Daily US Times, New South Wales: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologized for going on holiday to Hawaii while his country struggled a severe fire crisis.
He though cut short his trip and returned to the country. His vacationing created lots of criticism.
Australia has been suffering massive bushfire crisis in its New South Wales and South Australia States. Wildfire is currently raging three states.
The Bushfire crisis started in September. It went beyond controlling the situation as thousands of firefighters are struggling hard to minimize the fire. The fire already killed nine people, destroyed 800 homes and scorched millions of hectares of lands.
Many Australians linked this year’s massive fire broke out with climate change. Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack also stated that more had to be done to tackle global warming but denied it had directly caused the wildfire.
‘I get it that people would have been upset to know that I was holidaying with my family while their families were under great stress,’ he said.
He acknowledged the Australians’ anger over the fire but assured his nation that the emergency response was the best in the world.
Scientists have long warned that a hotter, drier climate would contribute to Australia’s fires becoming more frequent and intense.
Two firefighters, Geoffrey Keaton, 32, and Andrew O’Dwyer, 36 were killed in New South Wales on Thursday. Both had young children. They died when their truck was hit by a falling tree near a fire front, causing it to roll off the road.
MP Scott Morrison paid tribute to them.
He said, ‘When our volunteers go out there, they do it for so many reasons – but I can’t help thinking they do it for love of family. Family is a community, and they were out there defending their communities on that fateful night.’
Firefighters’ union leader Leighton Drury criticized the govt citing the govt. showed ‘an absolute lack of leadership.’
