A quick look at the ‘Repeal Day’ concept – almost right
The Australian Government has announced a ‘Repeal Day’, intended to be used to axe the existence of hundreds of outdated laws. The concept is a good one, though for me, doesn’t quite get the Australian Parliament into a forward looking setting in how it could develop FUTURE legislation. So what could be done instead and what are the Repeal Day risks?
Repeal Day is not a new concept with the US Government often spending time wiping out old laws in one big all encompassing sitting. The idea is both necessary and overdue and I can see this idea becoming an annual or ‘first event’ headline act of new Governments across Australia.
To give you a small personal example of outdated laws, in my first career out of school I had cause to use a piece of law, a by-law of a large council, which made it an offence for people to walk on the right hand side of the footpath. Yes, please do re-read that and then understand that the law dated back to the latter part of the 19thC. So there I was, in the late part of the 20thC applying a law from around 1865 or so. It seems ridiculous and I’m not sure if that law still exists, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was yet to be repealed – law and order for society and all that.
And so now we have a whole raft of laws that were ‘good ideas’ (or not) in their day. As a small business owner I’d really look forward to not having to do BAS every quarter or deal with the multiple requirements of superannuation payments. There’s many others. And so the Repeal Day appeals. But there are risks
The core risk is that in the passion for cutting red tape or intention to simplify the burdens of legal compliance, good laws get thrown out. There’s the risk that this idea of simplification becomes a political football where a repeal is targeted in a heavy handed fashion. That is as likely as it is unlikely.
Overall though the greatest risk is that laws with good intentions that are still valid, are scrapped because they were poorly constructed – a solid and worthwhile principal is discarded because of the existence of a clumsy or heavy handed nature in how the law applies.
Which is why Repeal Day doesn’t quite set us up for FUTURE legal developments. For those who’ve read some of my thoughts before, you’ll know that for years I’ve been calling for a ‘Sunset Clause’ on all legislation. The sunset clause would make all legislation self repealing making a Repeal Day irrelevant. It would also turn the focus of Parliament towards updating laws. Trying to keep pace with IT developments in Privacy for instance, is beyond the realm of most Governments. A sunset clause would see the law developed and then consistently reassessed to ensure the law is still meeting the intentions and relevancy framing. A refresh, new sunset clause and on it goes. If no longer required, the law would sunset and nothing else need be done.
I think the Repeal Day concept could be useful if treated carefully, and not as a sweeping of ideology. That’s its big risk. Developing Laws with a Sunset Clause brings Parliament up to date as a forward thinking legislative body
In around a week’s time there’ll be a version 2 of a Trump Presidency in the United States. One thing I’d expect to see is a much less bridled Trump presidency. The first time around a number of long standing and experienced people were around to temper and guide some of the thinking. This time…
Read More >Looking Up Feeling Good are delighted with our involvement with Steel Chicks and this session with Dr Kim Hazendonk was another great example of bringing immediately useful insights to the attendees. Dr Hazendonk spoke about ways to use your brain more effectively, how to overcome the distractions both in the workplace and beyond – brilliant…
Read More >Or so it may seem. This quarter has seen me interstate facilitating some strategic planning workshops; overseas working with an established Government client, working with CGD, SELLEN, and Hilton Manufacturing among others here in Oz, a couple of weeks holiday down in Tasmania, and also the occasional radio interview looking at the ‘Future of…’. And…
Read More >Some thoughts flowing from my session discussing challenges in Futures Consulting posted by James Balzer: I’d explained to the group that what I do is engage employees in thinking about their own and their organisation’s future potential. My strong view over twenty years of work in this space is that employee engagement is DIRECTLY driven…
Read More >Tomorrow morning (Friday the 12th) I’ll be joining Elizabeth Kulas on Disrupt Radio discussing the Future Of Workplaces. There’ll be a particular focus on why most organisations choose to struggle because they rely on outdated models of employee management. A 7.15am kick-off where, in about 7 minutes or so, I’ll try to distill 20 years…
Read More >It’s extremely rare that I post to a specific article and say ‘go read this’, which is what I’m doing today. This article on goal directed intelligence at a micro level is a challenge to read. And I do recommend you read it because it pushes forward our understanding of how our biology and arguably…
Read More >If you followed my numerous posts over the years you know I like jumping in early on new products or services – not all have been successful, especially on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but you roll the dice sometimes and see what happens. Over the years Looking Up Feeling Good was an early community investor in…
Read More >In the 1760s Josiah Wedgwood changed forever the nature of workplaces. He expanded his pottery business and constructed a new large scale factory that required two critical elements: a) Systemisation of processes to ensure consistent high-quality outcomes b) Skilled workers on site The systemisation required experimentation, observation, trials, failures and recording of data – what…
Read More >We’re delighted to announce that Neuro-Psychologist Dr. Kim Hazendonk of Positive Brain has accepted our offer to join our elite speaker’s group. We’re looking forward to bringing her to more groups across Australasia as she discusses effective workplaces, positive mind management, and managing busy lives. If you have a need for an engaging and passionate…
Read More >I flag my bias towards the need for a vastly improved approach to managing staff in the work environments. V A S T L Y improved. I’m still surprised at how clunky, disorganised or naive some senior managers are when it comes to that part of the business that considers ‘people’. And rather than cover…
Read More >