Palestinian advocates say it is “incredibly frustrating” to find out that an Australian government department suggested diverting some promised funding for communities affected by the Israel-Gaza war to media organisations for factchecking.
The government announced last October that it would “support Australian communities affected by the Hamas attacks on Israel and ongoing conflict”, including “$25m to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Inc (ECAJ) and $25m to Australian Palestinian, Muslim and other communities affected by the conflict”.
It has since emerged that of the latter $25m, about $7m has been provided to five organisations for “national programs that will focus on combatting racism and reducing misinformation and disinformation impacting Australian communities”.
This includes funding for the Australian Associated Press (AAP) for its factchecking services as well as funding to help the SBS “deliver additional culturally appropriate, in-depth reporting and explainers in multiple languages”.
When pressed to explain whose idea it was, the government initially appeared to suggest it was the result of consultations with those communities.
The Labor senator Murray Watt – who was representing the minister for home affairs at a Senate estimates hearing – said: “The distribution of the $25m set aside to support Australian Palestinian, Muslim and other communities was decided in consultation with those communities.”
Watt told the committee hearing in late May: “The decision to allocate some money to media organisations, as I understand it, was based on those communities’ very real concerns about media portrayal of their communities.”
The Department of Home Affairs, which took the question on notice, has pointed to feedback heard during ministerial roundtables with Australian-Palestinian, Muslim, Arab and Lebanese communities.
In a newly published response, the department said “some community members raised concerns about a negative and unbalanced media portrayal of the conflict and the negative impact it was having on communities”.
But the specific idea of AAP and SBS funding appears to have come from the communications department.
The Department of Home Affairs said it had consulted with the communications department “as the department responsible for providing policy advice and delivering programs to support quality news and keep communities informed”.
It said the department “advised that the Australian Associated Press (AAP) and Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) would be suitable organisations to help address some of these concerns”.
The president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, Nasser Mashni, expressed frustration at the revelation.
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“For months, the Palestinian community has joined these consultations to plead for the government to use this funding to support Palestinians fleeing Israel’s genocide in Gaza and to address the profound trauma, alienation and anti-Palestinian racism our community is experiencing as a result of this ongoing Nakba,” Mashni said.
“It’s incredibly frustrating to learn that a government department asked that funding go to media outlets, despite community volunteers repeatedly informing them of the severe emotional, mental, and financial toll they were enduring while trying to support their families and communities through these horrific, life-and-death circumstances.”
The Greens senator David Shoebridge said the Albanese government had “wrongfully claimed that it was the Palestinian community that asked for funding to go to media outlets”.
He said it was “a textbook example of how not to treat a community”.
“It was a government department that requested this,” Shoebridge said. “To then mislead the public and gaslight the community on this is contemptible.”
The new minister for home affairs, Tony Burke, and his ministerial colleague Watt were both given the opportunity to respond to Mashni and Shoebridge’s specific comments.
Burke told Guardian Australia: “There are serious challenges at the moment in making sure the government supports communities through an extraordinarily difficult time. I’m focused on that and I’m continuing to consult with the relevant groups.”
Burke, who was sworn in as the minister for home affairs and immigration last week, has said he is looking at ways to allow Palestinians who fled to Australia to stay longer because no country should send people back to Gaza now.
The Greens called on the government to “immediately provide people with work and study rights, Medicare and social support and properly resource Palestinian-run organisations to provide direct material care”.