Government approves Santos Barossa pipeline and sea dumping

The Australia Institute Media Release   Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Department has approved a…

If The Jackboots Actually Fit …

By Jane Salmon   If The Jackboots Actually Fit … Why Does Labor Keep…

Distinctions Without Difference: The Security Council on Gaza…

The UN Security Council presents one of the great contradictions of power…

How the supermarkets lost their way in Oz

By Callen Sorensen Karklis   Many Australians are heard saying that they’re feeling the…

Purgatorial Torments: Assange and the UK High Court

What is it about British justice that has a certain rankness to…

Why A Punch In The Face May Be…

Now I'm not one who believes in violence as a solution to…

Does God condone genocide?

By Bert Hetebry Stan Grant points out in his book The Queen is…

As Yemen enters tenth year of war, militarisation…

Oxfam Australia Media Release   As Yemen enters its tenth year of war, its…

«
»
Facebook

Nature abhors a vacuum

By 2353NM  

In the past year or so, most of us would have become quite familiar with the group of people that seem to front up almost daily to discuss the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in each Australian jurisdiction. Usually there are a couple of politicians ably backed up by the experts in public health management, a high-ranking commissioned Police Officer, with a person live translating the discussion into Auslan for the benefit of those with hearing difficulties.

To some extent, they have all become minor celebrities, demonstrated by when the Queensland Government’s usual Auslan interpreter seemed to disappear from view recently, it became a news story in itself. He was ok, but quarantined.

Generally, the Chief Health Officers give background to the decisions they have recommended, with a degree of frankness that is lacking from politicians. As examples, Dr Janette Young, Dr Kerry Chant, Prof Brett Sutton and Dr Nicola Spurrier are happy to discuss their recommendations at a level where you don’t have to be a medical professional or the holder of a science-based PhD to understand. They communicate clearly and explain not only the decision but the reasons for the decision and none of them seem to be afraid to suggest that they actually don’t know all the answers. The ‘experts’ are also happy to discuss what they hope will happen if the plan works as intended.

Why do the respective governments around Australia wheel out their Chief Health Officers and similar staff when there is a crisis to address? The pattern is not a new thing. Shane Fitzsimmons is remembered by many as the ‘head’ of the New South Wales Fire Service during the 2019/2020 bushfires explaining the how and why of fire management. Various meteorologists are also given the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to explain why floods and cyclones affect some areas and not others most summers. In general, the expert information provided appears to be free of spin, marketing and point-scoring. As such, the majority of people put a great deal of trust in the provided information.

There is a lesson here for politicians and reporters, a lot of whom are sharing the stages with the various Chief Health Officers and their ilk at the moment. Frank and fearless advice generally is better accepted than incessant marketing, spin, vacuous promises and claims that cannot be either substantiated or supported. While there are certainly people who think the ‘experts’, reporters and the politicians are in cahoots to force us all into submission by the ‘lizard people’, most of us can understand frank advice and assess that we really should act upon it even if we find the actions irritating, annoying or difficult to comply with.

In contrast, Prime Minister Morrison determined that the dealings of the ‘national cabinet’ (which really are regular meetings of the Prime Minister and each state’s Premier/Chief Minister) should be secret. There has always seemed to be some ambiguity around the consensus achieved in ‘national cabinet’ meetings which suggests there isn’t always agreement. It is rare for the Premiers and Chief Ministers to be on the same stage as Morrison when the ‘national cabinet report’ is being presented.

Morrison’s justification for the secrecy is his decree that the ‘national cabinet’ was a committee of the Federal Government. It seems that others disagreed, with Senator Rex Patrick taking the government to court to gain access to ‘national cabinet’ documentation. The judge agreed with Senator Patrick that the justification for secrecy was invalid. The government had 30 days to appeal and on past history it probably will.

In comparison, the level of compliance with the patient and logical discussions by the medical experts who ‘stand up’ every day to go through the reasons for the restrictions in all our lives demonstrates that most of us can handle the truth even if it isn’t what we want to hear. It also seems that most of us can rationalise that some restrictions on our personal ‘freedoms’ help ourselves and others in our community, despite the claims of some who should know better.

A culture of secrecy does have consequences. If we don’t have the information there are a multitude of people who will make it up for a variety of reasons, including self-aggrandisement or to promote their own view of the world. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, people will fill information gaps caused by secrecy with ‘information’ that might be correct, but more than likely will not.

Open and honest communication demonstrates there is nothing to hide. It’s about time our politicians and reporters tried it. After all, they know the process works as they have been nearby spectators as it is demonstrated almost every day for over a year by the specialist staff employed to maintain public health.

What do you think?

 

This article was originally published on The Political Sword

For Facebook users, The Political Sword has a Facebook page:
Putting politicians and commentators to the verbal sword

Like what we do at The AIMN?

You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.

Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!

Donate Button

6 comments

Login here Register here
  1. Carol Taylor

    I see this in NSW currently. It seems reasonable to expect that NSW Contact Tracers are overwhelmed by the daily tally of 1,200+ and evidenced by the fact that NSW was pleading for help in July, and received it from WA and SA. Yes, that’s right, WA has been helping with Contact Tracing for NSW in spite of Gladys/Morrison aka Murdoch constantly heaping sh*t on WA. That is, the Murdoch media CREATES a vacuum by filtering information based what it perceives will benefit The Right of politics. Who knew that WA was helping NSW? Very few in the eastern states I suspect.

  2. Mark

    What does one think – you ask. Well I think that sometimes political leaders tell untruths. And so they should!

    Further, lying can be justified by reference to the concept known as utilitarianism (various iterations) – though commonly expressed as the greatest good for the greatest number.

    Should politicians always listen to the advice provided by particular experts? Yep! Religiously.

    Should politicians always act on that particular advice? Nope! Not in a democracy at least. We live in a representative democracy and sage advice comes from a variety of sources but invariably it’s peculiar and particular and therefore not free from bias. Politicians have a very difficult job. Particularly if they are doing it properly. Given their freedom to decide they shouldn’t be able to therefore outsource the accompanying responsibility.

  3. 2353NM

    @Carol Taylor – No I didn’t know that WA Contract Tracers were helping NSW, but did know that Queensland Contact Tracers have been for quite a while (it was one of those ‘good news’ stories on the ABC’s Sunday night news a month or so ago). Absolutely nothing wrong with helping NSW, it’s a pity that NSW needs the help and the conservative politicians and press aren’t acknowledging it rather than playing games.

    @Mark – potentially you have a point when the population’s opinion is being sought in the Parliament (although you could also argue that the Party system invalidates the concept of representatives of communities getting a voice – it’s more like the politician being told what to say and do by the ‘back room’), however in a health or financial emergency the experts in the field have forgotten more than most politicians will ever know and the intelligent politicians are now – just as they did in 2008 – deferring to the expert advice. It’s worked in most states of Australia.

  4. pierre wilkinson

    Open and honest communication is the antithesis of Morriscums raison d’etre, which comprises of secrecy and lies, mixed with a general amount of obfuscation, mendacity and falsehoods

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Return to home page