When should you dob in your neighbours?

from w
It's considered un-Australian to dob in people. Let them be. But perhaps there might be times when you ought to ring Crimestoppers or the Water Board and dob in someone who's not doing the right thing. In Hoppers Crossing, a southern Melbourne suburb, one household had a lovely, lovely lawn and shrubs, green and blooming, when everyone else followed the strict Stage 3 water restrictions (Geelong is on Stage 4, even stricter) and their lawns died and their plants shrivelled up. So the Water Board gave them a warning, but neighbours insisted the guy was washing his car and at night the sprinklers were on. The owners said they had a tank for rain water and were using that. Well, there hasn't been THAT much rain! So the punishment was to limit their consumption to 2 litres per minute which isn't much when taking a shower!

So should you dob in your neighbours or let them be?

Dobbing in has become the way to go - noticing people acting suspiciously such as taking photographs of a tall building, getting unemployment benefits while working, maybe being an illegal alien. There are phone numbers to ring up! When John Howard initiated the dob in a suspected terrorist with a fridge magnet per household, I rang the number and told them it is un-Australian to dob people in!