UF calls on Govt to match flood relief donations

United Future has put a proposal to the Government that it match public donations for the victims of last week's flooding dollar for dollar, on top of any other proposed flood relief programme.

The scheme would see donations to mayoral funds, the Holmes Show fund, Red Cross, Caritas, the Salvation Army, World Vision and the Tear Fund and others, each matched with a dollar from the Government for every dollar donated by the public.

"New Zealanders are a generous and caring people who instinctively dig into their pockets when a disaster of this kind strikes anywhere in the world," United Future leader Peter Dunne and revenue spokesman Gordon Copeland said.

"However on this occasion, it is New Zealand itself which has been hit - and hit hard - by a combination of endless rain and wind that has wreaked havoc on the lives of many Kiwis.

"It's a time when all of us need to pull together and we urge the Government to allocate additional resources by subsidising these donations from generous New Zealanders."

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