This gives a time line to Morrisons response to the fires, pretty damming
Like I said before endless material.
The bushfires started in September, and by early November some 300 homes had been damaged or destroyed, the area burnt in New South Wales alone reaching 1 million hectares. Shane Fitzsimmons, the commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service, was warning it could be months before eastern Australia had the bushfires under control. Firefighters were already under stress. “There is no doubt they have flogged themselves silly,” Fitzsimmons said. “They are extremely drained but they are passionate and steadfast in their resolve to do the very best they can for their community.”
NSW was in a state of emergency and the fires in Queensland were also unprecedented. Australian Defence Force liaison officers were working with Emergency Management Australia, as Australia’s largest-ever peacetime deployment of the military was expected. A group of 22 former emergency services leaders led by former commissioner of NSW Fire and Rescue Greg Mullins, the Emergency Leaders for Climate Change, tried to meet with the prime minister (for the second time) to express their alarm at the scale of the threat, but were rebuffed. There was no movement at all from the Morrison government.
By early December, 2.7 million hectares had been burnt out; it was already one of the worst natural disasters in Australia’s history.
On December 10, amid growing panic at the complete lack of federal government response, Morrison, against the backdrop of the worst smoke in Sydney’s history, gave a press conference about… his government’s proposed religious discrimination bill. Responding to journalists’ questions about the fires, he rejected calls for more help for volunteer firefighters, who had been working for many weeks without pay, saying they “want to be there” helping their communities. As Morrison went to leave the building afterwards, the smoke set off a fire alarm, trapping him inside. The symbolism was ripe, but still Morrison refused to heed the signs. No federal government support was forthcoming. Natural disasters were, in his view, a matter for the states to handle.
On December 12, Morrison finally described the situation as a national disaster. Responding to growing criticism, he again sought to deflect blame and responsibility, assuring Australians that “the federal government is responding to all of the needs that have been presented to us by our state and territory authorities”, and again rejecting the calls to lend more support. A report by international think tanks had the day before named Australia as having the very worst climate policies among 57 surveyed, provoking the usual pat responses from the government. But criticism of the government’s negligence in both the fight against bushfires and climate change was becoming intense. Reporting on Morrison’s December 12 press conference, Peter Hartcher
wrote in Nine Media that “the country is crying out for leadership. Instead it got excuses.”
“Having lost control of the discussion about bushfires and what to do about them,”
wrote Laura Tingle on December 14, “there is little sign that Scott Morrison knows how to correct his language, or his apparent grasp of a response.”
On December 15, extreme temperatures were forecast, and over 100 fires burning across NSW were expected to worsen. And the prime minister went on holiday in Hawaii.
https://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/nick-feik/2020/07/2020/1578372000/national-disaster