“Subsidising violence.” Labor accused of looking the other way
· Michael West
The Labor Government again refuses to sanction charities that help fund illegal settlements and the Israeli war effort, as Senator Mehreen Faruqi accused the government of subsidising violence. Stephanie Tran reports.
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Senator Faruqi has today used a Senate speech to renew pressure on Labor after it again rejected a proposal to strip tax benefits from organisations financing Israeli settlements.
Speaking in parliament on Monday, Faruqi referenced MWM investigations that revealed that charities operating in Australia were contributing to settlement projects in the occupied West Bank while retaining deductible gift recipient (DGR) status.
“The fact that people are sending money to support the war crimes of the Israeli military and to expand illegal, violent settlements in the West Bank is bad enough,” she said, “but that Australian taxpayers are subsidising these settlements, and this violence, is completely outrageous and unacceptable.”
Her remarks follow the government’s decision to oppose a Greens amendment that would remove DGR status from entities found to have supported “illegal occupation”.
Faruqi told the Senate the government’s position was at odds with its own recognition of Palestinian statehood and its acknowledgement that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
“The West Bank is recognised by the Albanese government as illegally occupied … and yet Australian charities are subsidising the illegal occupation of Palestine,” she said. This amendment would ban that once and for all,
Supporting it should be not just a question of morality, but plain common sense.
The proposed changes would amend the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to deny tax-deductible status to organisations that have directly or indirectly supported an illegal occupation, including through financing or contributing to settlement expansion.
MWM has released a series of investigations revealing that Australian charities with tax-deductible status are sending hundreds of millions of dollars in donations every year to fund Israeli settlements and initiatives supporting IDF soldiers.
Faruqi also highlighted the humanitarian situation in the West Bank, telling the Senate that more than 1,000 Palestinians had been killed there since October 2023, alongside widespread displacement and settler violence.
“By maintaining DGR status for these organisations, the government is giving a very clear message that this violence is okay and we are subsidising it,” she said.
Supporting these heinous crimes deserves investigation, not tax deductions.
She pointed to the 2024 Advisory Opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land is illegal. The ICJ held that third states, such as Australia, have an obligation to prevent economic relations that assist in maintaining Israel’s illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“Despite recognising the illegality of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, in defiance of the international court, the Albanese government continues to allow and even reward charities that are providing for and profiting off these illegal settlements under the DGR scheme,” Faruqi said.
The Greens senator also accused the government of inconsistency in its approach to charity regulation, claiming it had denied DGR status to some organisations while allowing others linked to settlement activity to retain tax concessions.
“The Albanese government has got its priorities all mixed up,” she said. “They say no to giving DGR status to life-saving animal welfare charities, but a big yes to subsidising charities supporting illegal occupations.”
Faruqi reiterated her earlier criticism that Labor was “looking the other way”. “It is two-faced and shameful for the government to say it supports a Palestinian state,
while effectively subsidising its destruction.
Government response
Responding on behalf of the government, Labor Senator Anthony Chisholm said the amendment was unnecessary, arguing that existing regulatory frameworks already prohibit charities from engaging in unlawful conduct.
“There is no DGR category or purpose that allows charities to support illegal activities at home or abroad,” Chisholm told the Senate.
He pointed to the ACNC’s governance standards, which require charities to operate lawfully and be accountable, as well as external conduct standards that apply to overseas activities.
Those rules require charities to comply with Australian law, including anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing legislation, and to take reasonable steps to ensure proper oversight of funds distributed overseas.
However, Chisholm acknowledged that these standards “do not extend to conduct under international law”, a limitation that was also acknowledged by Senator Katy Gallagher when previously questioned about Labor’s decision to oppose the amendment by Senator Penny Allman-Payne.
Charities funding Israel’s illegal settlements untouchable, Labor says