The Coalition will oppose moves by Labor to grant secular ethics classes the same tax-deductible status as providers of religious scripture classes, but claims it is not doing so out of any religious or philosophical objection to the classes.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Currently groups that provide special religious education classes in Australian schools can collect tax-deductible donations in order to fund the recruitment of volunteers or administration of their programs, while ethics classes cannot.
Primary Ethics, the sole provider of ethics classes in NSW, said its program would become financially unviable unless it was granted deductible gift recipient (DGR) status earlier this year.
The Gillard government had originally rejected Primary Ethics’ request for DGR status, but reversed that decision in April, signalling it would create an entire new category for ethics classes.
The change is expected to be put to the parliament on Tuesday evening or Wednesday.
Opposition assistant treasury spokesman Mathias Cormann confirmed the Coalition would not support the move.
He said the Coalition had no philosophical objection to ethics classes, but did not think it was appropriate that a whole new DGR category be created.
‘‘We are not comfortable to go along with the creation of a whole new category of deductible gift recipients – when there is only one eligible organisation at present – without proper consideration of all the implications of that change,’’ he said.
Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said the government had sought to create the new category because it wanted to support the provision of secular ethics classes in government schools, and said forcing any individual organisations to make separate applications was not the right approach.
‘‘Expanding the DGR categories administered by the Commissioner of Taxation to providers of ethics classes is a better, simpler and more principled way of providing DGR status to organisations such as Primary Ethics,’’ he said.
Mr Bradbury said the Coalition’s move contradicted its claims to be a party that supports choice.
‘‘It is clear that they are opposed to more choice for children and parents who want the option of having ethics classes as an alternative to religious education classes in government schools,’’ he said.
Primary Ethics has been contacted for comment.
