A television media news report stated the Trade Union Royal Commission was to cost $58 million.
Royal commissions are an opportunity for politicians to be seen as being third degree grilled on their honesty. No one goes to jail.
The last 3 Labor leaders have spent time being asked questions by a royal commission. No one goes to jail.
There are intelligent theories to why real democracies don't work and therefore don't exist. Problem with democracies are that real open to everyone candidate democracies, will attract people whom have corrupt selfish intentions. Rich people; the Mafia; local and foreign criminal organisations; drug cartels; KGB/CIA; foreign governments and corporations that have local currency built up in banks from importing trade goods. Bribery; assassination threats; buying out media organisations; inventing scandals; buying main party candidate selection votes. I believe most people believe a media's ability to expose corruption is the reason for real democracies. Can't have a democracy without transparency.

A problem is that even if the most honest candidates ran and win elections, all elected candidates understanding the above problems with real democracies would argue that real democracies should be controlled so as to allow governments to rule for realistic governing reasons. What would happen would be that some self-proclaimed ruling class dictatorships would be taken over by opposing interests, military, etc. Factions believing they could do a better job, would conspire with each other similar to parliament democracy leadership changes. Dictatorships controlled by factions wouldn't work. Hitler dictatorships would be allowed if only to have a consistent government.

A better solution would be to elect families to become a birth right ruling class, wealthy enough to be incorruptible, crowning one member king or queen. History shows how well that works.

To me, politicians are doing no more than putting on dramatic' democratic, embarrassment, entertaining performances.

Whatever happened to John Howard's statement relating to a royal commission into late 1990s AMP IPO float? AMP opening at $20 a share, AMP share price spiked at $35, many people paying $35 a share, shares quickly going back to $20 a share?

Wake up. This is not real democracy. More like a demockery.

If your so keen on a dictator Im sure the Nth Koreans will welcome you in and the Saudi royal family will be happy to subjugate you.

Todays politicians are appalling scum only interested in serving their masters in big business and the murdock hate media.

Bill Shorten showing contempt for Royal Commission is amazing. Imagine a Catholic Priest doing the same.

Hey Mikk, at least under this repressive totalitarian society we live in, you can still go out the street and say "Todays politicians are appalling scum only interested in serving their masters in big business and the murdock hate media."

North Korea's leader would blast you with a howitzer in front of your family for saying you don't like his hair cut.

What's keeping you here if you don't want to live under an evil dictatorship. Maybe you better escape while you still can.

Runner. Explain how you think Shorten has shown contempt toward the Royal Commission.

"Bill Shorten showing contempt for Royal Commission is amazing. Imagine a Catholic Priest doing the same."

Lol!, runner...you mean something like Cardinal Pell comparing the Catholic church to a trucking company regarding its cover-up of child abuse within the organisation?

Which brings us back to the point that Abbott pulled $30 million out of the RC into institutional child abuse and funnelled it straight into TURC.

Defend that?

Catholic priests only show contempt for little children.

I didnt say we had a "repressive totalitarian society". I just said we dont have real democracy.
I dont want to go to North Korea. It was Steve saying maybe we would be better off with dictators or monarchs to rule us.

Personally I dont need anyone to "rule" me thanks very much.

The problems with real democracies are that human decisions can be influenced in many ways. Because human babies are born with blank memories, babies program themselves using emotional: fears; pleasures; desires; needs. Physical movements using monkey see monkey do emotional self-programming learning to talk and walk works.
Thinking memories needs few visual evidence to prove the difference between true and false beliefs.
Television media provides many political stories: embarrassments; scandals; parliament question times; election campaigns. Politics is an often presented subject in the media. Children brought up seeing and hearing political dramas believe what they see and hear.
Education is controlled by people in political power, be it religion, royalty, dictatorships or pretend democratic elected governments, since education began. Such institutions would have used education to condition humans to believe what they were told, passing human programming manipulation information onto ruling classes through generations.

Mental stress does strange things to children... mental stress can slow child learning development drastically. Aged 5 years children starting school, keen to learn new ideas and experiences are locked in controlled limited information classrooms. Children aged 5 years will believe almost anything they're told. Popular media has replaced religion's constant bible bashing story telling distractions. Daily doses of media politics has children believing in democracies. I believe (without government education) as children became older and wiser, having the time to think about the true nature and persuasive powers of lies, the nature of religions and democracies true state of manipulating populations would be realised. Government approved long hours of mainly pointless education introduces mental stress into children learning experiences. Mental stress punishes advanced brain thinking. Each day after school, children feel better watching television than being at school experiencing mental stress, school's conditioned rushed, mentally stress children have little will to doubt media political stories real truths, children are more emotionally receptive and least rushed to remember and believe what's said.

When teenagers enter high school, pretend education becomes more mentally stressful. I strongly believe mental stress traumatises human learning experiences for humans entire lives. Similar to psychological troubled people attending psychological therapy to allow therapists to sort out why patients are often traumatised, educational mental stress is traumatising humans rationalising thinking behaviours, (what people never experienced people don't miss). Teenagers and adults on attempting to learn a thinking work skill and or start to doubt what they believe, feel the many years of high school mental stress traumas. Schooling education taught learners to hate learning.

If any person could stand for elections as mentioned in first readings, elected criminal self-interest elements, taking control of education and media, I believe education having long term benefits to newly elected ruling classes, education would be far more traumatising, and far more political looking after you; ceremonial events; distractions propaganda would exist. Meanwhile share market volatility and money creation would be making elected politician and their mates rich. As corrupt elected politicians became entrenched, actors would be hired to run for elections and perform dramatized political activities.

Democracies are so easily turned into corrupt ruling class supported by limited controlling interests, rewarded by easy money and repressed peasant labours, democracies we see in the media are really no more than influentially powerless actors doing performances similar to what church priests did and still do by praying to a god before a crowd as often as possible in order to convince people there must be a god, otherwise priests wouldn't be praying to a god.

I believe mentally stressful education is the cause of most psychological mental behaviour and depression disorders. Suicides, teenager high accident road deaths are caused by poor decisions influenced by chemical imbalance in young adult and teenager's brains due to self-medicating endorphins inducements, caused by years of education's mental stress traumas. Human brains are sensitive to fears and gratification decision making.

I am aware the above reading is mostly falling on death ears, so to speak. If you the reader have read this far without being negative, I praise your efforts.

The North Korean scaring people into wanting to believe in democracy is real, is a poor argument. A media using North Korea as an example of dictatorships is no more than propaganda.
I believe my reading argues that real democracies have never existed. The old ruling classes would have never allowed real democracies to have started using the reasoning in my arguments.
Why media presentations of democracy exists is to allow world governing dictators to do bad things to populations and blame it on democracies and capitalist market forces. I can't get any clearer than that.

There's a 1970 movie "Cromwell" showing how Cromwell removed parliament from power. actor saying, "not point bring in parliament unless you can rich". a movie to watch.

Runner has no steam left in the tank.