If you’ve been in Sydney city at all today, you’d see that the smokey haze is just getting worse. While this time I didn’t find ash on my clothes, I did feel smoke in my lungs. And it was goddamn awful. I can’t imagine how actual firefighters are feeling.
Sydney’s smoke has been called hazardous and worse than developing countries, and you can only imagine how bad it is for actual firefighters in the scene of bushfire destruction. Scott Morrison’s empathy training doesn’t seem to be working though, because he just rejected giving more assistance to firefighters battling the blazes. And then he changed the topic to the religious discrimination bill.
The PM is in Sydney on worst smoke day we’ve had – smoke alarms being set off in commerical buildings, daycares and schools not letting children outside, 5 million people can’t breathe properly.
His presser is on the religious discrimination bill— Bridie Jabour (@bkjabour) December 9, 2019
Yep, Scott Morrison Reckons The Firies Are Alright On Their Own
After being questioned on why firefighters had to crowdfund for resources, ScoMo said in a press conference that he was aware about how much funding the firefighters were getting, and that he would not be increasing it.
“I know what the practice is and I know what the experience is and I know what’s happening on the ground,” he said.
“That is what was intended to be set up and that is operating and I’m pleased with the way those arrangements are being worked out and if there is any other matter that would need to be addressed, it would be raised with the Commonwealth.”
Going… gone pic.twitter.com/GvOSJSmsDj
— James Jeffrey (@James_Jeffrey) December 9, 2019
So… he’s pleased with the fact that the public are donating to bushfire funds because the government won’t do a thing about it? Or that many firefighters are volunteers, so they aren’t even really being reimbursed for their efforts? When talking about how volunteer firefighters have been working for weeks with no income, Scott Morrison said they “want to be out there.”
“We are constantly looking at ways to better facilitate the volunteer effort, but to professionalise that at that scale is not a matter that has previously been accepted and it’s not currently under consideration by the government,” he said in regards to the fact that there are heaps of volunteer firefighters working ’round the clock to save people from fires.
Maybe if we didn’t spend so much money exporting coal and driving climate change, we could afford to professionalise volunteer firefighters who literally risk their lives for the sake of civilians not burning to death? Just a thought.
Hot take: @ScottMorrisonMP announcing a religious freedoms bill in Sydney on the worst bushfire day we have ever had is a colossal dick move and so removed from reality even Shakespeare couldn’t write hubris this large
— Nick Spurway (@nick_spurway) December 10, 2019
Image Sources: Twitter @James_Jeffrey, @bkjabour, @nick_spurway
