hello Elder, firstly, don't believe that government authorities are independent. They may very well be mandated to be independent but in reality politics is all about sel-serving liasions and alliances and very little about government; oh sure, they govern the country, but the vast majority of politicians put themselves first before the country and this can be substantiated by the doctrine that reigns within the political parties which in many many instances covertly compels party members to vote the party policy which mostly comes from the party hierachy. It would be naive for anyone to suggests that johnnies plea to the RBA did not bear any weight. I agree with your comments on infrastructure. The sell-out of the Australian people commenced with the Hawke government when it de-regulated the domestic banking system and floated the A$ and this momentum has been carried on the Keating and Howard governments, as well as the state governments over the same period culminating in user-pays policies which paved the way for PPP (public private partnerships) resulting in private companies supplying infrastructure at an additional cost to the general public; additional because the public previously was supplied the infrastructure for free (paid out of the public purse) or at cost. Sometime essential infrastructure was subsidised to assist the lower paid e.g. lighting, power, water. Now all that is privatised in some form so that companies can profit. this of course is done under the guise of reducing the burden on taxation,; consequently we have exchanged a portion of our taxation for a larger amount of expenditure which contributes to corporate profit. And (I know, never start a sentence with And) to boot, we have reduced income taxation for the wealthy (ppl who can most afford it) and companies, both of whom have tax minimising structures and abilities far above that of the average wage earner. YES, we should go back to increasing the tax levels on the wealthy and reduce those on the poor and low-income earners which woild result in that element of society being more willing to work than to become dole bludgers. Social security obligations on the public purse would be reduced and petty crime would most likely be reduced. just my opinion.
