royal commission

Crikey readers have unleashed on insurance industry’s shady dealings uncovered by the financial services royal commission, though many seem unsurprised by the news being uncovered. Likewise, the fall from grace of Aung San Suu Kyi (silent in the face of the Rohingya genoicide and the politically motivated arrests of journalists) doesn’t seem as shocking to some readers as may be expected.

On the insurance industry’s failings

Ng GJB writes: Further proof of the need for a better funded more aggressive regulatory body that is not a political tool, alongside a federal crime and corruption investigative body. I continually hear of the spurious economic benefits of government policy, NDIS  for example. Surely the benefits to Australian society and public confidence in government regulated operators, via a reduction in corruption and criminal behaviour in the public and private sector, will have far greater positive effects? I suspect that once again the fraudsters will go bankrupt and run off with a bag of cash legally, yet not at all ethically, their property.

MJM writes: Commissioner Hayne and the Counsel Assisting him are a five star crew. The research done, leading to the forensic questions asked of those on the stand, has obviously been wonderfully thorough. If only we could have a government so capable of working through the preliminaries and being across the detail and well prepared. Instead they cannot even answer a simple question around why they got rid of a prime minister.

Klewso writes: And this is only the begrudged Turnbull-Morrison Reader’s Digest RC version. Imagine what we’d get if it ran “as long as it takes” — imagine how Scummo would have to spin to mitigate that fall-out for his sponsors?

On Aung San Suu Kyi’s fall from grace

Sean Arthur writes: Make any human a god and the sad fact is that they will be found to be made of tin. History has such examples in spades. Lenin, Churchill and Mother Teresa all were feted as heroes, and while all had positive attributes they also had histories that are positively disgraceful. The only surprise that Aung San Suu Kyi is not living up to her saintly press is that we truly believed that she would. Opposition figures are often morally pure, it takes government to get one’s hands really grubby.

Arky writes: Back in the 90s, Aung San Suu Kyi was one of those people who a student would idolise, alongside Mandela. Out of house arrest and into government, ASSK has proven that indeed there was never any fine principles behind her — she just wanted back into government. One can say she hasn’t got the power to block the treatment of the Rohingya or the show trial of the journalists, which may or may not be right, but if she wanted to speak out about it then she has always had that power. The fact that she is not says volumes.

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