source : the age
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VICTORIA
Tom Cruise might have to be induced to come to Victoria to track down our lost billions. It is a perilous assignment fraught with danger.
His brief from the premier would be to probe, but perhaps not too deeply. Then he could begin swinging between gantries, climbing ladders, checking sheds, going deep underground, and sometimes tripping over empty shoe boxes.
It might be immensely dangerous and he could encounter a lot of resistance, and that’s apart from the politicians.
But if he does succeed in tracking down the lost loot, we will be eternally grateful – provided his fee doesn’t include a 10 per cent bonus of the purported missing $15 billion.
Tony Davidson, Glen Waverley
Union corruption a symptom, not cause
Sounds like Jacinta Allan’s Labor government is a goner, even if she calls a royal commission into the CFMEU.
What would her party have to do to pull the fat out of the fire? As well as calling a royal commission and dumping her?
Perhaps look at what happens when you hand over infrastructure planning to consultants with vested interests, and land use planning to developers, fast-trackers and their YIMBY supporters?
You get an unaffordable, unsustainable, unviable Suburban Rail Loop instead of the local infrastructure projects everybody needs and high-rise housing dominating your neighbourhood strip shopping centres. And you get fewer, not more dwellings completed than when councils were in charge of planning.
Nobody wants these outcomes, and it is probably too late for Labor MPs to unravel these disasters, even if enough were clear-eyed enough to see the problems.
Let’s hope the voters have their eyes on these fundamentals and not just the excitement of polls and exposes of union corruption, which is a symptom, not the cause.
Rosemary West, Edithvale
Commission denialism is a thing
The increasing calls for a royal commission into the Big Build program scandals and the frequent rebuttals by the then infrastructure minister and now premier, are starting to sound like the Liberal Party’s denials of a need for a royal commission in the banking industry. And that did not go well for the Liberals or the banks, and I expect this is exactly what the premier fears.
How long I wonder, before the premier succumbs to pressure and agrees to ″consider″ a royal commission, after November of course.
Stephen Farrelly, Donvale
In no one we trust
It’s depressing that the only way we can achieve good governance today is to effectively govern by royal commission. But if the obscene cost and obvious retrospectivity of royal commissions is the only way to guarantee ethical behaviour it is our only way forward. Let’s hope that this a temporary period and that we might once again find people we can trust to vote for.
Julian Guy, Mount Eliza
Lack of oversight
The distinction between inflation and criminality and corruption in Victoria’s Big Build might not be as clear as Premier Jacinta Allan suggests (“I’m deeply sorry for what happened on Big Build projects”, 3/7).
Inflation in the cost of completing major infrastructure projects can be caused by largely unavoidable factors such as global supply chain disruptions, but also by factors inside the Big Build which seek to exercise power in order to gain financial advantage.
Integrity expert Geoffrey Watson, SC, has estimated that criminal involvement and corruption has added 15 per cent to the cost of Victoria’s $100 billion infrastructure program (“Labor MPs open to union royal commission”, 3/7).
It would be interesting to compare the inflationary impact on the cost of the Big Build of factors that the government is largely powerless to control and those that are not beyond that power. But there is growing evidence that the government has had little control over any of the major contributors to the enormous cost of the Big Build.
Rod Wise, Surrey Hills
Allan too late
Jacinta Allan is “deeply sorry” (3/7), but sorry doesn’t cut it. She admits the signs of corruption on Big Build were there for years. She didn’t act. Now she wants credit for fixes that should have come long ago. She may be right that a royal commission mostly enriches lawyers, but that argument carries no weight from a premier who let the rot set in on her watch. Jacinta Allan had her chance to lead on this. She chose delay. She has no standing to ask Victorians to trust her judgment now.
John Godfrey, Cape Paterson
THE FORUM
AI guard rails
It is good to see parts of the ALP calling for a more cautious approach to AI and the impact on workers. But why is the government not looking at the impact on the broader community? Rather than deciding to do something after the harm is done, such as the restriction on social media access for under-16s, why not get ahead of the negative impacts?
AI has a profound impact on our communities and is frequently misused at the expense of the environment and social cohesion. Perhaps more impact analysis should be required before deciding access to AI is warranted.
I want to see AI assist in advances in health and science by experts that benefit our community, but I do not want it used to generate misinformation and facilitate harm particularly to vulnerable members of our community.
Rosemary Marcon, Hawthorn
Hughes spins
Great article by Karl Quinn on Dave Hughes’ pirouetting gracelessly to the political right (″Dave Hughes is angry …″ 3/7). A 1980s leftie becoming very wealthy and turning right wing in his senior years: Hughes should call his new show “I’m a cliche, get me outta here!“
I just wish Hughes and others like him who’ve earned millions from spiralling property prices had the insight to admit their squealing is about protecting their self-interest.
Brian Mitchell (state Labor MP), Penna, Tas
Ethics misplaced
The Christian Brothers’ restructure of finances to avoid compensation payments to victims of sexual abuse by their clergy demonstrates a total absence of moral foundation. They urgently need to develop a code of ethics by which to measure their actions. Oh wait, they have one.
Graeme Rose, Wangaratta
Antisemitism endures
It’s regrettable that Sara Schwartz has been targeted with threats and nasty messages (“Sarah spoke out against Israel ...” 2/7). She’s not entirely alone, with many of Australia’s 115,000 Jews marked for hatred and vilification of the most repulsive kind, simply for being Jews.
Post-Bondi, paradoxically, we’re seeing Jew-hatred continuing to build, no matter how opposed to Israel’s actions Schwartz and the Jewish Council of Australia are.
Debbie Lustig, Elsternwick
Let them eat cake
Your correspondent (Letters, ″Equality takes a dive″, 3/7) asks how did we get such a two-tiered education system and society? Robert Menzies baked the cake and John Howard iced it.
Tony Lenten, Glen Waverley
Gambling ad absurdity
Axe the tax! The tax I’m talking about is the money (mostly poorer) Australians pay transferring their funds to the gambling industry. We have a productivity problem in this country and here is a perfect chance for our politicians to do something about it by eliminating advertising of a completely unproductive enterprise. As James Massola puts it (″PM taking a big punt on gambling ads″, 3/7), anything less than a total advertising ban looks absurd. As for problem gamblers – they should be condemned to a severe sentence of mathematics.
Allan Dowsett, Preston
Not so fair
Would Australia accommodate a firebug lobby? No. So why kowtow to the gambling industry lobby? Are we addicted to winning the world’s highest rate of per capita gambling losses, despite the damage this unleashes on individuals, families and society? For some, that would equate to the harm of bushfire devastation.
Experts regard Labor’s tabled gambling advertising restrictions as inadequate to protect children and the vulnerable Australians from the misinformation that’s proffered by the gambling industry, or to counteract the possibility of individual addiction. Online opt-out options are prolix and will fail to mitigate loss and damage. Labor once championed fairness. For whom? The gambling industry and those profiting from its advertising, or the Australian people? It is the latter as family, friends and taxpayers who will be burdened by the costs of ameliorating the damage gambling addiction, or unsustainable losses cause.
How is this fair? A responsible government would revise its legislation and take away the gambling industry’s matches.
Anita Horvath, Ballarat North
Medical money
Your correspondent, a specialist anaesthetist, seems to suggest that health insurers’ profit margins are the sole or main reason for large out-of-pocket costs for medical procedures (Letters, 3/7).
He further suggests that reducing these margins by paying larger amounts to doctors would reduce these costs to patients. Unfortunately, long experience suggests that a more likely outcome would be a short-term reduction in out-of-pocket costs followed by the gradual erosion of these savings as doctors and medical specialists gobble up the extra payments to boost their already handsome incomes. (ATO data shows that for over a decade, surgeons, anaesthetists and other medical specialists have been among the highest paid occupations in the country.)
Perhaps the Adeney example – with a hospital half-owned by doctors and a health insurer – illustrates that when the medical profession exercises some income restraint then patients can have both great medical care and better financial outcomes.
David Francis, Ivanhoe East
Family GP no myth
Re Rosie Beaumont’s opinion piece (″I uncovered a medical myth: the dedicated family doctor″, 2/7). Am I a lucky one with the same doctor for more than 20 years? Dedicated, efficient and humorous, he’d rather work than take a holiday. The skeleton in his room is not bare, but comically dressed according to season. No intimidation there. Two receptionists have worked at the same practice for many years and recognise me with smiles, dissipating immediately any pain I feel. In my case, the family doctor is definitely not a myth.
Avril Bradley, Frankston
Enough shenanigans
As a dedicated recipient of the The Age seven days per week, could I please negotiate a refund whenever “colourful characters″ Serena Williams, Nick Kyrgios or Thanasi Kokkinakis manage to again be featured?
Russell Harrison, Sandringham
Slip, slop, hat
Has anyone else noticed the scarcity of hat wearing (bar a few caps and umbrellas) in the footage of people outdoors during the heatwave in the UK and Europe? Maybe an Aussie promotion of our wonderful array of summer hats is warranted and good for business
Julie Chandler, Blairgowrie
AND ANOTHER THING
World
I wonder if the US income from Venezuela’s oil fields will greatly help with the rescue and rebuild efforts after the earthquake? There is another Humanitarian Nobel prize up for grabs.
Luise Mock, Tawonga South
The Nazis used V2 rockets to terrorise London in WWII. How can the world sit back and watch Vladimir Putin bomb another European capital using missiles and drones, while claiming ″we don’t target civilians″? Russia needs to be stopped.
Jamie Foster, Albert Park
Leadership
Another non apology. Jacinta Allan may be naive but the rest of us aren’t.
Jane Patrick, Brighton
Does Moira Deeming earn frequent flyer points on legal action?
Paul Custance, Highett
Hoges, Norman ….Pauline Hanson forgot to mention Rolf.
Greg Pyers, Daylesford
Imagine the merriment of Norman Gunston interviewing Pauline Hanson.
Colleen Heatley, Drouin West
What a commentary on the state of politics in Victoria when the most popular party in the state is one with no leader, no policies and no candidates.
Tony O’Brien, South Melbourne
Sport
Happy 250th birthday USA. I’ve never visited you, but I’ve heard it’s a great place. We have many similarities: wide open spaces, national parks, sports fields for all, occasional embarrassing leaders, space travel, fried chicken. But by gosh, I hope Australia triumphs and wins the soccer!
Leon Zembekis, Reservoir
And it’s a “win win’ to have people like Mariam El Meligi as part of our multicultural community (“Watch like an Egyptian”, 3/7).
Chris Rodier, Glen Waverley
Sarah Berry’s opinion piece on World Cup therapy was a tonic. Images of the Tartan Army and the Vikings Row will linger long.
Betty Rudin, Wandin North
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