I don’t like to say I told you so, but for about a decade I have been banging on about politicians and civil libertarians watering down our justice system, in particular youth justice.
And look where we have ended up – it is a disaster with a whole bunch of fingerprints on it.
There are lots of reasons.
When you think about it, it probably starts with a lack of support for teachers. Same could be said for police, too – talk about a cluster?
So what have we learned?
Currently, the state Opposition is making the right noises but also has a long way to go to implement what has been promised if the party is elected.
After all, there will be a whole lot of pushback from people who know people in the system.
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As I asked: what have we learned about politicians changing the rules?
Not much, it seems, with the latest legislation about clerks working from home, whether their boss okays it or not. In addition, they can’t ring any employee outside of work hours.
Are we serious?
Some of the rhetoric around this, that is already talked about in the award, is flexible hours – start and finish times that suit, rest breaks, meal breaks and working hours in a non-continuous manner. The list goes on.
What could possibly go wrong with this?
Seriously.
In 10 years, after various businesses have gone broke because of litigation and lack of a human being in the business, we will all be looking back and asking, “What happened here?”, which is what we are doing now about youth crime.
Let me give you a couple of possible scenarios for staff permanently working from home.
On their way to their computer, they trip over the mower that was running and lacerate their foot. In actual fact, they were mowing the lawn.
But hey, who can prove they were? The poor old boss?
I imagine WorkCover also covers you on the way to and from work, so that is another can of worms.
Tripped in the shower and did an ACL when in fact they were kicking a footy in the backyard?
In my view, we are opening the door wider and wider for artificial intelligence. It would cure the whole non-human approach to work.
Maybe a whole bunch of bots would get the job done in parliament as well.
Scary hey?
Ashley Robinson is chairman of the Sunshine Coast Falcons and Sunshine Coast Thunder Netball, and a lifetime Sunshine Coast resident.
