Beautifully written! minigundiplomat. Politicians though are ordinary elected australians like us, unlike the the public service that's supposed to be qualified professionals executing the will of the people. It's clearly not what it used to be, all the good ones soaked up by the private sector and replaced by a bunch of new Australians, with level 4 English at best that the private sector wouldn't employ, they will become the next generation of senior public servants.
On a completely different note, China appears to be doing quite well with only 40 or so cases a day for the largest population in the world, extraordinary achievement don't you think.