Exactly. How do you know that your deli stores its meat at the proscribed temperature so you don't get sick? How do you know that the bar you go to is serving real Absolut, not bathtub vodka poured into Absolut bottles with the potato peelings sieved out?
You don't. You rely on the government food inspectors and liquor licensing officers to regulate those things for you. That's why you pay tax; to fund those agencies and their investigations. You pay money and delegate that responsibility to the government. Of course any sane person will question services they can see are blatently unsafe, but no one person can possibly know everything about the services they use.
People who live in lawless societies like Somalia question everything they buy, every service they use. They know that there is no effective government and the only law is Caveat Emptor; let the buyer beware. Australia is not one of those societies. We all pay large amounts of tax to fund agencies that regulate business and detect and prosecute people engaging in unlawful activity.
In this instance, a company was operating with wilful disregard for the law and it is suggested that the relevant regulator was aware of that, but did nothing effective that either stoppped them doing so or warned the public about their unlawful activities. A person purchased a service from that company in good faith and her partner ended up dead through absolutely no fault of his own.
Why do we pay taxes again? If the government and its agencies cannot regulate activities and persue people who disobey its law, then what is its purpose? What does it achieve?
