MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Downer
I am pleased to announce that the Australian Government will provide
$3million for Australian non-government aid groups to assist with the drought
relief effort in Papua New Guinea.
Australian non-government organisations have been invited by AusAID to submit
proposals for rapid relief responses to assist people at highest risk. This
follows a request from the Government of Papua New Guinea for experienced relief
organisations to assist at the community level.
Australian NGO activities will complement the assistance Australia is already
providing to PNG's relief effort. Australia continues to fly food aid into the
most inaccessible areas. Over the last month, 660 tonnes of food have been
delivered to 60,000 people in five provinces.
It is clear that a growing number of Papua New Guineans are in need of
assistance. Expert assessments, funded by AusAID, show that as many as half a
million people, in a population of four million, are in a precarious situation,
with 100,000 lives currently at risk.
To ensure the relief effort is able to target those most in need, Australian
experts are again being mobilised to assist the PNG National Disaster and
Emergency Service to update frost and drought impact assessments.
The $3 million for NGO aid agencies is part of Australia's ongoing commitment
to assist Papua New Guinea. Australia has spent $4 million over the last month
and a similar level of spending on the relief effort is expected to continue
until at least February next year.
The Prime Minister and I have re-assured the Government and people of Papua
New Guinea that Australia stands ready to assist our neighbour at this worrying
time.
Media contacts:
Innes Willox (Minister's Office) 02
6277 7500 / 0411 414 695
Deborah Nesbitt (AusAID) 02 6206 4966