"Do you really think the pink bats and BER issues are symptoms of anything new and unique to the current government?"

No.

"…commercial operators have been abusing government funded programs for decades.... .. systemic deficiencies ... have allowed construction companies, consultants etc to be taking advantage since day dot."

I'm sure you're right. According to my theory, they both represent capital consumption.

However the point is, your economic theory is stuck with pretending to distinguish wasteful corrupt boondoggle A (bad), from wasteful corrupt boondoggle B (good).

So how do you do that? By what principle do you distinguish them?