Bushfires: Charities hit back at critical MPs

Australia’s peak charity body has come out swinging at attacks over bushfire donations.

Community Council for Australia chairman Tim Costello. Picture: AAP

Australia’s peak charity body has come out swinging over attacks levelled at the Red Cross and other organisations, accusing politicians of “scapegoating” frontline groups already overwhelmed by the unprecedented bushfire relief effort.

Community Council for Australia chairman Tim Costello described the vitriol from at least three NSW government ministers this week as “surreal”, with NSW Emergency Services Minister David Elliott issuing a warning to three frontline charities to “pull your finger out”.

The Red Cross, St Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army have been accused of drip-feeding donations to fire-ravaged communities and failing to deliver desperately needed relief to traumatised and increasingly angry evacuees.

Mr Costello said the pile-on reflected the level of “profound shock” and unpreparedness Australians were feeling over the unprecedented scale of the bushfire disaster, which was still unfolding.

But he said the backlash against charities — and accusations donors’ money was not going where it was supposed to — was a well-recognised phase in national disasters.

Mr Costello — who headed up the World Vision operation of the 2004 tsunamis — said after the first waves of shock, followed by an “outpouring of generous giving”, there was invariably a period of public “rage” over why so many victims were still in distress.

“It is so depressingly familiar,” Mr Costello said.

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance, whose state seat of Bega on the NSW south coast has been one of the hardest hit by the disaster, admitted on Thursday that he was probably in need of some trauma counselling after battling to save his own house from the fire.

He has accused the Red Cross of stockpiling most of the $115m it has raised in donations, delivering only $30m in emergency grants to victims so far.

The Salvation Army has also been attacked for moving too slowly, after spending some $8.6m in emergency relief grants out of the $43m it has raised.

The three charities have all defended their relief efforts, pointing out every cent of the donations will be needed in the long recovery process ahead.

Mr Costello said charities needed to “manage the expectations” about how resources needed to be deployed in the wake of a natural disaster, but they were currently so “overwhelmed” they were easy targets for “politicians’ finger pointing”.

“They’ll have their turn, when the royal commission looks at who did what and when, and starts joining the dots,” Mr Costello said.

While the focus has been on the role of established charities, it is still unclear where the money raised by amateur bushfire appeals is likely to land.

The spectacular Facebook bushfire appeal by Australian comedian Celeste Barber raised a staggering $52m, but just how the money will be spent remains a mystery.

The donations were raised by Barber on behalf of the NSW Rural Fire Service trust fund, but it seems no one realised at the time the RFS trust was strictly limited to spending its donations on fire trucks and administration costs — not the firefighters the money had been raised for.

The NSW RFS confirmed on Thursday night $29m had already been transferred into the trust, but it was still trying to find a way to ensure the money was spent in the spirit donors intended.