source : the age
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Another day another scandal involving the Victorian government (″Questions over $1.5 billion forestry fund″, 23/6). Jacinta Allan’s government is so manifestly incompetent and scandal-ridden, even a coalition of the Liberals and One Nation would be preferable to another term of Labor. One benefit of such an arrangement would be that it would give Australians an opportunity to see just how One Nation operates in government. It would be a trial run for what we could expect federally in two years. And, if One Nation is exposed as unfit for government, the rest of the country might thank us, instead of laughing at us.
Greg Hardy, Upper Ferntree Gully
This helpline for kids needs funding
Bad news to read of the government’s refusal to help fund the popular youth support telephone service Kids Helpline (“State refuses to fund Kids Helpline”, 24/6). Kids Helpline is the only nationwide telephone counselling service specifically for young people. Victorian children are big users of the service, some being those in “immediate crisis”. I know from my work as a youth counsellor that young people will access community support services for help, less so for school-based counselling. It seems that phone counselling is the most used, being immediately available, very accessible and it can be anonymous. For the government to abrogate its contribution to this service is misguided and reprehensible. This is the government that chooses to support the grand prix and continues to underfund its public schools. What could be more important than investing in the lives of our young people?
Jan Marshall, Brighton
Funding is going in wrong direction
The government’s rejection of the Kids Helpline request for $4.5million shows up clearly this government’s priorities and principles when compared to the recently reported defalcations and misappropriation of the public purse. This week The Age reported misgivings of how state funds were handled when logging was banned in Victoria (Editorial, 24/6). It seems that in Victoria massive amounts of money can disappear into the ether.
Tony Davidson, Glen Waverley
Land should be for housing, not data centres
Is the government in such dire straits it’s looking to Big Tech and AI to bail us out? (″Huge red flag as tech giant buys up land″, 24/6). Blind Freddy can see where this is going – water shortages, power outages, environmental degradation. Not to mention the continuing lack of adequate and affordable housing and overall decreased quality of life, especially for those on low incomes. Please, put the brakes on now and think about the longer-term implications for the state. Let’s figure out more humanely intelligent ways to fix the ailing economy.
Annie Mullarvey, Brunswick East
Labor not insulated from One Nation
The Age reports ″Labor strategists″ have advised the ALP that One Nation stands to take up to 16 seats from the Coalition at the November election (″Labor cabinet gets ready for three-way poll contest″, 24/6). If the combined ALP and Green first preference vote was in the high 40 per cent range currently, as it was at the 2022 election, the loss of 16 seats by the Coalition might be good news for the ALP. But the combined ALP and Green first preference vote, according to polling, is in the mid to high 30 per cent range. So, because Jacinta Allan is the preferred premier for just 20 per cent of Victorians (as opposed to the 50 per cent ratings Daniel Andrews achieved before the 2022 election), and all major parties have lost voters to One Nation, the ALP is no way insulated from major losses at the election. If it loses just 13 seats it could not govern in its own right.
Alun Breward, Malvern East
THE FORUM
Each-way bet shame
Ross Gittins (Comment, 24/6) pinpoints the main problem with the government’s failure to take effective action on gambling advertising. Having commissioned a review, it seems that was just window-dressing: that was the good bit, and apparently the only bit, so the lack of a proper response needed to be hidden. When popular opinion is so clearly in support of the review’s recommended restrictions, you’d think the government’s task would be easy. You’d hope positive support would follow: no courage required to persuade people to accept the necessary changes, when popular opinion is already leading the way. But no; it seems an each-way bet is safer, especially when vested interests are loading the dice.
Jenifer Nicholls, Windsor
PM’s lacklustre response
Ross Gittins is on the money. As a voter in the late Peta Murphy’s Dunkley electorate, I am doubly disappointed in Anthony Albanese’s late, lacklustre response to the comprehensive report. There is absolutely no evidence of the ″strong action″ claims. I am one of the majority who support meaningful reform and will continue to call for a total ban on gambling ads and all inducements to gamble. What are the odds of being heard?
Maryanne Barclay, Frankston South
Wrong focus
What has the Albanese government achieved for the wellbeing of anyone who is and will be affected by gambling by his token effort on gambling regulation? What was the point of Peta Murphy’s efforts to achieve reforms?
It is alarming that children and their families are living in poverty. This is only going to increase combined with other factors contributing to this. Where is this government’s focus on this? Will they allocate all taxes gained from gambling companies to support charities already overwhelmed in trying to support people in need? Or will the taxes gained be diverted elsewhere?
Children living in poverty will have their hands tied in trying to successfully move through life. Don’t they need government assistance, as well as first home buyers?
Christine Baker, Rosanna
Budget’s ripple effects
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has dismissed collapsing auction clearance rates and falling house prices as a “market correction”. What effect will this have on those people in our ageing population who wish to sell their homes, downsize or move into aged accommodation? The many unintended consequences of Labor’s budget are all yet to be exposed.
William Holmes, Kew
Hanson as Trump
While the latest polls show that Pauline Hanson has the most support as the preferred prime minister, other reported polling (″We lead the world in poor opinion of US″, 24/6) would show that she is part of a very small group of Australians ie those who support Donald Trump. Only 18 per cent of those polled said that “they have confidence in the US president″, and as Pauline Hanson has been quoted in this paper as saying that she cannot think of one bad thing that he has done, she is certainly not listening to what Australians are saying. This has not stopped her from being seen at Mar-a-Lago with Gina Rinehart, her biggest supporter and Trump supporter.
Would this support mean she has been comfortable with Trump’s actions in the Middle East and their negative impacts on so many Australians? How far would she go in her support and copying of Trump and his chaotic and vindictive governing style?
Rod Moran, Brighton
Profits precedence
Re ″Who supplies natural gas to our neighbours, at home and overseas? People like Georgie do″ (24/6), the soft-sell advertisement by Chevron left out the bit that it is our neighbours who make the profit from our dwindling natural resources.
It’s not the fault of Chevron as it’s operating within the law nor of Georgie who works for them, but definitely a massive failure by the Albanese government, which is in the thrall to the mining industry and puts it before the Australian people they profess to represent.
Belinda Burke, Hawthorn
Why the secrecy?
Thank you to The Age for shining a light on the lack of transparency around the $1.5 billion in public spending used to compensate the logging industry after native forest logging supposedly ended in Victoria in 2024 (“Public money equals public accountability”, 24/6). It is galling to read of the secrecy surrounding those funds, but I am most dismayed to learn that Tasmania’s native forests are now being logged to supply Victorian sawmills, with Victorian taxpayers footing the bill (4 Corners, 22/6).
Native forest logging is destroying precious nature and worsening climate change. New Zealand shifted to a plantation-only forestry sector in 2002. If the Albanese government followed suit and showed the native forest logging industry the door, many of these problems would be solved. Taxpayers deserve better than secrecy and environmental damage dressed up as industry support.
Amy Hiller, Kew
But will changes work?
As Shane Wright suggests (Analysis, 24/6), the real test of the government’s tax reform is whether it actually works. Based on the government’s reasons for breaking election promises and introducing the changes, the major indicators of its success will be housing affordability and productivity levels.
Unless there is a significant improvement in each of these measures within a reasonable timeframe, Australians will be entitled to judge the tax changes a failure. And that’s before the inevitable unintended consequences of the reforms are considered.
Rod Wise, Surrey Hills
A line for parents, too
The article ″State refuses to fund Kids Helpline″ (24/6) makes for sobering reading. Telephone counselling is a first-line, early intervention response to all children, young people and importantly parents. Sadly in Victoria telephone counselling services such as Kids Helpline are not considered important enough to receive government funding. It is also worth noting that Parentline Victoria was closed down in 2025, making Victoria the only state without a dedicated telephone counselling service for parents needing advice and support with their parenting issues. Parentline Victoria provided anonymous, confidential support to parents 365 days a year. The government, however, axed this service to the detriment of children and parents – the increase in demand to Kids Helpline is no coincidence.
Prue Blackmore, Carlton North
A shout for the dogs
There is no reason to ban dogs from The Rose Hotel in Fitzroy (″Move to collar pets in pubs″, 24/6). Dogs have accompanied their handlers to pubs in this country as long as pubs have existed. Mostly in public bars, but also beer gardens and the ″ladies lounge″ or the saloon bar. In all these years, instances of health issues or anti-social dog behaviour are rare. Enough of the risk averse, rule-book pedantry. Let the dogs go to the pub, or the pubs will go to the dogs.
Sterbach Taggart, Edithvale
Kindly canines
Germs dance around dining venues. They compromise our health with each intake of breath. My dog does not rub her backside in anyone’s face nor does she lick their plates. She presents no health hazard to anyone. On the contrary, she could be the answer to our mental health crisis with her happy demeanour. She attracts smiles and conversations with strangers. It’s time Australia caught up with Europe and appreciated the role pets play in our wellbeing.
Angela Killingsworth, Abbotsford
Blame the owners
I had a wry grin reading about dogs in pubs. I had never had an issue with dogs inside until once when we were walking into an open area where diners ate and drank. The space allowed pets on leads, but there it was, a pet sitting on its owners knee licking the wooden serving platter.
We left, and it’s always what the pet owner does, it’s not the pet’s fault. I don’t know how you can control pet owners as they are besotted with their fur babies.
Keith Hawkins, Point Lonsdale
Privatised inequality
Australians were sold the lie that private ownership is always more efficient than government. The result has been higher power bills, expensive toll roads, privatised airports, costly childcare, and aged care providers putting profits ahead of care. Efficiency, it seems, now means efficiently emptying your wallet. Want to get really angry? Have a look at the executive salaries and bonuses of these often overseas-owned ″efficient″ companies. That tells you who is benefiting from privatisation.
David Milner, Port Melbourne
How to set up failure
For Australia’s sake, I hope One Nation polls well in the Victorian election. Then we will see what a hapless and hopeless group of individuals are like trying to be a united party. They are based on division and acrimony and I am sure they will mirror this upon election. Then the nation will see firsthand why not to vote for One Nation in the 2028 election.
John Rome, Mt Lawley, WA
Universal values
Angus Taylor wants all Australians to have ″a common sense of values″. This has nothing whatsoever to do with multiculturalism. People can have exactly the same values regardless of whether they go to a mosque, synagogue or church to worship and regardless of whether they eat souvlaki, rice or beef for dinner.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
AND ANOTHER THING
Trump
Although I’m a little concerned that as many as 18 per cent of Australians still have confidence in Donald Trump, I’m proud that “We lead the world in poor opinion of the US” (24/6).
Brian Collins, Cardigan
The report that Australians have unfavourable views of Donald Trump must be fake news.
Peter Randles, Pascoe Vale South
I want to congratulate Donald Trump for the success of his MAGA campaign at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He truly has Made Algae Great Again.
Vincent O’Donnell, Ascot Vale
Australia leads the world in poor opinion of Donald Trump, yet is apparently embracing Pauline Hanson. If that isn’t a dichotomy then what is?
Phil Alexander, Eltham
Wait for it. If the USA doesn’t win the World Cup it has been rigged.
Stephen Dinham, Metung
Furthermore
If Australia becomes a monoculture will our takeaway options be limited to fish and chips?“
Paul Miller, Albury
Pauline Hanson doesn’t know of the Ainu on Hokkaido when she is talking about Japan as a monoculture. She doesn’t know much about our minorities either.
David Baylis, Drouin East
People ask what “monoculture” actually means. Check out North Korea.
Peter Bennett, Clifton Hill
Climate change hoax? Tell that to the Parisians and Londoners.
Warren Thomas, Ivanhoe
If Israel doesn’t see itself bound by any Iran-US peace treaty, (Letters, 23/6) how can Hezbollah?
Rob Bowtell, Main Ridge
Fellow pedants, when did ″It was such fun″, become ″it was so fun″?
Myra Fisher, Brighton East
Now that dogs are banned from the Rose Hotel in Fitzroy, where are the customers going to go for ″the hair of the dog″?
Robin Jensen, Castlemaine
