On September 20, a letter I wrote was kindly published by The Border Mail. This letter was under the heading “Prepare for the worst”. It highlighted a common problem that can befall all of us, in that technology is rapidly taking over from human interaction and common sense.
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My letter described the rather farcical, possibly archaic computer system in use by North East Water, when trying to alter my account after the death of my partner. If ever there was an example of the pen (or in this case the keyboard) being mightier than the sword, this may be the smallest example.
My published letter was acted upon by North East Water. Two staff members came to my home to discuss and review operating practices in regards to change of ownership after bereavement. They have internally reviewed current practices and this has highlighted for them areas where improvements can be made to “ensure a significantly better experience for our customers”.
As the situation stands now, a trial of “alternative coding” within the computer program has been initiated.
The results of this trial will be communicated to me within a couple of weeks, advising of its success, or indeed possible failure. Should it be successful, we agreed, that a possible annual figure of 6500 customers will not have a similar experience to the one I have had. This issue may be perceived by some as a “first world” problem, but the essence of what I am questioning, is should we allow our lives to be ruled by “the machine”? This human says no.
Alastair Frederick Edmondson, Rutherglen
Hi Hi Bill and away
Over the last five years the federal Coalition has displayed itself as an untruthful, untrustworthy and deceitful government. First we had all of Tony Abbott's lies then Malcolm Turnbull's indecision and backflips but now we're stuck with another right wing-Liberal controlled muppet for a prime minister.
In the National Party we had the Deputy Prime Minister oversee the stealing of water from the MDBA, and then had to put up with his personal indiscretions. We also saw the National Party of WA leak a highly confidential sexual harassment case of one very highly regarded woman only to be whitewashed. Bridget McKenzie (the current Nationals’ deputy) advocated support for coal-fired power generation when the globe is about to succumb to climate change.
This current Coalition government is politicizing all of our trusted institutions such as the judicial system with the antics of Hunt, Tudge and Sukkor. We've had attacks on the Human Rights Commission, we have had lies about the Uluru Statement of the Heart, they attack the Constitution to enshrine bigotry and hate through "free speech" amendments and they want to privatise the ABC though it is only costing us 0.076 per cent of our GDP.
All this social disruption seems beyond our control, but let me remind you voters, that as part of the Liberal Party, our local member for Benambra Bill Tilley is in support of all the things the federal Liberals stand for. And let us not forget that Bill did have a hand in interfering with the Victorian Police Department when he was against the then Commissioner, Simon Overland.
So we can make a difference, vote for change and put Bill on his horse from whence he came.