This is a story of politics and bureaucracy that has nothing to do with the federal election.
It probably was slightly relevant to the state election result, however.
The recent Gympie hearing of the Inquiry into Volunteering heard people with feet on the ground contesting the most beguiling and professionally crafted nonsense imaginable.
Laws last year which effectively confiscated all the emergency equipment volunteers had worked for over years, were justified as “landmark legislation” (which is really only legislation) which would “improve Queensland’s response to fire, disaster and emergencies and boost the state’s resilience capacity.”
In reality it does not seem to have achieved anything of the kind, instead centralising authority with a bureaucracy which supplied fire brigades with trucks which could not legally carry the water load they were outfitted for and drove volunteer workers to such despair that thousands have walked away.
As previously reported in Gympie Today, one ex-volunteer was threatened with prosecution because he put out a fire without authorisation. Others were told they were not allowed to throw a rope to a person trapped in flood waters unless they had a ticket for it.
This sort of thing is sometimes called “reform” in the public relations material.
Reform would, we were promised, not only make Queensland more disaster “resilient”, but would also “enhance the state’s capacity… to recover,” which is what resilience means.
Loaded language and hypnotic repetition – tricks speech writers learn at university, often in courses called “Communication.”
As they say in the classics: “Just give it to me straight.”
