Eurobodalla firefighters have shared a wishlist with Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis and Tony Abbott, even as the former Prime Minister insisted the top job was not on his.
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Batemans Bay Rural Fire Service (RFS) captain Ian Aitken wants “a nice new fire station at Batemans Bay and a new fire control centre at Moruya and some extra facilities here at the (Bimbimbie) training centre”.
He made his pitch at the Hot Fire Training Facility, south of Mogo, on February 17 when the Warringah MP and Mrs Sudmalis visited, in what she said was a trip planned since January.
It followed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s visit to the knife-edge marginal seat of Gilmore a week ago, on Friday, February 10.
On the flammable topic of federal leadership tensions, which have not been doused since Mr Abbott was deposed in September 2015, both MPs had a hose handy.
Asked if Mrs Sudmalis was taking an each way bet by hosting a past and current leader in her seat within a week, she said the timing was coincidental.
“No. I had coffee with Tony during the January holidays and he said, ‘wouldn’t it be great if I could come down and visit your electorate?’, so we started planning that since then,” Mrs Sudmalis said.
“As always happens when you have prime ministerial visits, they give you three days’ notice and say, ‘the PM has a three-hour window, what can you do? What can you showcase and what can we involve him in?
“It was just a coincidence.”
Asked if he remained a contender for the leadership, Mr Abbott said he was simply helping a colleague.
“I am ambitious to be the best possible local member for Warringah and I am obviously keen, while I am the local member, to be as helpful as I can be to my colleagues,” Mr Abbott said.
“That is why I am here with Ann today, to be as helpful as I can be.
“It is wonderful to be meeting my fellow RFS volunteers here on the South Coast and there are a couple of other events I will be involved in over the next day or so.”
Asked if he was visiting many other electorates, Mr Abbott said he was likely to help a colleague “probably every week”.
He had spent the morning in Goulburn with Hume MP Angus Taylor for a charitable cause.
“We have a leader and the the important thing is to back the leader we have and that is what all of us are doing.
“We are focusing now on the problems that (Opposition Leader) Bill Shorten would cause this country, were he ever to become prime minister.
“Bill Shorten is a union puppet who would put your power bills through the roof.”
However, in a replying to a question on climate change policy, Mr Abbott momentarily appeared to turn the clock back.
“As the CSIRO has said, it is wrong to attribute every extreme weather event to climate change because, for as long as we have been recording weather events in this country, we have had big floods, we have had big droughts, we have big fires, we have had big storms; that is just part and parcel of living here in Australia; always has been, always will be,” he said.
“Nevertheless, it is important to do what we can to rest lightly on the planet and that is why the Abbott Government ... that is why the Turnbull Government are doing what we reasonably can to get emissions down.”
Moruya firefighter and district officer Damian Oborn backed his firefighter colleague’s wishlist, calling for the completion of the training centre and “a permanent presence for our staff out here (at the training centre)”.
Mrs Sudmalis said she would write to Eurobodalla Shire Council mayor Liz Innes, urging the council to expedite the allocation of land for a new station in Moruya, and consider available grants.
Mr Abbott, an RFS volunteer, said it was important for “every level of government to support” firefighters and “through local grants program, it is possible to provide direct support to local brigades and I know Ann will work on it”.
He praised Eurobodalla crews who have been sent to help in regional NSW this week.
“It is wonderful what the volunteers in this area do,” he said.
“They have got a strike team coming back from the Warrumbungles now, they have a strike team heading off for Queanbeyan as we speak, so these are great local people who are helping out right across the state.”
Mr Abbott lunched with a large group on the Batemans Bay waterfront on February 17, at Sam’s Pizzeria, and was due to attend a Liberal Party function in the Eurobodalla on the evening of February 17 and a party meeting in Nowra the following day.
Asked if Eurobodalla members saw him as the preferred federal leader, Mr Abbott was adamant: “No, no, no, no –they want the government to succeed. It is up to all of us, as local members, to do what we can to work together for the success of the government.”
To come: Abbott, Sudmalis on climate change policy, pensions, Centrelink debt and Labor reaction.
