It was brought to our attention that the NSW RFS has a web page titled “Support your local brigade” where you can make a donation directly to your local brigade.
The NSW RFS and Westpac needs to be congratulated on providing this method of fundraising.
We are not letting the RFSA off the hook, they need to spend more on brigades, come clean on their expenditure and improve transparency if they expect to retain public support.
Radio coverage on this issue
This part of our series includes two podcasts from the Ray Hadley Morning Show.
Podcast 1. Ray Hadley talks to Mick Holton about the newspaper story, fundraising and the RFSA.
Podcast 2. Ray Hadley grills the Emergency Services Minister, David Elliott about the NSW RFSA and their call centre based fundraising activities.
Comments from a harassed member of the public
The phone calls are aggressive and becoming increasingly so!
This last call, the young male caller immediately went into overdrive saying “surely I’d want to support the great guys helping out in South Australia”.
I call this emotional blackmail and I told him so.
I said that I always give to specific funds for bushfire relief, usually through St Vincent de Paul and I would really appreciate no further calls.
He was still shouting at me when I said “thank you for calling” and hung up.
This short video is about making donations directly to your local RFS Brigade. It’s pretty simple really…