The public service is a hard gig.
Despite the excellent pay and highly-coveted Flexitime, you’re still stuck in an office either doing largely thankless work or killing time while you wait for more thankless work.
Now, it’s about to get even more thankless-ier for workers in the public service heartland, ACT, with the Public Sector Healthy Food and Drink Choices announcing a ban on fundraising chocolates.
A memo sent to government workers today explained that the ban, while an obvious assault on civil liberties, was all for the Greater Good:
“While chocolate or confectionary fundraisers are often trying to raise money for a good cause, they have a detrimental impact on our health.”“There is a growing trend for sporting teams and school grounds to fundraise in other ways, which includes offering healthier alternatives.”
It went on to suggest using mangoes, which have apparently been quite popular, and other potential prizes, such as sporting equipment, fruit trays, movie tickets and store vouchers, which honestly all sound pretty great but that is not the point, dammit.
ACT’s Liberal opposition leader Alistair Coe hit the nail on the head, saying the government is going too far and “meddling in people’s lives,” which, for once, maintains the actual conservative value of ‘reduced government interference,’ albeit in the language of a Scooby-Doo villain:
“It’s not the role of the Government to stipulate what kind of items can be used for fundraising and which ones can’t.”
To be fair, anyone who’s worked a slow office job can tell you how easy it is jump on the sweets just to get through the goddamn day. And most Australians should probably reduce their sugar intake, myself include.
But banning something outright rarely ends well (see also: alcohol, drugs), and at best is still a form of government control. We know what this leads to.
Prepare for the underground chocolate railroad folks, just like in that bizarre old British TV show ‘Bootleg’.
Anyone else remember that one? Just me? FINE.
Source: ABC.
Photos: Fox.
