In April 2010, Australia was reeling from the Black Saturday bushfires that had destroyed over 2000 homes and killed 173 people the year before. Once the fires had been put out, a young Liberal MP by the name of Scott Morrison went on Q&A to condemn Victoria’s then police chief Christine Nixon for grabbing dinner at a pub while the fires burned.
The very same Scott Morrison who would later jet off to Hawai’i while the whole country burned, by the way.
“She’s clearly made a bad judgment call. That happens to people from time to time, but this was a very serious issue,” Scott Morrison said.
“I think there are very serious concerns in the community about exercising judgment, and it’s incumbent on all of us in public life to make decisions following that in the best interests of the ongoing nature of the program.”
John Brumby was the Victorian Premier at the time, and when he stood behind Christine Nixon, we can all guess what happened – Scott Morrison dug his heels in.
“I think what’s most important here gets beyond any one individual, and that is public confidence in how the reconstruction effort is taking place.”
“And while the premier may have made his call on Christine, it really is a matter for her to make a judgment whether the controversy surrounding her actions actually, at the end of the day, may well impede the ability of that organisation to get on with the job.”
I wish I was making this up, honestly. Public confidence in reconstruction efforts? You couldn’t have come up with a better line even if you knew what was going to happen in 2019, because good grief, not many people have any confidence at all in the reconstruction efforts of these fires.
So take a lesson from our brave and noble leader. Going and grabbing Christmas dinner at the pub is far, far worse than f*cking off to Hawai’i while the country burns.
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