Tuesday, Sep 20, 2016 at 20:10
Tom
There is a very good reason you can’t legislate for “Stupidity”, in fact I’ll venture there are two reasons.
Firstly, we’d never agree on what we actually mean by stupidity…despite the Oxford dictionary defining what we think it is!
Secondly, and possibly more importantly, is we would all end up getting caught out by our own stupid law at some point of time!
Our legislators' (politicians) might be dumb, but they aren't that stupid...(but hey - let's not get distracted with that discussion).
Out of interest, New Zealand has an accident compensation scheme that anyone, including foreign visitors can access. That will include the Czech tourist (not Swedish) that I believe you referred to.
And like Australia, authorities in New Zealand don’t expect people to pay for a rescue, as similar to many other rescue agencies around the world they want people to ask for help if they are in a distress situation and to do so earlier, rather than later – regardless of how the incident occurred, be it stupidity or bad luck.
So whilst the Czech tourist has perhaps elected to contribute to the costs, I don’t believe she has been asked to.
Police and the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DoC) people have in fact praised the lady for not trying to get out on her own.
Just worth highlighting that Australia is not alone in the approach it takes.
Mind you, I'm not trying to convince you or anyone on this, everyone is entitled to a view and opinion, I just say, step back and look at the potential for unintended consequences of sending people "rescue bills"...
Cheers, Baz – The Landy
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