The Golden Key

07 Apr The Golden Key

Dear Here to Help,

I really struggle to understand government, how it works, and how to engage with government. Is there some kind of “golden bullet” that gets the attention of government?

Thank you for your query.

There are, indeed, some key phrases that can help you better engage with government. One of these is “unintended consequences”.

When government makes a decision, it expects certain things to happen. Let’s take a simple example that most Novocastrians will relate to. When the steps at the Merewether Ocean Baths were built, the decision-makers likely expected them to be used to access the various levels up to Scenic Drive. However, the steps are well known for people exercising. This secondary use of the stairs can be called an “unintended consequence” of building the stairs.

“Unintended consequences” can be positive (such as exercising) or negative. Negative unintended consequences might be things like, in this example, discouraging people from healthy activity.

Where negative unintended consequences arise out of a government decision, this is an opportunity to go back to the responsible department and have that discussion. For the best results, you should make sure you understand the original decision, the reasons behind it and how those unintended consequences arose. This is the difference between intended consequences and unintended consequences. Finally, don’t forget to have some ideas about how those unintended consequences can be avoided.

Let’s look at an example. In it’s 2019 Budget, the Federal government significantly cut Medicare rebates to a complex medical specialist profession, compared to similar medical specialties. This made it more attractive for doctors to perform other types of services that were better remunerated. Going forward – would this specialty still attract students? Clearly, the government did not intend these consequences – hence “unintended consequences”. And so, we talked to the government and the government increased Medicare rebates for this specialty back in line with similar specialties.

An issue I often come across is people assuming government’s intentions for it, rather than doing the research. That’s why researching the government’s intentions is so important to help you determine what are unintended consequences.

In this case, the golden phrase was “unintended consequences” – by discussing the unintended consequences of government’s decisions, this facilitated the government taking a more appropriate decision.

This article comes from my column entitled “Here to Help” in Hunter Local, April 2022. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to “Here to Help” and let’s see what we can achieve.

Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation.