Eden-Monaro Member Mike Kelly says he is appalled at the Prime Minister's response to the bushfire crisis raging across the country this summer.
Scott Morrison is being roundly condemned for taking a holiday to Hawaii as mega-fires continue to claim lives and destroy hundreds of properties right across Australia, including one of the worst in Dr Kelly's electorate.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, December 22, the Labor MP said while no-one begrudges a PM taking a family holiday, the timing of it would always prove challenging for someone in the top job.
"That comes with the turf and if you can't cope with it you shouldn't put your hand up for the job," Dr Kelly wrote.
"The firies who are busting their guts and putting their lives on the line right now are spending weeks away from jobs and family. In both these situations the families have the added concern that their loved ones may not make it home.
"I am appalled that he turned the nation's anger at his absence into an ego trip by saying he was touched that Australians wanted him home!
"That is incredibly arrogant and revealing as to his state of mind right now, further exacerbated by his assertion that none of the current crisis means anything to him with regard to revisiting the government's climate policy."
Dr Kelly said Mr Morrison's absence "during one of the most unprecedented mega fires in our history" is a failure of leadership.
"Not good enough, and neither has been his 'acknowledgement' that he has done the wrong thing. It was all entirely knowable and not as he claims a matter of 'hindsight'," he said.
"It was a spectacular failure of judgement and leadership responsibility, and continues to be so as he turns his back on the concession by the Deputy PM Michael McCormack that the situation does demand a review of climate policy.
"I was happy to stand with Prime Minister Turnbull in Bega at the displaced persons reception centre and ensure a bipartisan effort in response to the Far South Coast fire in 2018.
"I have always tried to discern lessons learned from these disasters by talking to those on the front lines and made representations arising from those lessons.
"This is only what any Member should do or anybody who puts themselves in a position of leadership. Scott Morrison has failed this test on every level."
Ben Smyth
I have worked as a journalist since 2005 and am now Editor of Australian Community Media mastheads in Bega, Merimbula and Eden
I have worked as a journalist since 2005 and am now Editor of Australian Community Media mastheads in Bega, Merimbula and Eden
