source : the age
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POLITICAL DONATIONS
There is something drastically wrong with Australia’s political system when the country’s richest person can donate vast amounts to a political party without much ado (″Rinehart dinners help fund One Nation″, 4/8).
There needs to be a shake-up of the political donation system. Here, we have a person supporting a party whose leader, Pauline Hanson, made comments at the National Press Club in Canberra recently that indicated she doesn’t regard the best interests of workers in Australia as important.
In 2012, Gina Rinehart suggested that people from poorer nations were happy to work for $2 a day, and this was interpreted as a critique of Australian workers.
The obscenely wealthy should stay out of our politics. Instead of playing up to the present belief system in which great wealth brings great power – and in which the governments and the wealthy view sovereign funds as an anathema – we need to look where the spoils of the economic ″war″ should be concentrated.
This is where the citizens of Australia could benefit, rather than a situation where the wealthy can bankroll a party that is light on policy and heavy on dangerous rhetoric.
David Legat, South Morang
Selling political access threatens democracy
The escalating “cash-for-access” culture in Australian politics is deeply disturbing. Wealthy donors should not be permitted to buy private audiences with our elected leaders.
Our nation prides itself on egalitarianism, where every citizen’s voice holds equal weight. Yet, major political parties have commercialised democracy, implementing tiered pricing for access. A single fundraising dinner ticket can cost up to $5000 while exclusive boardroom lunches and closed-door mansion gatherings regularly command $50,000 or more.
Commodifying political power directly threatens our democratic foundation. It is especially disappointing that a Labor government is defending these practices, abandoning its core commitment to fairness for everyday working people.
If financial leverage is the only language our politicians understand, perhaps ordinary Australians should launch a GoFundMe campaign. By pooling our resources to raise $50,000, we might finally secure a seat at the table to challenge corporate billionaires face to face.
Political access must depend on the merit of ideas, not individual wealth. Cash-for-access events require an immediate ban.
Leanne Mullens, Faulconbridge, NSW
All publicity is good publicity
Pauline Hanson should realise that banning certain media from her press conferences is a double-edged sword. Organisations banned, including The Age, The Guardian and the ABC, should return
the compliment.
Simply ignore the existence of One Nation in news reports. Hanson would then understand the meaning of the old adage that “any publicity is good publicity”.
Ross Hudson, Mount Martha
Have people lost their senses?
I keep hearing of polls that have Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party at levels as high as 30 per cent. Even in Victoria.
Have people lost their senses? I could use words like popularist, xenophobic, narrow-minded, and conservative when talking of this party’s history.
We have now seen Hanson mixing with billionaires and right-wing extremists and wanting to imitate the likes of Donald Trump.
Need I say more? Bill Proctor, Launching Place
Pulling no punches
I absolutely agree with your correspondent (Letters 4/8): Gina Rinehart is not a punching bag.
Simon Thornton, Alphington
THE FORUM
Presidential behaviour
After observing how a democratic system of government can be corrupted by a populist, elected president and executive that continually override the powers of the legislative and judiciary, it makes one think that if Australia ever transitioned to a republic, the president should have titular powers similar to our current governor-general.
In fact, why not just rename the existing governor-general role to president? Job done. Same simple solution for the flag; just take the Union Jack off it.
Jeff Langdon, Smythesdale
Riderless horse
Further to Matt Golding’s brilliant cartoon, Victoria Handicap
(″… And Wait – It’s One Nation. One Nation without a Rider or even a horse !!!″, 29/7): We now have the rider. He’s waiting in the barrier to preserve his strategic advantage by not jumping too early on his
still missing horse.
Michelle Leeder, Trentham
On the hustings
If litigating, being angry and movie-making are necessary qualities to represent Victorians, then One Nation’s latest state candidates have what it takes (″Party hopes to gain a ‘strategic advantage’ by keeping candidates, policies under wraps″, 4/8).
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
Save our special sauce
The Age invites readers to suggest ideas for making our city a better place (“City must find its ’special sauce‴, 4/8). I suggest that our new premier can, with the planning minister, refuse the request by the developer to increase the height of the already inappropriate development near the corner of Swanson and Flinders Streets.
If the project is approved, there would be a 16-storey monstrosity that would detract from and overshadow the iconic structures on the four corners of the historic gateway into our city.
Bill Pimm, Mentone
Wrapped in plastic
I was shocked to read that only 19 per cent of plastic packaging is collected for recycling in Australia meaning more than 1 million tonnes goes to landfill each year (“New products pop the plastic bubble”, 4/8).
In 2026, this is not good enough. But full credit to The Age and Visy for initiating annual round tables and to the companies developing alternative products. We can support these initiatives by asking suppliers who still use plastic wrapping to investigate switching and by letting our state and federal representatives know that national packaging standards are now overdue. We are all figuratively “wrapped in plastic”.
Sarah Brennan, Hawthorn
The daily plastic bag
In The Age (4/8), it is proudly stated that a host of innovations supplanting plastic in consumer products and packaging has occurred since “this masthead and Visy started hosting an annual recycling roundtable with business leaders and the federal environment minister of the day”.
I am eagerly awaiting an innovation regarding the thick plastic bag that my copy of The Age gets delivered in.
Janna McCurdy, Northcote
Pigs might fly again
Your correspondent (Letters, 4/8) quite rightly complains about roadside rubbish and recalls the Keep Australia Beautiful campaign of the 1970s.
By coincidence yesterday, I was recalling precisely the same community awareness effort as I drove on the Goulburn Valley Highway and the Hume Freeway through central Victoria, observing piles of dumped garbage.
I still recall that the punchy, core educational message was “dopes rubbish Australia”, with both real and cartoon-character pigs as the prominent images.
It was clearly very effective almost 60 years ago, at least on a then teenage lad.
Don’t expend a fortune on a new campaign. Retrieve the original footage from the archives, and play it across all forms of media. Bring back the pigs, I say.
Alan McLean, Queenscliff
Potholes first, please
Your correspondent (Letters, ″Keep it beautiful″, 4/8) rightly draws our attention to the litter piling up around our roadsides and calls for immediate action.
All good. But perhaps it is the roads that need the more immediate attention.
Please fix the potholes.
Brian Marshall, Ashburton
Quick-fix folly
The Liberals’ promise to eliminate 1 million potholes across Victoria’s 200,000-kilometre road network sounds very appealing. However, patching surface holes without fixing degraded foundations is short-sighted and wasteful. Quick-fix patches over rotting sub-bases simply fail when the next decent rainstorm washes it away, leaving bigger holes.
If we are serious about state infrastructure, election promises need the blowtorch of genuine costings, not news-grabbing sound bites. Anything less is just throwing taxpayer money down the drain.
David Milnert, Port Melbourne
Faces of gambling
All the talk and no action on gambling advertising reform is very disappointing. Yet, more disappointing is that most of the people pushing gambling, particularly on many sports programs, are ex-footballers. They should be ashamed to put their faces to it.
Gambling not only creates financial pain but is a major factor in suicide. Shame on you all.
Robert Scholes, Mitcham
Childcare must change
The latest report on childcare is chilling but not unexpected (“Profit model for childcare under fire”, 4/8). Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute has found that the push to expand childcare has “created workforce churn, provider turnover and growing risk”. For-profit centres change operators frequently, wages are low, and conditions are poor so educators move on quickly, leading to less stability.
While the number of childcare places has almost doubled since 2013, most (74 per cent) are for-profit. This report follows on those last year of child abuse and lack of safety. Yet childcare centres receive subsidy payments of $16.9 billion.
It is time to stop wringing our collective hands at this shocking reality and do something about it.
Childcare is an essential service, part of early childhood learning, and vital for children’s development. It should be provided by government and in community hands with clear regulations, mandated staffing, and stable conditions.
Establishing a national early education and care commission to “guide a path towards universal early childhood education and care” is not enough.
If necessary, go to Scandinavia to see how it’s done. Norway provides heavily subsidised early childhood learning by taxing the big resource corporations. Now there’s an idea!
We owe it to our children, our most precious resource, to provide universal, affordable, quality childcare.
Anne Sgro, Coburg North
Toothless tiger
Now that the fuel excise discount has ended, your correspondent (Letters, 4/8) wonders what action the ACCC will take to ″bring the fuel industry to account″ over its regular holiday price hikes. Unfortunately, it will do nothing that has any real effect because it has no legal power to affect prices; the federal parliament has no constitutional authority to grant
it such powers.
Dennis Dodd, Shepparton
Proud of my record
Your correspondent’s letter (″Tim Wilson’s past″, 4/8) makes a series of criticisms that are ill-informed.
It is true that in 2013 I was appointed as Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner, and it is true that I was previously critical of the Australian Human Rights Commission for not being focused on the rights and freedoms of Australians.
But it is false that I ″criticised and ridiculed … the then Human Rights Commissioner″ It was not possible to do so as the Gillard and Rudd governments left the position deliberately vacant because they were trying to abolish it.
In the end my criticisms of the commission were manifest of this problem, but once appointed I quickly restored the focus of the Australian Human Rights Commission back onto human rights, and proudly so.
Tim Wilson MP, Federal Liberal Member for Goldstein
Three-hour wait
I wish my experience at an urgent care clinic had been as quickly dealt with as your correspondent’s was (Letters, 4/8). After scratching my arm on rusty wire netting last Saturday, I decided to attend the local urgent care clinic for a tetanus shot on Sunday morning.
On arriving, there were two families ahead of me. I registered at reception and then was seen by triage nurse who said it shouldn’t be too long a wait.
After nearly three hours, I was seen by a nurse and given the shot. It took all of five minutes.
I never saw a doctor.
I understand there could have been more serious issues happening, but I wonder how they prioritise their cases.
Pam Christensen, Leongatha North
Elder disuse
I recently read in an article an opinion that no generation in human history has spent more time watching, listening and interacting with their peers – and less time listening to their parents and older mentors – than people under 25 today.
This is thanks to social media invading every corner of our lives, making the battle for parents, and mentors with wiser heads, more challenging than ever.
Truer words were never spoken, and this alone is why we need to be extremely cautious about omnipresent and pervasive AI.
Stephen Farrelly, Donvale
AND ANOTHER THING
One Nation
What a shame Pauline Hanson has banned The Age from her public appearances; I mean, the tales of her adventures have been a great source of entertainment.
Henry Herzog, St Kilda East
Warren Pickering, Victorian One Nation leader: ″We are on the precipice of social and economic collapse″, 4/8. Indeed, having watched the rising poll numbers of One Nation over the past months, I am convinced of this likelihood.
Michelle Goldsmith, Eaglehawk
One Nation is keeping details of pretty much everything ″under wraps″ until closer to the election date for a ″strategic″ advantage. Could the truth be that they don’t actually have anything to reveal yet?
Marie Nash, Balwyn
I can’t see a premier in One Nation’s list of candidates for the upcoming state elections.
Peter Randles, Pascoe Vale South
Furthermore
The premier in demonstrating his commitment to prioritising Victorians’ money should also cease the annual payment of more than $100 million to support the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.
Geoff Gowers, Merricks North
Is he as good as Bracks? – it is the only relevant question.
James Ogilvie, Kew
Are VCAT and local council planning now obsolete? Seems developers just go straight to the minister to get what they want such as at St Joseph’s orphanage (4/8).
Nola Cormick, Albert Park
Perhaps the Spirit of Australia should mull over the idea of employing Australians before shifting jobs to India.
Annie Wilson, Inverloch
Re ″Trump’s entered a new phase: the unmaking of his presidency″ 4/8. Donald Trump has long been fond of calling people “real losers” including fallen soldiers, political opponents and late-night television hosts. Sounds like Trump is the biggest real loser now.
Fiona White, Alfredton
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