WERRIBEE
New residents in Wyndham will go without an important social outlet following a federal government decision to withdraw funding promised by the former Labor government.
Wyndham Community and Education Centre has lost $26,587 allocated last August as part of Labor’s Building Multicultural Communities Program.
The centre planned to use the money to refit an existing shed to create an arts and crafts facility and to buy computers to provide migrants and refugees with internet access. The centre was recently informed
the government had decided to reduce the scope of the multicultural program.
Chief executive Jennie Barrera said the arts and crafts centre would have helped new arrivals engage with the community. “The loss of funding means we can’t do extra things that we were planning,” she said.
Lalor Labor MP Joanne Ryan said the decision would stop the centre from
providing migrants with vital services. “It’s plain and simple – the Abbott government doesn’t believe in community,’’ she said.
‘‘These are small grants going to small organisations already running off the goodwill of good people and the smell of an oily rag.”
A Social Services Department spokesman said the state of the federal budget had forced the review. However, Werribee Football Club has been told it will receive a $50,000 federal grant that was previously in doubt.
As reported by the
Weekly, the club was told late last year it was unlikely to receive funding for its Wyndham Sporting Opportunities Project because the government was reviewing grants made by Labor.
However, the government has announced the club will receive the funding.
Tigers chief executive Mark Penaluna said the initiative would benefit the entire community.
LAURA LITTLE
