I was pleased to announce today that the Australian Government is committing $20 million over four years in this Budget to establish a new National Community Crime Prevention Programme.
The centrepiece of the programme is a national community grants scheme to support grass roots projects designed to prevent crime and improve community safety and security.
A lot of crime is very local in nature and there is growing evidence of the effectiveness of locally organised crime prevention initiatives.
I am also delighted that the programme will be supported by Mr Mick Palmer AO APM, former Commissioner of both the Australian Federal Police and the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services. Mr Palmer will act as an Ambassador for the programme, promoting the scheme among those community groups who may wish to seek grants under the programme.
The new programme builds on the foundations of the National Crime Prevention Programme, to which the government has committed $38 million since 1996 for a range of initiatives aimed at reducing crime and violence in Australia.
The Australian Government shares the community's concern about violence and other forms of crime and their impact on people's lives.
The National Community Crime Prevention Programme is designed to provide the additional resources often needed by community groups to develop their own projects and find their own ways of getting people to work together for the common goal of promoting community safety.
For example, grants could provided to local sporting groups to develop strategies to reduce sport-related violence; to community groups to reclaim and maintain local parks; and to local clubs to run programmes for children from disadvantaged areas.
The Australian Government believes that communities are in the best position to recognise local problems and find locally relevant solutions.
The National Community Crime Prevention Programme will support innovative crime prevention projects that demonstrate strong community partnerships, target priority areas and provide ongoing benefit to the community.
Further details can be found at http://www.crimeprevention.gov.au/