Scott Morrison has apologised for taking a family holiday while bushfires continue to burn around the country.
Scott Morrison has declared the government will hold the line on its climate change policies, rejecting “panicked” calls for more ambitious measures as fires rage across NSW, Victoria and South Australia.
The Prime Minister defended his climate change policies as he issued a mea culpa for holidaying Hawaii as the bushfire crisis escalated.
Mr Morrison on Sunday afternoon met the families of two volunteer firefighters who died on Thursday night in a blaze southwest of Sydney. He consoled the widows and children of Geoff Keaton and Andrew O’Dwyer, who were killed when a tree fell on their truck while they were battling to contain the Green Wattle Creek fire tearing through Wollondilly shire.
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He also spoke with RFS volunteers at the fire station at Horsley Park who battled fires alongside the deceased men.
“I have returned from leave and I know that has caused some great anxiety in Australia and Jenny (Morrison) and I acknowledge that. If we had your time over again and the benefit of hindsight we would have made different decisions,” Mr Morrison said at the NSW Rural Fire Service headquarters in Sydney this morning.
“I accept the criticism and that is why Jenny and I agreed it was important that I returned, particularly after the tragedies we saw late this week.”
Mr Morrison, who arrived back in Australia last night, said the time for the discussion on his holiday “is over” as he urged people to focus on the catastrophic fire conditions.
“It is time to be kind to each other. This is not a time for division, it is not a time for argument, it is not a time for partisanship, not a time for pointscoring,” he said.
Mr Morrison visited fire affected areas in Sydney’s southwest with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Sunday afternoon and announced $3.5 million of extra funding for victims.
The councils of Wingecarribee and Wollondilly will be added to the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA), with impacted businesses and farmers able to receive grants of up to $15,000.
Ms Berejiklian said the additional funding brings the total federal-state recovery fund to more than $63m.
Earlier on Sunday, the Prime Minister said climate change was “one of many factors” responsible for the fires and defended the government’s policies on the issue.
The Prime Minister said climate change was “one of many factors” responsible for the fires and defended the government’s policies on the issue.
“I have always acknowledged the connection between these weather events and these broader fire events and the impacts globally of climate change. It’s one of many factors as I have said,” Mr Morrison said.
“The drought conditions have certainly been a big contributor in terms of the dryness of the fuel load.
“There are also many other issues as you would be well aware and they will all come under scrutiny as we prepare for what needs to happen next time: issues of management in national parks, of fuel loads, issues of back-burning and managing native vegetation and building codes and all of these sorts of things.”
He said voters can “expect my government to do what it promised to do” in taking measured action on climate change.
“I know there are some who tried to make political points and score points over these issues in the midst of these disasters and that is disappointing. I will do what I said I would do because that is how I am with the Australian people,” Mr Morrison said.
Scott Morrison has stopped by the NSW RFS to be briefed on the ongoing bushfire emergency.
“We will take a responsible approach to taking action on climate change. We are taking action and we will continue to take action.
“There is a long time between now and 2030 and we will continue to refine our policies because we’re about taking action. But what we will not do is act in a knee-jerk … or panicked mode. A panic approach and response to anything does not help.”
Mr Morrison flagged more support for Australia’s fire services but moved to assure voters the catastrophe was being well managed.
“Our fire services in Australia are the best in the world. The response to these disasters, these fires, is the best in the world,” Mr Morrison said.
“There’s some 70,000 firefighters here in NSW alone. That’s bigger than the entire of our defence forces and reserves.
“This is a time when Australia should be very proud that we have the best-resourced, most-coordinated, best-equipped fire services of any nation on Earth to deal with this.
“And that’s because as a country, we’re used to dealing with fires.
“Admittedly ..this season is much more lengthened and started a lot earlier and there isn’t the respite rains that we can expect any time soon and that is making this season harder than we have seen in a long time.”
Mr Morrison left the door open to backing Anthony Albanese’s call for compensation of volunteer firefighters.
“These are things that I think can be contemplated. But I very much want to do that in consultation with state and territory governments,” Mr Morrison said.
“As I said to the commissioner today, whatever they need, whatever they think they need to bolster support, sustain the operations that they are running, they simply need to ask. And they will get that support.”
After being pressed on his Hawaii holiday, Mr Morrison said he planned the family trip seven weeks ago and declared his office would be more upfront about his private leave in the future.
“The Deputy Prime Minister was the acting prime minister and each time I have taken private family leave as Prime Minister I followed exactly the same process,” Mr Morrison said.
“No objections were raised by the press on those occasions but it is something we will rectify.”
The Prime Minister declared he was holding himself to the same standard as when he criticised Victoria’s former police commissioner Christine Nixon for going out to dinner during the Black Saturday fires.
“Equally I would note that I am not the operational leader of an emergency service or police force. I am the Prime Minister. And as Prime Minister I was kept regularly, and sought to be kept regularly, updated on the events,” he said.
Journalist
Canberra
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