source : the age
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ECONOMY
Peter Hartcher (“Jacqui Lambie is right about Pauline Hanson. There’s only one way to stop her ascension”, 10/10) correctly identifies declining living standards and the growing belief that hard work no longer guarantees a better future as drivers of political discontent.
But his proposed solution — more economic growth — deserves some questioning.
We have built an economic system around the expectation that each generation will be wealthier than the last, that our personal circumstances will continually improve and that economic growth can continue indefinitely.
Yet, we live on a planet with finite resources.
Perhaps, just as we once debated peak oil, we should consider whether we have reached peak prosperity.
This need not mean accepting declining living standards, but redefining prosperity itself.
Rather than a population that pursues ever-increasing consumption and accumulated wealth, perhaps we need a
prosperity agenda focused on affordable housing, quality public services, economic security and more leisure time.
Paul McMullen, Beechworth
When too much money is too much
My ambition in life is to die poor (my other ambition is to outdo Mark Twain and see Halley’s Comet a second time, which is equally unlikely to happen).
I have two superannuation accounts, one being the compulsory one from which I’m drawing an annuity which is so high I don’t know how to spend it, besides increasing donations to worthy causes.
Nicola Forrest’s donation to her charity foundation is a worthy role model (″Billionaire Nicola Forrest donates $500 million to her Coaxial charity″, 9/10).
I wonder if my donations as a percentage of my wealth exceeds the percentage of her wealth to donations?
My other superannuation account is equally large, and is just sitting there earning more income. I feel desperate knowing I have too much money.
I wonder if I would have been happier if I’d spent the money while I was working?
Wayne Robinson, Kingsley WA
A new version of reds under the beds
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, we were fearful of hidden political activists and infiltrators wanting to take over our government and impose an extreme form of socialism called communism. They were called “the reds under the beds”. The tables have completely reversed. Now, we are fearful of a cohort of voters wanting to take over our government and impose a severe form of free for all capitalism, environmental destruction with a dose of racial cleansing. The scary times are back with a vengeance, both here and beyond. What can we do about? Stand up, speak up and be counted for good.
Ross Gawler, Malvern
Dawning of a new age, and it’s not good
Climate change, pointless wars, artificial intelligence, biological stupidity, Trump and now public execution. We are truly entering the ″Age of the Twilightenment″.
As we hurtle towards hell in a handbasket, I take solace in my age and always look on the bright side of life in that soon I will be dead.
Lauriston Muirhead, Table Top, NSW
Is it all downhill from here?
I started reading a piece on an influencer who was quoted as saying ″I was never content with no. I always wanted to do things my way″, and I guess these words resonated with my once five-year-old self.
I won’t say the article got any more interesting, but it did wake me up to the notion that humanity may just have peaked.
Julian Guy, Mt Eliza
THE FORUM
Tradie career path
Jess Wilson pledges the revival of technical colleges to address the tradie shortage (″Victorian Liberals borrow from SA Labor in fresh education pitch″, 10/10).
Prior to their break-up by the Kennett government in the 1990s, the public sector providers of electricity, water and gas distribution and public transport were large sources of training and career paths for tradies.
Perhaps a future Liberal government would consider returning these natural monopolies to public ownership with the welcome side effect of boosting the technical training pipeline.
Simon Cox, McKinnon
Kooyong climate
If Josh Frydenberg is considering a further tilt at Kooyong (″Ryan says Frydenberg focusing on the past″, 10/10), it would behove him to learn some lessons from his 2022 election loss.
Kooyong voters care about climate change, they care about reconciliation, and they want a representative who listens to them. Frydenberg dissed the climate community when he skipped a forum on the climate focus attended by more than 500 Kooyong voters.
Amelia Hamer did something similar in 2025, pulling out on the day of the forum.
If you don’t have a defensible climate policy, it’s difficult to win in Kooyong. If you don’t have the mettle to meet your constituents, then perhaps you shouldn’t be in the game.
Lynn Frankes, Kew
Recollections may vary
The Age reports on comments made by Josh Frydenberg in his new autobiography (“Monique Ryan says Frydenberg focused on the past, amid accusations of a ‘toxic’ campaign”, 10/10).
Frydenberg appears to be claiming that the 2022 federal election campaign in Kooyong, won by independent Monique Ryan, was characterised by “abuse and hypocrisy”.
I was one of many hundreds of volunteers in the 2022 and 2025 Ryan campaigns. Frydenberg’s memory is a rewriting of history.
I have clear recollections of leafleting and doing shifts at the Kooyong pre-polling booth. I recall standing next to Frydenberg at pre-polling and engaging in pleasant, if trivial conversation, while we were both handing out how-to-vote cards. There was a wonderful sense of local people taking local action. Ryan was a respectful and
credible candidate. There was no acrimony and very little tension among the pre-polling activists, nor at the election booths on the day of the election.
Frydenberg would do well to remember that it was not outside forces that led to his defeat; this was a homegrown movement whose expectations of leadership and local representation were not being met.
Simon Gardiner, Camberwell
NDIS waiting game
Sadly, your correspondent’s experience (Letters, 11/10) may be all too common. Families with sufficient resources and a conviction that their request for funding is fair and reasonable under the NDIS guidelines, may well pursue every avenue to challenge unfavourable outcomes.
Someone should keep an eye on NDIA legal expenditure as funds are increasingly ploughed into defending such decisions.
Roger Foot, Essendon
Student leadership
Great to read of Albert Park College’s successful dedicated year 9 campus.
No need to despair if your kids aren’t enrolled there.
Year 9 students at Victorian government schools have access to a nine-week residential ″School for Student Leadership″.
Four attractive regional campuses offer a learning program based around outdoor and environmental education.
It’s an innovative and effective program.
Sue McKenzie, Belmont
Cricket cheat scale
The Australian Test team might not have invented ball tampering as your correspondent says (Letters, 11/10) but by using sandpaper on the ball, they took cheating to new depths.
Murray Mints can plausibly be used to keep the mouth fresh during a hot day in the field,
but there is no reason for someone to sneak sandpaper onto the ground unless they intended to cheat with it.
On the cheating scale, mints rate 3/10, sandpaper 9.5/10.
Greg Hardy, Upper Ferntree Gully
Housewarming success
I attended the Saturday night performance of Housewarming at the newly reopened Ian Potter State Theatre, and I left feeling that in this show, Melbourne has found itself again.
The (free) show performed by a variety of entertainers from leading Melbourne arts companies evoked everything that the best art releases: joy and amusement, hope and pride, sadness and reflection, and also a real sense of catharsis.
Its social commentary was sharp and thoughtful, and it reminded me that art shows us what it means to be human, something no robot can ever replace. It also displayed the technical and artistic talent we have in our hometown, and the lighting and sound team showed what happens when great skill and great equipment come together.
What moved me most was that, for the first time since the first COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, I
felt Melbourne was back and living and breathing its unique character.
The State Theatre was the last venue where I attended a live performance before the first lockdown in March 2020 (Chroma by the Australian Ballet), so it is especially meaningful to me to see the theatre brought back to life.
Housewarming helped this by celebrating our wonderful city through performing arts, and bringing life and pride back to a “new” old venue, with a great story to match.
A new era for Melbourne? I think it is just the beginning.
Caroline Pinter, Newport
We’re filled with culture
I am typical of a certain demographic: over 60, tertiary educated, left-leaning, enjoy cultural activities including visiting the theatre, music, galleries, cinema etc. Even so, I was astounded to read that a new concert venue is planned for the Arden precinct (″New concert venue for Melbourne revealed as Arden plans leak early″, 9/10).
Melbourne is often referred to as the cultural capital of Australia, and is well supplied with excellent cultural venues.
The report indicates that the new venue will be built on a government-owned site, some of which is earmarked for housing.
At a time when housing shortages and affordability are a major issue for many people, it defies credibility that the proposed Arden concert venue is scheduled to be constructed ahead of much-needed housing in the precinct.
Ana De Valera, Edithvale
Presidential behaviour
US President Donald Trump calls for new leadership in Ukraine, while the rest of the world calls for new leadership in the United States.
Annie Wilson, Inverloch
Long and lucullan
Regarding long words like “curmudgeonliness” and “antidisestablishmentarianism”, there is a word parlour game some teachers of English play when they’re not playing pin the apostrophe on the abbreviation or possessive. It involves knowledge of English’s suffixes and prefixes, and the ability to add one, or other or both, to a word to see who can make the longest grammatically viable word.
For example, “antidisestablishmentarianism” could be lengthened to create the noun, “antidisestablishmentarianismisation” – the process whereby one becomes influenced by antidisestablishmentarianism. The extreme version of this process would be, “superantidisestablishmentarianismisation”, and the adjective describing this process would be “superantidisestablishmentarianismisational”, with the adverb describing it in operation,“superantidisestablishmentarianismisationally”.
Deborah Morrison, Malvern East
Medley Building beauty
I was dismayed to learn of plans that could see the removal of the John Medley Building, designed by Sir Roy Grounds for the University of Melbourne.
As a PhD graduate of the Melbourne School of Design (2013–2017), and now researching contemporary architectural heritage in China, I urge Heritage Victoria and the university to reconsider. This 1971 building is a significant late-modernist work that remains under-recognised.
One important but overlooked dimension is its subtle resonance with Eastern architectural and spatial traditions — its monumental entrance reads like a civic gate; its symmetry and overhead walkway echo the gate towers of traditional Chinese cities. For many Chinese students, myself included, this was the very first thing we saw on our first day at UniMelb. That quiet sense of recognition — familiar yet foreign — is what gives it power.
It may not be conventionally beautiful, but it has a raw, undeniable force, much like the bold civic architecture of 1980-90s China.
The building is a key component of Grounds’ complete campus vision; removing it would fracture that integrity. Adaptive reuse is not only possible, but preferable.
Demolition is irreversible; instead, a creative retrofit is a reversible choice.
When The Age article about this issue was translated into Chinese and circulated online, over 90 per cent of Chinese students and alumni voted to preserve it.
That consensus underscores the cross-cultural significance this building carries — and what Melbourne should be proud of. Some buildings are worth fighting for — this is one of them.
Ke Song, associate professor, School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen
AND ANOTHER THING
Trumpism
Pauline Hanson’s apprenticeship in the Trump school of politics is going according to script. The latest promise to the faithful: to target Energy Minister Chris Bowen through a royal commission into net zero. For heaven’s sake.
Peter Randles, Pascoe Vale South
The tragic irony of US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth’s push for a public firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan is that Donald Trump can declare: ″You’re fired″.
Kevin Burke, Sandringham
I couldn’t agree more with Trump that it’s ″Time for a new President″. Donald Trump should be removed.
Henryk Plucinski, Frankston South
Perhaps they could add a Nobel War Prize.
Ian Cunliffe, Brunswick East
There is dignity in accepting the loss of a desired outcome; something that Donald Trump does not have.
Mary Meyer, Carnegie
Australian defence chiefs must be very consoled knowing Trump is our major defence partner.
Barry Revill, Moorabbin
Furthermore
$6 plus coffees! Time to bring back the trusty thermos flask.
Mark Freeman, Macleod
It’s easy: If the price of your coffee has been increased, tell the owner you won’t be back and simply refuse the coffee. There are plenty of others available.
Michael McKenna, Warragul
Sport
What would the late fair-minded Sir Donald Bradman make of how “exclusive” his beloved cricket is becoming? No free-to-air broadcast on television. Definitely not good cricket.
Tris Raouf, Hadfield
I’ve noticed lately that at the start of every group running event, participants reverently tap their wrists just before taking the first step. Are they paying homage to the gods of running? I have tried touching mine before a run, and it seems to make no difference!
Kristen Hurley, Seaholme
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