Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Community Safety, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I'm going to go ahead with a couple of questions for the immigration minister. They're not too difficult, so I'm hoping he can give me some answers. Firstly, is the Safer Communities Fund now a responsibility under Home Affairs or Attorney-General's? It was obviously cut in the budget. If there's going to be a new funding model, which we read about in media reports, to replace the Safer Communities Fund program, again, will that fall under Attorney-General's or under the Home Affairs department? And, in particular, would it also cover, as in the former government, high-risk youth? There was a stream for high-risk youth and there was a stream for infrastructure, in particular, places of worship. Again, for the immigration minister's benefit, it's about the Safer Communities program: where will that sit, and what will the funding model look like?

Will there be other grants available for multicultural communities in general? We also had festival grants delivered under the previous government. They haven't actually hit the ground so I'm interested to know where they're up to.

Finally, when it comes to OMARA, the Office of Migration Agents Registration Authority, will the minister be looking at putting in place an independent commissioner to overlook the immigration agents and the illegal operators? This was something in my last role in government as the assistant minister that was signed off to the department to put models in place.

The reason I raise these questions is that in the budget, the new government, Labor, announced a redirection of $50 million in October 2022. Round 7 for the Safer Communities program would have previously been in the 2022 budget. The $50 million would have funded the previous coalition government's commitments under the Safer Communities Fund. I make the point, the grants hadn't been allocated but the money was actually there to be used.

To give the minister an idea of the importance of infrastructure funding—I'm sure he's very aware—the reason this was brought in was after the awful terrorist attacks in Christchurch. The round 6 funding had $10 million in total. That funding also went to mosques, Hindu and Buddhist temples, Sikh gurdwaras, churches and synagogues. I note the Labor Party took this to the Auditor-General when, in the Auditor-General's recommendations, he recommended that for these small minority groups, in particular when it comes to, say, the Hindu communities and the Buddhist communities, making a special round of grant funding for them.

The other thing which greatly concerned me is some of that $50 million of funding would have gone towards a program we put in place for high-risk youth. This is the youth who are falling out of school or involved in gangs or crimes. I see the member for Holt there; she might be very familiar with the Hope Australia Soccer Academy, where they're looking after a number of migrants from African communities and Afghan communities. The total funding we put in place in round 6 was $120 million. It was completely oversubscribed. Included in those rounds, which is important for all members here, was $18.3 million to Indigenous youth initiatives. It was really targeted funding at places of worship and also high-risk youth.

We need to do everything we possibly can to protect and support the youth and stop them going down the wrong path, dropping out of school et cetera. That's something which has greatly concerned me. I know when I've spoken to members of the various Indian communities, the Hindu community, the Sikhs and even the Sri Lankan community, they have been very concerned that this funding has been cut. So I urge the government to reconsider the Safer Communities Fund as a matter of urgency, and to not wait until next year's budget but to get something out earlier so that people will actually know what will be offered in the program.

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