Red Cross director admits $11m from Australia bush fire donations won’t go to victims
24 January 2020
Published by https://www.nzherald.co.nz
NEW ZEALAND/AUSTRALIA – The director of the Red Cross has revealed that $11 million of the money donated to the Australian bush fire relief fund won’t go to victims.
So far around $115m has been donated to the charity, but nearly 10 per cent of that will go into “administrative costs”.
Director Noel Clements has been in the firing line following the revelations, with claims the charity has been stockpiling funds to dish out for future disasters.
Overnight, Clements explained where the money would go.
“So that’s to basically do the work we are doing at the moment in processing the applications. It is to make sure we are meeting legal requirements, to make sure we are actually able to process applications as quickly as we can,” he told The Today Show.
“We have teams calling people to support them with those applications, it is that essential cost.”
He said, however, they don’t expect to spend close to the $10m that’s been allocated.
Despite the backlash, Clements said they aren’t stockpiling the funds for future disasters.
“This is for bush fires, this is not holding back for any other disasters.
“Keep in mind there are people who will need to rebuild and there are people who will need support for that, we want funds to be able to do that.”
So far only 700 grants have been processed, leaving many more waiting to be cleared.
Volunteers are working hard to ensure the applications are done quickly and correctly, but many of the donations are from remote areas.
As of Wednesday, $30m of the Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund had been allocated to the victims, but many have said they haven’t received any money.
NSW resident Robert Gorringe, who was hit by the bush fires, has been left out of the donations thus far and feels the Red Cross isn’t sticking to its promises.
“They’ve made a lot of promises that they’re going to this, that and the other, but I’ve received nothing,” Gorringe told 7 News.
The Red Cross released a statement saying its bush fire relief funds will be drip fed out to ravaged communities over the next three years through “tailored recovery programmes”.
