Bureaucracy. Is Australia the World's Worst?

[Bushmiller]

Is Australia the most hamstrung bureaucratic nation in the world? I don't ask this question completely idly or in any way facetiously, but let me return to that in a moment.

It has been plastered all over the newspapers in recent weeks the phenomena surrounding the scale of bush fires along the Eastern seaboard of Australia and indeed in WA too. The early onset of the fires, the number of the fires and severity of the fires is almost unprecedented particularly having regard to the first of my statements. In our region there have been fires too. Smoke from Toowoomba, which is 80Km away drift toward us at times, but about ten days ago a fire started about 28Km out of town. It hasn't threatened the township, but it has certainly threatened the inhabitants of the region. Two dwellings were lost and several other structures (barns, sheds etc.).

The fire brigades made their base at the showground here in town. At the height of the fire there were about thirty rural brigades involved. Local people became involved because it is a small community. People help in whatever way they can. The firefighters are eith locals in Millmerran or from surrounding communities and can also be considered "local." A group of women in Millmerran prepared food for these exhausted firefighters and took it up to the Showground where the firefighters were recuperating.

Bureaucracy stepped in, announced that the food was not prepared in a hazmat kitchen and it was all thrown away. While you are digesting that ( ) I will relate a separate incident.

A friend was working a bulldozer to create a firebreak in case this same fire came closer to town. He is the farm manager for a number of properties and they have one on the outskirts of town between the town proper and the vicinity of the fire. He received another call to help out with a firebreak that was even closer to the fire. The bulldozer was taken to the area and they commenced work on another firebreak until...

WPHS stepped in and said they did not have a hard hat so they had to stop. And stop they did. When my friend's boss, who is one of the quietest people I know, heard about this he was beside himself. Myself, I don't really know what to say other than, if I was working the dozer, I may have considered going over the top of WPHS.

Regards
Paul

[Chesand]

Common sense is not very common nowadays.

My wife, a retired nurse, used to volunteer one afternoon a week at a local old peoples' home until they were being examined for accreditation. She was told by a smart a--e employee that she could not help with afternoon tea as she did not have a food handling certificate. She walked out and has refused to go back despite pleas by the head lady. The employee is no longer there

[China]

While I agree that safety, is paramount, as you say things are becoming ridiculous, a mate who has been a electrician for forty years was told the other week that all of a sudden he needs a certificate so he can climb a ladder over 1.8 metres
and yes he has to go do a course at his expense.

[Chris Parks]

I was a volo in the NSW fire brigade and our primary area was to work in the town's boundaries and a zone into the scrub from the nearest house which was only a matter of a few hundred metres. We were just packing up from responding to a fire and was asked by the local bushies to give them a hand because we could pump way more water on a fire they were trying to deal with outside our boundary. When the local Rural Fire Service kingdom builder heard this over the radio net he rang our control and said we were not needed and to call us off which is what happened. The people in town could not understand why we were not helping protect them and trying to explain emergency services politics is not an easy thing to do.

The politics in the emergency services is almost laughable if it was not so serious.

[BobL]

Common sense is not very common nowadays.

My wife used to volunteer one day a week at a local old peoples' home until they were being examined for accreditation. Shw was told by a smart a--e employee that she could not help with afternoon tea as she did not have a food handling certificate. She walked out and has refused to go back despite pleas by the head lady. The employee is no longer there

I had a similar experience as a volunteer running weekly half hour long woodcraft sessions at an aged care facility.
Before I could start running any sessions I had to undertake a minimum of 3 hours of training on, Elder abuse, Fire Awareness and Hygiene. Followed by a one hour exam covering these courses.

Most of the attendees were in wheelchairs or using a wheeled walkers but I was not allowed to touch or wheel any of the residents until I had done the manual handling course. So when the (qualified) assistant OT was helping one old bloke go to the dunnies (about 20m away) and another resident wanted to go I had to let him wet himself because I had not done the course.

I asked what I was supposed to do if there was a fire and got some blank looks. Eventually I did the Manual handling course and found it was mainly about lifting and carrying boxes, there was only a short section on how to lift people, manage wheel chairs and walkers etc.

I left not long after that.

There's no doubt our bureaucracy leaves a lot to be desired and the examples above are typical of these, but my general experience is that most Australian bureaucracy consists of reasonable checks and balances that annoy people who haven't thought things through, have the patience of a gnat, and wanted it done yesterday.

Recently some friends of ours move here from Germany and they were astonished as to how quickly they could rent a house. They said in Germany it would have taken months to get through all the paper work and reference checks. Some of this is because German tenancy laws strongly favour tenants, and landlords don't want to get caught with a dud tenant.

My experience in Italy is that their bureaucracy is way worse than here, unless a few hundreds of euros are thrown around and then suddenly things happen very quickly. The same applies to many other countries.

I dunno, is "bureaucracy" better or worse than "corruption"?

[elanjacobs]

It all comes down to legal liability and the fact that no one wants to accept any of it should something happen.

One of my TAFE teachers is a qualified maintenance fitter; he's not allowed to fix anything in the workshop because he's a teacher, not maintenance staff.

[poundy]

did someone give him a hardhat?

I personally am (currently) safe in Sydney, but there were fires around where my treechange house is located, in Northern NSW. I hadn't heard of any food being rejected because it wasn't prepared in commercial premises/conditions. I can understand how there's a concern about that, not wanting to have the firies get sick.

[woodPixel]

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[Bernmc]

I'm a professional immigrant - this is my third country of residence, and no-one does bureaucracy like Australia. You can't even wipe your 4rse without a permit in this country.

I made this little sign:

welcome-to-NSW.png

[KBs PensNmore]

I feel the same that Bureacracy has gone over the top. A lot of it is because of litigation, no one wants to be held accountable for anything. So to cover their backsides, they bring in Bureacracy.
I volunteer at the local Day Centre, which is for aged and disabled persons, I have to do the manual handling, a course on using woodworking machinery (on line), food handling, road rules exam (on line), also have to have police clearance checks for both the vulnerable people and children. These courses are done yearly and bi annual.
I work mainly in Tilly's Shed which is similar to a Men's Shed but for the Clients of the Day Centre, making various articles for the clients to assemble or sand so that the clients inside can decorate them
I used to do the Training and Assessing of the Volunteers to use the woodworking machinery, as I had Certificate 4 in Workplace training and Assessing, this role has been taken away from me and given to Maintenance as they are better Qualified!!!!! They come from various fields, a plumber, airconditioning, Fire Fighter and a carpenter. When some wood need to be cut, they come and see me to do it???
As they say bureacracy has gone mad!!!!
Kryn

[apple8]

Several years ago I had to do an assessor’s course to continue to do competency assessments which I had been doing for 20years prior. The course included an exercise as an example. I demonstrated and was assessed in that exercise and I’m now have the qualifications and competency to make........
a sandwich!

[Chesand]

Several years ago, our now daughter-in-law applied for a casual job in sandwich place and was told that she needed 2 years experience in making sandwiches.

[forrestmount]

I think everyone is being a little hard on the sandwich maker qualification.
30 years ago my high school home economics text book featured a “recipe” for vegemite on toast.


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[Boringgeoff]

I've been retired for 12 years but long before that bureaucracy was going mad. In the case of Pauls dozer driving mate times previously the WPHS guy could have thought "I'll ignore he's not wearing a hardie because what he's doing is more important" but today if he was injured there is so much fear of litigation that WPHS guy can't afford to take the risk.
Have a look at all the finger pointing currently with the White Island disaster.
Bernmc, I too am a migrant, coming to Aus was the best thing I ever did and all I can say to you is "if you don't like it go somewhere else".
Cheers,
Geoff.

[Fekit]

Oh the irony.

all I can say to you is "if you don't like it go somewhere else".

That's the reason why things are how they are. Tow the line, or else. Freedom has been strangulated because peoples freedom of expression has been stifled by #wits.