Scott Morrison returned to work on Sunday, cutting short his holiday by a day after the deaths of two volunteer firefighters on Thursday, Mr Morrison had been enjoying a pre-Christmas trip to Hawaii with his wife and children, provoking public outrage over his absence during a national crisis. Australia has been in the midst of some of the worst bushfires in living memory since the autumn.
The fires have burnt to cinders more than 800 homes and wiped out three million hectares of land (7.4 million acres).
Speaking at a news conference at the Rural Fire Service (RFS) headquarters in Sydney, the prime minister said in response to a question about his judgement in taking the holiday: “We all make decisions.
“We all seek to balance our work-life responsibilities and we all try and get that right.
“We can all make better decisions on occasions, and I was pretty upfront about that with the Australian people yesterday.
“Whether it’s on a Friday afternoon and you decide to take that extra plumbing contract and you said you were going to pick up the kids, or something at my level, these are things you juggle as parents.”
He admitted that with the benefit of hindsight he would have made a different decision.
He added: “I get it that people would have been upset to know that I was holidaying with my family while their families were under great stress.
“But I’m comforted by the fact that Australians would like me to be here, just simply so I can be here, alongside them as they’re going through this terrible time… and I apologise for that.”
JUST IN: Australia bushfires: Raging infernos ravage homes as fires spread
New South Wales has borne the brunt of the devastation wrought by the bushfires.
This weekend around a 100 more homes were destroyed, bringing the total to 829 in NSW.
The RFS said that the scale of the bushfires was “unprecedented” for this point in the season.
Spokeswoman Angela Burford said: “To put it in perspective, in the past few years we have had a total area burned for the whole season of about 280,000ha.
“This year we’re at 3.41 million and we are only halfway through the season.”
Mr Morrison hit out at those urging him to do more to fight climate change as a result of the fires.
He accused his critics as being “politically motivated” and claimed that Australia’s emissions under his government were 50 million tonnes lower than under the previous administration.
He told reporters: “I don’t think panic is a way to manage anything.
“The urge for panic that has come from some, often politically motivated, to pursue a particular agenda, is not something I’m ever intimidated by, or distracted by.”