Australian domestic violence campaigner Sherele Moody has been slammed for her "shameless" comments suggesting firefighters tackling the NSW blazes will "subject women to domestic violence".
The death toll on Thursday rose to four and more than 200 homes have been damaged or destroyed as the fires sweep across NSW and Queensland.
It first led to battles about the link between the fires and climate change and now Moody has suggested a link between the fires and domestic violence, alongside Green Senator Larissa Waters at a press conference in Canberra on Wednesday.
"After a cataclysmic event like this, domestic violence peaks," Moody told reporters. "Women become extremely unsafe when generally the men return home from fighting the fires and subject them to domestic violence."
Moody later said on Facebook she wasn't referring to "every" firefighter or emergency service worker.
She drew comparisons to New Zealand, citing research claiming there was a 53 percent rise in domestic violence following the 2010 Canterbury earthquakes.
"No one wants to view our fire heroes and survivors in a negative light - I totally get that," she wrote.
"But we do need to have these discussions in order to keep women safe because they are at a very high risk of being maimed or killed."
Moody is being slammed for her comments both online and in Parliament.
Waters said in a statement the Green Party did not support Moody's comments, 7 News reports.
People have also taken to Twitter to express their disgust.
"You won't see a better example of somebody making more of an arse of themselves than that. Sherele Moody, you're a disgrace," one user wrote.
"Clearly no boundary," another said. "She's shameless."
On Tuesday Australian Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce was slammed for his "disgusting" comments for suggesting victims of the bushfires were "most likely" Greens voters.
"I acknowledge that the two people who died were most likely people who voted for the Green party, so I am not going to start attacking them. That's the last thing I want to do," the former deputy prime minister said in an interview with Sky News on Tuesday morning.
