Mr Hunt today agreed he had responded inappropriately to Mayor Miller and a delegation from Katherine at a meeting in Canberra in December last year.

Mr Hunt said he had apologised to Mayor Miller and was now apologising publicly again.

“I used strong language,” he agreed.

“I took too long (to apologise) which is my fault and my responsibility,” he said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was also drawn into the row.

“Sometimes Ministers fall short and he has apologised for it,” Mr Turnbull said.

Mayor Miller has been in a meeting in Darwin all day today and has not able to be contacted.

She has told ABC Radio she was “gobsmacked” by an expletive-laden spray from the Minister.

There has been a tidal wave of support for Mayor Miller on the Katherine Times Facebook today.

Dr P.J. Spafford from Gorge Health, who was also criticised for speaking out on PFAS contamination issues at a Senate hearing yesterday, had also won much local praise.

“Dr Spafford only telling it like it is and thankfully we have a Dr that is more concerned about public health than saying what Defence want to hear,” one reader said.

“OMG! How dare our community leaders criticize the federal government! I would be disappointed in them if they didn't. A government that thinks itself to be above criticism is not a government it is a dictatorship,” said another.