We all live in kleptocracies and so we have for some millennia. In the West that would probably be since the Romans, in Egypt since the Pharaohs and in China since their dynasties started around 2000 B.C.

To summarise the article: "You should give me the power so that I can become your chief kleptocrat and hand your tax-money to MY friends!".

Well, another left wing rant? And completely wasted effort, that smacks of a disgruntled runt pig on animal farm and the politics of envy? I don't mind critique, always providing the complainer is able to proffer viable alternatives!

None of which are self evident in this bombastic bitch! You don't like it here? Do you have a passport and tradable skills that would make you a welcome migrant somewhere else, anywhere else! Feel free to move on out anytime soon! Tomorrow maybe?
Alan B.

You missed the biggest rip offs of a modern state John.

The incredible waste of academia & the university sector. We don't need people to waste 4 years uni getting a BA, just to become a public service clerk. Which brings us to the other great rip off, The bureaucracy, & thousands of NGOs, all staffed by lazy, overpaid dullards, who could never hold down a job with the same pay rate in the private sector.

Yes a kleptocracy, but more to support dills, like you, rather than industry.

I agree with all of this article. Australia is a scandalised laughing stock of arrogance and rule by wealth.

Whether or not you support policies that favour big business, having them doesn't make the nation a kleptocracy.

And the bit about the budget surpluses is wrong. Firstly the surplus was destroyed by the Rudd tax cuts (made as an election promise to match Howard's tax cuts) before the GFC hit. Secondly, we can ALWAYS afford another stimulus irrespective of the size of our debt.

people sucking on the public purse, dumbing people down and now complaining about someone's generosity.Sickening.