Federal election 2016: think tanks take aim at Turnbull

Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull’s donations to the Grattan Institute public policy think tank don’t guarantee support.

Lucy and Malcolm Turnbull have donated money to the Grattan ­Institute think tank.

Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull have donated money to the Grattan ­Institute think tank, which has criticised the government for failing to tackle negative gearing and GST reform.

Grattan is one of several politically active think tanks ramping up efforts to steer public debate in this election by analysing and criticising government policies.

Left-aligned The Australia ­Institute yesterday produced a ­report highly critical of the ­government’s corporate tax cuts.

Conservative free-market think tanks the Centre for ­Independent Studies and the ­Institute of Public Affairs both ­oppose the government’s changes on superannuation and say its ­income tax cuts plans are inadequate.

Grattan, a Melbourne think tank described by Victorian Liberal powerbroker Michael Kroger as from the “left political bent”, lists Mrs Turnbull as a board director, and the Turnbulls among the “friends” of Grattan who have ­donated more than $50 for its policy work.

Labor’s Tim Watts, MP for the seat of Gellibrand, is also listed as a donor. Despite being a benefactor, the Prime Minister last month ­attacked the Grattan Institute, saying a report by director John Daley on negative gearing and capital gains tax policy was “littered with factually incorrect statements, claims that are unsupported by evidence and ­direct contradictions”.

The think tank has been critical of the Coalition’s failure to address the excesses in the negative gearing system that benefit the wealthy, arguing that halving the capital gains tax discount and stopping landlords from claiming rental losses against their salaries would have a limited downward impact on house prices.

Public donations to the Grattan Institute account for a small amount of its overall income.

GRAPHIC: Think tank politics

Its most recent financial report shows that $4.7 million of Grattan’s $6.1m operating revenue comes from interest and investment income, $183,000 from other donations and $1.1m in operating income.

The Grattan Institute began with a $15m endowment from each of the federal and Victorian governments and a further $4m from BHP Billiton.

The Australia Institute’s four-page report on the government’s corporate tax cuts, written by former Labor adviser David Richardson, has attracted criticism for being flawed, but won the support of Bill Shorten.

While claiming not to have any formal political links, the Australia Institute is dominated by staff who previously worked for the Australian Greens, including its executive director Ben Oquist and has been described as the “office in exile” of former Greens leader Bob Brown.

The Australia Institute received $1.8m in donations last year, but does not disclose the identity of its supporters.

Its outgoing chair is former Greens senate candidate for the ACT, Lin Hatfield Dodds, who has been appointed as the new deputy secretary for social policy in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

She advised the department early this month that she would be resigning her board position.