In Australia, anyone who supports rules and regulations that make products safer or improve public health can expect to come under attack from critics arguing they’re restricting freedom and turning the country into a “nanny state”.
These “nanny state” critics are everywhere and they’re superficially persuasive. After all, who wants government to tell them how to live their lives? But scratch the surface and you’ll discover nanny state critics are frequently backed by powerful vested interests, like the tobacco industry arguing against plain packaging on cigarettes, or the secretive PR outfit know as the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) arguing against government per se.
Nanny state critics are almost always self-interested. They’re rarely motivated by the freedoms they purport to defend. And invariably their arguments crumble under scrutiny.
Personal liberties
In May, the IPA’s director of climate change policy and intellectual property and free trade unit Tim Wilson wrote an opinion piece that encapsulates the organisation’s opposition to nanny state regulation:
incremental attacks on our freedom to choose are single steps down a longer road to remove individual choice and responsibility.
Wilson wrote of the “rising groundswell of Australians who are sick of increasing local, state and federal government regulations of their choices” and denied that people like him want to “selfishly put their wants above the safety and happiness of others”.
Wilson also warned that we should all “learn to manage risk through our choices” and that it is not “the job of government to coddle us from the world’s evils, avoid risk and use taxes, laws and regulations to either steer or direct our behaviour”.
The IPA has academic pretentions and calls its associates “fellows”. But it has not the first idea about academic principles such as funding transparency, refusing to name its corporate sponsors (they include British American Tobacco).
The IPA has an infamous list of 75 policies and institutions it would like to see abolished. These include the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, the Australian National Preventive Health Agency, repealing renewable energy targets, plain cigarette packaging and the alcopops tax, and the end of mandatory food labelling.
This isn’t surprising. I was a board member of Choice magazine for 20 years, and lost count of the number of times manufacturers staunchly resisted voluntarily making changes to their dangerous, ineffective or substandard products.
Public good
Changes to laws, regulations, mandatory product standards and public awareness campaigns have saved countless lives over the years:
Before the advent of mandatory shatterproof safety glass for showers, many people suffered major lacerations and occasionally died after bathroom accidents
Before 2008, it was legal for fast-buck retailers to sell children’s nightwear that could easily catch fire: many children were hideously burnt and scarred for life
Prior to the introduction of safety guidelines, at least three Australian children were reportedly disemboweled after sitting on swimming pool skimmer box covers shaped like children’s potty.
And the list goes on.
With these, as with nearly every campaign to clip the wings of unethical manufacturers, there was protracted resistance.
Similar attacks once rained down on Edwin Chadwick, the architect of the first Public Health Act in England in 1848. He proposed the first regulatory measures to control overcrowding, drinking water quality, sewage disposal and building standards.
In response, the Times thundered:
We prefer to take our chance with cholera and the rest than be bullied into health. There is nothing a man hates so much as being cleansed against his will, or having his floors swept, his walls whitewashed, his pet dung heaps cleared away.
And yet on the 150th anniversary of the Public Health Act, a British Medical Journal poll saw his invention of civic hygiene, and all of its regulations, voted as the most significant advance in public health and medicine since 1840.
Counting the ways the nanny is good for us
Next time you hear someone attack “the nanny state” for intruding on personal liberty or being a heinous burden on business, here’s a long list of examples that show how nanny state coddlings and protections have paid off. I stopped at 150 but I could have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled the list.
We don’t hear much from the IPA and its ilk on any of these because they are all immensely popular, taken-for granted safeguards on our health, safety and quality of life. Because of them, Australia is one of the healthiest nations on earth. And other countries are climbing over themselves to emulate many of these as best practice.
So a public invitation to the IPA: which of these 150 heinous intrusions on people’s freedoms and the right to unbridled commerce does it wish to see abolished?
Access to drugs: Drug scheduling
Access to drugs: Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
Access to health care: Compulsory third party motor injury
Access to health care: Medicare
Alcohol control: Minimum legal drinking age
Alcohol control: Responsible serving of alcohol
Building standards: Balustrade and railing height regulations
Building standards: Elevator, standards & inspection
Building standards: Fire safety building regulations
Building standards: Floor space provision (preventing overcrowding)
Building standards: Mandatory smoke alarms
Building standards: Mandatory swimming pool fences
Building standards: Maximum water temperature regulation
Building standards: Safety glass standards
Building standards: Swimming pool skimmer box standards
Builing standards: Mandatory Residual Current Devices (electricity)
Cancer control: Sunsmart regulations for schools and daycare
Child protection: Background checks for staff working with children
Child protection: Child pornography laws
Child protection: Mandatory reporting of child protection incidents
Congenital malformation prevention: Folate fortification
Dental health: Fluoridation of water
Disability: Disability parking permits
Disease control: Mosquito control
Disease investigation: Cancer registries
Drug control: Pseudoephidrine pharmacy controls
Drug regulation: Illicit drug regulation
Drug safety and efficacy: pharmaceutical drug regulation
Emergency services: 24/7/365 emergency service phone lines
Emergency services: 24/7/365 poisons information service
Environmental health: Backyard burning controls
Environmental health: Burial standards
Environmental health: Controls (air quality standards) for industrial emissions to air
Environmental health: Controls on industrial discharges into rivers
Environmental health: Emission controls on cars
Environmental health: Lead in paint banned
Environmental health: Lead in petrol banned
Environmental health: Legionella control standards for cooling towers
Environmental health: Petrol and diesel fuel standards (for emission controls)
Environmental health: Planning regulations around open space
Environmental health: Recycled water standards for reuse applications
Environmental health: Septic tank standards
Environmental health: Sewage discharge standards
Environmental health: Stormwater drainage
Farm safety: Tractor rollover harm reduction
Food safety: Abattoir standards
Food safety: Food additive labelling
Food safety: Food allergy labelling
Food safety: Food handling standards
Food safety: Food standards (many)
Food safety: Genetically modified organisms regulation
Food safety: Pasteurisation of milk
Food safety: Publication of filthy restauarant names
Food safety: Regulation of food additives
Food safety: Regulation of food store refrigerator temperatures
Health promotion: Mandatory physical education in schools
Health promotion: Mandatory school canteen standards
Health promotion: Rights to breast feed in public places
Infection control: “blood rule” in sport
Infection control: Autoclaving of dental equipment
Infection control: Bans on public spitting, urination, defecation
Infection control: Chlorinated water supplies
Infection control: Dog faeces disposal
Infection control: Drinking Water Quality A124 standards
Infection control: Immunisation standards and infrastructure
Infection control: Infection control standards and protocols
Infection control: Legalisation of brothels
Infection control: Mandatory immunisation for health care workers
Infection control: Mandatory sewerage and sanitation in urban areas
Infection control: Notifiable disease laws
Infection control: Sex worker health checks
Infection control: Sharps disposal and blood borne virus controls
Infection control: Skin penetration legislation re hairdressers, dentists, tatooists, body piercing
Infection control: Veterinary and animal husbandry standards
Infection control: Water standards in public swimming pools
Information control: Advertising standards
Mental health: Mental health scheduling
Occupational safety: Workers' compensation
Occupational health: Asbestos building ban
Occupational health: Dust standards
Occupational health: Hard hats
Occupational health: Harness standards
Occupational health: Noise standards
Occupational health: Personal protective equipment regulations
Occupational health: Scaffolding standards
Occupational health: Smoke free workplaces
Occuptational health: Asbestos removal standards
Product safety: Condom standards
Product safety: Controls, bans on lead (other heavy metals) used in toys
Product safety: Myriad of standards, bans, recalls etc.
Professional standards: Childcare facilities
Professional standards: Continuing medical education
Professional standards: Licensing of healthcare facilities
Professional standards: Medical and allied health worker registration
Professional standards: Nursing home regulation
Public amenity: Noise regulations
Public safety: Agricultural and Industrial chemicals regulation
Public safety: Child resistant cigarette lighters
Public safety: Child resistant medical packaging
Public safety: Design rules for babies' cots to reduce the risk of asphyxiation
Public safety: Dog licensing
Public safety: Engineering standards for roads, bridges
Public safety: Extraordinary powers under the Public Health Act to deal with emergencies
Public safety: Gun laws
Public safety: Hair dryer standards to prevention bath electrocution
Public safety: Hazard reduction in child playgrounds
Public safety: Nightwear for children mandatory standards
Public safety: Pesticides registration and control of use
Public safety: Poisons Act
Public safety: Poisons labelling
Public safety: Quarantine Act
Public safety: Reduced ignition propensity cigarettes
Public safety: Regulations around provision of footpaths
Public safety: Safety standards for fitness and leisure equipment
Public safety: Sunglass standards
Public safety: Total fire bans
Public safety: Toy standards
Radiation control: Carriage and transport of radiated material
Radiation control: Dental x-ray equipment standards
Radiation control: Sun bed bans
Radiation control: Uniformity in the control of radiation use
Road safety: Air bags in cars
Road safety: Bicycle helmets
Road safety: Breath alcohol ignition interlock devices for repeat drink drive offenders
Road safety: Double demerit points (driving)
Road safety: Drink driving penalties
Road safety: Energy absorbing steering columns
Road safety: Graduated driver licensing schemes
Road safety: infant and child vehicle seat restaints
Road safety: Mandatory motor cycle helmets
Road safety: Motor cycle helmet standards
Road safety: Motor vehicle design standards
Road safety: Pedestrian crossings
Road safety: Provisional and learner drivers' licensing
Road safety: Random breath testing
Road safety: Seat belts in cars, school buses
Road safety: Speed limits
Road safety: Speed limits near schools
Road safety: Standards for medical assessment of fitness to drive
Road safety: Third brake lights on cars
Road safety: Traffic regulation in general
Road safety: Vehicle roadworthiness inspections
Road safety: Dedicated bicycle lanes
Tobacco control: Health warnings on tobacco products
Tobacco control: Outlawing “light and mild” descriptors on tobacco
Tobacco control: Plain packaging of tobacco
Tobacco control: Smoke free public transport
Tobacco control: Tobacco sales to minors legislation
Tobacco control: Tobacco tax
Violence control: Criminalising domestic violence
Simon Chapman does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.