The Health Services Union (HSU) has raised serious concerns over Healthscope, a for-profit company with $1.6 billion in debt, being granted charitable status to exploit tax concessions worth $200 million annually.
In a letter to Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission ACNC Commissioner Sue Woodward, ATO Commissioner Rob Heferen, and Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh, the union has warned Healthscope's charitable status may breach ACNC governance standards and questioned how such a decision could be made.
"How does a private company drowning in $1.6 billion of debt and backed by one trillion dollars in assets suddenly become a charity? This makes a mockery of Australia's not-for-profit sector," said Kate Marshall, HSU Senior National Assistant Secretary.
"Healthscope is using charitable status as a tax dodge to shift corporate debt onto workers and make itself more attractive to potential buyers."
The company has pressured its 20,000 workers to accept salary packaging arrangements but then demanded they return 80-90% of the benefit – worth up to $10,000 per worker annually – back to Healthscope to pay down corporate debt.
The HSU raised concerns over a lack of transparency in the ACNC's decision-making process, with applications and submissions sealed from public scrutiny and affected parties unable to object or provide their own evidence.
The union warns the decision sets a dangerous precedent for Australia's healthcare sector and beyond.
"This could open the floodgates for private companies in financial trouble racing to the ACNC claiming charitable status. Why pay your debts when you can become a 'charity' and make your workers pay them instead?" Ms Marshall said.
"We're looking at the blueprint for taxpayer-funded bailouts of private companies across the entire health sector. The Australian public will be subsidising corporate debt to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars."
The HSU has highlighted the ACNC's powers to investigate matters that pose a serious risk to public trust and confidence.
"The ACNC can investigate matters that pose a serious risk to public trust and confidence. If this doesn't qualify, nothing does," Ms Marshall said.
"We're fighting to protect the integrity of Australia's entire charitable sector from corporate raiders disguised as charities."
