OF THE
TIMES
The official started his visit to Cobargo walking up to a local woman, casually asking "How are you?" and then forcing her into a handshake - and that was when all the PR stunt flopped.
"I'm only shaking your hand if you give more funding to our RFS [Rural Fire Service]," the visibly reluctant woman told the PM.
Morrison was promptly swarmed by locals afterwards, who asked him a bunch of quite reasonable questions about very low number of fire engines that responded to the fires, lack of relief and so on - that he did not answer, however.
The PM aimlessly roamed the street with a bunch of other officials, including the natural disasters minister David Littleproud - and their silence only angered the locals further. One man urged the official to get out of town, telling him that his electoral prospects now look quite bleak in a profanity-laden rant.
"You're an idiot, mate. You really are. You won't be getting any votes down here buddy... No liberal votes. You're out son. You are out. Goodnight Vienna. Bye. Go on, p**s off."
Pelted with further questions about those who died in the fires and the many who've lost their homes, the officials ultimately retreated to their car - without so much as a goodbye.
Comment: Common sense. The Aborigine populations knew this, and conducted yearly rotating burns of their hunting grounds to keep fuel from accumulating and to attract game to the new vegetation.