‘We’re not a third-world country’: Morrison under fire for slow flood response
Scott Morrison has come under fire over his flood response as thousands remain stranded with ADF soldiers stuck on “standby”.
Scott Morrison has been confronted live on air over the plight of families still stranded in the Lismore and NSW’s Northern Rivers regions and how many troops are actually on the ground helping with the clean up.
A week after the floods first hit the region, families remain cut off without food and are begging the government for more help with the flood clean up.
“We’re not a Third World country. How do we still have entire communities cut off and stranded?’’ 2GB radio host Ben Fordahm said.
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The Prime Minister, who has been in isolation with Covid over the last week and unable to visit the region, responded that the natural disaster that had ripped through the region was the worst in living memory.
“Well, these are terrible, terrible floods, as you’ve said,’’ Mr Morrison said.
“These are floods that we have not seen in living memory in anyone’s lifetime, and even before that.
“And so I can understand the great frustration you’re seeing expressed. At the same time, there is an enormous effort that is being put in to get to everywhere that people can get to – the SES, I know the Premier has spoken about that, the tasking of the Defence Forces.
“You know, there’s 2,000, not just there in the Northern Rivers, but also responding to the flood crisis in south east Queensland and what we’ve seen here closer in here to Sydney.”
Emergency Services Minister Bridget McKenzie has previously stated there were 5,000 army personnel on standby.
“I’m told only 455 are on the ground in northern New South Wales. So where are the rest?,’’ Fordham then asked.
“Ah well no, the figures are higher than that, Ben. In terms of those on the ground, they increase every day. There are 2,000 that have been on standby, on the ground, both there and in south east Queensland,’’ Mr Morrison said.
“But when we say ‘on standby’, are they actively working to help people at the moment?” Fordham interjected.
“Yeah, they’re available for tasking. What we’ve done with these floods has been different to previous occasions,’’ Mr Morrison replied.
“What we’ve done is we’ve put Brigadier Galloway, who is a head of the task group that is deploying all ADF support in flood assistance, what’s called Flood Assist. As of last Thursday, state governments were given the authority to directly task ADF units to be able to go in and providing support, and there were 2,000 who were available to be deployed. And those ADF are continuing to roll in where they’ve been tasked.
The 2GB radio host then asked the Prime Minister to listen to the stories of the people on the ground.
“Can I just read a few comments to you, because I’ve agreed to do this from people in the north. Jackie in Mullumbimby says, there are elderly, pregnant mothers and tiny babies stranded,’’ Fordham said.
“People are lost and missing. Cars destroyed by floods are leaking fuel all over the streets. Lily says, my son and I were choppered out after living on top of a local pub for days. I lost my breast milk supply from the dehydration. We didn’t have enough water to make formula. Jed, who’s part of the Mud Army up north in New South Wales, says the Government was too slow to act. The clean-up and recovery has been organised and co-ordinated by untrained civilians. It’s filthy work. There’s dirty water and sewage everywhere.”
Mr Morrison said it was a big effort but the work was continuing.
“I mean, specifically, food drops were done in Mullumbimby by the ADF within the past 24 hours, as they were in many other of those centres,’’ he said.
“There are difficulties getting into a lot of these places currently. I mean, the ADF just can’t miraculously get through things that you can’t get through to get to a particular location. That’s why they’re using helicopters and other supports. That’s why they’re doing road clearing.
“But over 100 lives were directly saved by the efforts of the ADF literally winching people to safety, as have the brave efforts of so many in the SES.
“As I said, there’s 2,000 (ADF) who have been there, available and have been tasked over the last three or four days, and that number ramps up to 5,000 over the next couple of days. And so it is well beyond anyone’s expectation of what that flood was going to do.”
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