Does Australia need that? I don't think they are a poor country? Sorry if that sounds petty, just wondering.
But every dollar will find a use now helping to evacuate, feed and protect people from the flood waters and in future it will help them to rebuild.
I have also heard it can be a problem to donate for specific causes, if the organizations then are not allowed to use the money for other things.
Since apparently these australians live in flooding areas, how many of them have not been insured? Would i encourage them to skip insurance in the future, too, if i would donate now?
1. Most insurers don't drive home the point that they're only insuring for storm and surge, not for flood ... until after the floods are done.
2. Flood insurance is usually set at very high prices. In some parts of the country it's consequently been made illegal to settle in flood zones. But these floods are so large that they're affecting areas that have never flooded before, where a rational person wouldn't have bought flood insurance anyway.
I'm honestly not sure if you'd be encouraging them to skip insurance in future. I suspect not, because the government payouts in past natural disasters have only been a fraction of the damage caused, whereas a good insurance policy could pay 100% or more of the cost. It's still rational to take the insurance if you can afford it.
I imagine that at this point emergency services in the south of the US are pretty good at responding to tornadoes, for example.