Scott Morrison copped a heap of flack for taking an early vacay in Hawaii while Australia is in the middle of its worst bushfire season in recent memory. After failing to keep his holiday on the DL and subsequently having to apologise for it, Scotty eventually made his way back home and he doesn’t sound particularly chuffed at having his vacation cut short.
Ol’ mate held a press conference following a trip to the NSW Rural Fire Service HQ to speak to all the brave souls fighting hard against the bushfires, and acknowledged that perhaps taking an secret early holiday in Hawaii while Australia is literally on fire wasn’t the best idea in the world.
“I have returned from leave, and I know that has caused some great anxiety in Australia, and Jenny and I acknowledge that. If we had our time over again and the benefit of hindsight, we would have made different decisions.”
Anxiety probably isn’t the best way to describe the mood about you bailing on the bushfires, Scotty, but let’s go with that for now.
Anyway, things went downhill from there for Scott Morrison as he opted to play the parental guilt card and said he has other responsibilities on top of being PM. So do all the volunteer firefighters, Scotty, all of whom are probably wishing they could spend time with their family in Hawaii rather than fighting all the raging bushfires.
“I am sure Australians are fair-minded, and understand that when you make a promise to your children, you try and keep it. But as Prime Minister you have other responsibilities, and I accept that, and I accept the criticism and that is why Jenny and I thought it was important that I returned, particularly after the tragedies we saw late last week.“
Scotty even had the courage to say he doesn’t “hold a hose” while projecting an air of “look, I can’t do anything while I’m here anyway, but if cutting my nice holiday short and saying sorry a bunch of times will make things better, then sorry.” Talk about a bold strategy there, Cotton.
“They know I will not stand there and hold a hose. I am not a trained firefighter, nor am I an expert like those in the next room doing an amazing job. But I am comforted by the fact that Australians would like me to be here, simply so I can be here alongside them as they go through this terrible time. And so to those Australians who that caused upset to, I apologise for that.“
As a capper to the trainwreck of a press conference, Scotty says now’s the time to “be kind to each other” before almost immediately pointing fingers at those who want more climate change action of trying to make this into a political thing. It’s quite the roundabout way of telling everyone to be nice to him and mean to his political enemies.
So all in all, Scott Morrison is pretty apologetic for taking an early holiday in Hawaii while Australia is being ravaged by bushfires, but he’s also pretty outraged at your outrage over him bailing on the country during a crisis.
Look, Scotty could’ve said some better things at his press conference but hey, what’s done is done. Now we’re just wondering what the reaction will be when people realise that not only were we without a PM for about a week, we also footed the bill for his security detail while he was enjoying his bushfire-free time in Hawaii.
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