Source : the age
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.
COST OF LIVING
Nicholas Kristof highlights the damage being done to international accord by the US administration, and the continued worthy work of the United Nations (″The UN is terrible – but right now, we need it desperately″, 28/9).
It was shocking to see President Trump last week make an address full of dire threats of annihilation of Iran at the UN General Assembly, which should be a forum for promoting peace. The actions of the Trump administration in its second term have had a disastrous effect on the wellbeing of so many countries. These include the closure of USAID, withdrawal from the World Health Organisation, and not providing the support Ukraine needs to protect its cities from aerial attack.
The US’s totally ill-considered war with Iran has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with the consequent rise in oil prices feeding inflation around the world. The import tariffs introduced by Trump – against all economic wisdom – are also fuelling inflationary pressures and slowing world trade.
The US’s huge and ballooning budget deficit and public debt is driving up interest rates internationally as investors demand better returns for holding government bonds.
These are the main factors making management of the Australian economy by the Reserve Bank and the government very difficult, and other nations face similar dilemmas. It has become more important than ever for democracies around the world to coordinate their actions in the areas of economic management, international aid and strategic policies, to counteract the harmful effects of the misguided actions of the Trump administration.
Andrew Trembath, Blackburn
Economic system aids, protects the super rich
According to the Australian Financial Review, the fortunes of Australia’s wealthiest 200 people, rose by $39 billion collectively, to $707 billion during the last financial year. However, it will once again be the country’s mortgage holders and renters, many of whom are seriously struggling, who will be penalised by the RBA and by default, charged with the job of bringing inflation under control.
Australia has now morphed into an economic system that facilitates and encourages the concentration of extraordinary wealth.
Craig Jory, Albury, NSW
RBA causes mortgagee misery
What is the point of the Reserve Bank? One of its main functions seems to be to cause misery to mortgage holders. Its attitude to current and potential unemployed people is atrocious. It doesn’t show any compassion or consider them as individual human beings who hate being unemployed and are desperately looking for work.
Lorraine Bates, Balwyn
What cuts would Taylor and Wilson make?
The Liberal Party claims that the government’s so-called spending addiction is largely responsible for the Reserve Bank’s four interest rate increases this year. However, neither Angus Taylor nor Tim Wilson have outlined what government spending they want to see reduced.
That makes their criticism an empty argument.
Garry Meller, Bentleigh
Vary GST rate to control inflation
Varying interest rates seems to be the only tool the Reserve Bank uses to control inflation. This means the burden of economic management falls entirely on those with mortgages or other debts, while providing a windfall for lenders.
Surely, the burden should be borne by us all through increasing or decreasing tax rates. The goods and services tax, which we all pay, could be adjusted, perhaps every six months, so the cost of cooling or stimulating the economy is born more equally.
Harley Powell, Elsternwick
THE FORUM
Barnaby’s choice
Barnaby Joyce is advocating that the Albanese government reverses its decision to restrict the period backpackers can spend in Australia. For him, the change is a blow to the agricultural sector’s ability to recruit workers. (“Labor pushes to boost Pacific workers as Joyce says some Australians ‘bung lazy‴, 29/8.
Oddly however, he is also on the record as saying that you have to pay a competitive wage to attract the right sort of worker – the “if you pay peanuts you get monkeys” argument. So, given that the hourly rate for apple pickers, for example, is said to equate to around 4 cents per piece, maybe the industry could look at paying pickers more.
That needn’t come out of farmers’ pockets – Joyce could justifiably point to the supermarkets, who are making significant profits, and pressure them to accept a slightly lower margin.
One Nation has a catch phrase: “take back Australia”. Pauline Hanson has said she aims to “drain the billabong”.
Some people might say that, if Joyce is on board with those goals, then advocating to retain what John Howard introduced is a bit gutless.
Alun Breward, Malvern East
Hanson on hate speech
It is not surprising that Labor, the teals and Jewish community leaders are calling for tougher hate speech laws (″Hanson and Spender seek tougher hate speech laws″, 29/9), but Hanson?
Talk about the ‘pot calling the kettle black’.
Hanson has never shied away from using hate speech. In February, she said on Sky News, ″You say, ‘There’s good Muslims out there’. How can you tell me there are good Muslims?″, as one example.
Let’s hope any tougher laws catch Hanson in her bigoted speech.
Jenny Callaghan, Hawthorn
AI is made by humans
The AI component of an “agent” is a language model, no different from ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini – text goes in, and text comes out. With “agentic AI” the input text includes a problem to be solved, or a goal to be achieved. The model outputs the next step to be taken towards the desired result. This output may include lists of programs or commands to be executed to gather further information that the model needs to progress the task. Having no ability to execute any commands itself, the text-generator relies on a conventional controlling program to execute the commands and feed back the results.
Humans trained the models with insufficient constraints on the commands they could request to be executed. Humans wrote the programs that blindly executed the commands without for consequences.
It is clear where responsibility for their actions lies. We already have laws to address human irresponsibility and negligence. We should use them.
Mark Summerfield, Northcote
Hope for the best
With Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s abusive exploitation of the United Nations pulpit fresh in our minds, Nicholas Kristof does us a great favour with his spirited defence of the organisation (″The UN is terrible – but, right now, we need it desperately″, 28/9).
In one telling sentence he reminds us ″that millions more children would die every year if it weren’t for UNICEF, the World Food Program, the UN Refugee Agency and the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs″.
He could also have named UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
Whether the malign recalcitrance of the United States, Russia and China on the Security Council can be overcome by a new ″charismatic, outspoken leader″ remains to be seen. The hope seems forlorn, but hope we must.
Tom Knowles, Parkville
Invasive AI
Ever since the introduction of rabbits into Australia we have been subject to the ravages of invasive species. Rabbits, trout, carp, deer, fire ants, you name it. Now we have Artificial Intelligence, another form of invasive species.
At present, no one has been able to curb its malign presence. What we need is something of the order of the dung beetle, introduced to clean up after cattle, and which dairy farmers will tell you has succeeded beautifully.
Now that AI is let loose on the world, and those responsible inform us that it has escaped, can we expect its creators to enable AI to do what cane toads were originally expected to do.
Oh wait, what was the problem in the first place?
John Whelen, Box Hill Sth
Virtually unassisted
This experience is becoming far too familiar. I had an item I wanted to buy, so I did as we’ve been trained to do and checked the company’s website. No luck. So I thought I’d ring them. The virtual assistant could not understand my single word request, so I spelt it out. I was then put through to ″the team″, but the call went unanswered. I tried three times. There was no offer to leave a message, just to call back. The company’s time is important. Mine’s not.
Jan Lacey, North Melbourne
Public school effort
As I spun around my enjoyable copy of Good Weekend last Sunday, it was with dismay I realised that the happy, caring and engaged learners smiling out at me were all from private schools.
As a product of regional public schools, I now teach in them. Each day I see very similar faces turning up and putting their best foot forward, accessing all the same strategies (granted, probably not the pilot training) in a sector without anywhere close to the financial advantages offered within private school communities.
Any chance that one day we can see an advertisement run for the opportunities, ingenuity, and absolute effort put into our public schools?
Because the other 95 per cent of us ideally need to feel good about what we can afford to buy as well.
Andrew Porter, Bright
Child-free spaces
What goes for dogs also goes for children. I have lost count of the times I’ve been in my local pub/cafe where parents let their children run riot, screaming, yelling, climbing. Can we please ban children from them.
Laurens Meyer, Richmond
Letters to editor mystery
Your correspondent (Letters, ″Lift your game, people″, 29/9) suggests that letters to the editor lack originality and hence calls for more letters which contain some new ideas.
It is likely that many truly original ideas are contained in letters received by the editor but readers do not discover them because they were not printed. They might have been judged to be too offensive, inaccurate or downright wacky to appear.
However, this quality control is sometimes hard to fathom.
As someone who has written many (literally thousands written, hundreds printed) letters to the editor in more than 50 years, I am often surprised by which letters appear and which do not.
In the latter case, after momentary disappointment I might mutter, ″But that was a good one. It was so original.″
Rod Wise, Surrey Hill
Try this idea for size
Re Letters, (“Lift your game, people”, 29/9). Whilst not a new idea, downsizing AFL teams to sixteen rather than eighteen players plus interchange as evidenced in historic VFA games, would help overcome many challenges associated with congested play.
Russell Harrison, Sandringham
It’s complicated
Balderdash to your correspondent (29/9). Letter writers to The Age cover a wide and complex range of themes, old and new.
Footy, dogs, grief, learning and bikies are some of mine. Myra Fisher of East Brighton stretches even wider!
Glenda Johnston, Queenscliff
Wharfie Time genius
I’ve been a basketball court announcer/DJ, and something like Wharfie Time is a gift from the gods. I really feel for whoever pressed go, and sad that we’ll probably never hear it again.
It’s a tough gig to get right, to find that balance between letting the game do the talking and getting the fans involved. And I always had the Ted Lasso “Oi Wanker” fans telling me I played too much music. Or the wrong music. Or at the wrong time.
Wharfie Time was genius. Totally original, reflecting the soul and origins of the club, stirring, anthemic, dramatic, someone really nailed it thinking that up. And the fans loved it. It’s just so hard, and I’ve been there, knowing when to throw the switch.
Think of it this way: if they hadn’t played it, Freo most likely still would have lost and every fan, YouTuber, pundit, podcaster and player would have been empurpled demanding to know why the didn’t play it.
″No Wharfie Time Costs Freo the Final” screams the West Australian! “We were waiting but it never came” players say.
Everywhere else, especially basketball, if you banned Walk of Life by Dire Straits, We Are The Champions by Queen, almost every AC/DC song and that god awful Sweet Caroline, the unimaginative dills playing the music would be all out of ideas.
It’s a shame when something truly clever and original gets the blame for a loss. But, being able to play that in a grand final at a neutral venue, well now, that’s a whole other question.
Mark Chandler, Brisbane
Time’s up
I think we have seen the end of Wharfie Time, except that it will probably enter the vernacular as a synonym for a premature celebration.
Peter Neuhold, Elsternwick
AND ANOTHER THING
Trump
Peter Hartcher, writing of the US -China meeting, summed up Trump perfectly describing him as ″like an over-excited adolescent″(“Groveller-in-chief spurs Xi threat”, 29/9). This is exactly how Trump behaves on every issue!
Kay Moulton, Surrey Hills
Taiwan academic Chen Fangyu refers to “the Chinese communists’ enormous propaganda resources and their continuous attempts … to brainwash the US public” (29/9). It seems like they’ve already succeeded with Trump.
Mind you, there isn’t much there to wash.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills
If Trump is bent on renaming a possibly liberated Hormuz Strait after himself, it will always be known as Trump’s Truth Bypass.
Jenifer Nicholls, Windsor
“Trump offered to sell arms to China, US ambassador says” (29/9). ″Pig Iron Trump″?
Glenn Wood, Bardon, Qld
One Nation
Pauline Hanson wants a crackdown on hate speech. Has she listened to herself?
Jane Cheong, Aspendale Gardens
I’m in the market for a second-hand light plane. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Some craft spirits and beers would certainly sweeten the deal.
Mick Hussey, Beaconsfield
AFL
The greedy AFL placed financial gain ahead of fan enjoyment by granting Seven exclusive live coverage of the grand final. Millions of fans used to ad-free coverage during play on streaming services had to endure annoying adverts following every goal.
Phil Lipshut, Elsternwick
Loved the pre-grand final extravaganza … who was that fabulous woman on the stage with William Barton?
Raeleene Gregory, Ballarat East
Finally
With the outrageous impact on the Yemeni people, I look forward to seeing weekend demonstrations against the Houthi rebels.
Irene Zalstein, East Doncaster
The opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.
