So it is no wonder that the Human Rights Traps have decided that it is time to slip into Hanson Territory. Bush Talks is an admirable document to just short of its action plans. It is a peripatetic waltz through rural and regional Australia featuring a smorgasbord of complaints - not statistically rigorous, but creating empathy with the patient. As one of the elites that Hanson rails against, it does the Commission no harm to empathize. But this research has its limits.
Patients can be wrong about pain.
It can be referred from some other part of the body. They can exaggerate just how bad it is. Their complaint has to be followed up by diagnosis, and diagnosis has to be based on rigorous analysis. Otherwise, the physician is no better than the snake oil salesman. The problem with the Bush Talks approach is that it fails to take that analytical step.