In a potent scene from one of my favourite western movies, the 1958 The Big Country, Gregory Peck is goaded into a midnight fist fight by his nemesis Charlton Heston (playing a bully named Leach). Peck picked the time and place for a physical confrontation – late at night and out of view. The fist fight probably lasted more than an hour and with no obvious winner, Peck’s character, noting that both were exhausted, called a truce and then simply asked “Tell me Leach, what did we prove?”

The Australian public and taxpayers, including the multitude of poorly paid workers across aged, health and childcare, may well ask: “Tell us ACCC, what did you prove and at what cost?” As many battled for the community against COVID-19, at great personal risk and discomfort, a gaggle of highly paid individuals postured away inside the Australian court system arguing a legal case that probably did not legally exist.