Is the independence of the environmental and community sectors under threat? That was the question considered at an event in Melbourne hosted by the Swinburne Philanthropy Alumini earlier this week. Three articulate senior executives in the community sector comprised the panel; Liana Buchanan the Executive Officer of the Federation of Community Legal Centres, Julie Edwards, CEO of Jesuit Social Services and Esther Abraham, Green Giving Advisor for the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network.
The Community sector is exceptionally well represented by women. According to a 2012 survey conducted by YWCA Australia, the Australian Council of Social Service and Women on Boards, there are more women on boards and among the Senior Managers of the organisations who responded to the survey. The bad news is that this sector, the workforce of which is predominantly women (about 85%), is relatively low paid. So, as the survey report concluded “women are doing well in senior management in a sector that underpays them.”
It is likely the women who spoke at the SPA event would like to be better remunerated but less likely that ‘money’ is their main driver. Liana spoke with passion about the Federation’s commitment to access to justice, not just access to a lawyer but access to just laws. As the peak body for 50 Community Legal centres throughout Victoria, her organisation is uniquely placed to discern systemic issues that cause injustice, and to advocate for law reforms that can make life so much better for many who would otherwise remain voiceless, such as the victims of domestic violence.
But their funding by the Commonwealth Government has been drastically reduced over the last year. The cuts came with new restrictions effective from 1 July 2014 precluding the use of Commonwealth funding for law reform and policy advocacy by Community Legal Centres. According to Liana Buchanan:
“Unless we are saying that governments and public authorities never impact people’s rights and lives, there is a legitimate role for community legal centres to ensure those rights are protected, ……There are many examples we can think of where government funding is appropriately used to hold government and public authorities to account, including the Victorian Ombudsman and the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC).”
As Julie Edwards pointed out, it is not as if the funding provided by Governments belongs to them; it is money raised from the public to be spent in the interests of the public. Julie observed that Jesuit Social Services has been providing services for Victoria’s disadvantaged for many years even before Government provided any funding. But she bemoaned the apparent move towards the American model which has community welfare expenditure shrinking and reliance on private philanthropy growing.
Esther Abraham championed the importance of an independent voice for environment protection, reminding us that out first National Parks only came about though lobbying by the environmental movement. Apart from the scrapping of the Climate Commission and cuts to a number of environmental organisations in the recent budget, there have been moves on behalf of Federal Liberal party to strip certain environmental charities, the more outspoken ones, of their charitable status, thus denying their donors tax deductibility. This is an effective gag.
While this push to discourage advocacy by charities is concerning, even more impressive are the women resisting it. These are women who deserve our pride, interest and support.