Watching our politicians fumble through the bushfire crisis, I’m overwhelmed by déjà vu

As someone who has studied Australian climate policy and politics closely, this summer’s bushfire crisis have been both heartbreaking and bewildering. The grave warnings politicians ignored for so long have now come to pass.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was savaged by
critics for refusing to meet former fire chiefs.

The fires may be without precedent, but these dark weeks have also brought an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. It’s hard to believe, but the Morrison government’s fumbling response to the fires and the broader climate crisis is in many ways history repeating.

From the disastrous optics of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s trip to Hawaii to blaming conservationists for the fires, our politicians keep making the same blunders and rolling out the same failed strategies.

Read the story from The Conversation by a researcher on sociomaterial transformations and social movements from Keele University, Marc Hudson - “Watching our politicians fumble through the bushfire crisis, I’m overwhelmed by déjà vu.”