Are you a dobber?
Published 1 year, 5 months ago in My life.When I was a kid I was taught that dobbing was worse the crime.
If you dobbed at on a bully at school you were bashed and ostracized, if you dobbed your brother at home you copped the same punishment as he did as well as a clip over the ear and growled “nobody likes a dobber’’.
I know I am not alone in this childhood experience.
But Australians are being asked to dob more and more by all levels of government - and we are obliging.
The Howard Government’s national security hotline (DOB IN A TERRORIST, 1800 123 400) received 42,000 calls in its first two years, between December 2002 and December 2004. Clearly there are a lot more dobbers than terrorists.
In 2005-06, following the “support the system that supports you’’ campaign Centrelink received nearly 120,000 calls to its Dob in a dole bludger line, alleging overpayments. About 2 per cent were genuine.
This is by no means an exhaustive list but if you wanted to you could reach for the phone right now and dob in:
A hoon,
A drug dealer
A drug cheat (sport)
A water cheat
A “Dodgy seafood retailer’’ – yes really
A litterer
A rubbish dumper
A wife-beater
An illegal immigrant
A “scammer’’
A dodgy cab
A dodgy taxpayer
A burglar
A backyard mechanic
A cockfighter
A dogfighter, and
A software pirate, RRrrrrrrrrrr.
That’s a lot of dobbin’.
Coupled with the fact that almost everyone has a camera in their phone and is encouraged to use it (“every piece of information is useful…’’) I fear we are heading down the slippery slope toward an Orwellian nightmare.
Or maybe I’m just paranoid.
Please don’t dob.
10 Responses to “Are you a dobber?”
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yes, I agree with you. I was horrified when the government put in that ‘terrorist’ hotline. it allowed people to dob in anyone who looked different, spoke differently, dressed differently. that has allowed the government to keep people feeling more vulnerable and fearful. and when the populace is kept in that state they continue to vote in the same government because they are too afraid to change. it was a very clever bit of politics.
For some reason I believed that “dobbing” was bad too when I was at school…
I put up with bullying for years, then someone advised me to tell the teacher.
I did, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
The bullying stopped and everyone lived happily ever after.
I think dobbing is great although you have to have some lenience for circumstance…
E.g. I wouldn’t dob in hoons, water cheats or litterers unless they were repeatedly doing it… after all, who hasn’t been guilty of dropping a piece of paper when there was no bin, or making a little too much noise with their car?
And I’d never dob in a software pirate or backyard mechanic.
The main point is that if what someone is doing is hurting people, then it is a good idea to tell the authorities or at least get advice on what you should do.
I must admit I used to dob in drivers that threw lit cigarettes out of the window during the summer. I could see the justification in them receiving a fine as they were just as likely to do it on bush roads on Total Fire Ban days and maybe a fine would cure them of this bad habit. Then they put up the fine to $200 and I couldn’t bring myself to report them anymore. How is a $200 fine any more effective than a $100 fine, or even a $50 fine ? Still annoys me when they do it though.
lit cigarettes out of crs annoys the hell out of me…
ESPECIALLY in summer..
I havent dobbed anyone in yet , but i would be tempted to.
for these types of things i think a bigger fine is a deterrant .
it willonly take one for them to second guess themselves when they are about to throw the next one out the window.
especially considering that ANYONE that sees them can report it ….. talk about paranoid ….
Can’t you just lie about who throws lit cigarettes out of their car? E.g. find out your arch nemesis’s license plate number and “dob them in”?
I’m telling on you! There must be a line for dobbing on disparaging comments about dobbers……
How about dobbing in my idiot housemate? filthy dole bludger who has a cash job, while I work all day and pay taxes, this knob gets $250 a fortnight plus a cash wage. It’s disgraceful.
wefare cheat is definitely amoung the list of government-sanctioned/ encouraged dobbing. If that’s what you want to do then the avenue is there.
Haven’t seen you around Ross and this a very random - and welcome - drop in. Not nearly enough revisiting of old blogs here on nook I reckon
Good to see ya.
What a stupid reply I wrote the first time round. “Dobbing” (such a horrid word) isn’t a totally bad thing, depending on what/where/who/how/why. It should never be something taken lightly/for revenge/glory/predjudce.
Recently I made the decision to make a report to DHS regarding the children of a family member (another family member also made a report). This was not done easily, we had tried many other avenues prior to no avail, and the situation was escalating out of control. I found it extremely distressing and because of how I’d viewed “dobbing” felt quite scummy and a rat. I’m glad to say it was the best decision I could of made. It was the wake up call that was needed. They have sought help, looked at what they had been doing, made dramatic life style changes and the effect on the children is immeasureable. It’s early days and hopefully things will continue. No one wanted them to get into trouble, just realise they needed help and support. By “dobbing” they were put in that situation so I’m glad I did it, but doesn’t mean I’d race out and continue to do it randomly.
What aboout drug dealers? These people are potentially harming and killing our children. Do we “dob” them in or let them continue this? My children will be teenagers soon.