If by now you are having problems wondering if anyone in this state has any commitment to driver training and road safety then your concerns are justified as those who are trying and are concerned have an almost impossible task through lack of back up.
Through my government employment and my association with driver training in all types of vehicles, I believe I was without exaggeration one of the highest qualified driving instructor in NSW. Not because I enjoyed some overstated position with expectations of grandeur but because I had my job at heart, caring, teaching and hoping I could impart a little knowledge and skill that might help to make our roads safer.
I had a proven employment record of honesty and integrity, attributes I realised I had to possess if I wanted to progress. I saw driver training at it's best and worst and learnt more than I thought possible. I dared to think I could do more.
Driver training for trainee police has been lost to a buddy style of driving instruction, in effect the NSW Police no longer receive the type of driver training they once did. I don't suppose you can blame them for being disadvantaged, as it's their employer who had decided to take the penny pinching, cheaper less effective training option. That only distracts them from their job and makes them less efficient at the job they are being paid to do, which is policing at a time when their numbers are stretched to the limit.
The NSW Police advise, "it is not up to them to query the workers compensation judge's decision". It is almost beyond my comprehension how the State Government and Police Service can be so arrogant to think they can get away with incompetence and neglect of this type purely on the premise that they don't think it is within my power to do anything.
If authority is not exercised properly, how does society that is already having problems with respect, respect authority?
When the workers compensation court awarded compensation to a schoolteacher, who had his employment terminated for inappropriate behaviour, ex-Premier Carr said of the workers compensation court "they have lost touch with reality". The majority of our state agreed forcing the decision to be overturned on appeal.
All an insurance company has to do is deny liability and then we have to rely on the legal profession in the hope that they can bail us out. Who is there to bail us out when they are not working for the benefit of their client and a just outcome?
In the case of injury, if the insurer has enough paid medical/legal consultants to deny an injury, the insurers through the courts can wash their hands of their responsibilities. Families are left to cope the best way they can, in impossible circumstances and the taxpaying public is ultimately left to carry all ongoing costs through their taxes.
I believe a full investigation is necessary into this type of practice if we are to have any social justice. This won't happen unless the wrongs that have gone before are accepted and the necessary modifications to laws and attitudes are made.
As these situations drag on for years, the information gets lost or remains hidden from the light of day allowing these same injustices to continue plaguing our society. Through their accumulated results they are more relevant today than when they commenced decades ago as they are more deeply entrenched in our society and their expectations.
Trying to raise these issues through normal means has to date had the appearance of being a total waste of time and expenditure as those in our society empowered to make or instigate change apparently don't see the need.
The specifics of my situation are related to and are consistent with the treatment awarded to those outcasts for being too honest in the NSW Police. However, when thrown into the public system, I found that the type of work injury and insurance event that happened to me, are capable of and do occur right across our working class society.
We are currently in a political climate where almost everyone seems to be bitching over the Workchoice legislation. Whether you agree with this or not, if you get buried under the WorkCover legislation, you may not have a work choice to worry about.
With the help, friendship and motivation of those around us, I am now able to do a small amount of casual driving work. I am able to do more around home and am looking forward to a brighter future, in the knowledge that I have done and continue to do what I know to be right.
When these events commenced in 1992 our daughter was in Year 7 of her schooling. We had planned for our fifteenth wedding anniversary, our second family holiday that never eventuated as a result of my injuries. Our daughter is now married and we are expecting our first grandchild. We may never be awarded the justice we deserve or the justice that is the normal expectation in our society. We have seen our way through this man made hell against the odds and we are still a family, doing the best we can in our community.