The Noble Park-based African Communities Foundation of Australia (ACFA) has joined the list of community organisations in the City of Greater Dandenong that have been defunded by the Abbott Government.
The Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP
Shadow Attorney General
Shadow Minister for the Arts
Member for Isaacs
3 March 2015
MEDIA RELEASE
ABBOTTS GRANT FUNDING CUTS HURT DANDENONGS
AFRICAN-AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY
The Noble Park-based African Communities Foundation of Australia (ACFA) has joined the list of community organisations in the City of Greater Dandenong that have been defunded by the Abbott Government.
After receiving approximately $300,000 of grant funding in 2014/15, ACFA will lose all federal funding at the end of the financial year.
Member for Isaacs, Mark Dreyfus said that the Abbott Governments ongoing attack on community organisations in Dandenong is hurting the most vulnerable in our community.
ACFA offers assistance for Africans settling in Australia. It runs educational and community activities for African-Australians, helping them to get the skills and education needed to find employment and integrate into the broader Australian community, Mr Dreyfus said.
When funding runs out at the end of June, those services will all end.
The Abbott Government has now attacked some of the most successful community organisations in the City of Greater Dandenong, including the Dandenong Benevolent Society, the Springvale Benevolent Society, the Vietnamese Community in Australia, the Cambodian Association of Victoria, the Dandenong Community Advice Bureau and now ACFA.
What this Government doesnt understand is that community organisations are the glue that hold our community together. The small investment that Governments make in these organisations is repaid many times over, Mr Dreyfus said.
Community organisations like ACFA improve social cohesion and help often marginalised members of our community to get on their feet and make their own contribution to our community.
I call on the Minister Scott Morrison to immediately make funding available for ACFA, Mr Dreyfus said.
Mark Dreyfus will meet with Executive Members of ACFA at the Foundations office at 12 Buckley Road, Noble Park, on Tuesday 10 March.
