Monday Muses~ Can a rhetorical question be answered? Yes it can: Will the answer be welcome; that is another rhetorical question!

If it is correct that Caesar is unable to judge Caesar then it must follow that Caesar that Caesar can not fix Caesar?

When the Marksman challenged me to "build the better mousetrap neither he or I knew just where the challenge would take me, nor the mountains of frustrations that would need to be climbed, moved aside, navigated around, flown over or just blown up. All of it far too numerous to ever attempt to recount. Sometimes walls and barriers were built other times doors were slammed shut -yes I slammed a few of "those" doors.

The Marksman always worked with me, he read every iteration, he suggested modifications and how to test each concept and when needed he suggested who else to seek advice from.

The main requirement was to always be able to test and evaluate every theory.

Lastly he warned me that even though Craig's Table had proven time after time after time after time the system would/does find it challenging because it stepped away from the conveyor belt concepts and placed outcomes back into the hands of the injured worker community. Craig's Table provides the platform and the injured workers rise oft times well above their own dare to dream limit.

All through it I knew I was driving "the usual suspects" to distraction as they answered my questions or challenged me to answer their questions.

None of us really knew just an impact Craig's Table was having until an industry "trader" skirted around the concept of being interested in buying Craig's Table. The "trader" was less than impressed to learn that for purpose not profit association cannot be bought or sold.

Each step of the way I knew that more was required. The injured worker community required a framework to be in, to heal within and then stand together as they supported and lifted each other. Challenges were being met head on, obstacles kept/keep coming. The issues are the same, the names are different. The disconnect caused more challenges than should ever be tolerated.

Industry people keep asking the same rhetorical question "how can we fix the workers compensation system? Always close by there would be yet another Review, followed by "tweaking" legislation that promised all manner of wondrous outcomes but failed to deliver anything of real value. Sadly no amount of pointing out the bleeping obvious was to be entertained.

The Marksman always made sure I understood that if a question could be framed (even if it is a rhetorical question) it can be answered. He also made sure I understood that no one expects a rhetorical question to have an answer ????????because to answer such a conundrum would "unsettle" more than a few people.

When I first started out as an advocate within the injured worker community a (then) barrister (now Queens Counsel) gave me training in how to read various documentations. I needed to learn to find what was there, what was out of place, what was a contradiction and what was missing. More times than not I discovered it was "what was missing" that was more important than anything else. The missing links opened up lines of investigation.

Time and time again The Marksman and I would discuss issues and concerns. He understood the challenges I was up against. Sometimes he left me to work things through other times he pointed the right direction; but never did he step in and do anything; he listened so I could talk my way through the challenge(s).

Several things have happened over the last few weeks that have pushed me harder than I have been pushed in a long time. Victoria allocates $300 million more to workers compensation scheme : icare sends private details of 193,000 workers to wrong employers : Premier's own union joins chorus against Labor over injured worker 'betrayal' combined with the admission from Safe Work Australia that the return to work post injury rate is falling, combined with the number of concerns that are being "requests" for assistance directly from members of the workers compensation providers and the injured worker community(including supporting a man and his children as a result of a domestic violence situation) (There isn't any section of workers compensation legislation to cover that issue). (The Marksman has been exceedingly tolerant with me than he normally is, he knows me far better than at times I know myself.)

I found myself going back to The Marksman's words time and time again. It seemed to me that all that has been falling apart regardless of which system was being looked at had been predicted multiple times. Again the Marksman's words came back to me "build the better mousetrap".

Another thing I was always required to have was a list of possible solutions, the solutions didn't need to work, I just needed to be able to demonstrate the reasoning behind my thought process and the outcomes I imagined or outcomes I had tested.

The better mousetrap had to be something that was outside the system, it could not be something that had been tried in the past; it could not be something that could be overridden, rejected or defunded by the system. It had to be something that worked with and alongside the system. As my Dad would say "It has to seperate the wheat from the chaff" Then; the answer became more and more glaringly obvious. And for the first time the answer, the theory, the concept was not something that I could test or validate or point to being in place elsewhere. I found the answer to the rhetorical question.

As much as I want to share this answer with you, I have one more meeting to get through.

The hardest part for me in this is not sharing this information with each of you, I dislike keeping information from anyone. The second hardest part is not being able to test or validate. What I do know is just the discussions that will need to happen will cause upsets that I am more than prepared to taken on. Everyone of the injured worker community already knows I stand for them and I stand with them. It is just difficult to ask each of you to wait another week until I can outline the answer to the rhetorical question.

Now it is late I need to make a cup of tea and ponder this weeks coming meetings.

Yours in service

Rosemary