The Albanese Government will help protect faith-based places with a new $40 million grants program to improve security and safety.
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 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.
