Dear Here to Help, I often wonder who in government comes up with some of the ideas that get rolled out and have such a big impact on people and their lives. I also often wonder why or how these ideas were able to go ahead...
When government comes up with ideas (called public policy), they are designed to help us do things that are generally good for society, and help discourage things that are generally bad for society. That makes sense. Well, that’s the easy bit. It’s harder to work out the...
Dear Here to Help I am really frustrated. I am a healthcare professional in Victoria and it is bad enough that government closed down some businesses, but not other, similar business due to Covid. But to add insult to injury, government Covid assistance packages are now only...
One fascinating aspect of human behaviour, and also of public policy development, is that some ideas are just ahead of their time. People just aren’t ready to hear, or act on, the ideas – YET! Let me give you an example, to help make sense of...
Dear Here to Help On the one hand, government tells us we should/must wear masks, wash our hands with soap and water before drying them, and avoid touching high-touch surfaces. On the other hand, most public (local government) toilets don’t have soap, hand drying facilities and...
The question I am asked more often than not is how to obtain fast results from bureaucracy. I never really know how to respond. So I take a slow sip of water and some time to think before providing the answer. Although you may feel we live...
While there is nothing new about buck passing and blame shifting, this may just be me, but does it seem to have caught on like some kind of ‘pandemic’ recently! Since the banking royal commission, the tendency for organisations to claim that something is not within...
Dear Here to Help Everyone should wear a face mask. Why doesn’t government just make it the law? That is an interesting question. Let’s take a step back. The purpose of public policy (which includes laws) is to fix problems, or gaps, in our society. For example, without road...
Dear Here to Help My mother-in-law recently passed and we needed to cancel her phone account. I rang the telecommunications company’s call centre. An automated message told me that they had reduced staff numbers due to COVID and I should go to a store. I duly went...
Dear Here to Help, I recently drove interstate to visit a family member. I rang the tolling company to check I was still registered with them. I am hard of hearing and they speak very quickly in heavy accents and I couldn’t understand them. Finally, they...