One or two articles here to give you something to think about in the quiet moments this festive season, or is that Christmas.
1) Letter of the Law
It’s a sad day in Australian politics indeed when we need to look to Rugby League for guidance on how to construct laws. I lost the little interest I had in League years ago, but it is impossible to escape the sport altogether given the saturation coverage in the media. Not interested in League either – fine – just stick with me on this one – this item ain’t about League.
You’ve probably already forgotten the ‘drama’ surrounding Billy Slater before the Grand Final last year: he executed a well-timed shoulder charge in the preceding game and saved a certain try. Problem for him was, shoulder charges are now illegal in League. Would the League allow their biggest star to miss possibly his last grand final due to an illegal tackle … he got off on a technicality.
So now the League has introduced a new rule – dangerous contact – as reported here. If you have done something bad but it can’t be tied to any of the specific rules, they now have a general rule that covers anything bad.
This is a great idea and should be adopted by society. Yes, I am actually serious. I’m not suggesting we have a general ‘you’ve done bad’ law where your guilt would rest on the whim of the judge. But I think it is time we addressed the situation where our laws are defined so tightly that clear wrongdoing goes unaddressed because it was not captured correctly when the law was drafted.
A good place to start would be theft. Theft is theft. You can’t take something that doesn’t belong to you. Simple! Unless it’s a bit of climbing gear accidently forgotten at the base of the crag or left half way up a cliff by someone retreating off a climb – then it’s called ‘booty’ and it’s fair game.
Did Google steal from people when they drove their cars down each street, and used the unprotected modems in houses to read data from people’s personal computers. Let me answer that for you lest you get confused by the infusion of technology into a very simple question. Theft is theft. Google entered somebody’s premises, albeit electronically, and stole something, in this case data, that they did not have title to. Was anyone from Google ever charged with any crime? No, hence the need to add a more general definition of theft to our laws.
I won’t accept the response that, the data still remained in place, and therefore the person did not actually lose anything, and that Google merely copied it. Theft is theft. Google took a copy of the data, for which they did not have permission. Another relevant example where a simple overarching law is required is fraud.
The final word goes to the League on why they’ve drafted the new law:
"I thought Slater escaped on a technicality, and every time something like that happens it weakens the system,'' McCallum told the Herald.
I think he’s onto something there.
2) Gender gap
For me to comment on this article is tricky territory, a place where angels fear to tread … but …
Before I rush in …. and provide a more balanced commentary on the report than the article, let me confirm one point: this report highlights a continuing gap that will not be easy to fix and requires more effort – the disparity in women to men in commercial management roles.
Australia ranks 103rd on the gap between men and women on Health and Survival. To be clear on what the report is telling us understand that the report looks at the gap between men and women, not at the relative level of each country, so even though women in Aus may have better rates of survival and health outcomes than women in other countries, what this report is concerned about is the gap between men and women in the same country.
For Health and Survival, the index is based on two elements, the relative life expectancy, and the ratio at birth of each sex. For longevity, this report considers parity to be achieved when women live 6% longer than men …. So if women live only 5% longer than men, there is still a gap to be closed ... With women already outliving men in Australia, the main cause for Australia to be ranked 103rd on this index is the declining ratio of girls to boys being born.
For politics, it’s about the ratio of parliamentarians, ministers, and the proportion of time in the last 50 years there has been female head of state. To be serious, the first ratio will only be improved by the major parties pre-selecting women for ‘safe’ seats (safe is a relative term and they are rapidly diminishing in number), the second ratio will only improve once the first does.
For the third ratio in the politics category, I’m wondering who they consider to be Australia’s head of state; the Queen, the Governor General or the Prime Minister. We should really clear up this confusion sooner rather than later don’t you think.
To the question posed by the article: How to stop those cranky women busting out. Here is my suggestion. Rely on their high level of education, as supported by this report, to correctly interpret and understand the report, after which they will hang on to their female babies, vote for women candidates and vote out the current conservative government. Those actions will close most of the gaps.
3) Cycling is Dangerous
Do you ever stop and ask yourself this, ‘if the motorbike were to be invented today, would it be allowed to exist?’ My answer is a resounding no. There is no way a politician of today would allow motorbikes onto our roads: thankfully they were created more than 100 years ago and so we can continue to enjoy them.
This article gives us a glimpse into a future that, living in Australia, we will never be allowed to experience: a variety of transport forms in use at the same time. The startling statistic is that last year more cyclists died on Dutch roads than motorists. As always in these situations you must call for more information before making a judgement, such as, what would be the estimated death toll if all of the journeys by bike were completed by car instead.
As bad as the motoring death toll in Australia is, it would be far higher if we were all still travelling by horse. Bring on the transport revolution.
22 December 2018