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The evidence supporting Shaun Carney’s observation (Comment, 17/9) that the big parties have been letting most Australians down for most of the century is damning. For example, 3.7 million Australians live below the poverty line, wealth inequality is at record highs, we have one of the most segregated, unfair education systems in the developed world, and we have accumulated little sovereign wealth from the resources boom while research and development and tertiary education are neglected.
Coalition governments had an excuse in blind faith in neo-liberalism and trickle-down economics. Labor governments lacked the courage, leadership and communication skills to sell good policy faced with Coalition scare campaigns.
There seems little likelihood that small-l liberals will regain much influence. If Labor cannot develop and sell good policy to all, the shallow One Nation ″vibe″ might resonate, and as Carney says, the danger is that sustained, legitimate scrutiny of One Nation could get too hard.
Norman Huon, Port Melbourne
The present has been a long time coming
Shaun Carney asks, is radical politics our new normal? Let’s hope not. The Albanese government has maintained a cautious, ″softly, softly″ approach that has now worn thin in the electorate. But where we are now is the culmination of many years of poor wage outcomes and the championing of corporate Australia’s values over community interests.
It will be very difficult to walk back from where we are now, economically and socially. If we give over to the ″let it rip″ chaos merchants like One Nation, we make a poor situation many times worse.
David Fry, Windsor
Whose ‘people’ does Hanson mean?
When Pauline Hanson says she is ″implementing the will of the people″, what ″people″ does she have in mind? Does she even know that Australia’s population contains people who have emigrated – or who are descended from emigrants – from more than 200 other countries? We need educated leaders of broad vision and great compassion for our very multicultural country.
Don Jordan, Mt Waverley
The trouble with normal
Even if One Nation doesn’t win government in the Victorian election or federally, Pauline Hanson has won. She has made both parties join a contest to see who can crack down on immigrants the most.
With the ALP leaping to the right, and the Coalition no longer pretending to be anything but a party of the hard right, all to appeal to voters running to One Nation, the only party espousing left values is the Greens. Hanson must be smirking to see how she’s shifted right-wing politics into the political centre. I fear for the future because all I can see is the normalisation of nastiness and endless blame games targeting the most vulnerable. Rohan Wightman, Brunswick
THE FORUM
Artists sold out
Richard Flanagan’s excoriation of the Albanese government’s likely sell-out of Australian artists (″Albanese is selling out Australia to AI colonists as artists face ruin″, 18/9) is passionate, eloquent and cogent. If the deal is done, our creatives ″may now have to submit to the yoke of the very thieves whose wealth was made from the greatest copyright robbery in history″. To the nation’s detriment, the barbarians are not just at the gates but in the economic and political seats of power. This government that is ″feckless with our national sovereignty″ continues to pour billions of dollars into the quicksand of AUKUS and to approve the coal and gas projects that pillage Australia, send profits overseas and accelerate climate-wrecking pollution.
Artists in all their splendid array illuminate our lives with truth and beauty. Will our leaders pay them heed?
Tom Knowles, Parkville
Embrace kindness
I read in horror that Australia is leaning towards the far right politically. One Nation and especially its leader, Pauline Hanson, are not the answer to the cost-of-living problems, housing shortages or the state of our roads and healthcare.
Immigrants have been the backbone of Australia since the end of World War II. They have worked incredibly hard in areas that many of us have not wanted to work in. Our modern culture is much enriched by different cultures in many ways – including the food we eat.
One Nation is not the solution to any of the problems facing Australians. Just look at what has happened to America since Donald Trump’s second stint as president. It has been a total disaster and the United States has lost the respect of the world.
Please let us embrace kindness and welcome immigrants to our country.
Margaret Garrard, Preston
Devastating irony
The core element of One Nation’s immigration policy is to slash temporary visa numbers (including international students and graduates) by more than 750,000 across three years. This will appeal to a high proportion of those in regional and rural areas where support for One Nation is at its highest.
Ironically, as pointed out by expert analysts and industry groups, this will worsen the already critical workforce shortages in those areas, adversely affecting hospitals, aged care facilities, tourism and the hospitality sector.
The financial viability of regional university campuses and the local economic activity they support will also be threatened. As the old adage goes: ″Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.″
Kevin Bailey, Croydon
PhD exemptions
Criticising the government’s changes to international student visas, your correspondent writes: ″How many PhD candidates from South-East Asia, for instance, will want to leave their young families for three years to study in Australia?″ (Letters, 18/9). The new family restriction makes a clear exception for some PhD candidates.
Dennis Dodd, Shepparton
Wrong priorities
It is highly disturbing that 220 families have been removed from the Richmond public housing estate which will now be demolished (″Public home hole″, 18/9). Instead of providing more appropriate public housing,
650 privatised build-to-rent accommodation units will be built and just an extra 150 for social housing. This falls short of subsidised public housing, and the build-to-rent model is often more expensive for residents.
We have a housing shortage, limited tradespeople to rebuild and a funding crisis in Victoria.
This project seems inappropriate, and one wonders if instead of demolition, the estate could be renovated and adapted to again provide public housing and not a gentrification by default of the Richmond precinct.
Denise Stevens, St Kilda
The whole catastrophe
We don’t need AI to facilitate our extinction – we are doing a great job of it ourselves. Every time a species or ecosystem on the planet becomes extinct, it brings us a step closer to our own demise, and climate change is turbo-charging the whole catastrophe.
Jennie Epstein, Little River
Will of the people
Of course, Labor doesn’t need a poll to learn what voters want (Letters, 18/9). They’ve been told so often, and we’ve been ignored so often.
We want a stop to mining in the North-West Shelf Project, Burrup Hub, the Otways and more; no gas extraction from the Beetaloo Basin or anywhere else; a stop to gambling advertising; and the latest, no theft of intellectual property.
We do want a rapid transition to renewable energy; truth in political advertising; transparency in government; low-cost housing for the less well-off; and adequate, at minimum, funding for public infrastructure such as healthcare, education, and transport. For starters.
That’s more than enough for Labor to be bold about.
There’s a reason Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party are so on the nose. They’re not serving us, the people. They are serving different masters.
Labor can act in our interests or they can be stopped at the ballot box. Their choice.
Margaret Callinan, Hawthorn
Summit to think about
Australia is facing a multi-faceted crisis across housing, immigration, employment, aged care, and the NDIS, to name but a few, while our political landscape drifts towards deeply polarised Trumpian territory.
Unfortunately, neither the Labor government nor the opposition parties are managing these pressures effectively.
To break this impasse, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should look to history. In April 1983, then-prime minister Bob Hawke successfully convened a National Economic Summit, uniting business leaders, trade unions, and government officials to find common ground.
Albanese must urgently call a similar summit to unite the country and forge a clear, collaborative path towards a better future.
John Cummings, Anglesea
Data centres concern
The current rate of construction of data centres is fascinating to observe. At a time when the building of homes has all but stalled because of price rises, and the availability of supplies and the workforce, it is obvious that government is prioritising these huge buildings over housing its citizens.
We become aware of these huge new builds only when they are a reality. Planning applications and approvals must have been in hand a long time, yet we the public are only just becoming aware of the extent of the projects in the pipeline.
Housing and the needs of the community are taking second place. The trend is very worrying.
Geraldine Colson, Mentone
Like dolphin, like us
Scientists warn that a whale’s behaviour around a stillborn calf should not necessarily be interpreted as grieving, as humans understand it (″Do whales grieve?″, 17/9). They use the example of a bottlenose dolphin that harassed and chased fish until they regurgitated their food, which the dolphin then consumed, to warn against using a simplistic human lens to attribute human-like emotions to animals.
The example of the dolphin is more akin to human behaviour than that of the whales.
Howard Tankey, Box Hill North
Educated guess
I am confused. Which minister is responsible for universities? The education minister, the immigration minister or the minister for foreign affairs and trade? I’m sure educational outcomes would vary depending on the answer. Julian Guy, Mt Eliza
The trill has gone
Re the article, ″The Art of the Pop-In″ (17/9): During childhood, my mother’s friends called “Hallo Floss” when entering the kitchen door.
In early marriage, friends knocked on the back door. In later years, the front-door bell rang, a friend saying, “You are the only person whose doorbell I can ring without ringing beforehand”.
Now, when the doorbell rings, my husband and I exclaim, “Who is that?”
Christine Barnes, Glen Iris
AND ANOTHER THING
Politics
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is testing the old adage that all publicity is good publicity.
Phil Lipshut, Elsternwick
Pauline Hanson’s “if I offended anyone” apology is not just inadequate. It is designed to
buttress her assumed superiority, saying, “I am telling the truth; it’s your fault if you can’t handle it.”
Bernd Rieve, Brighton
Congratulations students protesting against Pauline Hanson and One Nation. Well done, most courageous.
Merle Mitchell, Mt Eliza
Who would’ve thought five years ago that federally, a minor party then with only two Senate seats, would
be ″rattling the chain″ of the two major parties now.
David Cayzer, Clifton Hill
Authors and artists will likely ″opt out″ of voting Labor if the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese,
decides to allow AI companies to steal their property.
Barbara Lynch, South Yarra
Furthermore
The Commonwealth Bank made a profit of $10.98 billion last financial year yet we see its complete disregard for customers as it closes branch after branch in local communities (Ivanhoe last week).
Dianne Powell, Ivanhoe
Mark Twain wryly observed: ″America has the best government money can buy.″ Still accurate. Not quite what former US president Abraham Lincoln nor today’s democracies envisaged.
Peter Thomas, Pascoe Vale
Never mind the Exclusive Brethren, can someone please explain why any religious organisation has tax-free status?
David Parker, Geelong West
What with climate change, pandemics and wars, artificial intelligence presents as yet another way to bump us all off.
Paul Murchison, Kingsbury
Finally
Does that car in front of you that’s weaving all over the road have a drunk driver? No, they’re just dodging all the potholes.
Ross Crawford, Korumburra
