So happy you have family (and the gorgeous boy) with you for the launch - I'll read it with interest. A couple of random off-the-cuff comments on this fabulous piece (it deserves far more, but I'm pressed). "Persnikety" (great word) or "not a team-player" is always applied to any/all naysayers (I'm thinking here of RoboDebt Colleen who KNEW, and her colleagues who also blew their whistles)... they DID THEIR JOB... "derided" and "mocked" and sidelined and silenced BUT THEY WERE RIGHT..... "Accountability is a slender thing"... but only for some people (too far up the tree? the 'untouchables' ?)... it's the complexity of the mosiac that allows confusion and escape from consequences... still waiting for RoboDebt architects to get their just 'rewards' but not holding my breath... we count all these costs in deaths - Grenfell, RoboDebt, the debacle that is Aged Care and NDIS... but it's the business models and profits that seem to matter
Excellent analysis Rick. The parallels between Robodebt and Grenfell are striking. There is very good BBC Radio Four series called Grenfell: Building a Disaster -- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00201xv
It was made by Kate Humble who, a couple of days after the report came out, was made redundant by the BBC.
>"They are enabled, to varying degrees, by the rest of us."
Yes - deep down, we know that. And when we are confronted (again) with the stark evidence of the institutional apparatus that creates inequalities (such as politicians owning multiple houses), where do we turn? We are impotent in our backyard so-to-speak so why not rage at a far-off war zone, eg Sudan, where we have less than bugger-all hope of having influence?
Couldn't wait for my preorders, so my husband grabbed a copy that hadn't even been put on display yet to bring home! I'm gifting one to a senior good egg who doesn't shy away from tough conversations... Haven't decided who will get my intended copy yet, but it'll be a public servant who needs a push in the fearless direction.
But this bit: “In the mosaic of failure, incompetence and greed that formed the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it did Robodebt we see how an individual who does not want to or cannot do their job properly enmeshes in a system of a thousand other such individuals who are apt, in isolation and then as whole institutions, to be duped, used or otherwise captured by private interests and corporations. Those latter interests care little for what they should do and are occupied, instead, with what they can get away with.”
This is what people like you have taught us. How to watch the mosaic emerge in real-time, should others make the same mistakes.
Wish you’d turn your attention to the fossil fuel giants and their current PR attempts to convince us that gas is “green”. Also to the HUGE methane emissions problem - and regulatory failures - in the US’s Permian Basin and likely in WA here too. (See Sharon Wilson in LinkedIn.)
Rick...Exceptional and Thank You... Take care and look forward to reading your book... Complicit by 'Not My Job' to question and I am just part of the Maze... Doesn't relieve responsibility and accountability...
Gosh it does make you wonder how many Brian Martin's do we have right now in the public service, the Liberal/IPA Party so often deride to justify cuts, in the guise of 'saving money & cutting red/green or any tape', selling it as a bonus to save tax payer money. 'Yes Minister' indeed, must have been written by an insider.
Had a look at our 'fire performance testing' & without understanding the superabundance of test numbers & acronyms, there seems proof that even in light of the Grenfell Tower disaster, many 'inspections' of doubtful cladding in buildings here, have still not been fixed.
Page 62 of 219 recent CSIRO report on Fire Performance for ACP external wall cladding' has a particular worrying mention of 'The UK & some of Europe tests apply the same in Australia'.
God this is so horrifying. I don’t know how you manage to keep writing about it. So many warnings are just ignored.
So happy you have family (and the gorgeous boy) with you for the launch - I'll read it with interest. A couple of random off-the-cuff comments on this fabulous piece (it deserves far more, but I'm pressed). "Persnikety" (great word) or "not a team-player" is always applied to any/all naysayers (I'm thinking here of RoboDebt Colleen who KNEW, and her colleagues who also blew their whistles)... they DID THEIR JOB... "derided" and "mocked" and sidelined and silenced BUT THEY WERE RIGHT..... "Accountability is a slender thing"... but only for some people (too far up the tree? the 'untouchables' ?)... it's the complexity of the mosiac that allows confusion and escape from consequences... still waiting for RoboDebt architects to get their just 'rewards' but not holding my breath... we count all these costs in deaths - Grenfell, RoboDebt, the debacle that is Aged Care and NDIS... but it's the business models and profits that seem to matter
Thanks Rick, brilliant analysis and observations. All the best with the book tour.
I am awed by you capacity to absorb complex material and then in a short space of time write so clearly and comprehensively, and with such critical
Excellent analysis Rick. The parallels between Robodebt and Grenfell are striking. There is very good BBC Radio Four series called Grenfell: Building a Disaster -- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00201xv
It was made by Kate Humble who, a couple of days after the report came out, was made redundant by the BBC.
See also Tim Dunlop The Future of Everything (today)... he writes of the 'accountability sink"... it's pervasive
Analysis. All the best go tonight and the launches
>"They are enabled, to varying degrees, by the rest of us."
Yes - deep down, we know that. And when we are confronted (again) with the stark evidence of the institutional apparatus that creates inequalities (such as politicians owning multiple houses), where do we turn? We are impotent in our backyard so-to-speak so why not rage at a far-off war zone, eg Sudan, where we have less than bugger-all hope of having influence?
Terrifying. And I hope you survive the book tour. Good luck!
Couldn't wait for my preorders, so my husband grabbed a copy that hadn't even been put on display yet to bring home! I'm gifting one to a senior good egg who doesn't shy away from tough conversations... Haven't decided who will get my intended copy yet, but it'll be a public servant who needs a push in the fearless direction.
But this bit: “In the mosaic of failure, incompetence and greed that formed the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it did Robodebt we see how an individual who does not want to or cannot do their job properly enmeshes in a system of a thousand other such individuals who are apt, in isolation and then as whole institutions, to be duped, used or otherwise captured by private interests and corporations. Those latter interests care little for what they should do and are occupied, instead, with what they can get away with.”
This is what people like you have taught us. How to watch the mosaic emerge in real-time, should others make the same mistakes.
Very sharp and clear once again, Rick.
Wish you’d turn your attention to the fossil fuel giants and their current PR attempts to convince us that gas is “green”. Also to the HUGE methane emissions problem - and regulatory failures - in the US’s Permian Basin and likely in WA here too. (See Sharon Wilson in LinkedIn.)
Rick...Exceptional and Thank You... Take care and look forward to reading your book... Complicit by 'Not My Job' to question and I am just part of the Maze... Doesn't relieve responsibility and accountability...
Gosh it does make you wonder how many Brian Martin's do we have right now in the public service, the Liberal/IPA Party so often deride to justify cuts, in the guise of 'saving money & cutting red/green or any tape', selling it as a bonus to save tax payer money. 'Yes Minister' indeed, must have been written by an insider.
Had a look at our 'fire performance testing' & without understanding the superabundance of test numbers & acronyms, there seems proof that even in light of the Grenfell Tower disaster, many 'inspections' of doubtful cladding in buildings here, have still not been fixed.
Page 62 of 219 recent CSIRO report on Fire Performance for ACP external wall cladding' has a particular worrying mention of 'The UK & some of Europe tests apply the same in Australia'.
https://www.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-04/CSIRO-Report-Fire-performance-and-test-methods-for-ACP-external-wall-cladding.pdf