To be honest, I was ready to write this angrily. Last week, the federal Labor opposition announced they wanted to call off the first day of Parliament in lieu of a day of mourning.
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Then we arrived to Monday morning's news conference to hear the state government will do the same.
Except theirs will go for the entire week.
How dare they - I initially thought - use their relatively limited days actually at their seat in an unending procession of MPs taking to the soap box and expressing their "deepest sympathies" to everyone affected by this summer's bushfire crisis.
Surely these elected officials have more tangible work they could be doing to actually assist those very same people with whom they are sympathising.
The first council meeting of the year didn't set aside its usual busy agenda just to share in the community's sorrow - and given they are most certainly directly affected they'd likely be forgiven if they had.
How much does it cost taxpayers to cover one sitting week? Is there something better on which they could spend this time?
Or, as a friend of mine said yesterday, "How does this dedicated week of navel gazing help Steve who lost his house in Cobargo, or Dave who lost his house in Rocky Hall? Or the myriad others who are in real pain at the moment?"
On Monday, Bega MP Andrew Constance held a small media conference to discuss this move of the State Parliament, among other fire-related issues. His responses began to temper the heat rising in my blood.
He said it's about the emotional support, mental health concerns and the clear demonstration our elected politicians are sharing this journey with us.
"We've lost 26-27 lives, quite literally thousands of people displaced, they've lost everything, they've lost their homes.
"It's very important that every member of parliament has the opportunity to reflect their community - because it's part of the recovery and healing process."
Mr Constance said parliament needs to reflect community values, community spirit.
"If we don't have that outpouring of love and support in our parliament then what's the point of democracy."
Tangible support from all levels of government is already in train - army reserve deployments, mobile disaster recovery centres, financial assistance, among others.
While a week of condolences will not advance that at all, I guess it's nice to know that our politicians can also be human.
What are your thoughts? Send me a letter to the editor below