Bipartisan support for faith groups: Minns pledges $15 million

Working together, Faith Communities have secured a multimillion dollar pledge from both the Coalition government as well as from NSW Labor for making religious institutions safe and secure for their congregations to meet, worship and preach with freedom.

NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns together with his leadership team met leaders and members of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist communities on Monday 27 February in Parramatta to pledge $15 million grants program going towards the security of religious institutions.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet while addressing a similar forum in Parramatta last week on Wednesday 22 February had earlier pledged $10 million grants program where faith organisations to strengthen safety and security of places of worship, schools, community centres, and buildings with religious symbols.

During his address, Mr Minns also gave the assurance that if he wins government after the elections scheduled for Saturday 25 March, the Labor Government would make religious vilification unlawful by amending the Anti-Discrimination Act within 100 days of taking office.

He was accompanied at the meeting by Deputy Leader and Shadow Minister for Education, Prue Car, treasury spokesman Daniel Mookhey, Jihad Dib, Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change, Julia Fin, Shadow Minister for Youth and Stephen Kamper, Shadow Minister Multiculturalism.

The event was moderated by Bilal Rauf, spokesperson and advisor for the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) who welcomed the Labor politicians, representatives of various faith groups and the general audience calling on the Labor leader for his address before taking up questions.

Mr Minns started his address by saying, “Tonight is the culmination of the journey my team and I have been on for the last 20 months, a journey which began when I became leader of the New South Wales Labor Party. It was my belief that New South Wales Labor needed to do better in our engagement with people of faith, that for too long we had focused on our differences and we’d forgotten the values and principles that we all share.”

“Many people would not have made it through the pandemic without the help of faith groups and their charities, selfless commitments to organisations and people, regardless of their own personal circumstances, regardless of their own faiths.”

“Across every community, faith organizations helped our state get through the crisis. So the lesson from this is clear. New South Wales is served best when its faith communities and its government work together. So let me now discuss how New South Wales Labor will work with New South Wales faith communities if we are fortunate enough to form government.”

“We will establish a New South Wales Faith Affairs Council, a formal channel of communication between faith organisations and my government. The Council will give feedback on the priorities and trends within faith communities. It will help coordinate the work done by faith based organizations during times of needs, such as the recent pandemic and of course, natural disasters.”

“We look forward to transitioning the current membership of the Religious Advisory Council over to our new Faith Council when and if we form government in 26 days time. Friends, we are meeting in Parramatta in the heart of a great and diverse community here in Western Sydney.”

Mr Minns also talked about tackling vilification and hate speech specially addressing Islamophobia and anti-semiticism and vowed that Islamophobic attack that took place on a Muslim women in Parramatta will never happen again.

“I’m referring to the New South Wales tradition of welcoming newcomers and embracing diversity. New South Wales is proudly multicultural and proudly multi-faith and I believe the government has a role to play, to support and defend this tradition defended against those who advocate hatred and even violence against our citizens.

“Just around the corner from where we meet tonight, a young woman named Rana Elmir was sitting in a cafe wearing the symbol of her faith, the hijab who was repeatedly punched and stomped on in an unprovoked attack. The man who attacked her spoke of his hatred for Muslims prior to hitting her.”

“We can’t allow this to happen. The most recent report on Islamophobia in Australia analyzed 247 verified incidents over a 24 month period. It found eight in ten victims were women and of these women 85% were wearing a hijab at the time.”

“The same report found the number of Islamophobic incidents increased significantly after the mosque attacks in Christchurch. Reporting of physical incidents increased four times, while reporting of online cases increased 18 times within the two week period after that horrible attack in Christchurch, New Zealand.”

Concluding his address he assured the NSW Muslim community that they will be safe in this great Multicultural society and he will ensure that building of peace and harmony is given top priority.

The faith leaders have also secured a bipartisan commitment to be able to pray and preach on matters of sexuality under proposed laws banning so-called gay conversion therapy, after NSW Labor leader Chris Minns vowed to protect their rights under any new legislation.