Atop the maze of Israel lobby charities in Australia is the Executive Council of Australian Jewry yet ECAJ cannot account for the use of its government grants. Stephanie Tran reports.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has received more than $176m in Commonwealth grant funding through an ACT incorporated association that is not subject to the same public financial reporting requirements as registered charities or companies.
Among the hundreds of Zionist charities and not-for-profit organisations in Australia, ECAJ is the Israel lobby’s largest beneficiary of government grants in recent years. Yet the money trail remains a mystery. The entity does not adhere to normal financial reporting requirements and was not available to respond to questions for this investigation.
Public grant records show the Department of Home Affairs awarded the organisation a $112.2m grant on 22 April 2026 for the purpose of “enhancing security for Jewish communities”.
ECAJ Facebook
Enhancing security
The funding came in addition to an earlier Commonwealth grant awarded in November 2023 under the Enhancing Security for Jewish Communities Program. That grant was initially valued at $27.5m but has since been increased multiple times and is now worth $63.8m.
Combined with a separate $103,459 security infrastructure grant awarded by the Attorney-General’s Department in 2021 to upgrade EJAC offices, total Commonwealth funding awarded to ECAJ-linked entities since 2021 exceeds $176m.
The grants were awarded not to an ACNC-registered charity or ASIC-registered company, but to an incorporated association registered in the ACT:
According to ACT regulatory requirements, incorporated associations are not required to publicly lodge audited financial statements with the territory government.
The structure has raised questions about transparency and oversight given the scale of the public funding involved.
Enhancing mystery
Corporate and charity records show ECAJ operates through at least three distinct legal structures.
The first is the ACT incorporated association that received the government grants. The association was incorporated in December 2006 and lists senior figures within ECAJ among its committee members, including ECAJ co-chief executive Peter Wertheim, Robert Goot and Peter Wise.
The second entity is The Trustee For ECAJ Harm Prevention Fund, a discretionary trust registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). ACNC records indicate the charity has reported receiving $0 in government grant revenue over the past decade.
The charity’s publicly available financial statements are titled “ECAJ Public Fund”, the name of a charity set up by EJAC in November 2013 that was deregistered in July 2014.
The third entity is ECAJ Harm Prevention Fund Limited, an ASIC-registered non-profit public company incorporated in January 2010.
Grants to obscure entity
It is not clear why the incorporated association, rather than the registered charity or company structure, was nominated as the recipient for the Commonwealth grants.
Incorporated associations are commonly used by sporting clubs and community organisations because they are relatively simple and inexpensive to administer.
Unlike charities registered with the ACNC or companies regulated by ASIC, incorporated associations in the ACT are not generally required to publicly file audited financial reports.
We put detailed questions to ECAJ regarding the structure of the grants, governance arrangements, financial reporting and oversight mechanisms.
ECAJ did not respond to the request for comment.
Founded in 1944, ECAJ describes itself as the representative peak body of the Australian Jewish community and says it represents more than 200 Jewish organisations across the country.
Former ECAJ president Jillian Segal was appointed Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism in 2024.
Home Affairs dead-bat response
The Albanese government confirmed additional funding for ECAJ in the 2026–27 Federal Budget.
Budget papers state the government will provide $102m over four years from 2025–26 to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry for “enhanced security for the Jewish community”.
The papers also disclose an additional $22m over three years from 2026–27, to be funded through the Confiscated Assets Account established under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The Department of Home Affairs described the purpose of the latest grant as addressing “immediate and ongoing risks faced by the Australian Jewish community in light of the increase in antisemitism” and enabling “the rapid deployment of enhanced protective measures”.
The funding is intended to support security measures at “places of worship, schools and pre-schools and community events”.
Why?
We asked the Department of Home Affairs why the grants were awarded to the incorporated association rather than the ACNC-registered charity, what due diligence processes were undertaken before the grants were approved, and what reporting and auditing conditions apply to the funding.
We also asked whether the Department considered requiring the funding to be administered through an entity subject to greater public financial disclosure obligations.
A Departmental spokesperson responded, “all Commonwealth grants are administered in accordance with the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles and Australian Government Grants Framework.
“These contain requirements for effective grants administration, including consideration on whether a project or activity would be an efficient, effective, economical, and ethical use of funds.”
Charities funding Israel’s illegal settlements untouchable, Labor says
Stephanie is a journalist with a background in both law and journalism. She has worked at The Guardian and as a paralegal, where she assisted Crikey’s defence team in the high-profile defamation case brought by Lachlan Murdoch. Her reporting has been recognised nationally, earning her the 2021 Democracy’s Watchdogs Award for Student Investigative Reporting and a nomination for the 2021 Walkley Student Journalist of the Year Award.