Each year in Australia many people suffer injury that government is in a position to prevent. By building better roads, imposing tougher safety standards, or carrying out tougher regulation and inspection, government could reduce many of the hazards of contemporary living. But the ideal world comes at a price. Not only would the budgetary outlay be infinite, the spectre of ever-increasing government control and regulation would be invidious to many. Where is the line to be drawn, asks John McMillan. Or, more to the point in an age of litigation, when should government be liable to compensate a person who has suffered injury arising from a government failure to act?