SR "Our largest companies are not paying any tax, money which would have gone into our hospitals and schools."

SR, name the companies that are paying no tax.

If "our largest companies" are paying no tax, where does the federal government get the money to squander on slow NBNs, antique submarines, handouts to refugees and the global warming scam, for example?

One should also note that health and education are state responsibilities under the constitution. There is absolutely no reason to think that taxes paid to the federal government by large companies would definitely go to hospitals and schools. That's just posturing.

theft is our Government giving the renewables fraudsters a billion dollars.

Dear Calwest,

No I am not going to list all the companies pay zero or next to nothing in tax but examples would be Toll not pay a cent on billions of income, or Foxtel paying $4.5 million on 2 billion of income. Origin Energy and Alcoa, not a cent.

And yes the Libs did stuff up the NBN. Spending on refugees is entirely appropriate for a rich country like ours.

As to the rest mate go do some learning. The Feds spent $18 billion on public hospitals last year and while contribute more toward non-government schools than to government ones the funding is still substantial.

As to global warming it is not a scam rather it is backed up by robust science and substantive peer reviewed research. We owe it to our future generations not to burden them with the task of fixing our mess.

It is terrible, the state sticks its dirty claws everywhere and won't let us live in peace.

But what can we do? There is no escape, they are mighty and as human dust we are helpless; and these things happen not only in Australia, but practically all over this planet where we happen currently park our bodies - it is the characteristic of this dark age that we live in.

All we can do then is to pray: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Soon enough we will be with God again anyway!

Well we know the current Federal Government, and unfortunately the ALP Government before it, represent the Big End of Town (ie. Banks and other Big Employers). Those who give politicians "campaign money" sometimes ending up in personal pockets and give politicians well paid jobs after retirement.

The rapid decline of the ACTU (that in the old days could have launched nationwide Strikes Against Wage Theft) is but a pitiful, discredited, shadow of its 1970s former glory.

So what is to be done?

The Turnbull, then Morrison, Government was dragged, kicking and screaming, to setup a the Banking Royal Commission, which brought in some useful reforms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Commission_into_Misconduct_in_the_Banking,_Superannuation_and_Financial_Services_Industry

Time for a Wage Theft Royal Commission?

SR, I repeat: the federal government has no constitutional responsibility for health or education. The fact that federal governments of both persuasions have allocated large amounts of taxpayers' money to those portfolios says more about politics than the formal requirements of law.

In the case of education, with billions upon billions of dollars spent since the large increases of the Whitlam government in the 1970s, the continuously declining performances of most students suggests that a lot of that money has been syphoned off into teachers' pockets - either through higher salaries or lower class sizes.

And, no, we don't have to spend the unspecified amounts you imply to take in "refugees" at a time when taxpayers are struggling to survive because of higher charges at all three levels of government and with little or no improvement in infrastructure.

The idiot government of Daniel Andrews, for example, thinks its fine to build NO dams while the state's population continues to increase.