Bob Brown Foundation rolling in money, documents show

The Bob Brown Foundation - named after the former Australian Greens leader - reported an annual surplus of $322,000 to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and raised more than $1.05 million from fundraising activities and $190,000 from bequests.

The foundation is exempt from income tax under a section of the Income Tax Assessment Act which covers entities including registered charities, scientific institutions, public education institutions and some others.

It has targeted various forestry operations over the years, as well as Venture Minerals Limited's developing Riley Iron Ore Mine near Tullah.

Arrests are often made at its protests when activists attach themselves to equipment and so on.

The situation has fuelled attempts to change laws from the state government and moves in a similar direction from state Labor.

The foundation reported $229,000 of income from sales of products for the year and spent $8545 on speaking fees for Dr Brown.

Other line items in the financial report to the commission included $238,000 in grants, $201,000 in consulting and professional fees, $45,000 in computer expenses and $81,000 listed as sundry expenses.

"These figures show that the Bob Brown Foundation have turned protesting into a business," Tasmanian Forest Products Association chief executive Nick Steel said.

"They paid over three quarters of a million dollars in wages and well over $100,000 on travel.

How much of this money was used to pay people to protest and to fly in protesters from interstate and overseas?

"It's also interesting to see that the Bob Brown Foundation is actually paying Bob Brown to speak at its events.

"All of this is being subsidised by the taxpayer because the Bob Brown Foundation is registered as a so-called charity.

"The federal government needs to step in immediately and make sure taxpayers aren't subsidising organisations like the Bob Brown Foundation, which is clearly trying to destroy the jobs of hard-working Tasmanians."

Foundation chief executive Steven Chaffer said it had never paid people to protest.

"We pay our campaign staff to organise campaigns and many people choose to attend our peaceful protests, from Tasmania and interstate," he said.

"The hackneyed myth that we are paying people to protest is Trumpian: knowingly misleading, childish and wrong."

He said the foundation's tax-deductible status reflected the fact the Register of Environmental Organisations considered it to be carrying out important, useful and effective work to protect the natural environment.

"Our donors continue to support our work because they believe we are playing a vital role in helping to protect Australia's wild places and its wildlife," he said.

"In 2019-20, income sources were as follows: donations, 59 per cent; sales and events, 16 per cent; grants, 12 per cent; bequests, 11 per cent; membership fees, 1 per cent; other, 1 per cent.

"The grants received in 2019-20 were from private philanthropic funding bodies.

"Like hundreds of thousands of other Australian organisations and companies, Bob Brown Foundation qualified for, and received, JobKeeper payments during 2019-20."

He said it employed 15 staff (12.6 full-time equivalents).

"Since 2012, when we had one part-time staff member, we have recruited and employed a steadily growing number of hard-working, dedicated staff who do an excellent job in working to protect Tasmania's greatest asset, its natural environment," Mr Chaffer said.