Politics

Australia Is On Fire, And Nobody Knows Where Our Prime Minister Is

Where the bloody hell are ya?

by Rachael Conaghan  18 December 2019
Scott Morrison holiday

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In the middle of a national crisis, usually the country looks to the Prime Minister for guidance, leadership and comfort. But, it’s kind of hard to do that when he disappears in the middle of that crisis.

Scott Morrison has been AWOL since Monday, and his office is refusing to tell anyone where he went. The only information we have came courtesy of Foreign Minister Marise Payne, who told reporters he was on a planned holiday with his family.

The fact that he’s taken off in the midst of the bushfire crisis — while around one hundred fires are still burning in NSW alone, not to mention Queensland and Western Australia — has pissed a lot of people off.

He’s being slammed by people using the hashtag #WhereTheBloodyHellAreYou, the Aussie tourism slogan that he green-lit as tourism minister.

With no real information to go on, rumours are flying around thick and fast. The most popular theory places him in Hawaii, where he was reportedly spotted boarding a flight to with his family.

Maybe he’s in need of some fresh air, considering the hazardous bushfire smoke that has blanketed towns across the east coast.

People are rightly pissed off at reports he’s left the country while exhausted volunteers continue to fight the fires — but oh wait, according to Scott they “want to be there“.

In a fabulous twist of irony, Scott Morrison was one of the harshest critics of Victoria’s former police chief Christine Nixon when she was being attacked for going out to dinner during the Black Saturday bushfires back in 2009.

Look, people need to eat — they do not need to be jet-setting across the world to go lay by a beach.

I’m guessing Christine is feeling pretty vindicated right now.

People are also reflected on Australia’s past natural disasters and how Scott’s leadership stacks up in comparison to other prime ministers, like Kevin Rudd who helped Brisbane flood victims evacuate in 2011, or even Tony Abbott who has volunteered to fight bushfires several times since his leadership stint ended.

In Morrison’s absence we’ve been left in the care of acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack — the guy who refuses to acknowledge climate change and is blaming “little Lucifers” for causing the fires.

It also emerged that Morrison has still not met with Greg Mullins or any of the other former fire and emergency leaders that make up the Emergency Leaders For Climate Action Group, who have been trying to speak to him since April.

Frustrated by the inaction, the group are now planning to hold their own emergency summit next year, saying “there is no leadership coming from Canberra“.

Good to know where the leader of our country’s priorities lie in the middle of a crisis.

Thoughts and prayers, guys.