21 Jun Making Law in a Crisis
At times, it may have felt a little like watching the fast and the furious as governments were responding with numerous law changes during the early days of the Coronavirus pandemic. However, it is important to understand that government was reacting to the crisis and rapidly announcing law changes to help deal with the situation as best they could. Let’s remember, we are all doing our best to navigate a difficult situation.
These are known as public policy instruments and include JobKeeper, JobSeeker, and States of Emergency. Sometimes, the response for one business changed numerous times in the one day. It was hard to follow and, I suspect, even harder for government officials to lead.
Legislation and public policy changes that normally take years took just days.
It was an exciting time in the world of public policy and I wished I were still inside government, at the heart of driving our governments’ response to help the nation at this difficult time.
Now that we have the luxury of better understanding the situation, we are seeing Australian governments release forward planning. That means a few things.
First, governments are announcing their responses ahead of time. So, we know what restrictions are likely to lift on which dates. This gives everyone a bit more certainty and helps business and the community to better plan.
Second, governments are less likely to change their planned approaches. They have decided which industries can return to work, when, and under what conditions. They are reluctant to change their plans, even when some professions are treated differently from other professions doing almost exactly the same thing. The reasoning is that they want to be able to measure the effectiveness of their changes.
We can all be proud of the way that the Australian community has dealt, and is dealing, with this difficult situation.
This article comes from my column entitled “Here to Help” in Hunter Local, June 2020 https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/. 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.
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