Australia’s Jewish community received 49 times more funding per capita for security than Muslim Australians but where does the money go? Stephanie Tran investigates.
Where’s the money? The latest $176m in government grants awarded to peak Zionist body and Israel lobby group the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, that is? It was allocated for ‘community security’ but what is community security? Questions were put to Home Affairs and ECAJ.
Home Affairs did not address specific questions. ECAJ did not respond.
“Are any funds received under the Enhancing Security for Jewish Communities Program being used, either directly or indirectly, to support ECAJ’s lobbying, advocacy, legal, media or public communications activities? If so, please provide details.”
Questions and responses are published below. The public interest question at stake is whether government grant money is being spent by the Israel lobby – or its associates – suing Australian citizens such as Mary Kostakidis, Nick Reimer and John Keane in antisemitism cases.
An obscure associate
An MWM investigation previously revealed that more than $176m in Commonwealth security grants awarded to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) were paid to an obscure association incorporated in the ACT – rather than a charity registered with the ACNC regulator or ASIC.
A further security grant of $22 million to ECAJ has been “committed but not yet awarded” by the government, bringing the total security grants awarded to ECAJ to $198 million.
The arrangement has prompted questions about transparency because ACT incorporated associations are not required to publicly lodge audited financial statements, unlike registered charities, which are required to report to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).
Money trail leads to obscure Israel lobby entity, then runs dry
The issue was raised during Senate Estimates, where Greens senator David Shoebridge questioned why the Department of Home Affairs had chosen to award the funding to ECAJ’s ACT incorporated association rather than one of its charity entities.
“In terms of the community getting transparency on where the funding is going, there’s vastly less transparency given by ACT incorporated associations, which aren’t required to lodge audited financial statements and aren’t regulated by the ACNC registered charity.
“Why did Home Affairs provide it to an ACT-registered association rather than the ACNC-registered charity?” Shoebridge asked.
An obscure government response
Department official Amy Dyde replied that the incorporated association was the appropriate recipient because “that is the corporate entity that represents ECAJ as the peak body, and so that is the organisation that was eligible for funding”.
“It’s not charitable funding; it’s not tax-deductible funding; it’s operational security funding. So they were the appropriate entity to receive that funding to distribute it as the peak body,” Dyde said.
However, publicly available grant records indicate that the $27.5m Security Uplifts for Muslim Communities program was awarded to Australian National Imams Council Limited, which is an ACNC-registered charity that publicly discloses government grant income in its annual financial reports.
By contrast, ECAJ’s ACNC-registered charity, The Trustee for ECAJ Harm Prevention Fund, has reported receiving no government grant revenue in its ACNC filings over the past decade, despite the more than $176m in Commonwealth security funding being awarded to the ECAJ.
Funding disparity
Since October 2023, Muslim community organisations have received $27.5 million in Commonwealth security funding through the Security Uplifts for Muslim Communities program.
According to the 2021 Census, 813,392 Australians identified as Muslim. Based on those figures, the funding equates to approximately $33.80 per person.
By comparison, Commonwealth grants awarded to Jewish community organisations since October 2023 total approximately $198 million.
The 2021 Census recorded 99,956 Australians identifying Judaism as their religion. However, ECAJ co-chief executive Peter Wertheim estimated the Australian Jewish population is closer to 120,000 when accounting for those who did not identify their religion in the census.
Using Wertheim’s estimate, the funding allocated to Jewish community organisations equates to approximately $1,650 per person. On a per-capita basis, this represents
around 49 times more security funding than that allocated to Muslim community organisations.
The disparity was raised during Senate Estimates by Shoebridge, who noted that Muslim, Palestinian and Arab communities had also reported threats, harassment and attacks on community facilities since October 7.
“Of course, the Jewish community – recognising that the threats and security issues are real in that community – are not the only community that’s facing quite distinct threats,” Shoebridge said.
“I speak regularly with members of the Muslim community, the Palestinian community and the broader Arab community, and they are experiencing attacks on mosques, overt hostility on the street and attacks at their community gatherings.
They have asked where the funding is for their security.”
Shoebridge questioned whether Home Affairs was undertaking a broader assessment to ensure security funding was being distributed proportionately across communities facing heightened threats.
Department secretary Stephanie Foster responded that Home Affairs was engaging with communities across Australia and said requests from Jewish organisations had been focused heavily on security measures, while requests from Muslim communities had been “more broadly based”.
“We are engaging with community groups, very consistently, to understand their needs and priorities,” Foster said.
“The focus from the Jewish community and Jewish community groups, for some time, has been very heavily focused on specific security-related funding. The requests from the Muslim community in particular have been more broadly based.”
The funding disparity comes amid reports of a sharp increase in anti-Islamic incidents since October 2023. According to the Islamophobia Register Australia, reports of Islamophobia increased by 636% in the period following 7 October 2023, with the organisation reporting an average of 18 incidents per week.
Funding on request
Shoebridge questioned Department of Home Affairs officials about how the government arrived at the figure of $124m announced in the federal budget.
“What was the assessment that landed with the figure?” Shoebridge asked. “Or is the answer, ‘That’s what was requested’?”
Department official Andrew Warnes replied, “That’s correct. That’s what was requested and identified, as required for security funding, by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.”
The exchange prompted further questioning from Shoebridge, who asked whether any independent needs assessment, infrastructure review or analysis had been undertaken to justify the amount.
Department officials did not identify
any specific assessment that produced the funding figure.
Instead, Warnes said ECAJ had submitted a request for $102m in funding after earlier funding arrangements were due to expire.
In response to questions by MWM, the Department of Home Affairs told us it had “no additional information to provide beyond statements made during estimates”.
The Department also did not provide a copy of the grant guidelines as requested.
We put detailed questions to the Department of Home Affairs and ECAJ regarding whether any grant funds could be used for lobbying, advocacy, legal or public communications activities.
They declined to comment.
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