By Dan Harrison
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
A civilian Australian Medical Assistance Team boards a C-130 Hercules at RAAF Base Darwin enroute to to the Philippines to conduct emergency relief operations following Typhoon Haiyan. (Photo: Glenn Campbell)
Australia has pledged a further $20 million in aid to the Philippines, bringing the nation’s total contribution to recovery efforts in the typhoon-ravaged country to $30 million. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Australia would also deploy additional Australian Defence Force aircraft to provide logistical support.
“As a good friend and neighbour, Australia stands beside the Philippines as it deals with this humanitarian disaster,” the Prime Minister said in a statement on Thursday. “The additional funds will be used to address serious nutrition, child health and protection needs, purchase emergency foods and provide logistic support and non-food items.”
Two Australian military aircraft arrived in the Philippines overnight carrying Australian doctors, nurses, paramedics and defence force logistical staff. Mr Abbott said defence stood ready to provide up to two more aircraft.
HMAS Tobruk has also been diverted so it can be available to support the relief effort if requested by the Philippines.
“Providing safe drinking water and power is now critical. The ADF is preparing to provide water-purification systems and power generators to Tacloban over the coming days,” Mr Abbott said.
The extra $20 million includes $9 million for United Nations organisations, $6 million to the international and Australian divisions of the Red Cross, and $3 million to other non-government organisations. The rest of the funds will be spent deploying Australian specialists, including Australian Federal Police disaster management experts.
Mr Abbott’s statement was issued as Labor’s spokeswoman for foreign affairs and international development, Tanya Plibersek, held a press conference to call for Australia to increase its contribution beyond the $10 million initially announced. “We’ve seen, in recent days, that the scale of the humanitarian disaster is probably as large as after the tsunami, probably as large as what we saw in Aceh,” Ms Plibersek told reporters.
The United Nations estimates 11 million people may be affected by the disaster, and have called for the international community to raise approximately $300 million more for the relief effort.
Ms Plibersek said she was “very pleased” to hear of the extra funding. “It’s wonderful that these press conferences are so effective,” she said.
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