source : the age
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ONE NATION
Neil Mitchell is right, (“Four things Carroll and Wilson must do to combat One Nation”, 13/9) the major parties have not been listening to the concerns of voters for years.
The Liberal and National parties have been engaged in redundant culture wars – climate, gender, Australian history – the latest being the Ben Roberts-Smith brouhaha. Labor has largely been in the grip of vested interests – the gambling, fossil-fuel and development industries just to name a few.
The problem I have with this article is “this party gives … voters hope”. Based on what?
Conspiracy theories – the 15-minute city is about bureaucratic control, climate change is a United Nations plot, three-word slogans double as policies reflecting largely their billionaire backers’ interests, Nazi infiltration into membership, contradictory statements … I could go on.
The problem is when some in One Nation peddle what are fringe, debunked theories and ideas, they give them legitimacy.
Attracting voters based on misinformation and wild conspiracies is not good for democracy.
Craig Horne, Fitzroy North
Independents good for democracy, too
While I have never been a fan of Neil Mitchell, his analysis of the current state of politics is on the mark.
However, Mitchell and other commentators make an omission, namely the role of community independents in providing answers to our state and country’s woes.
Driven by the scarce commodity of political integrity and real-life experiences beyond a political party, their current presence in Canberra has offered many solutions to problems the major parties have failed to address: gambling, education, health, AI, climate, the economy and challenges from overseas.
The Liberals still need a viable leader, clarity in values and invigorating policies. The Labor Party has squandered its opportunity for ″great″ reform.
The Greens fail to capitalise on their unique opportunities to effect change through intransigence.
None of these parties truly listens to us Australians. Mitchell indicates that One Nation is stepping into the breach.
However, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, with her simplistic populist views, is offering a range of ill-considered and dangerously divisive policies.
The large number of community independents on the crossbench in Canberra were elected because they listen and formulate their policies based on the direct input of their constituents and actual evidence. Their debate is civil and positive. Real democracy at work.
It is about time the media spent more time examining the real contributions and differences community independents can make to our country.
Jennifer Quigley, Balwyn
Giving disengaged voters hope
Neil Mitchell’s thoughtful views on how One Nation’s rise in voter support is having a beneficial effect on Victorian politics is timely. He refreshingly doesn’t refer to ″Howard’s battlers″ or ″Tony’s tradies″ as being the presumed crass, unthinking voters for Pauline Hanson, yet his ″rednecks″ reference may preclude them from his astute observation: ″The party has given genuine and decent disengaged voters hope.″
And I would add, for many an opportunity to vote in a strategic way, perhaps only the once, for One Nation so as to scare the political life out of Labor.
If it takes removing the opprobrium from voting for One Nation by it becoming a ″genuine″ decision, so be it.
Voters have been ignored for years by successive Labor premiers, and Ben Carroll’s hurried proposals to clear up the past mistakes underlines some of the neglect of potholes on Victoria’s roads.
This falls into laughable category of government if it didn’t have such serious consequences.
Des Files, Brunswick
THE FORUM
Easy to be hard
Easy to be proud. Easy to say no. OK, I’m a Boomer. But this much I know: our public discourse is in the gutter. No, we are not calling Andrew Hastie a traitor – it’s just satire, just a meme.
Deep in our hearts, we know the truth. These are tough times. Discontent is rife. We face many challenges, one of the biggest among them being the choice between grace and the gutter.
Don’t like the mainstream parties? Seek out an independent with a modicum of decency. That’ll do. There is so precious little of it these days.
Tony Newport, Hillwood, Tas
Saying no to drugs
Pauline Hanson defends her Victorian One Nation leader’s past drug use well into his twenties, perhaps thirties, by asking us ‘Who in this country possibly has not tried drugs?’ (‘Hanson gives her support: Who has not tried drugs?’, 10/9).
Well, up goes my hand, unless you are referring to a nice glass or two of sparkling wine or a cheeky chardonnay. Drugs such as speed, amphetamines, ecstasy and marijuana? No way. Guess this means I’m not cut out to be a One Nation supporter, thank goodness.
Robyn Westwood, Heidelberg Heights
Freedom when it suits
Opposition communications spokesperson Senator Sarah Henderson is using freedom of speech to justify the Coalition’s opposition to Labor’s digital care bill. However, the senator has only ever appeared interested in freedom of speech when it aligns with her own views.
I recall her maligning anti-genocide protesters as antisemitic, congratulating the Adelaide Writers’ Week for cancelling the appearance of human rights (and Palestinian) advocate Randa Abdel-Fattah, calling for police to investigate students protesting against One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, demanding ABC Americas editor John Lyons be ″shut down″, and demanding an inquiry into the ABC’s ″impartiality failures.
Henderson might believe ″freedom of speech is precious and must be protected at all costs″, but her actions craft an entirely different narrative.
Neil Hudson, East Melbourne
We need AI rules
The recent article in The Age about AI “agents” escaping their “sandbox” parameters, and acting in a semi-autonomous manner, together with Michael Koziol’s article, “Could kill us all” (10/9), highlighting the serious concerns of Anthropic operatives about the potential for harm to humanity with increasing AI autonomy, constitute dire warnings and justifiable alarm about the speed and direction of this technology.
These, and other similar concerns from respected distinguished experts in the field, such as Geoffrey Hinton, appear to be ignored by the multibillion-dollar AI tech industry and governments eager to profit by hosting them.
By and large, the prevailing narrative is that AI will transform civilisation for the better. There seems to be far less focus on how to control AI before it controls us. It is not alarmist to present the real potential risks of an uncontrollable, cataclysmic event, and to attempt to establish some form of international consensus whereby this technology can be controlled.
An analogy could be the international effort to control and prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Responsibility to control AI cannot be allowed to reside solely with the companies who reap huge profits from this technology. So far, there is little evidence of government policy to address the issue.
Leslie Chester, Brighton
Tea with a robot?
I have become alarmed by the infiltration of AI into our everyday lives. I am horrified that data centres are springing up like mushrooms on our east coast without a full evaluation of their consequences for our country and our people.
There seems to be a headlong rush to join this possible menace in case we miss out on financial gains. They are taking up farmland where we could grow food and land to build homes. Building permits seem to be given out willy nilly without a cohesive strategy or caution about where this will
all lead. At the micro level, The Age on Saturday was chockers with Harvey Norman advertisements.
Alarmingly to me, seven pages are given over to promoting the sale of robotic lawn mowers, pool cleaners and window cleaners. At a time of rising cost of living and unemployment, this money could be better used to hire people to do these jobs.
You can actually have a chat and a cup of tea with these people. Kathryn Anne Feather, Aireys Inlet
Wrecking the system
Economic principles demanding maximum growth and productivity were developed in the late 1700s, when European population pressures were the imperatives for global imperialism. But now, when there are no more indigenous populations left to slaughter, or land to steal to fulfill these principles, they are still the only thing on offer.
Climate change is becoming catastrophic, governments can no longer guarantee jobs or infrastructure, resources are become scarcer and more expensive, inequality is massive and growing and productivity is a joke because rather than adding to the common wealth, it’s either seeking to recover from existing problems, making useless trinkets, or mostly, adding to the wealth of the already ultra-rich.
You don’t need a degree to work this out and aspirational advertising only rubs salt in the wounds.
Given that it would be the same whoever is in power, wrecking the system is becoming seen as the only option where disruptive change can happen.
John Laurie, Riddells Creek
Superannuation benefit
Mollie Muroi’s thoughtful article (“One Nation’s super access policy is a thought bubble”, 9/12) touches on how our superannuation system reduces the cost of the age pension.
What also needs to be explored is the tax concessions that encourage investment in superannuation, and what these concessions cost compared to the cost of the age pension. Federal Treasury has predicted that the cost of these tax breaks will overtake the cost of the pension by around 2040.
Given that more than two-thirds of super tax breaks go to the top 20 per cent of earners, who would not have qualified for the pension anyway, the current system appears to be unnecessarily wasteful. A review could both benefit Treasury’s bottom line, and make superannuation cheaper and fairer.
Jan Lacey, North Melbourne
Bleak in Boroondara
Another 65,000 homes in Boroondara by 2051? We’re already struggling with increased traffic and parking. Five new builds in our street are built boundary to boundary, with massive underground garages affecting the water table and not a tree to be seen. We’re facing a climate crisis and gardens and green spaces are more important than ever. The future looks bleak.
Belinda Burke, Hawthorn
For the record
The 1960s exhibition at the Old Treasury Building Museum “Swinging Sixties” includes an image of me burning my draft card in 1966. While it is ironic that political protest is now deemed suitable material for a museum, the irony is doubled by the fact that this iconic photograph by The Age photographer was not published until 40 years after the event which itself went unreported by The Age, despite being the first draft card burning in Melbourne.
Protests were, in fact, rare in 1966 (though not in the years that followed). Protests are much more frequent today, but most of the media still regard fashions at the Melbourne Cup as more newsworthy than anti-war protests and efforts to repress them.
Andy Blunden, Brunswick
Entitled cyclists
For so many years now, I have walked the public paths. I have come to the conclusion that cyclists live in a totally different world to the rest of us. There are multiple signs on public paths advising ″ring the bell″, ″warn when passing″, ″walkers have priority over wheels″ and to what effect?
Today, I was passed multiple times with no bell, and twice made contact from a cyclist with no apology. A group of cyclists coming the other way forced me off the walking track as they would not cease riding three, yes three, abreast and I heard an under the breath “out of the way”.
If cyclists wish to have the general public stop thinking about cyclists as entitled, privileged inconsiderate people then say hello as you approach us, ring your bell or call ″passing″ as you come behind us rather than have us jump out of our skin as we hear you laugh when passing. And, let me not mention the time my dog was hit by a cyclist who did not stop or apologise
David Raymond, Doncaster East
See you next year
The San Francisco 49’ers – they came, they saw, they conquered.
They spent a full week climatising, were generous with their time amongst the public, and made many fans.
The Los Angeles Rams, in their ‘wisdom’ chose to fly in about 25 hours before game time. They were soundly beaten 27-7. They flew out.
It was a wonderful event for Melbourne and was an overwhelming success. I still don’t understand the game, but hope it returns next year.
Geoff Lipton, Caulfield Nth
Lord Trump arise
So Donald Trump, who loves to watch a good fight, now wants a united Ireland.
It’s time King Charles confers a title on his great admirer. How about “Lord of misrule”?
Jayne Lilley, Torquay
AND ANOTHER THING
One Nation
Neil Mitchell’s assertion that “One Nation’s rise is good for democracy” (13/9) reminds me of the apocryphal stories about surgery in the 19th century where surgeons would boast: “The procedure went incredibly well; unfortunately, the patient died”.
Richard Jamont, Williamstown
Neil Mitchell describes One Nation as giving “genuine and decent disengaged voters hope”. Wasn’t that the aim of the community independent movement?
Sarah Russell, Mt Martha
How do you know a politician is telling the truth when asked if they’ve taken recreational drugs? They answer: ″I can’t remember.″
Patrick Alilovic, Pascoe Vale South
Furthermore
It seems that King Charles, who is head of the Church of England, is unaware of the parable of the prodigal son. Bill Burke, Hawthorn
Re the manosphere: My mother always reminded me, ″handsome is as handsome does″. Think about it. She was right, of course.
Kate Read, Canterbury
Perhaps parents should think less about their own desires about going to gigs with their toddlers and more about the impact on their child who has to wear noise-cancelling headphones in a very strange environment.
Ingrid Rodger, Williamstown
When the ship sinks, Donald Trump will not go with it: he has his lifeboat always ready. But there will be no room in it for colleagues, supporters or relatives. He needs all the room for his luggage.
Rob Attrill, Balwyn North
If the letters, ″ap″, in the Trumpapaloosa nickname for the US Republican mid-term convention was removed, the result would more than aptly describe the current the US president.
Grey Barnden, Drysdale
Finally
In regard to dogs biting people (″Huge spike in dog bites – and most are from pets″, 13/9), some simple advice – don’t buy a Jack Russell.
Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill
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