EROSION OF YOUR RIGHTS

BUREAUCRATS in Brisbane are interfering with the Gold Coast public’s right to know.

Because of so-called privacy issues, the media section of the Queensland Ambulance Service has been told not to give location details of accidents and incidents if they occur at private addresses, including workplaces. This even extends to the name of a street where an emergency has happened, although a suburb will be named.

The policy threatened to derail your right to know late last week when the ambulance media section refused to give the location of an accident in which a man was crushed in the workplace, other than to say it was at Helensvale. This sort of response happens frequently.

Some might side with the ambulance service’s stand, but consider this example: in separate backyard pool incidents on the Gold Coast early this year in which an adult drowned and a toddler almost died, the ambulance service would not provide exact details.

We understand the trauma and grief of such situations, just as we understand the difficult job ambulance crews have in these cases. The Gold Coast Bulletin is a firm supporter of our highly skilled and well-trained ambulance workers, particularly in their right to perform lifesaving work without being harassed and assaulted by drunks and drug-fuelled idiots.

However, we do not support a policy, dreamt up by ideologically driven bureaucrats in the state capital, which gets in the way of press freedom.

Tragedies should be reported and the public has an expectation and indeed a right to be informed. Central to this is our role as the fourth estate, a key pillar in a democracy and in the functioning of our free and open society, which can only operate successfully if the community is kept in the picture.

The huge hole in the privacy policy is particularly evident when we look at drowning incidents.

The Government wants the public to heed not only its educational campaigns promoting pool safety, but also the lessons that can be learned from actual incidents, as upsetting as they are.

How ridiculous it is therefore for a branch of the emergency services to over-ride the wishes of the Government.

The minister and the commissioner have to rethink a policy that borders on the Orwellian.