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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

As further details emerge about the federal response to the flood crisis in Northern NSW, it’s become clear that the government did not send troops when it could have.

Since then, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison has gone silent on a recovery package already finalised by the NSW state government.

Today, senior reporter for The Saturday Paper Rick Morton on Scott Morrison’s blame shifting and the consequent fallout.

It’s Wednesday, March 23.

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RUBY:

Rick, the last time that we spoke, you were telling me about these people who were involved in these pretty incredible rescues during the flooding in New South Wales and the question that everyone seemed to have at that moment in time was where was the help? Why was it that they had to rescue themselves, essentially? So what have you learnt about the answer to that question now?

RICK:

Yeah, that's completely right. People were losing their homes. Neighbours were rescuing neighbours. Small businesses were going completely under.

Archival Tape -- News report:

“The destruction of destroyed property, destroyed livelihood is reaching metres”

RICK:

And people were dying.

Archival Tape -- News report:

“Seven lives have been lost right across this state in the last week”

RICK:

And the prime minister was nowhere in sight.

Archival Tape -- Man:

“There was no there was bloody, no government support and it was bullshit”

RICK:

Nor was the Australian Defence Force certainly not in large numbers.

Archival Tape -- Man:

“Yeah, it was just not quick enough. It was not quick enough. It was just a few tinnies out. There's probably a couple SES, I saw and SES in a floaty like and that's it.”

RICK:

And the federal government had said that the reason the Defence Force wasn't there is because they couldn't legally go in without being requested.

Now that technically isn't true at all. There has to be a request, but the defence force was requested, it was requested multiple times.

Secondly, even if they weren't requested, they have a reservist force in Lismore, where the ADF is actually a member or has representatives on crisis response teams like they do in Queensland.

And more importantly, that entire argument is moot anyway, because we know from vision footage people on the ground that the Defence Force were there, they were trying to do their bit with what few resources they had available, but something higher up the leadership chain meant that they were not marshalled in any large numbers whatsoever, and certainly not nearly numbers nearly large enough for the scale of that disaster.

So the issue really is that they didn't go fast enough and there weren't enough of them. That is what is key here and that's what the prime minister was responsible for, has failed at, and has been trying to obscure.

RUBY:

Right, OK. And so there's a few things that I want to ask you about then, Rick. But firstly, this idea that the Defence Force actually were requested to come and help during this disaster. So when did that happen? When did the New South Wales government first ask for for the ADF’s help?

RICK:

Yes. So the New South Wales government made it an official request for help from the Defence Force in the area on Sunday, February 27. Now that is the day before Lismore’s flood emergency.

Now, three Defence Force helicopters were in the air when they were able to fly. They were performing rescues of residents from their roofs and from the churning floodwater, and there were images released of that happening.

But three measly helicopters were simply not enough for the scale of the unfolding disaster.

As the crisis progressed on March 4. So this is about five days after the flood emergency, The federal government offered New South Wales fewer than 300 defence personnel.

But the same day, the state premier Dominic Perrottet read press reports that the federal government was publicly saying as many as 2000 personnel work, quote unquote “pre-positioned and ready to be deployed when state governments request assistance”.

The next day, following that discovery by Perrottet, the number of defence personnel supposedly available for the response had more than doubled to 5000.

And now again, authorities could not explain where these troops were.

Archival Tape -- Ben Fordham:

“Prime Minister Scott Morrison joins us live on the line PM Good morning to you.”

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison:

“Good morning Ben …”

RICK:

The prime minister and the Emergency Management Minister, Bridget McKenzie, were being quizzed about this.

Archival Tape -- Ben Fordham:

“Can you just confirm for me because Bridget McKenzie, the emergency services minister, said there are 5000 army personnel on standby? I'm told only 455 are on the ground in northern New South Wales. So where are the rest?”

RICK:

Then they were just fudging their responses.

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison:

“Well, that the figures are higher than that been in terms of those on the ground, the increase every day. There are two thousand that have been on on, on standby, on the ground.”

Archival Tape -- Ben Fordham:

“But when we say on standby, are they are they actively working to help people at the moment because I'm told”

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison:

“Yeah they're available for tasking, what we've done…”

RICK:

And more importantly, locals were completely dumbfounded because they were looking for the troops and they couldn't be seen on the ground, helping. In fact, what they did see was a couple of photo shoots happening with some professional lighting.

Archival Tape -- UGC:

“Doing a good job guys and trailer and going to empty itself. Is it? Make sure you get it filmed. This is incredible. Unbelievable.”

RICK:

And, you know, army officers who really wanted to get in there and help - it's not their fault, you know, posing for photographs at the request of their own leadership in uniforms that were completely devoid of any mud.

Hmm. Right and putting all the pieces of this together.. I suppose the numbers of troops that were available, as well as just kind of back and forth over whether or not they'd been requested. It sounds like they were requested. I mean, when you put all of this together, it doesn't feel like a very urgent or coordinated or effective response to what was a real crisis, Rick.

RICK:

Yeah, no, it feels like a vacuum. And so from the very beginning, what we've seen is this whole issue being politicised. And it's not just the initial response or the way responsibility has been kind of spun between the various parties in the press. It's even to the point of which seats federal electorates were given disaster relief payments.

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison:

“Already through the course of this terrible flood event, right across New South Wales and Queensland, the Commonwealth government, together with the Queensland and state governments, have committed a billion dollars.”

RICK:

When Scott Morrison finally got out of isolation, because he did have Covid-19, he's in Lismore.

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison:

“We will be extending those Commonwealth disaster payments for a further two payments.”

RICK:

He announces this relief disaster payments, but they're almost exclusively in the federal electorate of Page, which is held by the Nationals MP Kevin Hogan.

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison:

“So that's $50 million directly going to the pockets of those most affected in just three council areas.”

RICK:

And other similarly hard hit areas, those were in the council areas of Ballina, Bryon and Tweed. And that's in the federal electorate of a Labor MP, and they got nothing in the initial announcement.

So all of this has caused a huge, huge amount of anger and resentment, and it's from the Coalition's own team.

And one liberal MLC state New South Wales MLC has said that she's going to resign from Parliament as a result, and she's calling on others in the area to follow her lead.

We'll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Rick, there's one Liberal politician who said that they're going to actually resign over the federal government's response to the New South Wales flooding crisis, so can you tell me more about who they are and what they've said?

RICK:

Yeah, so last Wednesday, New South Wales Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack announced that she intended to resign from Parliament.

Archival Tape -- Catherine Cusack:

“Yes, this is completely in relation to the prime minister's visit to Lismore last week.”

RICK:

Her resignation was in response to what she said was unethical disaster funding arrangements. So Cusack was angry that Morrison had turned his back on other electorates and said she could no longer be a member of the party.

Archival Tape -- Catherine Cusack:

“The idea that being a flood victim in a national party seat makes you more worthy is probably the most unethical approach I have ever seen in my life and I just can’t take in that they’ve done this and I cannot defend it and I’m outraged by it.”

RICK:

Now, the following morning, the New South Wales Nationals MP Geoff Provest told ABC Radio on the Gold Coast that he is quote unquote “disgusted with the prime minister”.

Archival Tape -- Geoff Provest:

“I just think the federal government has really messed this up.”

RICK:

And he went on to say there is a real venom out there directed at the prime minister.

Archival Tape -- Geoff Provest:

“…. directed at the prime minister that he doesn't understand what's occurred on the ground. And this is like a remake of the bushfires some two years ago, so”

RICK:

And Provest wasn't done yet. He said he doesn't accept the excuses offered so far.

Archival Tape -- Geoff Provest:

“I don't accept that at all. I mean, the prime minister and the federal government’s put in place to look after all Australians, not just a select few.”

RICK:

And that's actually quite borne out by the subsequent response because the prime minister and Bridget McKenzie finally came out and said, Oh, actually, there's been some more assessments of the flooding and the flood areas. And it turns out that those LGAs that were previously excluded are now included. So of course, they extended it.

Why? When we knew the extent something broke down here and the, you know, the time between those first rounds of disaster payments and when the rest of the Northern Rivers communities were finally included, just screams to me that this was a political point scoring exercise that backfired because of the sense of community anger.

RUBY:

Hmm ok so the Morrison government ended up giving extra payments to the other LGAs, but these payments - they’re only a short term solution, and we know that this is going to be a long term problem. I mean, these people have to build their entire lives and homes and businesses back again - it’s no small thing. So what is underway to help them to that end?

RICK:

Yeah, so about, you know, 14 days or 12 days after the flood crisis, the New South Wales Premier Dominic Paradise secured a. It's been described to me as a handshake agreement with Prime Minister Scott Morrison that the two of them would do, quote unquote, whatever is required to support residents devastated by floods in the northern rivers. Now the details of that new package were finalised. They were ticked off by the parity government and passed through an out of session expenditure review committee after bureaucrats and ministers had spent an entire weekend and late nights and early mornings working on this.

And so they had been moving heaven and earth essentially to try and get this stuff passed. And then they were met with silence by the federal government, Morrison's office went completely silent.

And I was talking to very, very senior New South Wales government source.

And when that source on the phone to me decided to check with another person, they were in the room with and they said, Do we know what the hold-up is on this, by the way? And the other person in the room and I could hear this conversation said he's campaigning in Perth. And my original source was like, that cop that can't actually be the reason Kennedy was it? And we got some more clarification is that the New South Wales government had been told through these official channels that the prime minister was not engaging on it because he was unavailable.

And we know, obviously, through the public press reports, that Scott Morrison was in Perth and he was campaigning, and that was a shock to my original source.

Whatever you think about Scott Morrison's agenda or ideologies or commitment, you would have thought that in an election that's coming up very soon, where you've been accused of a slow, lacklustre flood response that you would pull out all stops to get a win. And this was an easy win, and they didn't take it.

And now having watched this unfold. But the flooding kind of the opinion that they are incapable of learning. And and I think that comes down to a certain type of political arrogance that is not something you can fix overnight.

RUBY:

Rick, thank you so much for your time.

RICK:

Thanks, Ruby.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

US President Joe Biden says Russia is considering the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.

While not citing evidence, Biden said that Russia’s false accusations that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons is a quote “clear sign he’s considering using both of those.”

The news comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky again called for direct talks with Vladimir Putin.

On Tuesday Zelensky said that ‘without this meeting, it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war.’

**

And NSW state MP Gareth Ward has been charged by police over historical allegations of sexual abuse of a man and a teenage boy.

He’s been charged with three counts of assault with acts of indecency, and one count each of common assault and sexual intercourse without consent.

Following these revelations, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said the government would move a motion to remove Mr Ward from Parliament if he did not resign.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am, see ya tomorrow.