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Some argue that politicians should stay removed from hands-on disaster response, delegating crises to professionals. Yet this is precisely why they must step into the fray: leadership isn’t just about policy – it’s about presence. Great leaders don’t hide behind podiums; they stand in the mud, coordinating aid, listening to survivors, and channeling resources where they’re needed most. Their visibility restores hope, holds systems accountable, and bridges gaps between bureaucracy and urgency. Weak leaders, by contrast, vanish when stakes are high – leaving communities feeling abandoned and distrust festering. History shows that crises don’t just test infrastructure – they expose character. This is what separates leaders who inspire from those who merely govern.
Politicians providing hands-on support during disasters is crucial for several interconnected reasons, each contributing to effective crisis management and community resilience:
Presence during a crisis demonstrates empathy and commitment, fostering public trust. Communities are more likely to cooperate with relief efforts when they perceive leaders as invested and authentic.
On-the-ground assessment allows politicians to grasp the disaster’s scope beyond reports, enabling informed decisions about resource allocation, such as emergency supplies, medical aid, or infrastructure repair.
Direct involvement can streamline bureaucratic processes. Politicians can leverage their authority to mobilise agencies, secure funding, or fast-track approvals, ensuring timely aid delivery.
Visible leadership uplifts community spirit, reducing panic and fostering collective action. Symbolic gestures, like assisting in relief tasks, reinforce that affected individuals are not alone.
Engagement ensures politicians remain accountable for both immediate and long-term recovery. Witnessing challenges firsthand motivates sustained advocacy for rebuilding and policy reforms to mitigate future risks.
High-profile visits attract media coverage, amplifying awareness and potentially galvanizing broader support, including donations or federal assistance.
Direct interaction with survivors provides insights into unmet needs, enabling tailored responses. This feedback loop can improve recovery strategies and policy-making.
Contrasting responses, like the criticised absence of Scott Morrison while Australia burned (and who can forget that he doesn’t hold a hose?) versus Kevin Rudd’s proactive leadership during Queensland floods, highlight how visibility impacts public perception and effectiveness.
In essence, hands-on involvement balances practical crisis management with psychological and political benefits, ensuring leaders remain connected to their constituents while driving efficient, compassionate recovery efforts.
Let’s talk leadership during disasters. Here in Australia – and around the world – it’s simple: showing up matters. True leaders rise to the challenge; weak ones vanish. Look at history: Churchill rallied Brits through the Blitz. Zelenskyy stood firm as bombs fell. These leaders didn’t just govern – they led, visibly and unflinchingly.
Yet here, when floods and fires hit, some politicians go missing. Peter Dutton and the Gold Coast Lord Mayor chose absence over action. Their communities noticed. Dutton’s 1.5% margin? At risk. Voters don’t forget who showed up – and who didn’t. The quality independents and Labor candidates? They were boots-on-the-ground, helping. That’s how you earn trust.
We pay politicians extremely well – part of that salary is stepping INTO disasters, not away from them. It’s about uniting people, securing resources, and fixing what’s broken. If you can’t lead in crisis, why lead at all?
Weak leaders lose seats. Strong leaders – and their communities – win.
PS: Leadership isn’t just for politicians – it’s for emergency crews, health workers, and everyday heroes. But when elected leaders fail to step up? That’s a choice. And voters will choose differently.
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The only politician that ever got his hands dirty or wet was Kevin Rudd.
The rest leave me cold.
Almost sorry for Morrison. He did try to shake hands with a pregnant woman after the fires and got a serve for his trouble. Of course, it turned out that he was "laying hands on" people for some sort of boost to his own ego. Not like Rudd who actually contracted a serious infection from wading in the flood waters.
In the same way Trump is, without any doubt, the most divisive, short-sighted, dangerously undemocratic and inept megalomaniacal political psychopath since that OTHER hideous Republican sociopath and notorious war criminal, George W Bush, Morrison will go down in history (along with that inarticulate, lying, rusted-on misogynistic right-wing extremist, Phony Abbott) as the WORST, most inept PM in Australia's history. Morrison is not only an internationally-condemned pathological liar but remains a nauseating bible-thumping hypocrite and remorseless supporter of that shameless paedophile-protecting CULT of Hillsong! Never forget it was Morrison, Dutton et al who came up with that hideously cruel Witch Hunt, an ILLEGAL invention notoriously known as ROBODEBT, that hunted down and relentlessly persecuted the poorest, most vulnerable people in our nation and said to have possibly caused the tragic suicidal deaths of an unknown number of desperate Australians who could see no way out of its clutches!
Yes, Howard, Abbott and Morrison WERE the worst right up to and UNTIL Dutton crawled into the seat as the argumentative, divisive racist "leader" of the Oppositional LNP!
Dutton went from being a hatefully racist and highly unpopular ex-cop in Queensland to becoming one of the worst, most callously inhumane, racist political psychopaths in living memory! In a relatively short time, Dutton mysteriously and suspiciously attained a massive personal FORTUNE and a huge property portfolio of more than 26+ properties in only 35 years - HOW he managed to achieve all of this on a politician's salary has NEVER been disclosed and MUST be THOROUGHLY investigated before there is even a remote chance this diabolical, unconscionable person can rise to become Crime Minister over our nation! There are rumours that Dutton made his fortune via Paladin, a dodgy corporation to which he is linked that the LNP appointed - WITHOUT any proper Tendering process - used to dump defenceless, desperate asylum seekers off-shore! When, when, WHEN is the Labor government or the Australian public going to DEMAND to know HOW and WHEN Dutton became a mega-millionaire since he crawled into What is even MORE offensive is that this depraved hypocrite pointed a finger at Albanese when Anthony Albanese, like so many other Australians, purchased a single investment property despite the fact that Dutton has upwards of 34+ under his belt! WOW! Talk about a very dark, devious pot calling the kettle black, eh? There can be no doubt that if (God forbids) Dutton gets to be PM, he will manipulate the laws effecting the ownership of multiple investment homes to provide benefits to himself and the Top 1%. This type of behaviour is exactly what we have come to expect from the avaricious elitists in the LNP - whilst they defund OUR lives into oblivion, the LNP have a long, infamous history of taking care of THEMSELVES and the richest, most privileged people and greedy corporate predators in Australia with benefits, unfair tax incentives and other financial "sweeteners" as a reward for their self-serving support and generous donations to the LNP cause, ie to keep the lives of the rich obscenely rich at the EXPENSE of us working- and middle-class "plebs".
Yep, Dutton is waiting in the wings, like a despotic megalomaniacal fascist, waiting to snatch autocratic power by any means with considerable assistance from the lying, conniving Murdoch press and the aforementioned HUGE donations by his up-close-and-personal multi-millionaire friends in the Top 1% - like the mean-spirited Gina Rinehart and, of course, the American citizen Rupert Murdoch who has become the LNP's totally biased Promotions/Publicity Manager!
The fact that Morrison scuttled off to Hawaii during the devastating bushfires decimated vast areas of our country then arrogantly scoffed that "I can't hold a hose" and that Dutton went MIA (missing in action) during the horrendous floods that impacted northern NSW and Queensland (including his OWN electorate in Dickson) isn't surprising is it? The sociopathic selfishness of these born-to-rule, totally heartless political miscreants in the LNP has become their Modus Operandi!
As such, Australia must ensure that Dutton NEVER EVER EVER becomes the LNP's NEXT worst, most woefully corrupt, unspeakably cruel, condescendingly arrogant Crime Minister. If you thought that war criminal, John Howard and the very un-Christian, inhumane hypocrites Phony Abbott and Morrison were bad, the idea of that terrifying totalitarian Dutton stepping into autocratic power is absolutely horrifying. Dutton's mismanagement and oppressive leadership, his constant interference and absolute control over our children's educational curriculum, the LNP's non-stop defundment of everything taxpayers own including the LNP/Murdoch/IPA's well-known intention to break-up, sell-off and privatise our successful, egalitarian Medicare health system and turn it into a carbon copy of the exorbitantly expensive and failed American health system (where only the wealthiest people in the USA can afford to seek effective medical assistance), will turn our egalitarian nation into a scary Trump-like dictatorship! We can NEVER EVER allow this to happen!