woah richard - take a deep breath. and ask yourself this...
would you really want to hit somebody in your car??? if your like any other reasonable person...then the answer is no.
unfortunately theres pedestrian crossings, cyclists (i believe the term i get called is wanker), school zones, drunks in civic, little kids chasing balls, other cars with the worlds worst drivers, buses, trucks, young kids in sports cars and old tradies in dodgy vans and utes. people steal cars, key cars, hell someone even broke off my windscreen wiper.
its all part of driving on our public roads...and to answer your first question the reason the predestrian has right of way is because if they get hit by the person in the car (who may or may not be paying attention.) they are going to get hurt. i know people who have been hit bar a car, and ive been in a car when it hit someone on a motorbike. ive seen almost motorbike accidents that were almost fatal, and been in a few close calls myself.
fact is if a drunk driver hits a drunk walker then you could probly guess who will wake up with a hangover and who wakes up with a broken back.
so 2 options, keep driving like u do and dont let it get to u, pay attention, watch out, be patient and you wont have a problem,
or - take canberras awesome public transport