The Health Services Union has challenged the decision to grant private hospital operator Healthscope charitable status, warning it risks eroding public confidence in Australia’s not for profit framework.
In a letter to ACNC Commissioner Sue Woodward, ATO Commissioner Rob Heferen and Assistant Minister for Charities Andrew Leigh, the union argues the ruling raises governance concerns and leaves major questions unanswered about how such status was approved.
HSU Senior National Assistant Secretary Kate Marshall said the outcome defies common sense.
“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,” she said.
The union says Healthscope is using charitable status to access tax concessions worth an estimated $200 million a year, while pushing financial pressure onto its 20,000 staff. According to the HSU, workers were encouraged into salary packaging arrangements before being told to return “80–90% of the benefit – worth up to $10,000 per worker annually – back to Healthscope to pay down corporate debt.”
The union argues the ACNC’s opaque process is part of the problem. Applications and submissions are not open to public review, and affected workers have no opportunity to provide evidence or raise concerns before decisions are made.
Marshall said the ruling risks setting a precedent that could see private companies attempt to wash corporate liabilities through charitable structures.
“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?” she said.
She warned the implications extend beyond one company.
“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 union has urged the ACNC to use its investigative powers, noting it has the authority to act when public trust is at risk.
“The ACNC can investigate matters that pose a serious risk to public trust and confidence. If this doesn’t qualify, nothing does,” Marshall said.
“We’re fighting to protect the integrity of Australia’s entire charitable sector from corporate raiders disguised as charities.”
Private public partnerships do not work. Money that could have been invested in public healthcare flows out the door and into the hands of shareholders in another country. No-one knows where the money goes but when the debt bomb goes off it is Australians who are left holding the can.