Politics

“He Wasn’t Here To Help Us”: Bushfire Victim Forced To Shake Scott Morrison’s Hand Speaks Out

"He walked away as I asked for help. And that kinda broke my heart."

by Joseph Earp  4 January 2020
Scott Morrison -- Cobargo resident

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Earlier this week, while visiting the bushfire-ravaged town of Cobargo, Scott Morrison tried to literally grab himself a photo opp.

Circling around a young pregnant woman named Zoe Salucci-McDermott, the Prime Minister pawed at her hand, trying to force her to shake his. When she wouldn’t, Morrison just stared at her, dumbfounded.

“I’m only shaking your hand if you give more funding to our RFS,” Salucci-McDermott told Morrison. “So many people here have lost their homes.”

But instead of listening to her grievance, or supporting her in literally any way, the man instead turned his back and wandered away, perhaps sensing that his photo opportunity had been totally ruined.

Since then, Morrison has lied about the encounter, trying to tell the Australian public that they saw something different than they did.

“I stood there with the same lady you’re referring to,” Scott Morrison told the press, arguing against video footage that clearly shows that isn’t true.

Well, now Salucci-McDermott has had her chance to speak. And she isn’t backing down for a minute.

“It broke my heart,” she said. “I would have happily sat down and had a cup of tea with him if he’d have just asked, am I okay, what can I do to fix the situation … What this situation is, it’s a war zone. And he walked away as I asked for help. And that kinda broke my heart. Because we’re desperate. And who we look to when we’re desperate is our leaders.”

From there, the interviewer asked Salucci-McDermott if she felt like Scott Morrison’s visit to Cobargo was sincere. Her answer was swift and decisive.

“When we saw him show up, and he was taking photos … I felt it was insincere.

“He wasn’t here to help us, was he?”

You can watch the entire scorching interview in full right here: