This has to change and if the various parties want voter support they will need to reconsider their whole concept of democracy, which is based on the grassroots having a direct input into decision making.

And part of this process must be to make politics and government much more open and honest. That must mean creating a federal ICAC with enough teeth to investigate all forms of wrongdoing, including the actions of the banks and all other corporations, even if they have been generous in their donations to the political parties.

If Mr Turnbull’s team were to introduce a bill for the creation of a federal ICAC there would be loud screams from the banks and other corporations, whose boards believe they should not be subject to the standards of honesty that apply to the rest of us – but that is what ICAC is set up to do and these cheats don‘t like it.

It is sad that the voters have lost so much trust in the people we elect to run our country. We hear almost daily of employers deliberately underpaying their lowly-paid staff. Some of those employers have been repaying some of that money after they have been caught but, so far, we haven’t heard of any court cases or threats of some of them going to jail.

And we wonder, why is a person who steals money from his employer likely to face a prison sentence, even if he promised to repay that money, but guilty employers who have stolen from their employees seem to be protected? We haven’t heard of employers who stole money from an employee facing jail. Why the difference?

There have been reports that the future of Fairfax Media, the owners of this newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald and other media outlets, is being negotiated. Your scribe has no inside information but whatever decision is made, it will be significant for all Australians who expect the media to provide balanced reporting.

With probably the longest career in media of anyone in Australia, I can state that never has it ever been suggested ‘from above’ that I should lean one way or another in my reporting, or in the opinion columns that I have written for many years.

That is what real journalism is, or should be, all about. Professional journalists and the media they worked for were expected to be honest and balanced in their reporting of news.

That is no longer the case and it is sad that our shock jocks and our largest newspaper chain no longer even pretend to do so. For example, their readers would never have details of the scientific reports on climate change or the damage being caused to the Great Barrier Reef and much of their political reporting is blatantly one-sided.

The two media outlets that still try to be balanced and carry out real investigative journalism are the ABC and Fairfax. These are the organisations that have had the will and the ability to uncover the wrongdoings, even of governments and other important instrumentalities.

Very simply, these two organisations have a well-earned reputation for making sure we have honest governments and business enterprises. They must be protected and supported. We can’t do without them. And, to back them, we need a federal ICAC or something similar.

The judiciary in Victoria are upset about comments made by some federal politicians about judges being too lenient in sentencing criminals who could be terrorism suspects – and we should all take notice of that criticism.

Our legal system came directly from Britain and is quite different from that which was created in the United States and, on the surface, our legal system does appear to be less democratic than the American system.

In our legal system the elected governments, state and federal, set the laws and then stand back to allow the judiciary (which is independent of the government) to interpret and implement them. There is a clear understanding that the powers of the parliament and those of the judiciary are separate and judges should steer clear of the political influence while politicians must not try to influence the judges’ decision making. It is called ‘the separation of powers’.

Our judges are professional legal people, not politicians.

The Americans also have professional judges but they are elected by the people, as are the prosecutors and are many other people in authority, and they campaign for election on a political agenda. That might seem more democratic but it means that they are political creatures and are usually elected because they promise to be ‘tough on crime’. That is why America has more people in jail than any other country in the world, where even minor criminals can spend many years in jail.

Our judges have much more latitude in sentencing.

That ‘separation of powers’ is vital but it hasn’t always been the case. Many decades ago our NSW pollies did interfere and your ancient scribe was a passenger in a car which was pulled up by police who gave the driver a ticket for speeding. The driver, a local man active in politics made the comment “I won’t have to pay. All it takes is a phone call to (and he named our local state MP)”.

Such examples from the past show why that separation of powers is so important.