A NSW Woman Who Lost Her House In The Fires Just Ripped The Deputy PM A New One

A NSW woman whose house was destroyed in the bushfires currently ravaging the state has called out Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack for his stance on climate change, demanding the Federal Government take urgent action to prevent further devastation.

Fiona Lee told PEDESTRIAN.TV the loss of her property in Bobin, some 85km southwest of Port Macquarie, is directly linked to climate change creating “unprecedented” fire conditions in the state.

“What people knew of fires before is not true now,” Lee said.

“These are more severe, more frequent, unpredictable and unprecedented.

“My house burned down in early spring, and we haven’t even seen summer yet, let alone the summer of when my three-year-old daughter is my age.”

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Her statement comes one day after McCormack told ABC Radio that linking climate change to the ongoing bushfire crisis was “the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies”.

“Can I say directly to Michael McCormack, I lived in the bush before my house burned down, and I want action on climate change,” Lee said.

“I am not an ‘inner city latte-sipping leftie.’”

She said that “politicians absolutely need to pay attention to the voices of those affected by the climate crisis,” and ignoring the voices of those impacted by government inaction is “criminally negligent.

“I sincerely hope that the swell of voices, as a result of this fire activity, will be heard. I am hopeful that things will change, but with the kind of rhetoric by Michael McCormack, it makes it difficult.”

Lee, her partner Aaron Crowe, and her daughter are currently staying with her mother. Despite the tragedy, the family made time to visit Sydney this morning, where Crowe dumped a bucket of their home’s ashes at the doorstep of NSW Parliament.

“I wanted to bring the evidence of this crisis to their doorstep to show them what’s happening,” Lee said.

“It’s incredibly frustrating to hear their rhetoric when I’ve lost my home, and so many other people have lost their homes.”

Lee is adamant now is the right time to act on the links between climate change and the blazes roaring across the state.

“The time to start talking about climate change was a long time ago, and now we have very little time and we expect urgent action.

When questioned on McCormack’s ire for “inner-city lefties” discussing the links between climate change and the blazes, a spokesperson for the Deputy Prime Minister told PEDESTRIAN.TV “he stands by the comments he has made” and urged people not to politicise the tragedy.

(Did McCormack’s predecessor, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, politicise the issue today by claiming two people who died in the fires were “most likely people who voted for the Green party”? Well, who could possibly say.)

You can check out ways to help out those impacted by the fires here. 

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