Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh has condemned the world's largest online retailer Amazon for paying no tax in Australia and failing to support one Australian charity despite making Australian sales worth an estimated $1 billion last year.
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Making a speech on the Closing the Gap statement delivered in Parliament House on Tuesday night, Dr Leigh expressed disappointment that Amazon had also snubbed requests for support from a Canberra-based charity – the Indigenous Reading Project, which has been delivering free kindles to indigenous students across Australia and helping achieve some significant improvements in indigenous literacy.
Amazon's phenomenal global success is based largely on kindle sales and online publishing.
The Canberra Times late last year published the story of public servant Daniel Billing and his plan to offer free kindles to indigenous students who were having trouble reading.
Mr Billing believed the technology was attractive to kids and would draw them into reading where other strategies were failing.
He and a group of friends banded together to buy 20 kindles to fund a small pilot study to bridge the stark gap in literacy between indigenous and non-indigenous students across Australia.
Since the story's publication, Mr Billing has received donations worth more than $25,000 from around the country and is now able to fund 100 kindles this year.
In order to assess the long-term practical applications of the scheme, the Indigenous Reading Project has secured the support of the Melbourne University's Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, which will undertake an evaluation of the project pro bono.
Dr Leigh told parliament on Tuesday that “one philanthropic body is notably absent” from supporting the project.
“Amazon.com has Australian sales, I would estimate, of around $1 billion a year. Based on the available estimates, they hold about one 10th of the $13 billion online sales market. And yet Amazon.com pays no GST, they pay no company tax and they make no charitable donations to a single Australian charity.”
Dr Leigh approached Amazon to ask how they could defend $1 billion dollars in sales, and “not a cent in charitable donations”.
“But I got no comment. I think this is unacceptable; I think Amazon ought to recognise its duty to Australia to behave as a good corporate citizen. And I cannot see a better charity for Amazon to support in Australia than the Indigenous Reading Project. So as a Kindle user and a keen consumer of their products, I do encourage Amazon.com to become a better Australian corporate citizen,” Dr Leigh told parliament.
Mr Billing said he had sought support from Amazon on several occasions but none had been forthcoming.
“I doubt at Amazon would appreciate the significance of the results that we have achieved to date,” Mr Billing said.
Instead he thanked the ordinary Australians who had contacted him to congratulate him on the project and who had contributed more than $25,000 to see it reach the next stage.
Mr Billing said once a large-scale evaluation of the project had been completed, he would be seeking major corporate support to roll it out to as many indigenous students in Australia as possible.
He was hoping Amazon would come on board in the future.
“We would always welcome the opportunity to partner with them and think it makes sense for Amazon to help us supply free kindles to kids who will use them specifically to improve their literacy."
