Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian government has committed $64 million to the National Community Crime Prevention Program, which provides funding for community based crime prevention projects in three streams: community partnership, community safety and Indigenous community safety. The NCCPP aims to support local crime prevention by providing the additional resources needed by community groups to develop their own projects and to find their own ways to promote community safety.

In August 2005 the Blacktown Migrant Resource Centre received funding under the National Community Crime Prevention Program for the community harmony and crime prevention project, which works with African communities in Blacktown to help engage local Sudanese and African communities with local human services and businesses in a collaborative manner to reduce the incidence of crime. More recently, crime prevention in the Hawkesbury, Western Sydney, has been boosted with the announcement of $380,000 to WISE Employment and $20,200 to Self Advocacy Sydney Inc. under the Greater Western Sydney component of the Australian government’s National Community Crime Prevention Program. The grants for the Greater Western Sydney component were announced recently. I am delighted that WISE Employment’s ‘Straight for Work’ received $280,000 and that Self Advocacy Sydney received $20,000.

WISE Employment and Self Advocacy Sydney Inc. were among many community groups and local government associations across Australia who responded to the last round of funding for this program. Almost 400 applications were received. Forty-one of those applications were for projects within the Greater Western Sydney component, of which six were successful in receiving grant funding. Projects which adopt a grassroots approach to deal with crime prevention will make a real difference to the local residents.

The WISE Employment Straight for Work project is an initiative targeted at reducing drug-taking behaviour, drug related crime and re-offending by engaging high-need and at risk offenders in community mentoring, support and training. The project will match participants with trained volunteer mentors and will offer life-skill training, supported referrals to essential services and after-prison community care.

The Self Advocacy Sydney Inc. Be Aware Not Scared project is an initiative which aims to address the over-representation of people with intellectual disabilities as victims of crime. The project will help develop, present and distribute a training program to increase personal safety and reduce fear of crime in people with intellectual disabilities.

The Howard government knows that, to ensure a prosperous and stable country, we need to invest in Australia’s most valuable commodity—its people. It is because of strong economic management that the Australian government can fund important projects such as these, which benefit the whole community.