There are news stories highlighting the harms and calls for bans on the sale of fireworks for home use.
Then the coverage fizzles out until we do it all again the following year.
To call this annual routine a damp squib would be an understatement, even if the description suits the subject.
This year coverage of the issue has included information from an online survey commissioned by AA Insurance involving a nationally representative sample of more than 1000 participants aged 18 and above.
Asked whether there should be a ban on backyard fireworks, 53% said yes and a further 20% wanted fireworks banned completely.
Scaring animals, risk of fire, risk of personal injury, social disruption and irresponsible use ranked highest in respondents’ reasons for wanting a ban.
In this part of the country, Accident Compensation Corporation statistics show more than 50 southerners have been left with serious injuries related to fireworks in the past five years.
About a quarter of those who incur injuries from fireworks each year are children.
As well as the harms from fireworks, there is also the perennial question about why we are celebrating an archaic treasonous plot which happened in England several hundred years ago.
How many fireworks buyers know or care that November 5 commemorates Guy Fawkes, who was foiled in his attempt to blow up the House of Lords during the state opening of Parliament in November 1605?
In New Zealand there has been controversy and debate about the selling and use of fireworks since at least the 1960s.
Older readers may remember the persistence of Petone single mother Beverley Pentland in the 1970s and early 1980s (she died in 1984).
She successfully campaigned for some restrictions on the sale time and the age at which fireworks could be purchased.
She became known as "The Fireworks Lady" when she travelled the country promoting the safe use of fireworks.
She had been spurred into action after observing 5- and 6-year-old children coming out of a shop laden with fireworks bought with their lunch money.
In the 1990s there were parliamentary debates about banning all public sales of fireworks.
This did not find favour, but firecrackers and skyrockets were banned.
Later, the explosive content of some fireworks was decreased.
The current settings limiting sales to four days, raising the legal age for purchasing from 14 to 18 years and stopping the individual sale of sparklers, have been in place since 2007.
These piecemeal changes have not stopped the harm, particularly to animals, including our native birds which are often nesting at this time of year.
As the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) points out, birds can panic and flee an area, something which can have a long-term effect on breeding success.
One of the big issues is that while there is a strict limit on the number of days to buy fireworks, when you can set them off is not restricted, meaning pet and farm animal owners must be on alert year round.
Before the election, the SPCA sought political parties’ policies on the issue.
Labour, Act, New Zealand First and Te Pati Māori had no policy for a ban on private sale and use of fireworks.
The Green Party supported ending private sale and use in favour of safer public displays.
It proposed public consultation on a ban and, if it was not supported, consideration given to limiting their use to a definite period as is done in some other countries.
National said it was not planning to ban private sales but would "consider options in government to reduce their misuse", whatever that meant.
Like the SPCA, which has long advocated for a ban on the private sale and use of fireworks, we remain baffled that despite years of support for this from a variety of organisations and much of the wider public, our lawmakers do nothing.
Perhaps we need a latter-day Beverley Pentland on the case.
