FECCA 2026-27 Federal Budget Response: Resilience and Reform for All
The Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) supports the Australian Government’s ambition for a resilient and reformed Australia. Resilience is built in communities, but it cannot be built without supporting services that help people belong.
FECCA acknowledges the establishment of the Office for Multicultural Affairs and real investments that will help and benefit multicultural communities. This includes $25 billion investment in public hospitals, the expansion of bulk billing, $1 billion towards subsidising personal care for older Australians and long overdue investments in women’s health, including $10.8 million for the Health in My Language program to provide community‑led health literacy education to refugee and migrant women.
We acknowledge the Government’s response to the Bondi terrorist attack: $604.2 million to address hate speech, violent extremism and terrorism, $21.7 million in disaster recovery support for the Bondi community, and $42.9 million in mental health support for the Jewish community and broader Bondi community. This is what it looks like when government stands with a community under threat.
The Government is expanding its skilled migration program and investing $85.2 million to fast-track migrant trades workers into the workforce, as well as $7.7 million to extend the Economic Pathways to Refugee Integration program to boost refugee employment. FECCA supports this move and recommends extending this to other professions.
But the same budget that invests in care and community safety needs to not diminish but rather strongly support the pathways that get them there. FECCA urges the Government to build a strong and cohesive Australian society through sustained investment in multiculturalism.
Even as the Government commits hundreds of millions to respond to the consequences of racial and religious hatred, it still falls short. We urge the Government to include social cohesion in communities as an essential part of our national response. We need to invest in the services that help newly arrived Australians put down roots and strengthen the sense of belonging that we are trying to build as a nation.
FECCA calls on the Government to establish a National Anti-Racism framework, and to consider the future of its anti-racism initiatives, community grants, and implement the recommendations of the Multicultural Framework Review as an important part of the nation’s response to building social cohesion.
FECCA Chair, Peter Doukas OAM said, “Multiculturalism and social cohesion go hand in hand. You cannot have one without investing in the other. Building social cohesion is not a peripheral concern, it is a key pillar of national resilience and economic productivity.”
FECCA CEO, Jill Morgan AM said, “The Government has called this a budget of resilience and reform. We take that seriously. Resilience is built in communities, through services and initiatives that help people belong. Reform means very little if it leaves a third of the population behind.”
FECCA calls for increased funding for the Multicultural Affairs portfolio and looks forward to continuing to work with the Government, our members, the multicultural sector and the wider community in building a path towards true resilience and lasting reform that works for all Australians.
####
A comprehensive budget analysis will be available later this week.
For any media enquiries, please contact: media@fecca.org.au
