Queensland Health confidentiality deed:
Bronwyn Nardi, Queensland Health’s acting deputy Director-General of Policy, Strategy and Resources, writes: Re. “Medical student outrage over Queensland Health gag order” (yesterday, item 2). All clinical staff and students need to understand that patient confidentiality is a critical part of this job.
The duty of confidentiality is a long-standing requirement and is already enshrined in legislation. Whistleblower rights are also enshrined in legislation and nothing in the document removes them.
Our democratic system:
John Richardson writes: Re. Yesterday, comments. For Bernard Keane, Sam McLean, Joe Boswell, Stilgherrian and all those who might be tempted to poke a stick at our democratic system, including anyone underwhelmed by the prospect of having to choose between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, be grateful that we at least have a choice, even if it is only to decide who is the lesser of two evils.
Down the road a piece, in Yemen, voters are being congratulated by the US State Department for embracing democracy because they elected Abd Rabbu Mansour had as President, replacing the country’s strong-man of 33 years, Ali Abdullah Saleh. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. “We consider it to be a very strong and positive referendum by the Yemeni people on the transition process that their leaders have agreed to.”
Nuland then went on to acknowledge that a single candidate election was not really “true democracy” but called it a “beginning point.”
Greece:
Niall Clugston writes: Re. “Greece: a €130 billion exercise in make-believe” (yesterday, item 19). How long will it be before commonsense prevails, and Greece defaults on its Sisephean debt?
How long are the world leaders going to punish the Greek people, and put at risk the global economy, all for the sake of propping up a few greedy, reckless banks who we don’t need and who will probably collapse anyway?
The Acropolis still stands, but this façade is facing a rapid apocalypse.
But isn’t that the beauty of our democratic system – that we can register dissatisfaction (through the ballot box) with parties run by hierarchies that throw up leaders like Howard, Turnbull, Abbott, Rudd and Gillard and create “niche markets” for parties to be led by the likes of Hanson and Katter?
Of course I forgot “Clampett and Bodine”, but their’s isn’t a party – it’s more a “wake”.
Yes, it is a beauty of a demoncratic system. But an untidy beauty. Arn’t all demoncratic systems untidy?
Of course there are very neat and tidy demoncratic systems. They are called … what is the word? …. ah yes, totalitarian.