Dr Michael Johnston: Risk assessment

Question: How many electricians does it take to change a lightbulb?

Answer: Just one, as long as they’ve completed a Job Safety, Environmental Analysis and Risk Assessment, a COVID-19 Workplace Safety SmartForm and an Electrical Safety Certificate.

One of our Insights readers recently found himself the butt of this real-life joke when he hired an electrician to replace a lightbulb – one that was, admittedly, in a room with an unusually high ceiling.

The issuance fee for the certificate alone comprised nearly 10% of the invoice for the job. One might suspect that the labour involved in the electrician filling in the paperwork, charged at $84 per hour, was greater than that of actually installing the new light.

In these perilous times one can’t be too careful. The acute risk posed by electricians changing lightbulbs is just one of many things we should worry about. For example, there’s also the risk of being traumatised by maverick members of the fourth estate.

Karl du Fresne: The Free Speech Union meeting that earned a trigger warning from Salient

The latest edition of the Victoria University of Wellington student newspaper Salient contains an account of the recent Free Speech Union event at the university, at which I spoke.

It’s prefaced with a trigger warning advising, in bold type: This article examines some of the racist, transphobic, sexist, and otherwise harmful content discussed at the event in question. Please exercise caution when reading.

My first reaction was that this was written as a satirical comment on the preciousness now rampant in Western universities and the hysterical aversion to any ideas that run counter to woke-think. Alas, no; it was deadly serious. I forgot that this generation of students isn’t noted for its sense of humour.