Category Archives: Donations

Australian Bushfire Donations

The surprise with the fires in Australia was how much money has been spent to assist those homeless. Yet the irony is that 116,000 homeless in Australia are not seen in the same light.

All people in crisis should be assisted 100%. The issue is when we decide who is deserving who is not.

On a positive note what was great to see was our country coming together to help each other, which is our true nature.

To change the climate we must learn our true nature which is to respond to the human crisis not the market as a first responder.

What were the costs involved?

Bushfire donations: where will the millions that have been given be spent?

NSW RFS chief Shane Fitzsimmons says members will be consulted about how to allocate between competing priorities, such as bushfire victims and conditions for volunteer firefighters

Ben Doherty @bendohertycorro

Tue 7 Jan 2020 11.22 AEDT First published on Tue 7 Jan 2020 04.00 AEDT

Shares 388

Firefighters extinguish a blaze by the side of a road
Donations in the tens of millions of dollars have poured into Australian fire services, with NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons saying the ‘extraordinary generosity will make a massive difference’. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

The NSW Rural Fire Service says it will consult its members before deciding how to spend the extraordinary influx of bushfire donations, as it tries to weigh the intentions of those who have given money.

The head of the RFS, Shane Fitzsimmons, said allocating the “extraordinary” influx of donations from the public, now into the tens of millions of dollars, would be a challenge for the organisation, but that it was a “nice challenge to have”.

He pledged to spend the donations “where it was intended”, directing the money towards fire victims as well as the fire service itself.

The RFS, which has been the main focus of donations in the wake of the bushfires, is primarily funded by the state government, as Michael Eburn, an expert in emergency management at the Australian National University, has noted.

“People should understand, before they make their donation, that fundamentally they are making a donation to the NSW government,” Eburn wrote on Monday.

The online fundraising campaign run by comedian Celeste Barber has alone raised more than $33m, which will be distributed, not only to the NSW’s RFS, but its interstate equivalents, including Victoria’s Country Fire Authority and South Australia’s Country Fire Service.

Millions more have flowed to the RFS through private donations and other fundraising efforts.

Fitzsimmons said the depth and breadth of donations “reflects the best we’ve got in humanity”.

“I think it’s quite extraordinary and extremely generous,” he said.

Fitzsimmons said the organisation did not yet know how it would spend the donations, and that allocating the additional money would be a challenge, “but a nice challenge to have”.

“We will consult with members, we will make sure we understand firstly, what was the intention behind people contributing to that fund: was it to go to disaster victims, was it to go to make better arrangements and better conditions for volunteers? We will need to target the money to where people intended it to go.

“We need to make sure that we get something tangible, and we get some real benefit out of this, and we don’t want to lose sight of the fact that that extraordinary generosity will make a massive difference.”

The amount committed to the NSW RFS donations fund has dwarfed the donations raised in previous years.

The most recent donations fund annual report

from 2017-18 – showed gifts of $768,044 to the RFS, of which $546,000 was donated to individual brigades, and $222,000 to the central fund for distribution. The largest single donation was $25,000.

The central donations fund exists “solely for the purpose of supporting the volunteer-based fire and emergency service activities of the brigades”. It is unclear how the money will, or could, be divided with other fire services or with bushfire victims, if it has been donated to the Trustee for NSW Rural Fire Service and Brigades Donations Fund. But the trust deed allows the trustees to disburse funds as recommended by the RFS executive committee.

The service is also running dedicated fundraising appeals for the families of volunteer firefighters Samuel McPaul, Geoffrey Keaton and Andrew O’Dwyer, killed fighting fires this bushfire season.


Labor MP urges war-like national mobilisation to tackle Australia’s existential threat of climate crisis

Read more

The NSW RFS budget for this financial year is $424m, funded by the NSW state government.

Writing in The Big Smoke Australia, Eburn said donating to the RFS was commendable given the vital work it performs, but stressed that the organisation was a government funded and run agency.

“The RFS is not an organisation run by volunteers and funded by community donations,” he wrote. “The RFS is not a volunteer organisation, it is a government organisation that relies on volunteers.

“No doubt the trustees, the RFS, and brigades that benefit … and the trustees of the fund, will do their best to ensure that it is well spent to advance the RFS abilities in coming years but people should understand, before they make their donation, that fundamentally they are making a donation to the NSW government.”

In the wake of devastating fires in that state, the Victorian government has established a new government agency – Bushfire Recovery Victoria – to coordinate the state’s fire recovery. The agency, headed by former police chief commissioner Ken Lay, has been given a budget of $50m.

Lay said the new agency would work with local communities to guide their own recoveries.

“When disasters happen in local communities, the answers are generally in their community, so I’ll be looking for local people to give local advice, local resources to address these issues.”

Premier Daniel Andrews asked those wanting to help not to donate clothing, goods, or food, but money to the state government-run bushfire appeal.

“I know it’s tough to watch this all unfold and feel helpless. I know a lot of people want to get stuck in and lend a hand. But it’s important to remember that the emergency relief effort is being run by experienced organisations, and they don’t have space to sort or store donations.

“If you want to help, please consider donating to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal. Every dollar raised will go towards immediate support for those who have lost everything.

“Victorians have been incredibly generous already. After just a few days, the appeal is sitting at $2m, and our government will match the current amount raised.”

Religious Exclusive Brethren Funding Politics

In the public interest. Courtesy of the ABC.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-10-15/former-member-reveals-brethren-express-money-trail/698932

Former member reveals ‘Brethren Express’ money trail

Updated

A former member of the Exclusive Brethren has revealed the secretive religious sect has been transferring large sums of money across the world, possibly to fund political campaigns in Australia and the US.

In recent years Brethren leaders have met with numerous Liberal ministers, including Prime Minister John Howard.

Now ABC TV’s Four Corners program has revealed that tens of thousands of dollars in Brethren cash have been transferred around the world in envelopes.

Former Brethren member Don Monday says some of the money was used to fund the 2004 election campaign of US President George W Bush.

The program also suggests the Brethren are actively lobbying for the Howard Government, although sect leader Bruce Hales has barred his followers from voting themselves.

Mr Monday says he brought less than $10,000 in cash to Australia in 2005 for distribution to the Brethren.

And he says he knows of other people who have also brought large sums of money to Australia, possibly breaching Customs regulations.

“I would’ve known of people that said they’ve carried as many as 40 and 50 envelopes and some of those would’ve had probably as much as $1,000 to as little as $50 in them,” he said.

“The Brethren would normally, on a monthly basis, give gifts to Mr Hales as well as other people in responsible positions, and that money would be carried by what we jokingly would’ve called the ‘Brethren Express’.

“It would all be transferred in in envelopes by people who were travelling.”

But Exclusive Brethren elder and spokesman Phil McNaughton denies Mr Hales has used the money to fund political campaigns.

“He would use that to distribute to the needy amongst the Brethren and for other purposes at his discretion,” he said.

Mr McNaughton says he does not know just how much money has been handed out.

“In envelopes of cash are distributions of church giving, that was set on by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians,” he said.

“It is the the church plate that individual churches may wish to distribute to persons engaged in the work of the glad tidings.

“It is money given on trust. It is to be spent in furthering the work of the Lord.”

Watch the Four Corners report at 8:30pm on ABC TV.

https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/the-brethren-express/8953268

Exclusive Brethren and the Liberal Party

In the public interest.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/revealed-how-exclusive-brethren-members-secretly-donate-to-the-liberal-party-20160615-gpk0nd.html

Revealed: how Exclusive Brethren members secretly donate to the Liberal Party

By Michael Bachelard

June 17, 2016 — 5.14pm

Tony McCorkell reveals secrets of the wealthy Christian sect Exclusive Brethren

Members of an extremist Christian sect which has covered up child sex abuse have given secret, coordinated donations to the Liberal Party.

Dozens of Exclusive Brethren members – who practice a radical doctrine of “separation” and are not permitted to vote – donated more than $67,000 to the Liberal Party on the same day in December 2010.

World leader of the Exclusive Brethren, Sydney-based Bruce Hales

The donations were revealed in documents tabled at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption during its inquiry into the source of funds flowing into Liberal Party coffers.

The Exclusive Brethren, recently rebranded the “Plymouth Brethren Christian Church”, was described by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as “an extremist cult” which breaks up families. But the Liberal party operatives who accepted the en masse donations described them as “friends”.

Former Exclusive Brethren spokesperson Tony McCorkell now speaking out about child sex abuse in the sectCredit:Paul Harris

The church first came to public attention in 2006 when it was revealed the group had raised and spent $370,461 to influence the 2004 election on behalf of John Howard, with whom they were close.

Brethren members cannot eat or socialise with “worldly” people, and members who are excommunicated are usually prevented from seeing their families, including their own children. Their wealthy leader, Sydney-based Bruce D. Hales, has told his members to maintain an “utter hatred” of the rest of the world. He recently addressed a sermon to a mentally tormented young member of his flock saying it would be better to “finish yourself off” with poison than communicate with members of his own family.

Good Weekend today reveals that Mr Hales ordered that some victims of child sexual abuse be paid off to keep quiet. One victim was told his abuse was a “family matter,” and nothing to do with the church, even though the church had placed the child with his abuser.

In 2003, the Brethren first excommunicated and then reinstated a man to the church despite overwhelming evidence that he had sexually abused two young girls who were living with him and attending the school where he was a trustee. The Brethren ignored the girls’ letters, direct to Mr Hales, in which they begged him not to bring their abuser back.

The man was later convicted and jailed for offences including sexual intercourse with a child under 10.

The Brethren have issued a number of legal threats in recent weeks to try to stop the Good Weekend story being published. In a statement it said it was “misinformed and plainly wrong” to suggest the church had a problem with sex abuse. The Church “considers any abuse of any member of society abhorrent,” the statement said.

Documents tabled at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption’s Operation Spicer show 62 separate donors, all known members of the Brethren church, sent donations to the Liberal Party’s alleged slush fund, the Free Enterprise Foundation.

Each donation was in individual amounts of $1500 or less, and appeared on a document labelled, “Friends”.

According to the NSW Electoral Commission, the Free Enterprise Foundation was used to “channel and disguise” donations “by major political donors, some of whom were prohibited donors” to the Liberal Party. While individually the Brethren were not “major” donors, together their contribution was well above the legal disclosure threshold. It suggests they may have deliberately tried to avoid any need to disclose their collective contribution.

The donors are a who’s who of senior Exclusive Brethren members in NSW, including relatives of Mr Hales, who is known to his followers as “the Elect” and is seen as next to God. Mr Hales’ brother Stephen and sister-in-law Estelle Hales, and cousin John Hales donated $1490 each. Other families donated multiple times from different members. Five donations came from the Pridham family, who are relatives of Mr Hales.

Pump salesman Mark Mackenzie donated $1490 through his family partnership, Aline Pumps Sales and Service. Mr Mackenzie was the front man for the massive advertising spend by the Brethren on behalf of John Howard in 2004.

Brethren members run highly successful businesses, a network of charities, and received $26.6 million in government funding for their private school system.

Though they do not vote, the Exclusive Brethren have in the past been vigorous lobbyists of conservative Federal and state governments. They supported Mr Howard in 2004 to defend his school funding policy against then Labor leader Mark Latham. The Australian Tax Office has never scrutinised their habit of paying the vast bulk of their schools fees in tax-free donations and distributions from family trusts.

They are also virulently anti-gay. Their election funding in 2004 was directed to anti-gay, anti-Green and pro-Howard advertising. Similar campaigns took place the same year in New Zealand, Canada and the United States, in support of then president George W. Bush. The Brethren man coordinating the United States campaign said the group “like to fly beneath the radar“.