Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying before I interrupted myself yesterday, I particularly want to focus on schedule 6 of Tax Laws Amendment (2008 Measures No. 2) Bill 2008, which amends the Income Tax Assessment Act of 1997 to update the list of deductible gift recipients. There are a number of worthy organisations that the Assistant Treasurer had identified in schedule 6. Schedule 6 allows deductions for gifts to the Council for Jewish Community Security from 10 August 2007. I want to focus on that area in particular, because I have long identified this area as a problem for a minority in Australia, but it is a serious problem.

The Council of Jewish Community Security was established to assist the provision of security and protection for members and institutions of Australia’s 120,000-member Australian Jewish community. Government members—and, I believe, the opposition—have long supported this measure and wished these organisations well, in concert with what we believe to be the way forward in terms of security measures for schools—Labor’s school security program: a policy that we took to the 2007 election. I am very pleased that the Minister for Education, the Deputy Prime Minister, has been so hard to the task with that particular funding proposal.

It began on 10 August 2007 when the then shadow minister for education announced that Labor would provide funding of up to $20 million for special security needs for schools that are assessed to be at risk, whether they are public or private, religious or secular. In January the Deputy Prime Minister, in her capacity as education minister, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ensuring the safety of these schools. The government has long been aware that Australian Jewish community schools are in a range of at-risk religious, ethnic and secular schools and are forced to maintain often elaborate and very costly security measures above and beyond those of other schools to guarantee the safety of their students. Hitherto these schools have received no Commonwealth funding for these measures. Often these expenses act as a significant drain on the capacity of these schools to devote resources to educational pursuits. Some of the families I introduced the shadow minister for education to last year before the election were large. We went to one school where the two little girls we met both came from families of 14 and 15. The problem of having to pay security costs constitutes an unfair impost, on top of school fees, to pay for security costs per student simply because the students, owing to an accident of birth, are deemed at risk. In my view, and the government’s view, this is grossly unfair.

I want to emphasise that these schools and institutions are not at risk from normal violence and that they are not at risk, as are some schools, from normal vandalism—if we can use the expression ‘normal’. But, as I mentioned on the Sunday program that I participated in some years ago, the schools face a national security risk that is equivalent to the risks faced by some embassies. While the government’s policy of providing direct assistance to these schools is a more holistic approach than the policy of the previous government—and it is one that I have campaigned for for more than a decade—the policy of providing a deduction gift recipient status for the Council of Jewish Community Security is also a step in the right direction. It is a complementary step that the government can and has taken to meet this burden. This should encourage people to lend a helping hand to this worthy activity.

I want to pay tribute in particular to the professional but very dedicated security people who look after all of these institutions. If one went to a synagogue or a Jewish community centre at any time one would see that these people from the community security group provide security and coordination with the various appropriate police forces. I cannot mention them by name, because that might jeopardise their security, but Gavin and the other people who are responsible for this very serious task are owed great credit. Any responsible reasonable measure which helps ensure the wellbeing of schoolkids of any colour or creed is to be commended. This measure makes it easier for members of the Australian Jewish community to donate to causes that aid the provision of safe education and the safe operation of the institutions.

It is a positive development, especially for those who until now have had to dig very deep simply to have their children or their institutions operate in safety and in accordance with their religious beliefs. In the often quoted words of Edmund Burke, ‘All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ With this measure, the men and women of this parliament are showing their commitment to those who ensure that the potential for evil to target minority in this country will not prevail, and ensuring that they can continue to be supported through measures that increase the tax effectiveness of community members supporting such initiatives.

I want to pay tribute in particular to two gentlemen in Melbourne who I am very aware of. For years they have shouldered the task of making sure that these security organisations have enough to protect the various institutions: Mr Roy Tashi and Mr David Smorgon. They, in particular, have led this vital work. I do not normally praise journalists. People know that I have a very sceptical attitude to people like old ‘Scissorhands’ who sits up there in the press gallery, but I do want to identify Mr John Lyons, the former executive producer of the Sunday program and formerly of the Sydney Morning Herald. He decided to take this issue up as a personal investigation and I believe sparked the interest of a large number of my colleagues in the House, both on this side and on the now opposition side, in this issue. That has actually led to this change in legislation.

I am proud to be part of a government that takes a holistic approach to this problem of the security of a minority of Australians—the serious, non-partisan identification by this House of organisations that are a risk to all Australians; the 13 organisations that are so comprehensively looked at by the intelligence committee and then reported back to this parliament and dealt with in a non-partisan way. They are not dealt with by the Attorney-General as a matter of fiat; the whole parliament takes this thing very seriously, together with the security measures for schools and expenditure that the education minister has undertaken. This item in schedule 16 means that people who are Australian citizens can, like all other Australian citizens, attend their institutions and schools with some degree of understanding that their safety will be protected, as with other Australians. I commend this bill and this schedule to the House.

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