Sunday, August 12, 2012

The Doust Files - Albany Advertiser 31/7/201


Most nights as she reads the paper over the evening meal, my partner says: The world’s gone mad.

I remind her that it has not “gone” mad, because it has always been mad. It only seems madder now because we live in it and every paper is full of a new kind of madness.

A new kind of madness on the increase is a personal favourite of mine. It has to do with insurance.
Insurance is why you don’t see children up trees anymore, or running in the street with a footy and why there are no bull fights in Albany run by expatriate Spaniards.

Public indemnity insurance is killing us, not us, as such, but our willingness to take responsibility for ourselves and to take simple risks.

It is a problem in all countries heavily influenced by that most litigious of counties, the United State of America. It is not an issue in Spain, Italy, or Uzbekistan, but it is a major concern in Australia, New Zealand, Israel and growing rapidly in the UK.

Here is a recent example we should note.

A women employed by a Commonwealth Government department was sent to a country town for work, there she met a man and took him back to her room for sex. During the action a glass light fitting was broken and the woman sustained injuries.

She sued the government’s workplace safety body and won. The judge ruled the woman had sustained her injuries in the course of her employment.

My advice to baby boomers without enough super is don’t retire just yet, wait until the bedroom action gets real risky, because there could be money in it for you.

1 comment:

The Worst of Perth said...

You notice how there's no "Only in America!" anymore? It's everywhere.