable risk, due to our relationships built over decades.”

Mr Forrest also wrote that the next 12 months would prove to be the most important in the foundation’s history as it stepped up efforts to help end slavery and childhood cancer deaths, cut plastic waste and reduce the disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, while also fighting what he says was the threat to democracy posed by artificial intelligence and creating the first ocean vertebrate genome reference library.

“We must band together, be prepared to take risks and make mistakes in pursuit of lasting change. It is only with this freedom that true innovation can happen — the kind of innovation that breaks through, unites people and empowers them to create a better world,” he said.

Meanwhile, it is possible Minderoo now has or will soon have more than $2bn in assets, based on Mr Forrest and wife Nicola’s previous habit of topping up their donations after most dividend payments by Fortescue Metals Group.

FMG, of which Mr Forrest is chairman and major shareholder, paid a $1 per share final dividend to investors, meaning Mr Forrest received more than $1.15bn when the payment was made on October 2.

Mr Forrest and his family contributed $655m to their foundation in the 2019 financial year, during which it spent $75.2m on projects and partnerships.

That spending put Mr Forrest in first place among the top 25 philanthropists published by The Australian last March in the 2020 edition of The List — Australia’s Richest 250.

Minderoo topped that spending in 2020 with the $88.3m distribution and the foundation received $522m in donations from the Forrests for the year.

The biggest amount distributed for the year was the $19.8m that went to the foundation’s Flourishing Oceans program. The Minderoo foundation has committed $US300m ($442m) to help end plastic waste worldwide as part of the Sea the Future program launched at the United Nations in September 2019.

Almost $16m was spent on various community projects and initiatives, while about $10m went to the foundation’s Collaborate against Cancer initiative. In April, Minderoo pledged $12.2m to the ZERO program to fight childhood cancer, with the federal government contributing $54.8m from its Medical Research Futures Fund.

Another $9m went to bushfire and flood resilience programs. The Forrest Research Foundation received $6.8m for the year, and the Walk Free organisation that aims to reduce poverty another $11.8m.

Mr Forrest reportedly recently returned to Perth after several months touring the world looking at various investment and philanthropic opportunities. Minderoo was contacted for comment.

Originally published as Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo spends $88m on charity – and $200m on COVID-19 tests and PPE