Election 2022: Brave move to go back into the furnace

Scott Morrison spent the first full day of his re-election campaign back in the bushfire zone that left the first scars on his reputation.

Scott Morrison shakes hands with apprentice Jack Davey, 20, in South Nowra on the NSW south coast where the Black Summer bushfires raged. Picture: Jason Edwards

Scott Morrison spent the first full day of his re-election campaign back in the bushfire zone that left the first scars on his reputation – and he took with him one of his harshest critics.

When the Prime Minister’s personal standing took its first major hit during the Black Summer bushfires, it was then-NSW minister Andrew Constance who led the attacks on his handling of the disaster.

So it was a brave move for Mr Morrison to open his 2022 campaign in the NSW south coast seat of Gilmore, which Mr Constance is trying to win for the Liberal Party.

It led to the obvious questions on whether Mr Morrison fails to lead in moments of crisis and threatened to revive the perception that the Prime Minister’s biggest critics are within his own ranks.

But with an election to be won, Mr Morrison and Mr Constance put any past differences aside and talked up their relationship of more than 20 years.

The seat, which has also been ravaged by floods, is a must-win for Mr Morrison and is held by Labor MP Fiona Phillips on a margin of just 2.6 per cent.

Mr Constance, as the MP for the state seat of Bega, two years ago said Mr Morrison deserved a hostile reception from bushfire victims in the town of Cobargo.

On Monday, he would not back down from his past comments but declared it was “history” and he was focused on the future. He even showed signs he would make a virtue of his criticisms of Mr Morrison during the campaign as they visited a local business that makes beer cans.

“I am going to be fierce in my representation of the people of Gilmore. I‘m not going to sit there as a wallflower. I’ll call it how it is, and I care about the community that I’ve lived in for most of my life,” Mr Constance said.

“I’m proud of the representation I’ve given over the years for the community and I’m going to keep doing it because I’m not going to sit here quietly.

“I’m going to deliver everything that I commit to, and I’m going to work damn hard to make sure the people of Gilmore have a positive campaign.”

Mr Morrison said he regretted his handling of the Black Summer bushfires and wished he never went on a family holiday to ­Hawaii during the crisis.

“I love that he’s on my team, because he calls it. And he calls it straight. And he did on that day,” he said of Mr Constance.

“And what did we do after that? We got together. We worked out what the challenges were we had to overcome.

“We put together a completely revised small business package and we continue to work together since then.

“I have people on my team who are upfront with me, and I’m not afraid of that,” he added.