Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister regret saying he had a conversation with the bushfire survivor who lost her home in Cobargo, when video clearly shows there wasn't a conversation? He forced her to shake his hand and then turned his back on her as she asked for help.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question about my visit to Cobargo with my wife, Jenny, on that occasion. I had just been at the Bega incident response centre and had gone through Quaama as well. Fire had raged through Cobargo only a few days before. I was the first member of parliament to actually visit Cobargo after those fires. I went there because I knew the community needed to know that the government would be there and that I was prepared to hear from them and to be there. I had spoken to many people, including Mark, who was the captain of the Rural Fire Service brigade there, and the many others I met at the Rural Fire Service brigade.

I went up to the showgrounds. There were some people who were very pleased that I was there. I discussed the impact of the fires on them. There were others who were very distraught. They were very upset. I was there and they were able to vent their frustration and their anger directly at me. When you're Prime Minister, you turn up and you listen, and you're prepared for whatever comes at you. The lady you referred to raised with me funding levels for the New South Wales fire service. That's the issue that they raised with me.

The Leader of the Opposition will remember, back when he was on the Mid-Coast—I think it was further north—that people heckled him at a press conference and yelled out at him. You will not find me criticising him for being in a fire zone and being subject to those sorts of things. I don't think it helps for the opposition to be engaging in this sort of low-rent behaviour. It doesn't help anybody recovering from the fires. All I know is that I was in Cobargo. I was there for the people of Cobargo. I'll be there for the people of Cobargo into the future as well, and they know it.