Kauri/Smurf, on futher reading, and considering the events with the Lane Cove fiasco... Its obvious that businesses can't be trusted to provide essential services, becuase of their greed and propensity to cut corners and look for profits... so I have to agree with you there...
(apparently the tunnel was being in dug in an area not approved in the original coucil submission plans... 65m off course... and put it right under the residential appartment blocks!!!)
Essential services are a cash cows, as everyone needs them, and leaving it in the hands of businesses mean they have the consumer by the balls! i.e. prices go up, service goes down, etc...
Strangely enough, its these very same businesses who we now rely on to provide a happy, healthy work environment... and not exploit their employeers in the same way they exploint their customers...
Is is just me, or is something not right here... how can we expect them to behave ethically with employers when they can't behave ethically with customers, etc...
PS: I know there are quite a few businesses run very ethically and are great places to work for... e.g. tech/A's business... but most businesses, run by humans, who are controlled by greed... hence, we need laws in place to promote ethical behaviour and to promote behaviour that will lead to better social harmony...
if we end up with a class of business owners and class of workers... with massive differences in living standards and feeling of injustice (even if its unjustified), everyone will suffer. As the riots in France demonstrate, previous revolutions in other countries, things can get a lot lot worse... and it WILL effect everyone!