One hundred and fifty ways the nanny state is good for us

Simon Chapman writes:

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 theInstitute 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 advancein 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 is Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney

This article was originally published on The Conversation. A reminder to Croakey readers that TC articles are freely available for republishing under a Creative Commons licence.