Australia should be proud of a person of the calibre of Tony Abbott who may well be the country's next Prime Minister. A man who is prepared to put his life on the line to help his fellow Australians. It would not surprise me if Abbott, as PM steps up to the plate in situations like this when the political scene is a bit quiet and conditions permit.
On the other hand, has our current Prime Minister, Julia Gillard put herself out by perhaps volunteering with the Red Cross or similar agency deployed in fire ravaged areas of the country? No? Now, that's surprising, isn't it? No good photo opportunities or sycophantic journalists to play to, I suppose. My God, the woman must be run off her feet during this time of political hiatus.
I cannot wait for the nasty little Laborites to begin the catcalls of Abbott, Abbott, Abbott - publicity-stuntman. It will happen, I have no doubt. That sort of childish envy is part and parcel of the ALP mentality.
My opinion of Abbott has risen over the past 12 months. As to the Regime currently running this once fine Nation, I would be banned from Blogger if I put my views into words, so I had better leave it there!
UPDATE
(And it only took 2 hours from my time of posting...)
A federal Labor frontbencher has apologised for describing
Tony Abbott's work as a volunteer firefighter as a "stunt".
The Opposition Leader has been a volunteer
firefighter for more than a decade, and was this morning deployed to fight
fires at Nowra on the NSW south coast with the Davidson Rural Fire Service.
Mr Abbott yesterday said he would be on
"standby" to help out given the fire emergency gripping large parts
of the state.
Federal Housing Minister Brendan O'Connor this
afternoon responded to Mr Abbott's comment on Twitter, describing it as a
"#standbystunt".
Mr O'Connor later deleted the comment and
said: "Apologies for any offence. I respect and acknowledge the critical
work of all our volunteer firefighters including Tony Abbott."
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell took to Twitter to
describe Mr O'Connor's initial comment as "unhelpful" during a fire
crisis.
He said Mr Abbott helped fight fires in the
Lane Cove National Park in 2004 and the local community was grateful.
Television news cameras and photographers were
in Nowra this morning and filmed Mr Abbott driving one of the fire trucks.
In a statement issued this morning, Mr Abbott
said he had delayed his holidays to help fight the fires.
Labor backbencher Graham Perrett has commended
Mr Abbott and the other volunteer firefighters for their efforts, but added:
"A lot of volunteers get up and do their work on behalf of the community
everyday without putting out a press release."
But Liberal MP Jamie Briggs says there is
always a lot of media interest in what Australia's political leaders are doing,
especially during a bushfire crisis.
"People do like to see commitment to
volunteering - not just from the community, but from their political leaders -
and that's something Tony's done for a long time now," Mr Briggs told ABC
News.
