Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. The bottom line is that there is a challenge out there right now to make sure that the right information is out there, and not to pile on the garbage we've heard about arson attacks. The fire that started in Eden-Monaro on 26 November, at the North Black Range, was started by dry lightning, and the firestorms that are generated in these megadisasters create their own thunderstorms and further dry lightning, which light further fires. It is not arson attacks and it is not hazard reduction that have created this megadisaster. Hazard reduction has a role to play. It's issues like that that the Prime Minister needs to take a lead on in making sure that the right information is out there.

I've been greatly disappointed by what we've seen in the regional joint infrastructure program rorts. I had to write to the Audit Office to get that looked into and their report was scathing. Of course, that's been followed up now by the community sports rorts report from the Audit Office, and added to that is what we've seen in the council drought assistance program. For a long time now I've been saying just look up the New South Wales DPI map on the website. Most of Eden-Monaro is in severe drought. And now I can't get Yass Valley, I can't get Queanbeyan, I can't get Palerang and I can't get Eurobodalla that assistance which they richly deserve. Why not? Why are we ignoring the standards that New South Wales DPI has set? It has to be the basis of this political decision-making that we've seen in these other programs.

What I'm deeply disappointed about, going to the fire response situation, is it seems to have been treated as a marketing exercise and not a disaster response. I can't imagine the John Curtin cabinet in 1941 when Pearl Harbour was attacked saying, 'Quick, grab Russel Howcroft.' This is a situation where you had fireys and experts out there wanting to talk to the Prime Minister and being stiff-armed. We needed to talk to the experts. We needed an earlier fire response. We needed the Prime Minister, the defence minister and the emergency minister of New South Wales. We needed them here.

I've known since I first came into this parliament in 2007 that in Eden-Monaro I can't leave the borders during the disaster season. I never go on leave during that period. We needed the Prime Minister to be on deck and he responded too slowly.

We also saw a disgraceful politicisation of the ADF in using that political video. You don't have to listen to us. You don't have to take our word for it. The Australia Defence Association—not exactly a hotbed of communism—said:

… milking ADF support to civil agencies fighting bushfires is a clear breach of the (reciprocal) non-partisanship convention applying to both the ADF & Ministers/MPs.

This was clearly for party political advantage.

Of course we've had the reference to the manhandling, effectively, of Zoey Salucci-McDermott. She refused her consent to shake hands. The Prime Minister grabbed her arm and shook her hand, and then to compound that he turned his back and walked away. I know all the members in this House deal with tough moments with their constituents and you have to stand there and cop it. You have to stand there and listen. I was just shocked that he turned his back on her and walked away. That's going to be the emblem.

I make these points because the Prime Minister can either have the rest of his time categorised, classified and defined by those images in this disaster or he can change the narrative. He can show the leadership we need on issues like climate change. He can get out there and recast himself and respond to my request to reach out across this chamber, or he will forever be captured by those photographs, forever be condemned for his attitude and for the leadership that he didn't show. I'd just ask him to look across the seas to Jacinda Ardern, who during this very week that he exercised this failure was passing bipartisan legislation setting zero carbon emissions targets for 2050— (Time expired)

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