Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has disputed comments made by Prime Minister Scott Morrison that it was the "first time ever" a federal government had called up Australian Defence Force (ADF) reservists in response to a bushfire crisis.
On Sunday, the PM said the scale of the bushfires was "unprecedented" and had created a situation in which Australians were demanding a greater response from the federal government than had been provided in the past.
He told the ABC that with the bushfires and instructing the defence force chief to act regardless of any request from the states had taken the federal government into "extreme constitutional territory".
"That was the first time ever that there has been a call out of our reservists to respond to a bushfire disaster, to the best of our knowledge. That is an unprecedented action of a Commonwealth government and it has been in response to an unprecedented set of actions that were happening on the ground."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is seen visiting an army water purification station at Kingscote Jetty on Kangaroo Island. Source: AAP
The comments drew the attention of Mr Rudd who pointed to the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009 when he, as then prime minister, worked with the Victorian state government to respond to the disaster which resulted in 173 deaths.
Hundreds of ADF personnel were deployed to provide emergency relief to the affected communities in Victoria in 2009, which had been one in a series of bushfire disasters that defence force personnel had been deployed to over several decades.
"I understand Prime Minister Morrison said today it was the first time that the federal government has been called upon to play a central role in responding to bushfires in Australia. I've got to say to Mr Morrison, that's not my recollection of Black Saturday," Mr Rudd said in a video he posted to Twitter.
"Within 24 hours of those fires erupting, Premier Brumby of Victoria and I had agreed that the Victorian emergency services and the Australian Defence Force would work together like that in responding to the crisis and on top of that the federal Department of Human Services was to work like that with the Victorian agencies in providing emergency relief to affected families. I'm not sure what Mr Morrison is saying is true."
SBS News understands that a difference between both responses was that the Morrison government enforced a compulsory call out where "all reservists selected must endeavour to participate", which required approval from the governor-general.
On Sunday, Mr Morrison conceded that climate change is driving longer, hotter and drier summer seasons and the government's emissions targets need to "evolve".
He added that he believes one of the issues which should be explored by a royal commission into the bushfires, which he will put to cabinet and the state premiers in coming weeks, would be the impact of climate change.
