source : the age
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FEDERAL POLITICS
There’s a dire need for a new political party to counter One Nation. At the moment there’s the billionaires’ party – One Nation; the big business and mining party LNP; and the upper-middle-class party– ALP.
The Greens might become a viable alternative if they changed their name. They’re currently locked in as a single-issue party. Any attempt to widen their influence and policies leads to aggressive “stay in your lane” reactions.
They need to change to something like “All Peoples Party″ and give themselves the freedom and authenticity to promote wide-ranging polices that benefit the average person, who currently is only being offered timid centrist or billionaire welfare propositions.
John Laurie, Riddells Creek
Culture war theatrics won’t shield future
The political debate on climate change has become both absurd and alarming (“Can Hanson’s war on climate ‘hoax’ survive the summer?“, 20/6).
No one would walk into the National Press Club and declare tobacco good for our health.
So how is it acceptable – or even possible – for political leaders to spread lies about climate change? Tobacco harms people. Fossil fuels like coal and gas heat the planet and drive more intense fires, floods, droughts and deadly heatwaves. Both are scientific facts. Culture war theatrics won’t shield Australians from the extremes ahead.
I live near a newly mapped flood zone (“20,000 homes newly flagged as being at risk of flooding”, 19/6). Like your correspondent (“Not awash with cash”, 20/6), I want to see the coal and gas companies that have escalated the risk pay their fair share for the protections my community needs.
That would be the work of a leader who deals with facts and puts people first – the only leadership that matters.
Isabelle Henry, Ascot Vale
Providing the ‘please explain’ Hanson avoids
Congratulations to Age columnists for contributions to the understanding of the rise of Pauline Hanson and One Nation. Millie Muroi (“Hanson’s gaining support, but she’s a reflection of voter dissatisfaction”, 20/6) clearly identified the pitfalls of One Nation’s stated policy of rejecting climate change science and renewable energy.
Peter Hartcher (″Hanson’s risk: discarding voters”, 20/6) highlighted Hanson’s prejudices against various minorities and her recent attacks on workers despite portraying herself as defender of the ″battlers″.
Malcolm Knox’s (“Hanson shelters in political correctness”, 21/6) details our dislike of ″any sign of braininess″, allowing Hanson to advance anti-intellectualism, therefore making it almost impossible for rational discussion with One Nation supporters.
The consequence is that her supporters will vote One Nation, believing she says what they are thinking without questioning her policies and their impacts.
I hope The Age continues to publish similar critiques because, as your editorial (20/6) identified: “Hanson deserves same scrutiny as other leaders”.
Val Morelli, Ringwood East
Nostalgia and ephemera from days of Joh
Re Tony Wright’s comparison (“From Joh to Pauline: the eruption”, 20/6), I have an original “Joh for PM” sticker, inserted in a daily newspaper in 1987. With white lettering on green, should I ask AI to alter the name, and the colour to orange, ahead of a big reprint?
Some political pundits say millions of Australians would want one if I offered for sale. I could be rich! I think I shall just stick with my Joh sticker. It remains as funny and ridiculous now as it was back then.
Alan McLean, Queenscliff
Poor subsidise wealthy
The media is giving far too much attention to Pauline Hanson, whose repulsive opinions are divisive. With this saturation coverage, the media are complicit in worsening division.
Prolonged neo-liberalism has amplified inequality in Australia. Wealthy people (anyone who can indulge their wants) have increased their wealth, while poor people (anyone who has difficulty meeting their needs) have been getting poorer and increasing in number.
No one needs a billion dollars. Mission Australia quotes 28,000 homeless children sleeping rough each night. The figure of $1.4 billion would assist each of those children with $5000. Imagine how that sort of assistance would help those in dire need.
The federal government must press on with its attempt to make the country fairer. Ignore the squawks of outrage from the wealthy. Most aren’t Labor voters anyway, and Labor might find that it gets back those former supporters who have been disappointed by its failure to take advantage of the large majority in Canberra.
The Victorian Labor government should also take note. The state education system (which educates the majority of children) is not properly funded, while there has been no curtailment of funding (and in many cases continued overfunding) to the private system. So yet again, the poorer are subsidising the wealthier. Great work from a Labor government.
Chris Pearson, Kyneton
Good for the goose …
Pauline Hanson asserts that if women are ″not at work″ due to parental or maternity leave they should not be paid their wages, asking ″why should business pay them?″
Hanson missed 88 per cent of Senate estimates hearing days over the past decade and 12 regular sitting days since the 2025 election – should the same rule apply to her?
Frank Collins, Selby
One country all
Your correspondent’s definition of monoculture was beautifully stated and I’m positive Pauline Hanson meant exactly that (Letters, ″And another thing″, 20/6). Our country should be unified and share a culture of coming together as one nation under one flag and accepting our way of life. That is exactly what we, as a family of nine, did arriving in Australia in 1959. So sad it has changed to become so divisive.
Trudy Serafini, Shepparton
THE FORUM
Crocodile tears
Neil Mitchell (″Boomers are sick of being told the best thing we can do for the country is die″, 21/6) pleads for Boomers to be given a fair go. As a Boomer myself, can I join the chorus of younger people being so unkind to Mitchell.
Us Boomers have been the luckiest generation in Australian history. We did not experience a world war or a depression. We enjoyed affordable house prices. We could be hippies and drop out any time we felt like it. We could enter the job market easily after enjoying free education.
Mitchell argues that well-qualified Boomers could offer their experience and knowledge in today’s society. Well, there is nothing stopping them from volunteering.
David Fry, Windsor
Entitled
As a Baby Boomer, I will scream if I hear the word “entitled″ from anyone, let alone Baby Boomers. I will not be joining Neil Mitchell’s group.
Lyn Payne, Richmond
Grievance grows
I am a “grateful Boomer” who has never heard “the best thing we can do for the country is die” (Neil Mitchell opinion, 21/6). I acknowledge I lived in history’s best corner of space and time and am saddened that coming generations have to deal with a world confronting multifaceted problems, new and old.
Contrary to Mitchell’s cry of entitlement (a bit rich coming from a man with his access to popular opinion), we already have spokespeople from our generation wielding massive power who are far from impressive such as Hanson, Abbott, Putin, Xi and Trump.
One social problem is aggressive grievance and posturing between disaffected groups ignited by social media. Mitchell adds fuel to this fire. I suggest he and all who prefer civility to angst, abandon “discourse” on “X”, and leave it to the AFP to monitor for those who are dangerous, not just deluded or disagreeable. We urgently need to improve social cohesion and Mitchell’s “call to arms” is not helpful.
Michael Langford, Flinders
Convent problems
Re ″Tenant feuds, a fiscal cliff and board upheaval: Why ‘saved’ Abbotsford Convent is under new cloud″, (21/6). I’m a weekly visitor to the convent, walking up to it from the river, past the present eyesore that used to be community gardens. Those gardens were closed with the supposed justification that then allotment tenants had let their gardens go and the area was a haven for snakes.
That could have been solved by a changeover of tenants to more recent locals in the growing number of nearby apartment blocks. Instead, some ugly and no doubt very expensive metal structures have appeared, there are no gardens, and rampant weeds which are as big a snake haven as ever have taken over.
Bringing back garden allotment tenants would be a relatively easy and definitely aesthetic and financial start to reviving the convent’s fortunes. A developer-led revival would be a disaster and needs resisting as much now as 20 years ago.
Margaret Callinan, Hawthorn
Legal secrecy
Yet another male doctor granted anonymity by the courts after being charged with an offence against women and a child at Harold Holt pool (″Doctor charged with filming naked pool patrons wins three-month secrecy order″, 21/6.)
Why do women need to be held responsible for the wellbeing of the alleged offender’s family when coping with their own mental health?
Meg Biggs, Yarraville
Undervalued teachers
Your correspondent, ″The wrong fight″ (Letters, 21/6) hasn’t been paying attention. Why should it be teachers and not the general community protesting against the absurd over-funding of private school education? State school teachers and their unions have been fighting against private school funding since the 1970s and have been fighting a losing battle now for more than 50 years.
Perhaps it’s time they did get a little bit selfish and start to look after their own wellbeing and get a decent improvement in salary and working conditions.
Graeme Gardner, Reservoir
‘Sweetheart’ deal debacle
As a long-standing teacher and AEU member, it has to be said the union leadership embarked on an arrogant and flawed campaign in attempting to ram through their “sweetheart” deal with the ALP government. Their first mistake was not to hold mass stopwork meetings to gauge the will of rank and file teachers and education support staff when they held a state-wide strike. Historically, this was unheard of in the AEU and in most other unions.
Next, the leadership called off further rolling strikes again without referring to rank and file members. The leadership strategy of shutting down membership debate at regional meetings and on social media caused much angst among members and spectacularly backfired.
The resounding No vote is indicative of the government’s rundown of public education and the stress dedicated teachers are enduring to keep the system going. The minister for education has made a mistake by indicating he will play ″hard ball″ because the dispute is no longer in the hands of a compliant union leadership willing to dance to the government’s tune.
Now it has to deal with the workers at the chalk face and we are demanding equal pay with other states and workload reduction to improve the quality of public education for students in Victoria.
Mike Naismith, Clifton Hill
Hands-free potholes
The call to mandate ″hands on steering wheel″ up to and including level 3 automation to satisfy ″vehicle under driver control″ requirements makes no sense (″Self-driving cars are already here. When will the law catch up?″, 21/6).
The Tesla-supervised ″Full Self-Driving″ software continually monitors the driver’s eyesight on the road ahead unlike other vehicles.
Further, the less mental effort required for steering the car allows greater attentiveness to the situation and fast reaction times to take control if required.
I cannot see how an unmonitored driver on cruise control is any safer. The main limitation in using ″hands off″ FSD is now the appalling potholes on our country roads, which unfortunately affect all vehicles.
Murray Ross, Acheron
Bleak to peak
Melbourne versus Sydney articles, such as by Greg Callaghan (Good Weekend, 20/6) are by nature superficial, but arguably the most inaccurate stereotype, along with the weather, is that the rivalry is one way. On Sydney visits, I have regularly encountered similar attitudes to those Callaghan meets in Melbourne.
Let’s face it, most negative stereotypes about Melbourne originated in Sydney – would they bother if Bleak City wasn’t getting under their skin? For what it’s worth, I think both cities are great.
Paul Spinks, South Geelong
Empire falls
Donald Trump has provided circuses but no bread; triumphal arches but few triumphs, and little debate (but excessive rhetoric) in the forum.
Does the fall of the empire approach?
Rosalind McIntosh, Camberwell
AND ANOTHER THING
Iran war
Trump makes war to declare peace. How very Orwellian.
Robyn Westwood, Heidelberg Heights
Trump wanted the colour of the water in his $$14 million reflecting pool to be “American flag blue″. Instead, it’s Iranian flag green.
Ron Mather, Melbourne
Re “Iran claims it has closed Strait of Hormuz”, (21/6). To misquote Sam Goldwyn: an agreement signed by Donald Trump is worth less than the paper it is printed on.
Glenn Wood, Bardon, Qld
OK Albo – show some spine – tell Netanyahu to stop bombing Lebanon and violating international law. He maintains the war in Lebanon is separate from the war on Iran – rubbish .
Ian Anderson, Surrey Hills
Furthermore
Good on Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, and to Trump’s horror a woman, who dared to call him out on his false comments about their G7 meeting.
Helena Kilingerova, Vermont
Monoculture? Isn’t that something found in a laboratory petri dish?
Anne Carroll, Brighton East
The AFL’s Sydney Giants deserve our appreciation for their banner celebrating all cultures before the game against Carlton on Saturday. Highlighting many cultures in the context of recent racist propaganda was a victory for inclusiveness over ignorance and hate speech.
Tony Delaney, Warrnambool
No doubt the Socceroos will be striving for an ascension when they come up against Paraguay.
John Rawson, Mernda
Once they were called quacks and snake oil spruikers. They are now ″influencers″ thanks to the internet.
Kent Hansen, St Kilda
Finally
So Burnham Wood comes to Dunsinane (not that Starmer is Macbeth).
Penelope Buckley, Kew East
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