Importantly, this is not some sort of "get Morrison" exercise. Voters aren't dumb. People have already made their assessments of his trip to Hawaii and bizarre need to seize the hands of others. Perhaps he believes physical contact will convert them to his cause, but that's irrelevant. What's vital is which way we move forward; central to this will be Morrison's state of mind.

Begin in February, 2017, with him brandishing "a nice big hunk of black coal, kindly supplied by the Minerals Council" in Parliament. Examine that moment, because it so clearly demonstrates his state of mind. Back then (and, in fairness, it was a long time ago) Morrison had no understanding of the dangerous link between climate change caused by rising CO2 emissions and burning coal (amongst other things). Now dismiss that, because a lot can change in three years.

Travel forward to last winter, when he couldn't be bothered meeting, even briefly, with a coalition of retired fire chiefs who were warning of exactly this very problem. So why didn't they burn off and protect our land? Their spokesman, Greg Mullins, says: "in extreme drought like this, underpinned by 20 years of reduced rainfall, our window for hazard reduction is very narrow because it's either too wet or too dangerous to burn. With extreme dryness, everything will burn. That's why we can't put the fires out. Firefighting aircraft are not a panacea. It needs to be new thinking on how we deal with this ongoing crisis into the future."

Morrison mocked the fire chiefs back then. But ignore that, because a lot can change in nine months.

Speed forward to November 29, once the fires had started but before they spiralled out of control. He told Sabra Lane on the ABC's AM program that he "took issue" with the idea we weren't prepared and reiterated his (fatuous) assertion. Morrison asserted the idea that "the individual actions of Australia are impacting on specific fire events ... doesn't stand up to credible scientific evidence either (sic)". Back then his thinking was apparently just as confused as his sentence construction. But forget that, because a lot can change in three months.

Then he went off to Hawaii in December. The growing conflagrations were, he stated baldly, a state matter, and so obviously no place for him. After all, Morrison asked rhetorically, what would he do, "hold a hose?" Well yes, actually, because that's what being a member of a community is about. But forgive him running away from the fires, rather than running towards them, because many of us have done that. What you may feel less inclined to ignore was his continuing assertion that it was not credible to make a direct connection between global warming and any single fire event, and that "many other factors" were responsible for the flames. But dismiss that, because a great deal can change in a month.

Instead, travel on to the last seven days, because the PM has finally come out of hiding and stopped gratuitously visiting people in the midst of their loss and misery to abuse their integrity. Exactly why someone overcome by tragedy should be expected to snap to and suddenly respect a man who's demonstrated he hadn't, until that moment, understood the real cause of the blaze isn't clear to me, but brush that aside. Disregard that, because a political leader should be assessed on how they are acting now, and a huge amount can change in a few days.

READ MORE:

So what's Morrison done? Finally a package, but one carefully crafted. The economic relief almost looks as if it's been crafted specifically to offer a direct boost to GDP, rather than either "fire-proof the nation" or relieve suffering - except in a very marginal, indirect way. The outpouring of assistance and help has come from individual contributions to the fire-affected areas, not the government. While there will be aid for those affected, it looks as if most of that will be dispensed through normal government programs - suggesting Morrison still doesn't understand that this is a problem that will recur next year, and the year after that, because it's linked to an inexorable fact: our climate is changing.

The whole point the PM's missing is there is an absolute, direct and concrete link between the extent, virulence and fury of these bushfires and climate change. Anyone who cannot accept that needs to go back to school, this time paying as much attention to science classes as they did in bible studies.

There have never - ever - been fires or temperatures like the ones this year in recorded history. The only way of understanding why thousands of people were this week seeking refuge on the beaches is to incorporate climate change into your thinking and solutions. While Morrison fails to understand, let alone accept, the significance of this connection, there will be no way he will be able to lead us into the future by finding ways to ameliorate, let alone prevent, the worse crises still to come.