Firefighter who sprayed PM sees free beers flow in
Paul Parker had been fighting fires for days when he became so famous for his acrid view of Prime Minister Scott Morrison that strangers all across Australia decided he deserved a beer and a bar tab without end.
Exhausted and emotional, Parker, from the tiny riverside village of Nelligen on the NSW South Coast, gained national notoriety in early January when he roared in a fire truck towards a television camera crew, hung out the window and unloaded an expletive-laden tirade aimed at the prime minister.
Parker’s furious opinion that Morrison was failing volunteer firefighters went viral on social media, and now he won’t need to pay for a beer at his local pub, Nelligen’s Steampacket Hotel, for a very long time. ‘‘Pretty much every day someone comes in and puts their money down, telling us to buy a few beers for that bloke who got stuck into the prime minister,’’ says the licensee of the Steampacket Hotel, Joel Alvey.
‘‘We’ve had people ringing up from all around Australia, wanting to transfer money so Paul doesn’t need to pay for his own beers. A lady from Brisbane raised $150 through a GoFundMe campaign. A bloke from Adelaide rang just today and is sending $20. I suppose about $500 has turned up, and it keeps coming.’’
Alvey – who had also been battling fires and was in the fire truck when Parker let loose – said there should be no surprise the outburst had captured such attention.
‘‘He only said what the rest of us were thinking,’’ he said.
It was a hot, dangerous day, with Nelligen under attack from the huge Clyde River fire when Parker made headlines. He and other Nelligen firefighters had battled for hours to save three houses in the village, and Parker ended up spraying down his mates’ cars and trucks so they could escape. Back in town, he yelled from his fire truck to a 7 News camera crew: ‘‘Are you from the media? Tell the prime minister to go and get f---ed from Nelligen. We really enjoy doing this shit, f---head.’’
He says his anger was sparked ‘‘because when Morrison had been asked whether [NSW Rural Fire Service] volunteers should be paid, he’d said no, because they enjoyed what they did’’.
Parker, who insists he is not politically partisan, said he also remained angry that Morrison had left for a holiday in Hawaii as fires spread across large areas of Australia.
‘‘A real man wouldn’t have left his country when it was in turmoil,’’ he said. ‘‘Bob Hawke wouldn’t have left, and Malcolm Fraser and John Howard wouldn’t have left, either.’’
Federal Labor frontbencher Jason Clare got wind of the surge in popularity for buying the Nelligen firefighter a beer and used it in Parliament this week to declare it proved Scott Morrison had failed ‘‘the ultimate pub test’’.
‘‘In politics we talk a lot about the pub test,’’ Clare said.
‘‘If you’re fair dinkum you usually pass. ‘‘If you’re full of it, you’ll fail.’’ Parker, however, isn’t taking the generosity of strangers just for himself. When he drops in to the Steampacket – a regular event – his bar tab becomes a shout for all his mates. –Nine