Jewish, Muslim and other schools in Australia at risk of race-hate attacks will receive millions of dollars in special funding to improve their security, the government said Friday.
"I don’t want to generate concern but we are aware, from consulting with the school communities, that there are security issues that some schools face," said Education Minister Julia Gillard.
The government would provide 20 million dollars (18 million US dollars) for security measures such as closed circuit television cameras or 24-hour security patrols.
Priority would be given to schools with security risks identified by the national intelligence agency and the federal police, Gillard said.
The plan has received support from both the Australian Jewish and Muslim communities.
Jewish schools already regularly checked school buses for bombs and many needed extra security because of frequent threats against the Jewish community, said Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot.
"It’s costing a lot of money. Across Australia, it’s many millions of dollars annually," he told The Australian newspaper.
Islamic schools also needed extra protection, said the president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ikebal Patel.
"There is certainly a need for security at all our schools, and especially so during times at heightened tension, and we feel there is a need for extra vigilance for the safety of our children," he said.
News of the funding move comes as a far-right political party is threatening to hold a protest rally opposing a 1,200-pupil Islamic school opening on Sydney’s south-western fringe.
The protest has been planned by Australia First, which has been blamed for helping fuel Sydney’s infamous Cronulla race riots in December 2005 in which white mobs attacked Lebanese Australians, local media reported.
The planned school has already sparked a 1,000-strong community protest. In in November two pigs’ heads were rammed onto metal stakes with an Australian flag draped between them on the proposed site.
Inflammatory text messages were also reportedly circulated, prompting Muslim and Christian groups to last month warn against a repeat of Cronulla-style race riots.
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ABC Radio "PM" Program – Transcript – 11 January, 2008 http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2007/s2136874.htm
Reporter: Tom Iggulden BRIGID GLANVILLE: Schools are about the last place you’d expect to find Federal Police or the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. But that’s exactly where you’ll find them soon, with the Federal Government announcing that its security agencies will be helping schools deal with violent threats to its students. While Jewish and Islamic schools have welcomed the move, there’s a concern the announcement could have been handled more delicately. Tom Iggulden reports. TOM IGGULDEN: The Acting Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, delivered another election promise when she announced Labor would be getting ASIO and the Federal Police to help at-risk schools to deal with threats to life and property. The Federal Government will also help pay for security measures like guards, cameras and perimeter walls that many schools have so far had to cover with their own money. The Jewish school system has been leading the lobbying for help with security, says the President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Robert Goot. ROBERT GOOT: We have been seeking assistance from the Federal Government for a number of years because the financial burden of securing the schools and other institutions has been significant if not crippling. TOM IGGULDEN: How much money, roughly, ball-park, is being spent by, at least, the Jewish school system? ROBERT GOOT: The Jewish school system has spent many millions of dollars, over the last few years. Parents will be relieved of that burden, to the extent that the funding is available, and those monies can go towards education, which is what the schools are all about. TOM IGGULDEN: He’s proud to report there have been no successful attacks on Jewish school children or Jewish school property in Australia, adding security measures have averted known threats. The same can’t be said of one of Melbourne’s largest Muslim schools, the Australian International Academy. Abdul Kareem Galia is the campus director. ABDUL KAREEM GALIA: In the last most serious attack, where they actually came into the school grounds and broke windows, they did, you know, do some graffiti on a wall that was racist, I guess. TOM IGGULDEN: What did the graffiti say? ABDUL KAREEM GALIA: ‘Aussies rule, Muslim terrorists’, pornographic pictures. TOM IGGULDEN: Have you ever had cause to feel concerned about the students’ safety, as opposed to the security of the property of the school? ABDUL KAREEM GALIA: Certainly after the 9/11 attacks, there were very serious concerns, and we actually had students attacked at that time, and we took special measures to make sure that the students were protected. We sort of have little sporadic incidences of that since, but that was the worst of it. TOM IGGULDEN: His school already works with liaison officers from ASIO on security and threat detection. But he doesn’t think today’s announcement of increased assistance is all good. ABDUL KAREEM GALIA: To be honest, it can be very counterproductive because I think if one raises the level of fear and anxiety, it can heighten the threat as well, because especially with young people, you can very easily make them feel like they are under threat, when they’re actually not. So, I think it has to be played with a very, very soft glove. TOM IGGULDEN: Would you preferred to have seen this issue dealt with the way it is currently being dealt with, in the low-key manner that you have relationships with ASIO right now, rather than being announced through the Office of the Acting Prime Minister? ABDUL KAREEM GALIA: I think so, yeah, because it tends to send a message to the general community that there is a threat there when really there is no threat. You know, if there is a threat against us as a Muslim school, we are aware of it, and we would prefer to deal with that in an appropriate way. But to broadcast the possibility of threats, then it just creates a lot of anxiety, not only within the parent community and the Muslim community, but the general community. BRIGID GLANVILLE: Campus director of the Australian International Academy, Abdul Kareem Galia, ending Tom Iggulden’s report.