Sopt on. Thoroughly enjoyable read. Turkeys voting for an early Christmas - I must remember that one.

Thank goodness, a well written article that does not revolve around a CIA conspiracy theory or an anti-American rant! Big Business is like any other interest group, be they environmentalists or the welfare lobby in that they have interests that do not necessarily coincide with the broader interests of government. There is nothing wrong with that only it is the responsibility of politicians to be aware of this. We should be very concerned about the ongoing concentration of power with any central government as ultimately individuals and communities have a better idea of what they need than government in Canberra.

Talking of business absolutes out of order. It is well to remember an old bush saying. It is not only business, the whole f-'in lot's out of order.

It is all following GWB's quick-draw Texan-style doctrinal. Even before we had Georgie Boy and his amigos trying to run the world, we got the message out in the bush - get big or get out - with Maggie Thatcher and Ronnie Reagan riding high calling the tune of the global diploma.

Even with Pope John II and Nelson Mandela giving warning about a crueler capitalist coming world, there was some understanding especially with Mandela, but the smart-arse elitism kept on, with world consumers happy enough, big shops loaded with cheap Chinese products - everything from clothing and dishpans to everything electro.

More lately being hid by the media about GWB's roughneck doughboys having to get out of Iraq, with piles of questions to be asked whether Dick Cheyney's still got the oil? When the Iraqi's get given freedom can they go back to the Euro as they were before the Yank's arrived?

Let's hope a worried Murdoch might energise the media to let us have some truth at last. Wouldn't take a bet on it, however?

Nice article, Greg. Business may be too short sighted to think what a streamlined, efficient, effective BAD central government could do to it (and the rest of us). And some of the Commonwealth’s forays into states’ traditional activities (education, water) look scarily political and incompetent.

A bit of inter-jurisdictional competition on taxes, service delivery and infrastructure provision doesn’t go amiss, either.

Interesting points here, most around commonwealth versus state rights.

Personally, I would rather see the devolution of less power to the local level. By that I emphasise “LESS”.

The Authority of the state needs to be concentrated where “policy” is delivered and not where “policy” is invented. That translated means a devolved structure, not a central monolith.

That authority needs to be, overall, less and not more. It is strange that in Australia we do not have debate on “big” versus “small” government, it is strange especially when USA seems almost obsessed by it and the reason folk vote republican is because they perceive the democrats not has having inferior policies but as having more policies and representing the push for more government and was a central part of Reagan’s platform in the 1980’s.

The pendulum in corporate world tends toward centralist thinking, large corporations becoming larger and swallowing up smaller organizations. Darn it, reality is large corporations collapse and implode and then get sold off as small organization, leaving the idiots who built the monolith out in the cold and out of a job.

Oh bushbred – not altogether sure what you are saying you are rambling on a bit and the world is a changing place, only loons, luddites, lefties and maybe the Pope believe things will never and should never change.

Oh and Reagan was for smaller government and Maggie dismantled all the English nationalized industries she could – making the UK business/government oligarch “smaller”.

As for cheap goods from China – well, hate to tell you this but that trend has been going on for years. I doubt you have ever worn one but if you had, you would remember when people dropping off in Hong Kong cashed in on the cheap suites made by Chinese tailors or when all the goodies marked “Empire Made” came out of Hong Kong or Singapore.

Bushbred, I suggest take a couple of prozac and the rest of the day off.

Maybe big business is trying to get involved in the formation of a centrist big government but labor has been there for decades. And witness just how well they have done in providing the people with what they need (I did not say what they want).