'You left the country to burn': Furious Cobargo residents explode at visiting Scott Morrison after their town was destroyed by bushfires - forcing the PM to flee the scene in his chauffeur driven car
- Cobargo, on the south coast of New South Wales, was one of the worst-hit areas
- The PM visited on Thursday and was met with angry locals who wanted him out
- Locals were shouting at him, calling him names and refusing to shake his hand
- Cobargo was one of the worst hit areas when fires tore through the south coast of NSW on New Years Eve
- Town lost its entire main street, a beloved father and son were killed and dozens of homes were destroyed
Residents of a town devastated by bushfires have abused visiting Prime Minister Scott Morrison, forcing him to cut short a meet and greet with locals.
Cobargo, on the New South Wales South Coast, is one of the areas worst hit by Australia's bushfire crisis, which has killed 18 people, razed 1,298 homes and destroyed more than 3.6million hectares of land.
The small town lost its entire main street, a beloved father and son were killed and dozens of homes were destroyed as the fire front swept through on New Year's Eve.
Mr Morrison travelled to Cobargo on Thursday to meet with residents who had lost everything - but the visit soon turned ugly.
One local refused to shake his hand until the PM offered more support to volunteer firefighters.
'I'm only shaking your hand if you give more funding to our RFS,' the woman said.
Instead, Mr Morrison picked up her hand and shook it himself, before turning his back on her mid-sentence and moving on to another person.
'So many people have lost their homes,' the woman said while holding back tears.
She was consoled by another man as the PM walked away. She shouted after him saying: 'We need more help.'
Footage of the incident was described as 'disturbing' on social media.
'What is most disturbing about this extraordinary video is our PM forcing a young, clearly distressed woman to shake his hand followed by another male putting his arms around her telling her to ''shush'',' one woman wrote.
'Proud of people in Cobargo for speaking their mind on how they've been treated! What does ScoMo do? Walk away from real people with real issues affecting them now. Disgusting.'
'I can understand him leaving when the men got aggressive but I can’t believe he walked away from the woman pleading for help,' another added.
Another woman from the town, who brought her pet goat along to the meeting, told Mr Morrison the small town was 'forgotten' during the crisis.
'This is not fair,' she shouted. 'We are totally forgotten down here. Every single time this area gets a flood or a fire we get nothing.'
'If we lived in Sydney or on the North Coast we would be flooded with donations and emergency relief.'
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