Don’t dismiss our anger in Cobargo Scott Morrison, we are the ones living through a crisis | Zena Armstrong and Peter Logue
If Scott Morrison thinks his reception in Cobargo on Thursday was a bit rough because people are a bit tired and emotional, he really has not one but two tin ears.
Morrison was forced to abandon a meet-and-greet in the bushfire-ravaged NSW town after angry local residents confronted him and some refused to shake his hand.
We moved to the Cobargo region six-and-a-half years ago after giving up working lives that had taken us to Canberra and overseas.
Scott Morrison heckled after he tries to shake hands with bushfire victim in NSW town of Cobargo
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Why Cobargo? It had all the things we were looking for: a tight-knit, diverse and welcoming community; beautiful landscape; close to beaches at Bermagui and beyond; a beautiful working village, full of craft, art, cafes and a great folk festival organised entirely by local volunteers and supported by many in the village from eighth generation locals, our butcher, baker, our publican as well as poets, musicians and artists. It is through our involvement in the folk club and the festival that we have come to know and understand the community in Cobargo and the local region.
It would be wrong to claim that the views below represent those of our entire community. But having been through the nightmare of the past week this is why we are angry and why we think others may be.
This disaster has been unfolding for several years. Knowledgeable locals have been tracking declining rainfall trends for more than a decade.
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'You're not welcome': Australian PM Scott Morrison heckled by bushfire victims - video
Our neighbour Bruce Leaver AM, who has spent years in national park and forestry management, warned us three years ago of this impending catastrophe, urging us to prepare our house against savage bushfire. (Today he is looking after our property and will turn on our extensive sprinkler system if/when fire comes).
The evidence is all around those of us who live in the bush, seen in the ever-expanding dieback in the eucalypts and other native vegetation; the starving native animals that forage along the roadsides; soils so dry that they are turning to dust.
The request from 24 former fire chiefs to meet the prime minister in April could have been a turning point if that meeting had gone ahead and if the fire chiefs’ fears had been taken seriously and acted upon.
Agreeing to the meeting required no acknowledgement from government of climate change but could have been convened in the interests of good risk management. Instead, the opportunity to develop a more coordinated response to cope with more intense and extreme bushfire events was lost.
Imagine if that meeting had gone ahead and the fire chiefs’ recommendations for money to lease large firefighting aircraft had been granted; if a stocktake of firefighting needs had been undertaken and the funds provided to provide the necessary equipment well ahead of the fire season; if a nationwide effort to audit vulnerable townships and regions, resource and help people prepare them better to face bushfires had been conducted; if communities had been encouraged to develop their support responses earlier; if more redundancy was built in to the telephone and internet networks.
And if the crisis coordination arrangements between local, state and commonwealth governments had been reviewed with a catastrophic bushfire event front and centre of the considerations.
Perhaps at the time this may have looked like overkill, but from where we are now it just looks like sensible national disaster management planning.
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Small communities like ours are very vulnerable to small changes. The loss of two well-respected and much loved people in a community of around 700 is felt by everyone. All of us in Cobargo have at least a dozen close friends who have lost their homes, some of whom barely escaped with their lives. The loss of so many cherished historic buildings in the village is another deep grief – we are losing a great deal of Australia’s recent history in these fires.
To dismiss these displays of anger as people feeling “very raw” is to dismiss the depth of insight and understanding among those of us living through this crisis. Yes, we are feeling raw and yes, we are grieving the losses. Yes, we know there was nothing that could have been done to prevent these fires from starting but there was so much that could have been done ahead of time to help mitigate the extent of the destruction.
The inevitable backlash has started against Cobargo, with plenty of negative comments about those of us who live here.
For the record, the Cobargo community is a wonderfully diverse mix of personalities and characters. It is still one of those truly Australian villages where everyone can find a place to hang their hat.
It’s a place where you need to set aside a couple of hours to go to the post office because everyone wants a chat.
The people who stood up to Scott Morrison are saying what a lot of us are feeling.
Zena Armstrong is a former journalist and diplomat. She now works with a team of Cobargo volunteers to organise the annual Cobargo folk festival. Peter Logue is a former president of the National Press Club, and worked for 15 years in various senior roles in the press gallery and was a foreign correspondent in China
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