New $40 million program to improve security in faith-based locations
The Albanese Government will help protect faith-based places with a new $40 million grants program to improve security and safety.
Anthony Albanese
Grants will be available for places of worship, religious schools and associated organisations to support safety upgrades, such as fencing, lighting, security cameras, traffic barriers, alarm systems, access controls and security guards.
The Albanese Government is committed to ensuring people of faith can practice their beliefs free from violence and discrimination.
The Albanese Government acts with integrity. The new Securing Faith-Based Places grants program will be an open, competitive and merit-based program.
The former Safer Communities Fund became discredited due to the rorting of public funds by the previous government.
The Auditor-General found grants under the former program were only “partly effective and partly consistent with the Commonwealth Grant Rules and Guidelines” and “funding decisions were not appropriately informed by departmental briefings.”
The Securing Faith-Based Places grants program will open for applications in July 2023.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim said: “The ECAJ has been making representations to the government since last year about the community’s need for assistance with funding for our ever-growing security costs.
Australia has not been immune from the global surge in antisemitic activity in recent years, so the announcement is timely.”
Under the new program, all Jewish institutions will be eligible for funding not only for security infrastructure but also for the recurrent costs of security guards.
“Funding for recurrent costs was previously only available for Jewish schools, but now synagogues, museums and other Jewish communal institutions will also be able to apply for this when grant applications open in July”, Mr Wertheim added.
“The full details have not yet been finalised and we are hopeful that the government will accept the representations that we have made, and continue to make, about the need for operational security funding to extend to our centralised security organisations, the National Council for Jewish Community Security and the Community Security Groups. These organisations have a “whole of community” mandate to prioritise and streamline security across all communal organisations and facilities.”
The Federal Independent MP for Wentworth, Allegra Spender, said: “I am deeply committed to ensuring that Wentworth’s Jewish community can keep itself safe and practice faith freely. Therefore, I have spent the past few months strongly advocating for this funding to be restored, including questioning the Attorney General about it in Parliament.
It gives me great pleasure to let you know that my lobbying, and that of the ECAJ and others, has been successful, and I can now update the community with good news.
Under the new program, all Jewish institutions will be eligible for funding not only for security safety upgrades but also for the recurrent costs of security guards. Jewish schools, synagogues, museums, and other communal institutions will be able to apply for funding when grant applications open in July.
The full details are yet to be released, but I will continue to push hard to ensure the representations from Jewish community-based organisations are heard and listened to and ensure that this funding is adequately distributed across the community. I will also reach out to the community when grant applications have opened.
Details will be published on the Australian Government’s GrantConnect website at https://help.grants.gov.au.
