An excellent article Klaas. Linking maximum pay to minimum pay packages is fair and reasonable. Any greater differential than 10:1 is outrageous.

The failure of the Rudd government and its regulators to apply caps, just shows how corrupt and self-serving Australian elites have become.

Generally, executives from these corporations lack corporate social responsibility. Just look at their dismal environmental track record and their miniscule investment in Research and Development to see why Australia has one of the highest GHG emmission rates and lowest productivity rates of the OECD countries.

Conservative leaders with a Business As Usual mentality, focussed on their own remuneration packages is the norm. They see their massive remuneration packages as the measure of their worth to humanity.

However in reality they lack courage with no appetite for the deep, root and brach reforms needed to produce the best value for customers, employees and shareholders in the 21st Century. The same could be said of our political elites - an unimaginative and timid mob that see mediocrity in just about every area of public policy.