Prime Minister Scott Morrison has come under fire from within his own ranks a day after he was shunned by a despondent fireman in one of Australia’s worst hit areas.
Bega state Liberal MP and NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance fired a shot of his own at the embattled PM, telling morning television his boss received ‘the welcome he probably deserved’.
On Thursday, Mr Morrison was refused a handshake by the tired fireman who had lost his home while battling the deadly bushfires.
Camera crews captured the humiliating moment where Mr Morrison walked over to the fireman who was having a break in the emergency centre in Cobargo, on the New South Wales south coast.
One local refused to shake Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s hand until he offered more support to volunteer firefighters
This morning during an appearance on Channel 7’s Sunrise, Mr Constance did not hold back when questioned on the incident.
‘I didn’t even know he was coming and I haven’t had a call from him, so to be honest with you, the locals gave him the welcome he probably deserved,’ Mr Constance said.
‘I’d say this to the Prime Minister today – the nation wants you to open up the cheque books, obviously help people rebuild their lives.
‘I know this is tough and I know I’m on his side of politics, but, you know, (NSW Premier) Gladys (Berejiklian) and (RFS Commissioner) Shane Fitzsimmons came here two days ago and they obviously visited the fire-affected part of my electorate in the north … this is the feeling that people are going through and I really need everybody to rally together and support each other.
Mr Constance said he empathised with the community because he had lived through it himself.
‘It’s cruel, it’s nasty. The Cobargo community lost people,’ he said.
The slap down is the latest in a growing display of unrest against the Prime Minister over a perceived lack of action to help communities cope with the bushfire crisis.
Tourists and residents have been told to evacuate a 250km stretch of the New South Wales south coast (pictured) as devastating bushfires threaten the area, along with an area of the Shoalhaven between Burrill Lake north and Nowra
His attempt to connect with the community on Thursday could not have gone worse.
Mr Morrison offered his hand but the fireman shook his head.
‘I don’t really want to shake your hand,’ he said.
Mr Morrison then leaned down to grab the fireman’s hand but he again refused.
The Prime Minister then patted the man on the shoulder, said ‘oh, well, nice to see you’ and walked away.
Mr Morrison was later heard telling a fire official: ‘Tell that fella I’m really sorry, I’m sure he’s just tired.’
‘No, no, he’s lost a house,’ the incident controller responded.
Earlier on Thursday, the Prime Minister was abused by some angry Cobargo residents who told him he ‘should be ashamed of himself’ while others called him ‘Scum-mo’ for ‘leaving the country to burn’.
Mr Morrison can be seen trying to shake the fireman’s hand, however, the man only looks at Mr Morrison’s hand before shaking his head. ‘I don’t really want to shake your hand,’ the fireman says
Cobargo was one of the worst-affected areas on New Year’s Eve, losing several buildings on its main street, while a local father and son were killed trying to defend their home, and dozens of homes burnt down.
Mr Morrison, who was criticised for taking a Hawaiian holiday in December as the fires raged rather than attending affected areas, was confronted by some local residents.
One woman refused to return the Prime Minister’s offered handshake until he organised more money for volunteer firefighters.
‘I’m only shaking your hand if you give more funding to our RFS,’ the woman said.
Instead, Mr Morrison reached down to take her hand and then moved on to speak to another person.
‘So many people have lost their homes,’ the woman said, adding ‘we need more help.’
The confrontation prompted a lot of comment online.
A supplied image obtained on Thursday, January 2, 2020, shows smoke billowing from a fire burning at East Gippsland, Victoria
‘What is most disturbing about this extraordinary video is our PM forcing a young, clearly distressed woman to shake his hand followed by another male putting his arms around her telling her to ”shush”,’ freelance journalist Lucie Morris-Marr tweeted.
Another woman from the town, who brought her pet goat along to the meeting, told Mr Morrison the small town was ‘forgotten’ during the crisis.
‘This is not fair,’ she shouted. ‘We are totally forgotten down here. Every single time this area gets a flood or a fire we get nothing.’
‘If we lived in Sydney or on the North Coast we would be flooded with donations and emergency relief.’
A Cobargo resident, Gary Hinton, looks lost as he stands by rubble after a fire tore through the town on New Years Eve
The PM made a beeline back to his car and was driven away by his security team shortly after arriving in Cobargo – where he was heckled by locals
This image shows smoke and flames crowning above the treetops at a fire in East Gippsland on January 2nd
In this satellite image, the Clyde Mountain Fire south of Sydney could be seen from outer space
Several men who attended Mr Morrison’s meeting with locals shouted abuse.
‘You won’t be getting any votes down here buddy. Who votes Liberal around here? Nobody,’ one called out.
‘You control the funding, and we were forgotten,’ a woman added.
‘Go on, p*ss off.’
The Prime Minister walked away from them back to his car and was driven away by his security team.
Even as he left, furious residents continued to shout abuse.
‘Go home to Kirribilli. Why won’t that burn down after the fireworks?’ another local yelled.
‘You’re an idiot.’
Eerie photos show the once quiet country town destroyed by fires as the sky turns a deep red and buildings are left torn apart
COBARGO SURVIVOR IS FORCED TO SHOOT BADLY-BURNED CATTLE
Steve Shipton (centre) is consoled by fellow farmers Bernie Smith (left) and Peter Mercieca
By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
In an area where four people perished in a ferocious fire, Steve Shipton’s eyes were burning as he tried to save his home.
‘I thought I was a goner,’ the Coolagolite cattle farmer told AAP.
‘The heat was horrendous. My eyes… I couldn’t see 20 feet last night.’
The Countegany/Dampier State Forest blaze raced through Cobargo and Coolagolite on Tuesday morning on its way to burning an area twice the size of Canberra.
Three men and an unidentified person died out of a population of about 1050.
Mr Shipton thought he was fine to protect his home after getting his wife and kids inside and his stock out to a dirt clearing.
‘It all happened so quick,’ the 46-year-old said, soot still covering his face.
‘I stayed out. I suppose I shouldn’t have but it just happened so fast.
‘It’s just unbelievable. The ferocity and how quick…. That’s what shocked me and that’s why I thought we were in a good situation to survive,’ he said.
The dairy-turned-beef farmer estimates he lost about a tenth of his 250-odd head of cattle, including his favourite dairy cow.
The dairy-turned-beef farmer estimates he lost about a tenth of his 250-odd head of cattle, including his favourite dairy cow
Most of the cattle had been where Mr Shipton thought would be safe – on dirt with a feed rack – but the animals ‘obviously panicked’.
A vet on Wednesday assessed which would survive and which needed to be euthanised, leaving Mr Shipton with the grim task of carrying out a mass mercy killing.
‘There are some in there badly scorched,’ Mr Shipton said.
‘He’ll know better than me what can survive and what can’t because I’ve never been through this scenario.
‘You don’t want them to suffer.’
The firefront spared Cobargo artist Sally Wilson’s shop but embers took hold of the historic property as she and her partner Christopher Lee protected their home and animals a short walk away.
A vet on Wednesday was assessing which would survive and which needed to be euthanised
As things calmed down at home, Mr Lee walked over to the shop to find it alight.
‘The firefighters said it had started 20 minutes before,’ she told AAP, standing beside the rubble.
‘He stood out the front and watched it burn.’
The couple moved to Cobargo just 18 months ago after deciding it was ‘a really safe pocket’ with a vibrant, caring community.
‘I’ve been visiting here for years and it was like nothing could get you,’ she said.
Local farmer Greg Tett said the community was a very tight-knit one, where people ‘dove in’ to help those whose chips were down.
Destroyed buildings are seen in Cobargo, New South Wales, on Wednesday, January 1, 2020
‘That’s the way it’s been for a long time and why I think a lot of people like to come here,’ he told AAP.
He suspects he’ll have to entirely de-stock after 95 per cent of his 110-acre property was scorched.
‘At least we’re still alive,’ his wife Karen Tett said.
Mr Tett woke about 1am on Tuesday to a phone call from his daughter warning about the approaching fire.
His brother spent five hours building a fire break in vain.
‘When it came down the mountain, we had spot fires everywhere,’ Mr Tett said.
He said his family will fight on.
‘We’ve got to.’
Locals were mourning the loss of dairy farmer Patrick Salway, 29, and his father Robert, 63, who died trying to save their home from the blaze.
Their bodies were found by Mr Salway’s wife Renee who was expecting the couple’s second child.
Mr Morrison later told the ABC he wasn’t ‘surprised people are feeling very raw at the moment’.
‘And, that’s why I came today, to be here, to see it for myself; offer what comfort I could.
‘But you can’t always in every circumstance, I think everyone understands that,’ he said.
The visit came as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a week long state of emergency ahead of Saturday’s predicted dangerous conditions.
Patrick Salway, 29, (pictured with his pregnant wife Renee) died fighting the fires in Cobargo alongside his dad Robert Salway
This picture taken on December 31, 2019 shows a firefighter hosing down trees and flying embers in an effort to secure nearby houses from bushfires near the town of Nowra on the NSW south coast
Residents met in the Mallacoota town hall on Thursday afternoon (pictured) for an evacuation briefing by defence force officials, after the town was surrounded by flames
Temperatures are expected to hit 46C in some parts of the state and the heat, paired with strong winds, were expected to fuel fires and spark fresh outbreaks.
A state of emergency relinquishes decision-making powers from the government to the head of the NSW Rural Fire Service.
Thousands of people will be subject to forced evacuations as officials scramble to move holidaymakers and locals alike from dangerous areas.
Catastrophic conditions on the New South Wales south coast and in eastern Victoria on New Year’s Eve will return within 48 hours, with firefighters only having had the briefest of respites.
Mr Morrison held a press conference on Thursday in which he answered some strong criticism about the federal government’s perceived inaction over the fires, but he stressed that firefighting was a state government responsibility.
‘What we won’t allow to happen is for governments to be tripping over each other in order to somehow outbid each other in response,’ Mr Morrison said.
‘We cannot control the natural disaster but what we can do is control our response.’
Evacuation plans were in place for residents and holiday makers ahead of Saturday’s expected flaring of the fires, with some leaving by road but others needing to be transported by boat due to road closures.
HMAS Choules, which delivered emergency supplies to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, left Sydney on Wednesday and docked off the coast of fire-stricken Mallacoota near the Victoria-New South Wales border on Thursday.
The vessel can carry 700 passengers and will ferry evacuees to safety beginning on Friday, but there are up 4,000 people who remain stranded in the seaside town where food and supplies were running low.
The ship has also brought much-needed relief for those who are choosing to stay.
The townspeople told Mr Morrison it felt as though he didn’t care about the town
Business owner Sally Anne Wilson (left) stands in front of her destroyed shop with her partner Christopher Lee in Cobargo, NSW, Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Hundreds of fires are still burning out of control across the country, destroying millions of hectares, killing 18 and leaving 1,200 homes destroyed, with catastrophic 46C weather forecast for Saturday (pictured)
A kangaroo rushes past a burning house in Conjola (pictured) on New Year’s Eve, as officials prepare for a ‘horrible day’ on Saturday, with blistering temperatures and high winds likely to make conditions far worse