The escalating conflict in the Middle East, amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine and ongoing fears over China’s intentions, has put another nail in the coffin of the optimistic era of the post-Cold War “peace dividend”.
Western defence spending is now firmly back on the agenda, and security concerns and statecraft are imperilling the period of economic globalisation, expanding free markets and liberal democracy.
This reprioritisation of government spending could hurt Western living standards, including Australia’s. The absence of the peace dividend could hit the funding of education, health, lower taxes, the transition to a greener economy, housing and so on, as pressing needs other than defence are pushed to the side.
Palestinian demonstrators clash with Israeli forces following a demonstration in support of the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank city of Ramallah.Credit: AP
It will also hit our most needy and vulnerable the hardest.
Fortunately, the federal government recognised the need for additional support well before the latest outbreak of violence in the Middle East. Early this year, the Albanese government announced a once-in-a-generation review of Australian philanthropy aimed at doubling the amount of giving by 2030.
While this is a noble ambition – and one we at Future Fund wholeheartedly support – it will not be achieved with a business-as-usual approach. If we are serious about lifting Australian philanthropy to be in line with our peer nations, we need an innovative and collaborative effort from government, business and the community.
In the eight years since Future Generation was founded, we have donated nearly $80 million to Australian charitable causes, simply by leveraging the power and generosity of the financial sector.
In philanthropic terms, that is serious money, raised astonishingly quickly. Yet, it is only the tip of the iceberg of what we could achieve. Were the Australian government to attach incentives to models such as Future Generation, making them even more attractive to investors, that $80 million could one day have a zero (or zeros) behind it.
The international precedents are there. Individual savings accounts (ISAs) in Britain and Roth accounts in the United States have had notable success in using tax incentives to encourage people to save.
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