Premier Dominic Perrottet 'cops a lashing' in ugly scenes while visiting flood victims
A furious resident in a flood-ravaged town in Central Western NSW has made national headlines on Friday after taking an angry swipe at the state’s Premier.
Emotions boiled over for Peter Jones, a former police officer, while Dominic Perrottet was visiting an SES branch in Eugowra. One woman is dead and two men remain missing after flash flooding tore through the town on Monday morning, inundating the 750 residents.
During a media opportunity, the local interrupted members of the press to ask if he could “have a word” with the Premier over his government’s response to the crisis and level of support provided, saying that he’d had a “gutfull.”
“I’ve got a number of complaints,” he told Mr Perrottet before explaining that he was one of only four people in town who’s homes weren’t flooded. “One is triple zero. I was the first one to ring up and ask for bloody helicopters and I was practically told it’s not a major flood. [It’s an] emergency, we need helicopters, there's people on roofs.”
He went on to say that “after all that” residents ended up at the SES branch. “People were just left to their own devices,” he said. “We had no food, no clothing, no one telling us what was going to happen next because no one was here. What’s your answer to some of them before I keep going?”
With cameras rolling on the nervous looking Premier, he admitted to Mr Jones “that’s not good enough.”
“That’s not an answer,” the local resident shot back.
“Well whatever we can do to make sure that is fixed, we will do it,” Mr Perrottet responded.
Premier Dominic Perrottet cops a lashing from Eugowra resident Peter Jones who says his government has learned nothing from Lismore and has let down this community. pic.twitter.com/05AB4kiBUP
— Xanthe Gregory (@xanthe_gregory) November 18, 2022
But Mr Jones dug his heels in. “You’ve had enough time,” he told the Premier in front of reporters. “You know what the disasters are like at Lismore. You’ve been around everywhere. It’s repeating the same thing over. Coming here after the s**t is finished.”
He demanded that the Premier meet him for a “personal date” in his office or Mr Jones’ house if he’s still in parliament next year.
Mr Perrottet said that the government had been doing what it could and would follow up on his concerns.
While on his visit to Eugowra today, Mr Perrettet announced payments for affected farmers would be increased from $25,000 to $75,000.
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