Many thanks to the Red Cross

I am a resident of Wandella, just outside Cobargo. My beloved family home was destroyed in the Badja Road fires. Myself and my family were on the run from the fire for a week and a half and we are still coping with the aftermath. The miscarriage of ScoMo’s government is an absolute disgrace. On New Year’s

Eve standing under pitch black skies at 4pm in an impromptu evacuation centre, I wondered along with my family in anguish, where is the help? The recovery process is going to be long but the support we have received from non-government organisations has been incredible. In response to Rick Morton’s article, while it might be interesting how the Red Cross handles its donations, there are more important problems that need addressing. On behalf of my parents I applied to the Red Cross for the disaster relief package and it was received promptly and they doubled the amount of money initially offered. Compared with the Department of Family Services and the local Bega Valley Shire Council, the Red Cross process was much less stringent and incredibly quick to deliver relief to my family. Said government services have made the process long and arbitrary in a time of extreme trauma. As a loyal reader of The Saturday Paper and a fan of Rick Morton’s work, writing as someone who saw this horrible tragedy go down, please focus your attention on the real villains.

– Jack Wotton, Cobargo, NSW