Questions without notice and ministers statements
Community safety
John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:01): My question is to the Premier. The government committed $3 million to Victorian Jewish groups to help them fight antisemitism. Despite an almost 1000 per cent spike in antisemitic incidents, not a single dollar of this amount has been provided by the government. Will the Premier make this money available this week?
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:02): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The context in which this question is being asked sits against a backdrop of deep international instability as a result of the conflict that we are seeing in Israel and Gaza, and it is in that context that I would hope that we endeavour in this place and in all places across Victoria to continue to engage in our public discourse in a respectful way and in a way that provides support for members of our Victorian and Melburnian communities who are both grieving what is happening overseas and also grieving quite personally because of their own personal family and friendship connections. I say that in that context because we have been working with both the Jewish and Islamic communities on a range of commitments that we made during last November’s state election.
I also want to indicate that those commitments came against a backdrop where – and I know the member for Caulfield knows this – something like $6 million had already been provided before this point in time to provide safety and security support, particularly for the Jewish community who from time to time face the really difficult challenges of antisemitism even in the best of times, and we are far from the best of times at the moment internationally. We are working respectfully and carefully with the Jewish community on how we can best build on that existing support and deliver the funding that we committed. I will not, Leader of the Opposition, agree to your time line. I will instead work through the Minister for Multicultural Affairs respectfully and carefully with the Jewish community and, can I say as well, the Islamic community so we continue to provide them with the best possible support at this difficult time.
John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:04): The government separately committed $900,000 to the Jewish Community Security Group to help fund community safety. Despite Victoria Police recording 78 antisemitic incidents across our state since 9 October, not a single dollar of this amount has been provided by the government. Will the Premier also make this money available this week?
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:05): My answer to the supplementary question in terms of the funding that is referred to is in the same terms as I answered the substantive question around the funding that we committed for the $3 million in support. We have for some time now supported strongly the work of the Community Security Group that works out of Caulfield. Indeed the Deputy Premier, the member for Caulfield, the federal member for Macnamara and the federal member for Goldstein and I were all at the Community Security Group’s office on Saturday. We were sitting and meeting with the Community Security Group. We were meeting with Victoria Police. We were meeting with the local community, working together, and I would hope the Leader of the Opposition would perhaps work with his deputy, because his deputy has been working with us in a constructive way, and I would hope that that would extend to all members of Parliament.