Failure to spend bushfire donations prompts WIRES board defection

The nation’s largest wildlife rescue organisation has failed to properly deploy the record $100 million in donations it received in the wake of the Black Summer bushfires and has been damaged by poor management and a culture of recrimination and secrecy, says a board member who has resigned in frustration.

Julie Mills, a prominent environmental philanthropist from the NSW South Coast, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that she joined the WIRES board after the fires because she believed she would be able to assist it to use the windfall most effectively.

WIRES carer Julie Mills, seen here in 2020 feeding an orphaned pouch-rescued eastern grey kangaroo joey, has resigned from the organisation’s board over concerns about its direction. Credit: aap

She has now resigned saying the organisation has failed to embrace the “big ideas” that became possible with the donations that flowed in from around the world during and after the fires after its call for donations was supported internationally by such figures as Barack Obama and Ellen Degeneres.

Mills believes that the money should have been quickly deployed for projects that could have had both an immediate and long-term impact on Australian wildlife, such as funding the purchase of protected habitats to release rehabilitated animals, supporting dedicated wildlife veterinarian hospitals or identifying and fixing animal strike hot spots along the state’s highways.

But she says ideas like this were ignored at board meetings which she claims focused for hours on internal disputes which routinely went unresolved. Further, she said she believed that project proposals that were opposed by chief executive Leanne Taylor were sometimes not brought before the board.

“As a board member this year I saw no proposal for support presented this year to a value higher than $3 million,” she said.

“Were there larger proposals for support put to the CEO that didn’t make it to the Board? Or Is the organisation not seeking bigger proposals? If not why not, particularly since WIRES member survey confirm that dedicated vet support and release facilities are key priorities?

“It is clear from the financials that the public gift fund has continued to grow so why hasn’t the board driven for, and the management team sought, more ambitious partnerships and initiatives?”

She says she is further concerned that the organisation is not living up to commitments it made to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission to strengthen its management processes in light of the surge of funding.

Mills’ resignation follows those of the board’s chairwoman, Storm Stanford, and the organisation’s treasurer, Brett Anderson, resigned at an annual general meeting in October last year. The Herald and The Age have been told he left in part due to frustration at the management of the emergency fund. He has declined to comment.

The Herald and The Age have also seen a letter of resignation by a prominent WIRES volunteer and member of its state council, Wayne Lavers, who called for reform of the board, which at present only recruits members from among the organisation’s council of 30 so branch heads across NSW.

“It’s time to start recruiting Board members from the greater community. WIRES currently draws from a pool of 30 members, this is ridiculous,” he wrote. “How can WIRES expect to successfully run a multi-million dollar organisation drawing its board from such a minute pool of candidates all of who come to [WIRES State Council] with all the baggage and issues of their own branch and only a view from the inside?”

A second member of the state council who asked not to be named said that despite the huge pool of donations to the head office, the branches remained starved of funds and claims for reimbursement of expenses were delayed or ignored, and that there was growing dissatisfaction with WIRES chief executive Leanne Taylor.

Mills confirms that WIRES branches are expected to raise their own funds and that the work adds another burden to volunteers, many of whom are exhausted after fires and floods and have lost faith in Taylor’s leadership.

But the board’s acting chair, Lyn Fowler disputes these suggestions. She says Anderson left on good terms with the organisation and that Lavers has decided against resigning since sending his letter to other state council members. Lavers said he still supports the organisation.

Fowler said Stanford left her position as chairwoman for personal reasons and also remains involved with the organisation. She said she believes Mills may have resigned because the board decided against adopting proposals that she backed.

Fowler said the board had full confidence in Taylor as chief executive and rejected the suggestion that the fire donations were not being spent fast enough. She did not agree that board decisions were being delayed by debate over internal disputes.

“We are taking our time, we are seeking advice,” she said, noting that the fires killed billions of animals that could no longer be helped, and that due to climate change more disasters were to be expected.

She said that she could not say how much of the funds had so far been committed, nor could she comment on the claim that branches and members were struggling without financial support.

Earlier this year, the Herald and The Age reported that a funding application by the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital, which was created after the fires by donations, was refused though the majority of the animals seen by the hospital’s vets are brought to it by WIRES volunteers.

Financial documents filed in January show WIRES received donations of $102,478,085, including $90,432,238 raised for a bushfire emergency fund, in the combined financial years of 2020 and 2021. Before the fires the organisation routinely managed revenues of around $3 million.

In March, the Herald reported that since receiving the donations, WIRES had disbursed $16,851,624 to WIRES Incorporated, the charity’s corporate arm, which has spent the money on ongoing operations, as well as projects related to the bushfires.

At the end of the 2021 financial year, the fund was sitting on a balance of $87,226,248, just over $1.5 million less than it held in mid-2020.

In October 2020, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission conducted a review of three charities including WIRES to see how they had managed windfall donations received as a result of the fires. The ACNC noted that a survey showed the overwhelming majority of donors wanted to see their money spent on fire-related efforts within months of receiving the money.

Its report said that WIRES was responding well to the challenge and noted a series of undertaking WIRES had made to increase its financial management systems and to build partnerships with other related organisations.

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