Petition Multicultural programs and grants funding

The petition of certain citizens of the State of Victoria draws to the attention of the Legislative Council that the Government provides funding for a range of multicultural programs and grants across multiple departments and agencies. Taxpayers are entitled to clear and comprehensive information about how public funds are allocated, the purposes for which they are used and the outcomes they achieve. As multicultural funding is administered through various government programs, there is no single, consolidated public report detailing the total annual expenditure, grant recipients or program performance. Greater transparency and regular public reporting would strengthen accountability, improve public confidence and enable Parliament to assess whether multicultural funding is achieving its intended objectives and providing value for money.

The petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Council call on the Government to publish an annual whole-of-government report detailing all multicultural grants and funding by departments, agencies and programs, including the amount awarded to each recipient organisation or entity, the purpose and objectives of each grant or funding program, eligibility and assessment criteria used to determine grant recipients, outcomes and performance measures achieved by each funded program, and commission regular independent evaluations of significant multicultural funding programs to assess their effectiveness and value for money, and for each annual report and independent evaluation to be tabled in Parliament.