Rules

According to the polls, more people in NSW are unclear about the rules for Covid restrictions than people in other states. In our experience the rules are indeed difficult to understand. No doubt that’s partly because there are so many restrictions, and there has been so much variation between different parts of the state and different sectors and industries. (Not to mention that each of the states is different.) It’s also about the way the rules are expressed and communicated.
 
Years ago when I taught people how to write instructions and policies, I used to tell them not to try to write a rule for each possible situation. Someone will always find a situation that’s not covered or a rule that contradicts another rule. Instead, tell people the underlying principles. If they understand those, they can exercise their judgement and extrapolate from the principles to work out what they should do in a particular case.
 
Easy to say of course. It can work, but it needs a measure of goodwill. Goodwill seems to be in short supply among the media and the journalists who are more interested in creating a ‘gotcha’ moment than in helping the public understand the principles.