Scott Morrison considers bushfires royal commission

Scott Morrison will consider a bushfire royal commission as he is forced to stare down critics over his handling of the crisis.

The Prime Minister used a one-hour press conference to declare that now was not the time for blame and fend off a backlash over his performance. Picture: Getty

Scott Morrison will consider establishing a bushfire royal commission once the disastrous summer season is over as he is forced to stare down critics over his handling of the crisis.

The Prime Minister used a one-hour press conference to declare that now was not the time for blame and fend off a backlash over his performance, which has been labelled ad hoc and lacking in urgency by his political opponents and some defence analysts.

He praised the response from the country’s firefighters, emergency services and defence force as “world-leading”.

Mr Morrison has relocated with his family to Canberra, where there will be daily Defence briefings on the fires burning across four states, and on Sunday said he would talk to the states about a royal commission into the circumstances that led to such a long and extreme fire season.

“It is something I would consider in concert with states and territories and these are matters that we are assessing right now,” Mr Morrison said at Parliament House.

“The message I have from state premiers and from fire commissioners is we are fighting the fires now. We are dealing with the emergency response now. We are dealing with the co-ordination and delivery of resources right now.

“There is a broad agreement about the need … for there to be a thorough and proper review of both the contributing factors and the response and improvements that can be made … What form that ultimately takes is something that I will work closely with the premiers on.”

On Sunday a political furore erupted over the federal government’s failure to tell fire chiefs about its unprecedented compulsory call-out of up to 3000 army reservists, after NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons revealed he learnt about the announcement through the media.

Mr Fitzsimmons said he spent much of Saturday — one of the worst fire days this season — with commonwealth and military liaison officers trying to “work out” how the additional resources could be integrated into the existing firefighting effort.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds conceded her department “could have worked a little quicker” to push information out about the deployment but said it was up to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who was informed of the decision shortly before it was announced, as to how she communicated with the state fire chief.

Senator Reynolds, who admitted she spent a few days with family in Bali over Christmas but said she was not on leave, confirmed the states and territories would have the final say on requests for ADF assets. The ADF call-out was designed to maximise the resources available, she said.

A social media video promoting the government’s response to the fires was slammed by the Australia Defence Association and Labor MPs as being in bad taste.

The video was set to music and featured Mr Morrison visiting firezones. Anthony Albanese said he was stunned it had been released.

“It took six weeks for the government to agree to a national response (to the bushfires) and six minutes for them to put out an authorised Liberal Party ad, which can only be seen as being for party-political purposes at a time where it requires national leadership and it requires a non-partisan and non-political approach,” the Opposition Leader said.

Mr Morrison rejected the suggestion there was “some other purpose” in the video other than communicating the government’s response. He dismissed criticism of his performance as “noise and blame” that were “a long way away from the main issue”.

“There has been a lot of commentary, there’s been plenty of criticism. I’ve had the benefit of a lot of analysis on a lot of issues but I can’t be distracted by that,” Mr Morrison said. An overhaul of hazard reduction and land clearing and planning laws will be discussed at the next Council of Australian Governments meeting in March.