Australia is currently in the throes of charitable sector reform, but additional red tape could damage the already overly complex sector, according to Antipodean wealth manager Perpetual Private, cited by online publication Financial Standard.

Andrew Thomas, general manager of philanthropy at Perpetual Private, said philanthropic giving in the last few years has been undervalued in Australia because of a disproportionate focus on tax structures and increased regulation on charitable vehicles such as private ancillary funds.

"When these entities were previously called Prescribed Private Funds there was a review that started at the end of 2008 and into 2009 where the headlines were all about the wealth of rich donors," Thomas said, in the report.

He believes that while many philanthropists are reticent about publicity, some recognition would encourage even greater level of generosity.

"We [Australia] did a review because we thought people are taking advantage of tax laws … But really, these people would have been richer if they hadn't have given, so clearly that's not a motivation and yet they've made a decision to irrevocably give away a million, ten million or in some cases hundreds of millions of dollars and at no point have they received any recognition," Thomas said.

Australia currently sits third in terms of giving as a proportion of GDP (0.69 per cent), behind the US (1.67 per cent) and the UK (0.73 per cent), said the report.