Australian Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce is being slammed for his "disgusting" comments after he suggested that victims of the bushfires were "most likely" Greens voters.
Three people have died and over 150 homes been destroyed as the fires sweep across New South Wales and Queensland.
It's led to battles over the link between the fires and climate change, and whether more fire reduction tactics would help.
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"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.
"What I wanted to concentrate on, is the policies that we can mitigate these tragedies happening again in the future. That's where I'm going to focus."
Joyce has previously claimed the Greens increased the risk of fires due to their opposition to controlled fire reduction burns. These reduce the intensity of fires by removing fuel like leaves on the forest floor.
In an interview with The Australian, Joyce said "the problems we have got have been created by the Greens".
"We haven't had the capacity to easily access (hazard) reduction burns because of all of the paperwork that is part of Green policy.
"We don't have access to dams because they have been decommissioned on national parks because of Green policy."
However Joyce is being slammed for his comments both online and in Parliament.
"How does he know who they voted for and why does it matter? They're dead, they died in a bush fire - isn't that enough?" said Labor senator Kristina Keneally.
"Does he even know their names even? What an unfeeling person Joyce is playing politics with peoples deaths in such a personal way. How disgusting!" another person tweeted.
On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack accused the Greens of being "inner-city raving lunatics" for bringing up climate change as the fires grew out of control.
"We've had fires in Australia since time began, and what people need now is a little bit of sympathy, understanding and real assistance - they need help, they need shelter," the Nationals leader told ABC Radio National.
"They don't need the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies at this time, when they're trying to save their homes, when in fact they're going out in many cases saving other peoples' homes and leaving their own homes at risk."
Newshub.
