Budget earmarks more than $600m for Bondi attack response, with half going to Australia’s Jewish community

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Funds flow to charities and other organisations, with Executive Council of Australian Jewry getting $124m for extra security

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Australia’s Jewish community will receive an extra $300m for security and support from the federal budget as part of a $604m package in response to December’s Bondi beach terror attack.

The government has also set aside federal cash for its proposed national gun buyback but would not say how much, as it struggles to bring state governments on board.

“Disclosure would prejudice the Commonwealth’s negotiations with jurisdictions on funding levels,” the budget reads.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, singled out gun reform hopes in his budget speech on Tuesday night, saying the government was adopting all the recommendations of the antisemitism royal commission.

“We’re also taking action to strengthen our national security and national unity since the devastating antisemitic terror attack at Bondi beach,” he said.

Australia’s Jewish community and those directly affected by the Bondi attack will receive about half of the $604m in new budget measures over five years from 2025-26.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the national peak body, will receive $124m for extra security, $22m of which will be drawn from confiscated criminal assets.

Projects run by Jewish community organisations will receive $131m, including $4.4m to the Chabad of Bondi, which lost longstanding members in December’s attack.

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Charities Jewish House and Jewishcare will get a combined $4m to support the victims of the shooting and their families, and another two relief organisations will be permitted to apply for charity status.

The government has also committed $43m toward mental health support for those affected by the shooting and $200,000 to Bondi’s surf lifesaving clubs, whose members came to the aid of victims.

Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, which burned down in 2024, will be handed $500,000 to help its recovery. The Bondi kosher catering business, founded in 1970, has not reopened since the alleged arson, spending months campaigning for government aid.

The royal commission, which has released its interim report and is now holding public hearings, has been costed at $131m, with the remaining $207m to be spent on measures to counter antisemitism and hate.

New funding has been allocated to public awareness campaigns and education department programs for social cohesion, while the government will set up an $80m counter-terrorism online centre to combat youth radicalisation.

The office of the e-safety commissioner, which pioneered the teenage social media ban, will get $1m to provide online safety advice addressing antisemitism. Jewish Australians have told the royal commission they have faced hate across the internet, from social media to Minecraft.

Security agencies have been funded to bring in controls on firearms and visas, while Australian federal police receive $68m to help their teams investigate the shooting.

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