"We have labour accommodation standards and we are monitoring them and penalising those who are violating [the rules]," he said.
It's tempting to see the two-minute time penalty dished out to both Clarke and Porte as penalising sportsmanship.
Its intelligence-led approach is highly successful in rooting out exploitation, penalising the perpetrators, protecting the victims and, critically, preventing the exploitation of countless more.
It would also mean penalising companies that abuse the system, such as those that use the benefits system to avoid taking on staff on a permanent basis.
Fine Gael and Labour are starting to realise they have a fight on their hands as they face accusations that they are more interested in penalising mortgage-holders than the bankers and speculators whose greed laid waste to the property market.
Instead of immigration vans, raids and endless spot checks, we need resources to be redirected into penalising exploitative employers and protecting workers.
Nigel Lawson told the cabinet that the tax was "completely unworkable and politically catastrophic", penalising 44% of the electorate.
But a land tax cannot reduce the supply of land, and it would stimulate economic activity by penalising those whose land is unproductive.
Enacting a wealth tax to separate the rich from their unspent savings is another possible response, as is penalising companies who don't spend their spare cash on wages or investment.
Can the world's largest economy and debtor nation follow a consistent policy of devaluation, and thus penalising its creditors?
And Western policymakers routinely complain that China's refusal to let its currency appreciate to its "natural" level is in effect subsidising China's domestic industry, penalising American and European companies, destroying American and European jobs and fuelling dangerous global imbalances.It is easy to overstate the case against state capitalism.
