And the Duty we Owe
by Cheryl Lacey, DGSJ, ©2026
(Oct. 27, 2026) — To whom do you owe a duty?
Most of us answer without hesitation: our children, our families, the people who depend on us. We know that if we saw harm coming and looked away, we would have to answer for our behaviour.
Duty – the force of that which is morally right – has been with us for centuries.[i] Its conversion into law and then into Australian governance tells a different story. The moral force remains, but it is unevenly applied.
In the private sector, including between individuals, duty of care is treated as a serious legal obligation, backed by clear standards and real consequences for failure. In the public sector the picture is different. Despite higher formal expectations of accountability and good governance, equivalent duties are rarely enforced with the same rigour.[ii]
Decades of statutes, inquiries, court decisions and elections have left this gap largely intact. The result is a system of governance that too often fails the very duty of care it expects of everyone else.
One recent example: three Federal Court judges overturned a finding that the Australian government has a duty of care to protect children from harms caused by climate change.[iii]
A clearer illustration is social media.
The human impulse to communicate across distance is ancient.[iv] Morse code, developed in the late 1830s, turned that impulse into near-instance long-distance messaging. In May 1844, the first public message was sent from Baltimore to Washington, DC: “What hath God wrought?”[1][v]
Some may wonder, as I do, whether the use of this biblical phrase was intended as a statement of wonder at human achievement or a quiet warning of unforeseen consequences.
More than a century and a half later, the same impulse, amplified by digital technology, produced the modern social platforms. From 2002 to 2005, at the tap of a keyboard, the world’s nations with all their unique qualities became a local neighbourhood, with information and influence in abundance.
Friendster appeared in 2002, MySpace and LinkedIn in 2003, Facebook in 2004 including high school students able to join in 2005, and YouTube in 2005.[vi] Apps had gone grown from calculators, calendars and address books of the 80’s and the first arcade game – snake – to hundreds in 2007, changing how software was distributed.[vii]
By the time the federal government launched its Digital Education Revolution (DER) in 2008, including funding computers for students in Years 9 and 12, these platforms were already well established and expanding rapidly.[viii]
With the blessing of state and federal governments, devices soon reached younger students in primary schools. Screen time became the social norm for all ages.
The DER was an ill-considered initiative on every count.
The blind were leading the blind. Investors, bureaucrats, IT gurus and nerds, consultants, media outlets and the money hungry that amplified the excitement – with the world watching – pushed the rollout forward, often framing it as a matter of equity, with hardware, software and infrastructure as its benefactor.[ix]
Those who raised genuine concerns about the duty of care owed to the children who would live with the consequences found themselves sidelined.
Today the Australian Prime Minister tells the world that an under-16 ban will “give children back their childhood.”[x]
You can only give back what has been taken.
Is this not an implicit admission that the harm was foreseeable?
Was the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) – a government owned corporation established in 2010 – created with this in mind: responsibility kept at arm’s length, accountability handed to others?[xi]
For too long duty of care written into legislation, policy and ministerial orders has meant little in practice.
Pointing fingers serves no one. Punching holes in the air is energy better spent elsewhere. From a moral standpoint, we have all been complicit in allowing Australia’s system of governance to operate with so little accountability.
To whom do we owe a duty?
Every Australian owes a duty of care first to themselves, without interference from the unaccountable. Parents owe an even greater duty to their children.
The era of our governance system, including political parties – inherited from Britain and repeatedly failing the duty of care test – must end.
In principle, asking whether we are ready for such change is itself an abdication of duty. Enough Australians already know and understand that change is necessary, and many are making strides in its replacement. The duty is on all of us to join up and take part.
God knows our elected and want-to-be representatives of our current lethal system won’t.
Note: Patriot Platform Australia is urging all active Australians talking about change on social media to take action by forming a local group. For more information visit:
[i] https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=duty
[ii] https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UNSWLawJl/2019/23.html
[iii] https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/australian-government-has-no-duty-of-care-to-protect-children-from-climate-harm-court-rules/cp4p6lxtf
[iv] https://www.thoughtco.com/early-history-of-communication-4067897
[v] https://www.si.edu/object/what-hath-god-wrought-telegraph-message%3Anmah_713485
[vi] https://www.neworld.com/blog/2011/facebook-in-2005-interviews-stats-images/
[vii] https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/may-24/what-hath-god-wrought
[viii] https://archive.budget.gov.au/2008-09/ministerial_statements/education.pdf
[ix] https://www.itnews.com.au/news/digital-education-revolution-revolts-121610
[x] https://www.pm.gov.au/media/shape-digital-world-or-it-will-shape-us
[xi] https://www.finance.gov.au/government/managing-commonwealth-resources/structure-australian-government-public-sector/pgpa-act-flipchart-and-list
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