Jenny Morrison’s incredible kindness was once again shown when it was disclosed that she allowed a family who had been displaced by flooding to reside in her home until the election campaign was over.
When Nikki Durant’s home in the Northern Rivers town of Woodburn flooded earlier this year, she and her two adult sons moved into the home of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny.
The Morrisons didn’t need their home in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire because they were living between the Prime Minister’s official residences in Canberra and the shores of Sydney Harbour at the time.
Ms Durant – who Mrs Morrison hardly knew – had just moved to Woodburn four days before the town and her new home were engulfed by an unprecedented flood.
Woodburn was one of the towns worst-affected by the series of deluges that afflicted south-eastern Queensland and northern NSW.
Most of Woodburn’s 800 residents returned after having to evacuate to find homes, shops and streets destroyed after being underwater for days.
The family were desperate as they stuck in emergency accommodation in northern NSW with nowhere else to go.
Ms Durant, who clean Mrs Morrison’s pool a handful of times, then remembered that the Morrison’s house was empty, but furnished.
‘I rang Jenny up and kind of asked for her help,’ Ms Durant told Channel 9.
‘I didn’t have to think about it too much more because Jenny opened the door to me and I came here. I haven’t actually met Scott, but Jenny, she’s just gorgeous. A gorgeous lady.
‘She said “You’ve got till election time.”‘
Ms Durant, her sons Lucas and Max and Henry the dog didn’t need to be asked twice. They moved in.
But now that the election is over and Mr Morrison is no longer Prime Minister, the Durants have had to move.
Unfortunately, Scott lost and I have to move out now so they can move back in,’ she said.
‘It’s been incredible. I can’t thank them enough. I would have been stuck, I had nowhere to go.’
Ms Durant had only started cleaning the Morrisons’ pool about eight months before leaving Sydney for northern NSW.
‘(Jenny) didn’t know me that well. I’d only met her three or four times. So it shows what a beautiful person she is to do that. I’ve been through a pretty rough time.
Ms Durant’s mother Thelma was also very grateful, saying in a message to the Morrisons ‘how lovely it was for you to let my daughter stay in your house, because no other prime minister would do, I’m quite sure’.
Fortunately, Ms Durant’s Woodburn house has now dried out and work can proceed on it while she lives there. Her sons are staying in Sydney with a relative until the work is complete.
Jenny Morrison’s great kindness to the Durant’s is not the first time she has shown such generosity.
She also offered to stay at a house in Oatlands in Sydney’s north-west after it was burgled.
The house is owned by Leila and Danny Abdallah, three of whose children were killed by a drunk driver in 2020.
We had our house broken into at the time about six, eight months after the tragedy,’ Mr Abdallah said.
‘Leila was at home, someone had run upstairs and taken some jewellery and bolted out, it was all over the news.
‘Jen rings Leila and says ”listen I’m going to come and stay over at your place tonight just so you can feel safe”.
‘How humbling is it to see the Prime Minister’s wife reach out,’ he told businessman Mark Bouris’ podcast.
‘We said ”That’s OK don’t trouble yourself. But she meant it from all her heart that she wanted to make sure Leila was OK.
‘This is something from the heart… they’re genuine people.’
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