As occurs every election, candidates make promises to fund a range of charities and community organisations. Back in March we wrote to a number of the parties asking them to make an election promise to support the critical work we do. The work we do is unique, much of it is the sort of work the public would expect government to fund. Because it is not a broad category of work many organisations do, it falls outside of existing grant programs. Similar issues are routinely addressed either through campaign promises or commitments announced at budget time. We have just (afternoon of the 19th of May) received a response from the Federal Communications Minister and sent a reply.

Here is the series of letters:

The reply:

Our response, just sent.

There is still an opportunity for candidates running in the election, for any party or none, to make a commitment to support funding for the Online Hate Prevention Institute’s vital work.

In the absence of such commitments, we reply on public donations. In the last month, however, we have received less than 10 donations. This is despite a huge volume of essential work protecting communities at risk from online hate and terrorism. Eg.: In the last 7 days:

• We responded to the deadly terrorist attack in Buffalo, New York, which was inspired by the video by an Australian terrorist who carried out the Christchurch attack in 2019.
  • We secured the removal of a similar video produced during this attack, and which prior to our intervention was going viral, increasing the risk of it inciting further attacks (see press release, reporting at J-Wire)
  • We produced a detailed technical report on the attack that can help prevent / improve the response to similar incidents in the future (see the report, reporting at Protocol)
• We have worked on the project we are leading on online anti-Asian hate in Australia.
  • This project is funded by Meta in the US. The Australian Human Rights Commission and Meta’s Australian Office are partners on this project.
  • The work has led to a significant volume of content being identified and removed from Facebook and Instagram. A community consultation and a report will follow (learn more).
• We prepared and submitted a response to the Victorian Parliament’s Inquiry into Extremism

Anyone wishing to make a donation to support our work can do so using the buttons below. Donations of $2 or more from Australian tax payers are tax deductible.