Plots and hot spots: Rees says bushfires a bigger worry
Plots and hot spots: Rees says bushfires a bigger worry
16 January 2009
published by www.smh.com.au
Australia –NSW Premier Nathan Rees has called on Labor politicians agitating against his leadership to “get on with the job”.
Amid reports of dissatisfaction from senior Labor ministers with the Premier’s performance, Mr Rees today said he was more concerned with bushfires than internal political brawling.
“When I went to bed last night I was thinking about the rains and their affect on these fires and nothing else,” he said as he visited charred bushland in Londonderry, where fires tore through the area yesterday.
Asked what he would like to say to those within his party who have been attacking his credibility he said: “Get on with the job.”
He later added: “You can spend your whole life looking over your shoulder if you like but my job is to look out here, to be talking to the (Rural Fire Service) volunteers here today, saying thank you to them. To be talking to people like (property owners) Carol and Carl who have to defend their property overnight and to be making sure that the people of NSW know that they have a government and a leader who is on their side.
“And I won’t be diverted from that for a moment. I mean that genuinely.”
He praised the efforts of the volunteers who fought the Londonderry blaze yesterday as well as the many other volunteers across the state battling bushfires.
He also warned homeowners to prepare for extreme fire danger next week when temperatures are expected to climb above 40 degrees.
