01-06-2020, 05:48 AM
I’m not going to defend Morrison.
He’s been exactly as the thread title suggests….a ‘deer in the headlights’.
He was knocked off balance by the criticism of his holiday and every time he’s climbed back onto the beam he’s fallen off.
It’s a performance that may well cost him his job.
I do want to make this point though…
The situation we currently face is not like an earthquake, a cyclone, a mass shooting or an unexpected volcano eruption.
In those situations, the critical event happens in a matter of hours, minutes, seconds. Once the major impact of the event is over attention quickly moves to rescue, recovery and rebuild.
This bushfire event is more like a war. It has its major battles, skirmishes then lulls in the fighting but we’re never really sure when the worst is over. It’s been going since around September. There’s a fair chance it will be going for a few months yet…and there’s every chance we may not have seen the worst of it. The ‘generals’ in the various states seem to have been performing well…but they must be feeling the fatigue. Those on the front line certainly are. Like any war it’s a stop start situation with some battles won and others lost…and lines of communication and responses will vary from area to area. That leads to some of the more isolated communities becoming the major casualties and in many cases there is a genuine feeling of abandonment and subsequent anger. Resource allocation is always a matter of ‘where the need’ is felt to be greatest…but the unpredictable nature of a bushfire is such that these decisions can be wrong. Reallocating those resources is made more difficult by road closures.
There was fair warning that this would be a long and hard season…but did any of us sitting in our lounge rooms (or in the seats of power) expect things to reach the level they have.
He’s been exactly as the thread title suggests….a ‘deer in the headlights’.
He was knocked off balance by the criticism of his holiday and every time he’s climbed back onto the beam he’s fallen off.
It’s a performance that may well cost him his job.
I do want to make this point though…
The situation we currently face is not like an earthquake, a cyclone, a mass shooting or an unexpected volcano eruption.
In those situations, the critical event happens in a matter of hours, minutes, seconds. Once the major impact of the event is over attention quickly moves to rescue, recovery and rebuild.
This bushfire event is more like a war. It has its major battles, skirmishes then lulls in the fighting but we’re never really sure when the worst is over. It’s been going since around September. There’s a fair chance it will be going for a few months yet…and there’s every chance we may not have seen the worst of it. The ‘generals’ in the various states seem to have been performing well…but they must be feeling the fatigue. Those on the front line certainly are. Like any war it’s a stop start situation with some battles won and others lost…and lines of communication and responses will vary from area to area. That leads to some of the more isolated communities becoming the major casualties and in many cases there is a genuine feeling of abandonment and subsequent anger. Resource allocation is always a matter of ‘where the need’ is felt to be greatest…but the unpredictable nature of a bushfire is such that these decisions can be wrong. Reallocating those resources is made more difficult by road closures.
There was fair warning that this would be a long and hard season…but did any of us sitting in our lounge rooms (or in the seats of power) expect things to reach the level they have.