A bit of cheek from North Coast Nationals Luke Hartsuyker concerning local flooding

Nationals Member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker has been making a bit of noise about people in the Coffs Harbour area affected by flooding in March 2009 not receiving a one-off Disaster Recovery payment.

He states; "We all know Kevin Rudd's a Queenslander but we expect him to be even-handed when it comes to helping people in wake of a disaster.The message he's sending is clear - it's one law for Queenslander flood victims and one law for everyone else."

Leaving aside that Hartsuyker did little about trying to secure this payment at the time, there are many who think that he is being more than a little hypocritical in now offering to table a petition in Parliament on behalf of these residents.

As one Northern Rivers identity remarked to me earlier this week:
He is being a bit cheeky. In 2001 when the cyclone hit Innisfail the Howard Government scooped out the money to help victims but when flooding hit the Clarence, causing comparative damage, it offered nothing.
Nothing like double standards. **

Apparently the Member for Cowper (first elected November 2001) is not above cynically using waterlogged electors to try and score a political point now he's on the Opposition benches.
In government his party frankly didn't give a d*mn.

** Clarence Valley residents well remember when they were hit by a flood, a cyclonic-strength east coast low and another flood - all within the space of weeks in the first quarter of 2001.