Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:11): My question is for the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. On 5 February the minister issued a media release titled ‘Victoria’s mosques open their doors to combat hate’ and announced a $400,000 grant to support open mosque day. My question is: did any of this money end up at El Zahra Islamic Community Centre in Hoppers Crossing?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Prevention of Family Violence) (12:12): I thank Mr Limbrick for his question. Open mosque day is an important day in our busy multicultural affairs calendar across the state. I think it is important to understand the context in which open mosque day was initiated – it was initiated by a number of our Muslim community leaders and faith leaders in the immediate aftermath of the Christchurch massacre, because at that time we saw a worrying increase in the level of Islamophobic attacks on our Muslim community, and it was one way in which the Muslim community wanted to break down some of those barriers and perhaps some misunderstandings in the community about the Islamic faith. It has been a very successful program that has helped promote social cohesion across the state. I know that many colleagues from across the Parliament attended mosques in their community. It is a day where we see the very best of Victoria’s multicultural spirit and diversity on show.

I know that there were around 40 mosques that participated in this year’s program, Mr Limbrick, and I am happy to check to see whether that particular mosque was part of the open mosque day. I know that unfortunately there were a few less mosques that were prepared to open their doors this year for open mosque day, because of the tirade of abuse, quite frankly, that a lot of our mosques have been experiencing since the Bondi terrorist attack, which in and of itself was a dreadful incident for our country to experience. I will undertake to check that detail for you, and I am happy to provide you with that information. But what I would say more broadly is that the open mosque day is a really important part of breaking down some of those stigmas and misunderstandings and building that social cohesion across our community and unity across our community, something that we sorely need more of at this particularly troubling time not just in Australia but indeed around the world.

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:14): I thank the minister for that undertaking. I think that it is very important that Victorian taxpayers know whether money went to this particular centre or not. With the program more generally, the open mosque day, what is the money that the government gives these mosques actually used for?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Prevention of Family Violence) (12:15): There are a range of different supports that the funding provides. It provides the opportunity for mosques and our peak Muslim bodies like the ICV and others to promote the day and the events across the community. It also provides the opportunity for those mosques to deliver hospitality on the day but also information about their community, the programs that they run and so on. They are quite modest grants, and they are administered through the multicultural affairs division of the Department of Premier and Cabinet. It is certainly a program that I very much support continuing.