Red Cross on social media hiatus after being accused of keeping bushfire donations for future disasters
The Red Cross has now taken a social media hiatus after the organisation was accused of squirreling away millions of dollars in bushfire donations for future emergencies. This is why.
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Days after it was revealed The Australian Red Cross was stashing cash for future floods and cyclones, the organisation has taken a break from social media due to “security incidents”.
The under-fire charity group said it had referred the incidents to police, but refused to reveal what they were.
“Hi everyone, we’re going to be off social media for a couple of days,” it tweeted to its 107,000 followers.
“Thank you for your support and we hope to be back talking to you soon.”
It comes after the organisation on Thursday hosed down claims it could stash millions of dollars in bushfire donations for future emergencies like floods and cyclones, despite telling News Corp Australia it was “prudent to plan for the future”.
Charity director Noel Clements this week said just $30 million of $115 million donated to The Red Cross’ Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund had been paid out to bushfire victims.
“Right now, the emergency we’re responding to are the current bushfires and we have committed $30 million, of $10,000 grants, to the immediate response phase,” Mr Clements said.
“We know from our long experience in disasters that receovery takes time and effort and it’s prudent to budget for it.
“It is also prudent to plan for the inevitable disasters to come, so our Disaster Relief and Recover Fund remains in place to scale up and to respond when the cyclones and floods hit.”
But Mr Clements backtracked on national television on Thursday, telling The Today Show money donated during the bushfire crisis would only be spent on bushfire victims.
“This is for bushfires, this is not holding back for other disasters. I can assure you of that,” Mr Clements said.
The Red Cross was forced to address how it dispenses donated funds following fury from fire-affected towns for committing less than 30 per cent of the $115 million raised.
Speaking to ABC’s News Breakfast this morning, Red Cross’ Poppy Brown said the charity was “very experienced” in supporting appeals and communities following natural disasters.
“We managed $380 million that was donated for the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria. What we know is it’s not just the immediate needs, communities will take a long time to recover,” she said.
Ms Brown said the $30 million had been allocated for immediate use and the charity was giving $1 million a day to bushfire victims.
The rest of the funds will be spent over the next three years with Ms Brown confirming the money would be allocated to bushfire victims — not be held for future natural disasters.
Ms Brown also said the money donated was being given to anyone who had immediate needs.
“The money is going out to those people who have lost their homes … anyone that gets in contact with us will absolutely get a grant of $10,000,” she said.
“But we know that this need is going to be long-term and ongoing. We don’t want all the money spent now and then the community to be really in need in 12 months time and the media spotlight has moved on and these people are really doing it tough.”
NSW minister Andrew Constance on Tuesday said he was “furious” that charitable organisations are sitting on tens of millions of dollars and not distributing it to desperate residents.
The Bega MP, who almost lost his home in NSW’s south coast fires, has challenged the heads of the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and St Vincent de Paul to come to Batemans Bay and witness the devastation first-hand on Saturday.
The Vinnies Bushfire Appeal has so far raised $12.5 million, of which just over $1 million has been spent on helping bushfire victims.
About $40 million has been pledged towards the Salvation Army’s national disaster fund since its bushfire appeal was launched in November.
Of that money, about $7.5 million has been handed over.
The Salvation Army and Red Cross have said the majority of the money would be spent over the medium to long term to help people recover.
The Red Cross declined to answer whether its boss would meet Mr Constance but the head of Vinnies said he would be there and the Salvation Army is considering the offer.
So far The Red Cross has processed just 559 cash grants of $10,000 and $20,000 payments are now available to next of kin of those who died.
Mr Constance praised the work of volunteers from the charities who are “working their guts out” but said bosses needed to get on the ground and “have a rethink” about how donations are prioritised.
“How dare they (the Red Cross) say publicly they’re only going to spend a third of the donations on people when people are traumatised and in crisis?” Mr Constance said.
“We need the donations … what we don’t need is welfare bureaucracy thinking this is the opportunity for them to grow their organisations.”
“We’ve got people in tents, on lounges, in caravan parks, in showgrounds, people sleeping rough on their burnt-out properties and they don’t want to hear about a three-year program.”
Mr Clements could not reveal how much of the donations will go towards the bushfire response and how much will be set aside for the future events.
“Be assured the mechanisms are in place, including an independent Fund Advisory Panel of eminent Australians, to enable a sound and transparent response,” Mr Clement said.
The charity spent almost $2.5 million in the last financial year for Australian Red Cross Humanitarian Services management staff, which includes salaries and benefits of eight executives and expenses paid for board members.
While Mr Clements denied any of the $115 million raised by The Red Cross would go towards marketing or paying executives he did say up to 10 cents in every dollar raised could be allocated toward administration costs.
“No more than 10 per cent goes towards administering this response effort,” Mr Clements said.
But this morning Mr Clements said the charity didn’t expect to spend anywhere near $11 million on administration costs.
Peter Iverson, 72, lost a building on his property near Rainbow Flat in November and has been helped by Rotary, the Lions Club, the Salvos and local churches but he hadn’t heard from the Red Cross.
He applied for a $1000 grant from the government but was knocked back because he and his wife receive pensions.
NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons also commented on the donation fury this morning.
“There is no doubt those who generously donated expect the money to go where they intended it to go,” he said on Today.
“That’s to the people affected by bushfires and particularly right across NSW this season.
“We have seen everybody from Queensland border to the Victorian border impacted by fires in some way and giving so generously they expect those that have received the money to spend it in accordance with the wishes and those intentions.”
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While the Red Cross has ben forced into damage control this morning, anger is also being directed at other big charities.
St Vincent De Paul has admitted to paying a mere $1.1 million through financial packages from the $12.5 million raised.
And the Salvation Army’s bushfire appeal, which kicked off in November, has also handed out $11 million of the $43 million received.
Originally published as Red Cross on social media hiatus after being accused of keeping bushfire donations for future disasters