Eden-Monaro: $600k Bega Valley disaster relief fund still hasn’t distributed donations, Labor candidate Kristy McBain criticised by Libs

A fund for Bega Valley residents in the seat of Eden-Monaro has $600k but not a cent will go to bushfire victims until next month.

Labor’s Eden-Monaro candidate Kristy McBain says she does not expect a result on election night. Picture: AAP

A disaster relief fund for Bega Valley­ residents in the marginal NSW electorate of Eden-Monaro has more than $600,000 in its coffers­ but not a cent will be distributed to bushfire victims until next month, in a move Emergency Management Minister David Little­proud says is “concerning”.

Liberal senator Jim Molan also said it was hypocritical for Labor’s candidate and former Bega Valley Shire mayor Kristy McBain, whose council is linked to the community fund, to be campaigning against the government’s “too late” bushfire response.

“It’s a bit rich for Labor’s candidate to be criticising the speed of the bushfire recovery by others when the disaster recovery fund set up and backed by her council has not yet spent any of its donations,” he said. “The people that could have benefited from these funds would be disappointed.”

As the July 4 Eden-Monaro poll edges closer, Anthony Albanese tried on Wednesday to deflect pressure on his leadership and instead declared the poll a “test” for Scott Morrison.

Bega Valley Shire mayor Sharon Tapscott confirmed at a council meeting on June 10 that the community disaster relief fund had received $605,000, most of which was donated by the Greek Orthodox Church “in the last six weeks”.

The fund, not exclusively for bushfires, is “independent” of council but Ms Tapscott is co-chair and deputy mayor Russell Fitzpatrick is on the committee.

“We’ve got an application form that’s gone out as a pilot and the money should start being distributed,” Ms Tapscott said earlier this month. “It will be a smaller amount of money and it’ll be over a staged amount of time so that we don’t use it all up straight away because­ we have a very large amount of shire to cover.

“The first amount of money should start going out somewhere about the first week of July.”

Mr Littleproud, who said the five local government areas within Eden-Monaro had received more than $108.5m in federal and state bushfire recovery support, said councils needed to be quick in responding to their community needs. “The federal government is concerned about any charity or charitable fund holding on to money which has been donated, rather than distributed to those who need it,” he said.

“When Australians donate to a charity or cause, they expect that money goes directly and quickly to those it’s for.”

Mr Fitzpatrick guaranteed Mr Littleproud the money would go to those in need and be distributed in full, with up to 30 applications from Cobargo residents the first priority. He said the bulk of the fund’s money had not been donated “until recently”.

Opposition emergency management spokesman Murray Watt said the Morrison government’s attack over the disaster relief­ fund was a “pathetic attempt to distract from its dreadful record on bushfire recovery”.

“The only thing bushfire victims in Eden-Monaro are talking about is when Scott Morrison will deliver his own promises — his ‘notional’ $2bn fund and his 30 June deadline for cleaning up ­debris,” Senator Watt said.

The Opposition Leader said the people of Eden-Monaro would be able to send a message to the government about “whether they think the lead-up to the bushfire crisis last year was adequate, about whether they think the response and the recovery has been adequate”.

Mr Albanese also accused the government of not telling voters until after they by-election if it would “rip out support for people who need it” by ending JobKeeper as scheduled in September.

Ms McBain said she did not expect to know the election result on the night, given it was a “really tight contest” and additional COVID-safe measures had been put in place that would slow down counting.

A government has not won a seat off the opposition in a by-election for 100 years.