A man who lost his home to fires in NSW has blasted the Minister for Police and Emergency Services for holidaying in Europe during the raging bushfire crisis.
John Zubrzycki posted an impassioned plea for Australians to send David Elliott a WhatsApp message urging him to quit.
Mr Zubrzycki also shared a before-and-after photo of his family beach house which was reduced to rubble in Rosedale – 20kms from Batemans Bay – this week.
‘While NSW burned the Emergencies Minister left for a holiday in Europe,’ he wrote.
‘Instead of your sympathies, which I know are sincere, text him (whatsapp from overseas or twitter at @davidelliottMP) and take him to account for his crass and corrupt culture of entitlement.’
Mr Zubrzycki then shared Mr Elliott’s personal telephone number.
John Zubrzycki shared a before-and-after photo of his family beach house which was reduced to rubble in Rosedale – 20kms from Batemans Bay – this week
What Mr Zubrzycki’s Rosedale home looked like before bushfires destroyed it
Mr Zubrzycki posted an impassioned plea for Australians to send David Elliott a WhatsApp message urging him to quit
David Elliott jetted out to London with his wife earlier this week, but will land back in Australia on Friday morning ahead of Saturday’s catastrophic conditions
‘The most serious emergency this state has faced in many years and he is on holidays,’ Mr Zubrzycki wrote.
Mr Zubrzycki encouraged people to share his post and ask their friends to message Mr Elliott.
‘Hopefully this small peaceful act of civil disobedience in Gandhian style will do something,’ he wrote.
‘The media is not holding him to account so you must. Again no comments or emoticons, just text your disgust.
Mr Zubrzycki told Daily Mail Australia he was particularly disturbed that Mr Elliott’s staffers seemingly went into damage control over the backlash to his poorly-timed European getaway.
‘All negative comments on Mr Elliott’s Facebook page were being deleted by his staffers making it appear as if he had full community support,’ he said.
Outraged locals still managed to make their opinion known, blasting the minister as a ‘disgrace’.
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
This satellite image shows the devastation of the fires devastating the coastal town of Batemans Bay, on the NSW south coast, early Wednesday morning as the blaze continues to spread
‘Keep cutting those fire budgets and enjoy that holiday. Nothing happening back here,’ one man said.
‘When do you think might be a good time to reinstate those fire service budget cuts? Maybe when you get back from your holiday?’ said another.
Mr Elliott jetted out to London with his wife earlier this week, and promised to return if the bushfire crisis worsened.
He will land back in Australia on Friday morning ahead of Saturday’s catastrophic conditions.
Acting emergency services minister Anthony Roberts defended Mr Elliott’s holiday, saying the operational side of things doesn’t stop because there’s a different minister.
‘David’s been on the line for about 112 days before he took his family away for a holiday that he’d already postponed a number of times,’ Mr Roberts said on Thursday.
‘He’s had the death of his father this year and of his wife’s father, it’s been a very difficult year for him. We have a very clear chain of command, we have the Premier, the minister and the commissioner.’
The NSW government has declared a third state of emergency of the bushfire season ahead of re-elevated fire risk over the weekend.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the declaration would come into effect from Friday morning, with severe to extreme conditions forecast for Saturday.
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
‘All our personnel, all our agencies know that from tomorrow they will be subject to forced evacuations, road closures, road openings and anything else we need to do as a state to keep our residents and to keep property safe. We don’t take these decisions lightly,’ Ms Berejiklian told reporters on Thursday.
Mass evacuations from bushfire-ravaged southern NSW, meanwhile, have been hampered by massive traffic queues and petrol shortages.
More than 110 blazes continue to burn across NSW on Thursday afternoon, with more than 50 burning out of control.
Among the blazes are the 260,000-hectare Currowan fire on the NSW south coast, the 130,000ha Dunns Road fire in the Snowy Valleys and the 105,000ha Green Valley fire east of Albury.
A total of 18 people have died during this year’s horror bushfire season and more than 1,298 homes have been destroyed.