When Australian voters ask their politicians to lower taxes, they're not immediately asked to submit comprehensive spreadsheets outlining their alternative economic vision for the country.

When ordinary people ask their politicians to do something about the climate crisis, they're not expected to provide a multi-volume proposal co-authored by David Suzuki and Naomi Klein that will definitively end pollution.

When citizens ask their politicians to create more jobs, they're not dismissed and told to give their job to somebody else if they feel oh-so-bloody strong about it.

But when decent folks see stories about people in our offshore gulags setting themselves on fire in desperation and are so bold as to suggest that might be an indication of something being horrifically wrong, they can expect to be greeted with a familiar response: "Well what's YOUR solution then, smarty-pants?"