Karen from Kew and the Diamond Dogs

The $30 million Guide Dogs Victoria appears to have broken federal law and could have its charity status disqualified with its CEO appearing in election advertisements spruiking Treasurer Frydenberg.


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EXCLUSIVE 

ANTHONY KLAN

The $30 million Guide Dogs Victoria appears to have broken federal law and could have its charity status disqualified with its CEO appearing in election advertisements heavily advocating Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

The emerging scandal comes as The Klaxon can reveal the “support” Frydenberg provided the group in its “darkest days” of Covid-19 - including $3.5m in JobKeeper payments it didn’t need - went to bolstering its already bulging “cash at bank” to $18.75m, up from $16.65m a year earlier.

Appearing under the heading “Why I am voting for Josh Frydenberg”, the CEO of Kew-based Guide Dogs Victoria Karen Hayes - who in the ad goes simply by “Karen” - is quoted laving praise on the Treasurer.

 “He (Frydenberg) has always maintained his strong and unwavering commitment to his local Kooyong community for whom he has delivered in so many ways,” the advertisement states.

“In our darkest moments Josh was there providing support,” Hayes says in the advertisement, which appears on Frydenberg’s website and on flyers handed out in the inner-Melbourne electorate.

“Hi, I’m Karen and I’ve known Josh for over a decade and I could not have asked for a better local Federal Member for Kooyong than Josh Frydenberg,” it says.

The political advertisement appears to place Guide Dogs Victoria in direct breach of charity laws, which state a charity “will” be disqualified if it engages in “promoting or opposing a political party or candidate for political office”.

The political advertisement on Josh Frydenberg’s website. Source: Josh Frydenberg

In the advertisement, Hayes is shown holding a guide dog in training, her title is stated twice - “Chief Executive Officer, Guide Dogs Victoria” - and she is quoted extensively and effusively praising Frydenberg.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) lists the promotion of a political party or candidate as one of its three “disqualifying purpose”.

“Purposes that will disqualify an organisation from being a registered charity are…promoting or opposing a political party or candidate for political office,” its website states.

The scandal is particularly damaging for Frydenberg, who is already down in the polls, because it was the Federal Coalition that brought in highly controversial and retrospective laws around charities and political influence in December.

The Federal Treasurer has also come under pressure amid revelations he oversaw the secret deletion of key findings of the investigation into corruption at the top of corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Guide Dogs Victoria and Karen Hayes have not responded to a request for comment. 

The ABC reports Guide Dogs Victoria has said it will conduct an internal review.

Diamond Dogs

In the advertisement, Guide Dogs Victoria CEO Karen Hayes is quoted as praising the “support” the group had received from “Josh”.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on our clients, who experienced isolation like never before,” Hayes is quoted as saying.

“In our darkest moments, Josh was there providing support.

““In our darkest moments, Josh was there providing support””
— Karen Hayes

 “I have lost count of the number of times Josh called me personally during the last two years to check in and encourage me, my team and the thousands of people with low vision and blindness we support who were struggling,” the advertisement says.

Frydenberg as Treasurer oversaw the JobKeeper program, which has been criticised as some of the biggest waste of public money in Australian history, with at least $38 billion going to companies and other entities that didn’t need it.

Guide Dogs Victoria is one of those entities. (Continues below)

Help us inform Kooyong Voters about Frydenberg’s corruption stitch-up, donate here.

Aside from millions of dollars in other government support, grants and subsidies, Guide Dogs Victoria received over $3.5 million in JobKeeper benefits, despite delivering multi-million dollar surpluses.

In 2019-20 the group received $1.45m from Frydenberg’s JobKeeper, underpinning a $3.42m “surplus” for the year.

In 2020-21 the group received $2.07m in JobKeeper and delivered a “surplus for the year” of $5.92m.

Over the two years Guide Dogs Victoria also received other unspecified “government grants” of $2.2m, taking its receipts from taxpayers to $5.72m.

The group’s 2020-21 financial reports show those millions of dollars in taxpayer grants are despite it being awash with cash.

At June 30 last year it held $18.75m just in “cash at bank”.

That figure has swollen from $12.32m at June 30 2019, to $16.65m at June 30 2020.

The amount that Guide Dogs Victoria is holding in “cash or cash equivalents” increased over the past two financial years, $6.52m, is similar in size to the $5.72m it has received in taxpayer grants in that time.

At June 30 last year the “total accumulated funds” of Guide Dogs Victoria was $30.67m, up from $24.74m the year before.

More to come…

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Editor, Anthony Klan

Australian journalism is under threat like never before. So too is the ability for us, the public, to make informed decisions. A disintegrating media is serving to further concentrate the already vast, unhealthy, power held by a few. That power is routinely abused, its attendant responsibilities wilfully ignored, and our democracy weakened.

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Editor, The Klaxon

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