Labor Minister Jenny Mikakos is campaigning to see places of worship be included in the Community Grants Program.
The Victorian Multicultural Commission has restricted churches, mosques and temples from applying for an infrastructure grant of up to $20,000, rather giving the grants to community centres, halls and for educational facilities with a multicultural nature.
Ms Mikakos has heard the plight of a Greek Orthodox Church in her district that is in need of funding to repair its roof, and feels it has been left out of the grants unfairly.
“It’s very important that they maintain those religious and cultural links. I found that very surprising, that the government’s decided to exclude places of worship”.
Surprisingly, the Labor Government also excluded “organisations that are political or religious in nature” in there version of the Grants in 2010.
Minister for Cultural Affairs and Citizenship, Mr Nick Kotsiras explains that it’s not the government’s responsibility to fund a church, synagogue, or mosque.
“The grants are there to service the community in terms of activities, in terms of senior citizens and the youth,” he tells Neos Kosmos.
“Churches don’t get infrastructure grants, the community buildings do”.
The buck ends with the head of the church to fund these projects.
The Greek community for instance has the Archdiocese to help churches with their funding issues.
But, as many churches are based in heritage buildings, any refurbishment can be a very expensive process. That might force the church to seek extra funds from its patrons.
The Commission will fund refurbishment for halls that are attached to churches that are used for community purposes.
Ms Mikakos raised the issue that churches are not only there to give spiritual support but also offer financial help to those in need and advice, and deserve to be subsided for those things.
“The churches are also contributing to things like welfare activities, supporting some of our needy families in our community, some of our recent arrival migrants who need assistance. There’s a lot of demand on those fundraising activities,” she says.
Mr Kotsiras believes there is more need for funds to help non-for-profit groups and organisations that offer those services solely and more comprehensively.
“It’s a matter of using the money we’ve got, for particular projects,” he says.
“I’m happy for Ms Mikakos to say which projects she would like cut in order to fund a particular church. So she wants me to cut the Box Hill community building?”
It seems the division between Church and State will remain as is.
Applications for 2013 grants closed late last year.