A Taree café owner has called out her own mayor, David West, during a live TV interview for not doing enough to help everyone affected by the NSW floods.
Bohemian Café owner Coralei Mason said she “lost everything” in the floods. Photos posted to Facebook show just how badly the café was damaged by the constant rain and rising waters.
So when MidCoast Council Mayor West did a live interview on Sky News right outside her flood-ravaged small business, she gave him a piece of her mind.
“Did you come here for a camera opportunity? Where’re your gloves, mate?” Mason asked.
“Seriously, where’re your gloves? You don’t understand I’ve lost everything here, I’ve lost everything.”
She went on to explain how other business owners in the area had also had their life’s work destroyed.
When West tried to say he understood how she felt, Mason hit back.
“No, you don’t know,” she replied.
“This was my livelihood, this was my everything.”
Interestingly, the impromptu live TV grilling wasn’t shared by Sky News Australia on social media, however you can still peep a clip of it over at the Daily Mail.
A day earlier, on Monday, West said he was in fact working to get people’s lives back on track, even if that didn’t necessarily involve helping people on the ground with the cleanup.
“The after-affects of the flood is what’s worrying me about the people who I love,” he said on Sky News.
“We need to give the community strength after what’s happened to them now to know that we, as a local government area, are going to be there for them.”
And thankfully, Mason and her café staff were able to get help after members of the local community stepped up in whatever ways they could.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Mason thanked everyone who helped out with the cleanup and rebuilding effort so far.
“So much to still process but don’t think that myself and staff don’t appreciate all your efforts because we are truly grateful… without all your help it would have been impossible to get so much done,” she wrote.
