(1) To state that a “government method” is “outmoded” implies that government “methods” exist, somewhere else in the world that are “moded”, which I take to mean state-of-the-art. 

If Australian methods of government service delivery are so hopelessly “outmoded”, would Mr. Bolan care to suggest which of the world’s other 190 countries (a majority of whom, I would suggest, regard Australia as a paradise of high living standards and good government) are sufficiently “moded” for us to emulate?

(2) Mike wrote that “Businesses can provide good service without resorting to statutes and penalties ...” and “governments rely solely on the force of law”.

So, government should also be able to provide good service without resorting to statutes and penalties; is that the point you’re making?

What exactly does this society that you have in mind, without law, statutes and penalites, look like?  Rwanda circa 1994?  Sudan at present?

Could it be that you’re missing something, Mike?  Because the sort of services delivered by businesses and governments respectively are qualitatively different, aren’t they?  Here’s a hint: it’s about voluntariness.  Businesses deliver products that people choose to buy.  Governments provide public goods, like criminal law and order, civil justice, police, education, national security, foreign representation overseas and immigration administration, which we can only provide by acting collectively and coercively, in the form of the nation-state.

Since a certain Mr Hobbes wrote the Leviathan and was followed by a certain Mr Locke and a Monsieur Rousseau, we have realized that this is the price for living in something sociologists call “society”.  Hence, we know this arrangement as a “social contract”, which we can’t opt out of.

Well, actually, in this age of easy international travel, we can.  If one is so outraged by the regulatory imposition of having to conduct one’s business in an environment free from laws, statutes and penalties, then one can hop on a plane to Sudan.  No GST business activity statements there.  Just don’t expect sewage systems, running water or life expectancy over 35.

According to Mike, “Businesses recognise the need for efficiency and are prepared to innovate to help assure their income ... those that don’t fail and disappear.”

The difficulty with this analogy is that when the government fails and disappears, “you’ve go’ a bi’ of a problem”, as my first year politics lecturer liked to say.

It would be nice to imagine that we could solve all problems of regulation and delivery of government services by simply scrapping the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Treasury, the High Court and Parliament, and replacing them with a management consultancy in Lilydale.

But then it would also be somewhat naive.