UPDATE: Scott Morrison has confirmed that he will NOT be lowering the minimum age to receive a forklift license, despite saying he would mere hours before. I’d love to know if this is all a magician’s hand distraction or not, because this man is tiring me.
Morrison on national cabinet: “We agreed to proceed no further with the issue of 16-year-old forklift drivers. We had a good discussion about today and [it] is not something that we believe, collectively, that is something we should be pursuing at this time.”
— Daniel Hurst (@danielhurstbne) January 20, 2022
Call your snot-nosed cousins and your younger siblings, it looks like Prime Minister Scott Morrison is about to let children hop on forklifts and go drag racing across the M5. Well, not quite to that extent, but we may soon see children driving forklifts like it’s nobody’s business.
We ask a lot of our Prime Minister and he seldom delivers even the most basic demands we have. However, there’s one thing he can do and that’s let the children ride forklifts into the sunset.
I wish I was joking but, per Guardian Australia, it seems Morrison truly wishes to ask states to lower the age required to drive forklifts during today’s cabinet meeting. Why? Because with Omicron ripping through the country, we have a fkn supply chain crisis in which working-class people (the backbone of this nation) have to stay home and isolate.
AHAHAHAHAHAHA FUCKING HELL pic.twitter.com/8NMKdiohkD
— Kemal Atlay (@kemal_atlay) January 19, 2022
During a press conference on Wednesday, Morrison briefly mentioned that he wanted to make beneficial changes to support the supply chain “at a state level, and I’m continuing to pursue those with the states”.
“There are changes that we need to make around the age of forklift drivers, to get quite specific,” he said.
Today, Guardian Australia has reported that Morrison wasn’t fkn joking, and looks to pursue this further.
Thanks, king. The supply chain is really going to heal now that we have kids in forklifts (????). You don’t have to pay people more to do vital jobs, it’s okay. This solves everything, sit back and relax.
I wouldn’t even let me drive a forklift lol
— ✨ Will Kostakis ✨ (@willkostakis) January 19, 2022
let the children race the forklifts
— Alex McKinnon (@mckinnon_a) January 19, 2022
Naturally, Aussie Twitter has exploded with a bunch of spicy takes and memes around Morrison and his army of children riding forklifts.
I’ll allow you to read the hot takes below, because I truly could not have worded my dumbfoundedness any better than these legends already have.
Scott Morrison is very happy to risk the lives of adults for the economy, so should we really be surprised that he is willing to risk the lives of children in forklifts.#ScottytheFailure #MorrisonFail pic.twitter.com/xX7rEXn61M
— Dave (@Dave_White69) January 19, 2022
https://twitter.com/thejimmalo/status/1483938581874118657?s=20
https://twitter.com/thejimmalo/status/1483936281461923842?s=20
One in six workplace deaths occur around forklifts and similar machinery.
We shouldn’t have to say this, but children should not be driving forklifts.
— Australian Unions (@unionsaustralia) January 19, 2022
Currently in NSW, Queensland and Victoria the legal age to get a high-risk work license is 18, which makes sense considering how dangerous those damn machines can be. Without one of these licenses, you can’t drive a forklift.
Morrison hopes that by lowering the age requirement we’ll see more people supporting the supply chain by picking up shifts where others might not be able to.
Literally, just a few days ago, a Victorian man was killed while operating a forklift. These things aren’t just vehicles that can be driven like cars, they’re incredibly dangerous and require a lot of skill to get behind the wheel. Even still, accidents happen all the time.
nobody:
morrison: pic.twitter.com/JhpvgWc0gy
— Hiero Badge (@hierobadge) January 19, 2022
who do you reckon morrison would blame if a kid got hurt driving a forklift? the states, labor or the kid?
— Hiero Badge (@hierobadge) January 19, 2022
I did picking and packing in a warehouse when I was a 17 year old retail worker (remember WOW Sight and Sound?) and that shit was dangerous enough.
— grug stan (@grugstan) January 19, 2022
If you need me I’m gonna be on a forklift writing yarns. After all, I am just a child.
