Knocked back on tax break status, Equality Australia uses someone else’s

The powerful LGBTIQ+ lobby group opposing female-only spaces has used an HIV/AIDS charity to collect tax-deductible donations after losing two court battles for its own deductible status.

Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown and Giggle app founder Sall Grover. Pictures: NewsWire, Lyndon Mechielsen

Equality Australia, the powerful gay and trans lobby group opposing female-only spaces for biological women, has been using an HIV/AIDS charity to collect tax-deductible donations after its own bid for tax-deductible status was thrown out by the courts.

For at least two years, Equality Australia has funnelled tax-­deductible donations through Thorne Harbour Health Ltd to bypass rulings that it was not entitled to Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status because it was primarily an advocacy group, not one providing benevolent relief.

The legality and ethics of the arrangement have been questioned in submissions to both the ATO and the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission, with one complainant asking whether Thorne Harbour Health is simply “laundering tax-deductible donations on behalf of a group whose work lies outside its own charitable remit”.

A note at the bottom of Equality Australia’s website donation page states that donations over $2 are tax deductible and that “Equality Australia partner with Thorne Harbour Health (formerly the Victorian AIDS Council) to improve the wellbeing of LGBTIQ+ people”. Donors receive a receipt from Thorne Harbour Health.

Giggle CEO Sall Grover at her home on the Gold Coast. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Thorne Harbour Health has DGR status with the ACNC because it has a benevolent purpose – to provide support to gay and bisexual men affected by HIV/AIDS and to provide health and wellbeing services to the LGBTIQ+ community.

Equality Australia told The Australian it provides “a nominal amount of money to THH to ­process our donations” but would not reveal how much it paid for the service.

The influential lobby group – which counts Governor-­General Sam Mostyn as patron – has divided the LGBTIQ+ community with its opposition to lesbian groups who want female-only spaces for biological women.

Equality Australia is seeking to argue in the Federal Court against an appeal by Giggle app founder Sall Grover, who was found last year to have unlawfully rejected transgender woman ­Roxanne Tickle from her networking platform because she was a biological man.

Earlier this week The Australian revealed that Equality Australia’s influential chair of trans equality, activist Teddy Cook, has a long friendship with Ms Tickle that predates her first complaint against Ms Grover with the Human Rights Commission.

Social media post by Roxanne Tickle showing Ms Tickle with trans activist Teddy Cook in 2021. Picture: supplied

The Albanese government decided in March to grant Equality Australia DGR status in defiance of the court ruling, after chief executive Anna Brown, an ex-Labor staffer, wrote to Charities Minister Andrew Leigh.

However, the perk does not come into effect until later this year and Equality Australia is continuing to collect tax-deductible donations through Thorne Harbour Health.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission has received written complaints that the conduit-style arrangement between the two registered charities is unlawful and in breach of the commission’s governance standards.

Similar complaints are understood to have been made to the ATO.

One complaint lodged with the ACNC on 25 June asserts: “If Equality Australia Ltd’s core activities are not eligible for DGR support in their own right, it is unlawful for them to access DGR tax concessions indirectly via Thorne Harbour Health Ltd unless the activities funded clearly fall within the latter’s defined charitable scope which they clearly do not.”

Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Equality Australia said it had been “fully transparent” about its partnership with Thorne Harbour Health.

“We are not aware of any complaints to the ATO and ACNC and we have always abided by their regulations and governing laws,” a spokesperson said.

Equality Australia receives $150,000 a year in government grants but obtains 95 per cent of its $2.36m annual revenue through private donations.

Tax deductible donations hit the public purse because they lower tax revenue. The DGR status gifted by the Albanese government to Equality Australia and six other organisations will cost the taxpayer a total of $4.5m over the next five years.

Equality Australia’s bid to be registered as a Public Benevolent Institution was rejected by the Charity Commissioner, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Federal Court because it was primarily an advocacy group.

Equality Australia told The Australian it was “engaged in a standard and perfectly legal ­auspice arrangement with THH which is a common practice within Australia’s not-for-profit sector”.

“Equality Australia categorically rejects any suggestions that we have been acting unlawfully or unethically.”

The ACNC declined to answer specific questions from The Australian about Equality Australia, including whether it had received complaints and whether the arrangement with THH was lawful and in keeping with governance standards. However, it pointed to previous statements rejecting ­Equality Australia’s claim to be entitled to DGR status, citing the AAT’s finding that “the kind of advocacy for law reform and social change it was focused on was too far removed from the traditional concepts of benevolence, even allowing for the evolution that has occurred in our understanding of that term”.

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