It’s as stupid as 30-minute haircuts and as illogical as being allowed to go out in a boat but only if you’re fishing.

Now the Victorian police are saying young people can have a driving lesson but only if they’re travelling to the shops or to work.

This latest nonsense – which effectively encourages teenagers and their parents to lie – comes after Victorian police withdrew a $1652 slapped on a 17-year-old while she went on a driving lesson with her mother.

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After being roundly criticised for the heavy-handed fine the state’s Deputy Police Commissioner Shane Patton said the only way learner drivers could “potentially have any driving practice is if you’re applying one of those exemptions that exist for you to go up to the shops to buy food and supplies.”

So as long as you throw a few shopping bags in the back seat and lie to a police officer when you’re pulled over, you can still go on a driving lesson.

I know the authorities are under pressure – including the two off-duty cops who were fined for partying last weekend – but surely law enforcement bosses need to gather their thoughts before they step in front of a microphone.

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The message from the government, the promotional packages on commercial television, and even the Queen are “we’re all in this together”. But how can you expect a teenager – questioning of authority at the best of times – to fall into line when rules are ill-considered, pointless and illogical.

In issuing a $1652 fine to Hunter Reynolds cocooned with her mother Sharee in their car, the state’s apparatchiks were not only nonsensically authoritarian, they eroded the community trust which is critical to us managing the pandemic. They’ve done the right thing by withdrawing the fine but not before creating the sort of division between young people and authorities which we can ill afford right now.

Surely police officers pose more threat to public health by asking a learner driver to wind down their window and declare the purpose of their journey, than they do letting them get on with safely learning an essential life skill. Even the most academically-challenged adolescent could see that a visit to the shops or a pharmacy or the hairdresser is more of a risk to public health than a parent and child contained in their car for a driving lesson?

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How can an educational experience such as driving lessons be banned when governments are not just permitting children to go to school and childcare, but actively encouraging them?

Right now, the greatest goal of federal and state governments is to urge the public to heed the advice of social distancing, hand washing and abandoning all “non-essential” activity to limit the spread of the virus. It’s going to be a long haul and for the public to stay vigilant they need to feel they’re doing it for the collective good. Getting teenagers and young people on board is one of the greatest challenges but coming up with stupid and contradictory rules is the fastest way to alienate them.

If ever there was a time to invoke the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law, it is this. If Victoria feels the need to be authoritarian on this issue – notably, NSW has taken the opposing view and allowed driving lessons – then good luck to them getting their teenagers on board when it really matters. In an ever-moving landscape where laws and instructions are changing by the day, the best advice police chiefs can give their officers is to ask themselves: “Is this behaviour likely to lead to the spreading of the virus?”

When we are asking young people with developing brains to consider others then we need to consider them. I took my 16-year-old L-plates daughter for a 90-minute drive last weekend just like Sharee Reynolds. My reasoning was simple: we were safely enclosed in our car, she needs to clock up 120 hours, the roads are relatively quiet and it was something for her to look forward to. As it was, I suspect our long drive and chat was not just “educational” but emotionally and mentally nurturing. Anyone with teenagers will appreciate that the car often provides the best opportunity to talk.

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The priority for all governments right now is to protect the physical health of the community and somehow keep the economy afloat. Those twin aims are consuming our officials but there is a third threat about to crash down on our society as jobs are lost, purpose is eroded and families come under stress. Ask anyone in the sector, mental health is about to go over a cliff.

We know young people are among the most vulnerable which is why it’s critical they can retain any activities which don’t pose a health risk. Like all of us, they have lost the routine of school, sport, cultural, social activities and part-time jobs yet their prefrontal cortex, the rational part of the brain, has not yet fully developed. That’s why it’s more important than ever that the rules we ask them to follow are logical and fair.

Our teens may have to study George Orwell’s 1984 to learn about totalitarian regimes. What they don’t need just yet, is to live in one.

Angela Mollard is a freelance writer | @angelamollard