Public servants - their roles are to strive to achieve the public good above all else. So why are there systems in the sector causing disasters?
I feel like there needs to be a mantra sung each morning for politicians and public servants to keep their intentions and focus together. Instead, some behave as if they are authoritarians exercising their muscle.
Why must servants make things more difficult for the public to adhere to these exhausting, confusing and non-functional systems?
There's less people willing to risk their lives for others and the fire fighting across our nation has highlighted this again. So the Queensland government states that volunteers need a blue card?
Why, so they can enrol them in another clunky system? A magic blue card is not going to stop a psychopath doing something destructive, however it will stop a lot of honest, skilled, hard working people from saving lives and the environment.
Why have desk experts decided to lock up land, neglect managing it, to watch from their laptops an incredible smoky carbon release and fire deforestation, destroying thousands of Queensland hectares, wildlife, livelihoods and food production?
Why is the Education Minister suggesting we start children in schools earlier? Is it so the government has less years to subsidise childcare, a side effect of encouraging both parents to promptly return back to work?
Never mind the international research on the stressed kids and youth from too much pressure and not enough time playing and freely learning to be kids.
A recent article highlighted a Perth school deciding to reduce lunchtime breaks to 15 minutes and then have "instructional play" instead of free play. You may think this is appalling, then you read on and see that in the short term it's fixing new-age problems we may not realise exist - kids don't know how to play anymore, how to lose, how to get along with other kids.
While this could be a short term solution for this school, are we looking at the root causes of these dysfunctional systems?
All these heavily funded and researched systems are having flow-on effects that are compounding into more problems in society.
While it does create "more jobs" for "more experts" to come up with another short sighted solution, why is the crucial, missing ingredient of what is best for the common good, being forgotten?
- Sara Westaway, livestock and property marketing
