The first job for Hugh “I knew nothing” Marks when he moves into the MD’s office at the ABC will be to get to know his staff (“OMG ABC! Did it have to be Hugh?”, December 18). His ignorance of some of the alleged bad behaviour by senior staff members at Nine Entertainment (publisher of the Herald) does not bode well. Recently, the ABC has had a habit of tackling perceived problems by importing executives from commercial media, leading to the departure of such experienced, trusted and popular broadcasters as Simon Marnie and Sarah MacDonald. Marks should be given a chance to prove his critics wrong by recognising that the ABC is not a commercial outfit, but a public broadcaster dedicated to producing independent, trustworthy and quality programming to a diverse audience, regardless of class or political persuasion. And most importantly he should make sure his next fundraiser should be for the perennially cash strapped ABC rather than for the Liberal Party. I wish him good luck – he’ll need it. Nick Franklin, Katoomba
Hugh MarksCredit: Nathan Perri
Hugh Marks is the new managing director of the ABC? The same fellow who felt it appropriate as boss at the purportedly independent, frank and fearless Nine, five years ago, to hold a $10,000-a-head Liberal Party fundraiser? His selection has already been attributed to Nine being the media organisation in Australia most similar to the ABC, in its TV, radio and online reach. And perhaps from next year in other ways as well – noting that in his role as managing director, Marks will be responsible for making editorial decisions. You have to wonder whether the Nine Liberal Party sympathies under his tenure there came up in his ABC job interview. Australia is a small talent pond. But still. Alex Mattea, Sydney
Surely Kim Williams is right not to make the distinction between public and private ownership. Engagement should be the magic metric for any media organisation, public or private. For private media organisations, relevance and excellence will ensure return on capital for shareholders; they would do well to focus on engagement. Any dichotomy between public and private is false. We are all shareholders in the ABC anyway. We are all entitled to get a return on capital.
Mark Porter, New Lambton
Good luck to Hugh Marks in trying to revive the ABC. As an ex-ABC employee and longtime viewer and listener, I have witnessed the ABC become a shell of its former self. It used to be innovative and unique. Invaluable sound resources have been sold off on EBay, so radio now just uses boring repetitive playlists the way commercial radio stations do. TV likewise has been dumbed down to quiz shows and boring panel programs. Anything vaguely intellectual is rare. A mammoth task lies ahead. Julius Timmerman, Lawson
Susan Anthony is correct to call out the tell-tale warnings re Hugh Marks’ appointment (Letters, December 18). Do we really want a man in charge of the culture of our beloved and critically important national broadcaster to be a manager who says he was unaware of Nine’s cultural problems, sexual harassment and bullying? For Kim Williams to brush aside this background is also deeply worrying. Your headline for Ms Anthony’s letter was “ABC chief mis-step”. In my opinion, it’s a gobsmacking tragedy. Anne Elliott, Balmain
Apart from issues of perceived political bias and the potential concern about popularising the ABC, there’s the serious issue of Hugh Marks, when at Nine Entertainment, unwittingly presiding over an aggressively inappropriate male-dominated environment. Is it possible that a fair proportion of senior male managers simply don’t consider female-centric issues important? In this context alone, the appointment of Marks is extraordinary because, whatever his impressive qualifications, he failed to notice gross misogyny and inappropriate sexual behaviour in his own workplace. But given all the ABC’s senior roles are currently held by men, perhaps this explains why such issues might not receive the emphasis they deserve.
Alison Stewart, Riverview
I share Jenna Price’s concern about the appointment of Hugh Marks. Unfortunately, at a time when the future relevance of the ABC should be top of the agenda, the need to address the culture of the ABC has overtaken this. The choice of someone who failed to recognise, let alone address, similar issues at Nine is of concern. The ABC needs to value and nurture its staff if it is to remain creative, innovative and relevant. Philip Cooney, Wentworth Falls
Someone, sometime ago must have insisted that the ABC become more like a commercial TV station. To some degree, it did, with more emphasis on celebrities, trivia and stories of minor interest to many. So, regardless of Hugh Marks’ alleged past deficiencies as listed by Jenna Price, good on him if he can shift the ABC away from the celebrity circus and back toward a more detailed examination of the serious issues in a world now experiencing the rise of clamorous, democracy-damaging extremists. Ron Sinclair, Windradyne
Dual-purpose vehicles
Just in case we were not aware of the extent of the available taxation concessions and rorts, Shane Wright has detailed some of the revenue lost to the government through these taxation-minimising vehicles (“Surge in use of trusts to cut tax”, December 18). In more affluent budgetary times, the introduction of these concessions may have seemed a good idea; some fall into the category of electoral bribes. Today it would be hard to argue that these concessions provide any economic or social gain to the community. What is obvious, except apparently to the government and opposition, is that we can no longer afford these inequitable taxation concessions with the budget in structural deficit. Only an extreme optimist would believe that either of our major political parties will summon up long-overdue courage and action to significantly wind back these devices. Ross Butler, Rodd Point
Shane Wright’s article reveals, “The single largest work-related expense remains car travel” which does not surprise me. The many massive new oversized dual-cab utilities being driven around emblazoned with Ultimate Hair Stylist or Penultimate Calligraphy Supplies looks like some hefty tax rorting or a fringe benefits tax system that needs attention.
Evan Bailey, Glebe
Nissan Navara dual cab ute
Your piece on trusts needs some context. Discretionary trusts enable manipulation of the income derived to be carefully distributed to avoid thresholds that bring additional tax, such as the superannuation contributions tax. So the income from the trust is fully taxed; it is just that the ATO cannot stop who actually will be taxed and on how much. A trust is the perfect tax planning vehicle; those running a business love them. Michael Blissenden, Dural
Once-great Scott
The Scott Reef in my home state of WA is a stunning example of the colourful array of life on earth (“Woodside gains state approval for massive 50-year Karratha gas plant extension”, December 13). It is devastating that the WA government has rejected a record number of community appeals and subsequently approved Woodside’s polluting gas hub that will damage our climate and environments like Scott Reef until 2070. By extension, this decision further threatens already endangered species, among them the dusky sea snake, sea turtles and whales. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek promised no new extinctions on her watch. She now faces a choice: stand with the majority of Australians who want to see nature protected or follow in the steps of WA’s environment minister and give in to Woodside, allowing the destruction to continue. Sonya Elek, Padbury (WA)
Railroaded
Rail unions are threatening industrial action that will halve the number of trains operating in Sydney on New Year’s Eve (The Herald’s View, December 18). These are the same people who have been demanding the government operate trains for 24 hours on weekends because that is what the public wants. Now, on the one night of the year when the public really does need 24-hour rail services, the unions have suddenly lost their appetite for prioritising the needs of the community. Doug Walker, Baulkham Hills
Question of balance
The nonsense that the Liberals are being dragged “even further to the right,” gets legs due solely to the fact that Labor’s relentless push left, under Albanese and Wong, has it teetering on the edge (Letters, December 18). Rosemary O’Brien, Ashfield
So much more than a number
I am writing this on the day before we Year 12 students receive our ATAR and final exam results (“HSC results 2024 LIVE updates: NSW year 12 students receive marks, ATARs”, smh.com.au, December 18). I want to know what I receive, but mainly so I can accept it and finally enter the next period of my life: university, travel, and adulthood. I have been waiting for these since I began high school. But there’s just one little number that’s standing in my way. I find it strange how a student’s greatness, academic success and effort is all seemingly reflected in a number. It is a major flaw in the NSW schooling system and can greatly affect students’ confidence in their abilities. It’s hard to fight a system that I’m not a part of any more. But I wish good luck to the Year 12 students for their future endeavours and remind them that the HSC is behind us now, so have fun! Alice Jordan, Russell Lea
First in subjects for 2024 HSCCredit: SMH
Your reporter states that “it is likely to be years before the International Baccalaureate (IB) is introduced to any NSW public schools due to the lengthy accreditation process” (“Record demand for alternative exam as state opens the door”, December 18). It is far more likely that the IB will not be introduced because the award of the IB is dependent on the study of at least one foreign language and there simply aren’t the teachers. The precipitous decline in the number of students studying a foreign language for the HSC shows no sign of stopping. Forty years ago, 22 per cent of HSC students studied a foreign language, this year the figure was 6.9 per cent and, if past figures are any guide, about 75 per cent of those students came from selective or non-government schools. Lifting the ban on public schools offering the IB will be meaningless if the decline in foreign language study goes unaddressed. Ryszard Linkiewicz, Caringbah South
Three cheers for the dedicated teachers who travelled alongside all the students climbing the HSC mountain. One teacher can have a big impact – like Anubhav Ammangi’s Year 10 science teacher who introduced him to the Steinhaus longimeter leading to original mathematical thinking (“How long is a piece of string?”, December 18). Teachers across the state need to know that we – the community, MPs and the media – have their back, so they can focus on the vital job of sparking a love of learning in their classrooms. Sandy Killick, Glebe
Hands off Freshie
Three of my four sons have attended Freshwater Senior Campus and with each one we have witnessed teenage boys bored and disillusioned with school transform (“A fantastic school like ours should be replicated, not erased”, December 18). Most teens are desperate to be taken seriously, to see their opinions and needs not only matter but are respected. That happens by default in a senior campus environment. Rather than erasing one highly successful campus and shovelling money into the building works needed to do so, why doesn’t the department actually address, support, and drive the positive reframing of the campuses already there? Kim Berry, Narrabeen
Freshwater Senior Campus school captains Sebastian Rayel and Sophie Rawstorne.
Looking back, could I have written so eloquently and elegantly about my old school? The answer is an emphatic “no”. The article by the Freshwater school captains Sophie Rawstorne and Sebastian Rayel surely says to the education department, “think again”. John Crowe, Cherrybrook
Captive consumers
Energy generation forms a relatively small part of our bills (Letters, December 17). A much larger part – more than three times as much – is attributable to transmission and distribution. These costs are charged by regional monopolies to whom we pay not just the expenses of building and operating the grid, but also mandated commercial returns on their investment. As captive consumers, we are all paying for this – and we ain’t seen nothing yet. This is one reason why there must be at least some sense in the Coalition’s energy proposals and a need for better-informed analysis, such as that by Ross Gittins, into what is actually going on and likely to occur to our grid. Rob Ritchie, Mosman
Costly blunder
The Coalition is developing a penchant for going against its own principle of fiscal conservatism and investing in projects that are poorly planned, uneconomic or impose undue cost to the taxpayer (Letters, December 18). Peter Dutton is proposing seven nuclear power stations that will cost the taxpayer at least $331 billion. Remember the Coalition’s NBN that used copper instead of high-speed fibre? By 2022 the project was $28 billion over budget and four years behind schedule. What about Snowy 2.0? Who knows what the final cost will be, when it was budgeted to cost $2 billion but has already blown out to $12 billion. Now the Coalition is doing it again, trying to argue that a future nuclear program will be the most economic, cheap and clean way to solve our energy and climate problems.
It is important that governments make sensible, economic, climate-friendly decisions based on scientific evidence. We already have the technology to complete our national grid, powered by 40 per cent renewables. South Australia, which is now at 75 per cent renewables capacity and expected to be at 100 per cent by the end of 2027, is building a best-practice model that will confirm the efficacy of renewables. Anne Ammann, Dargan
With the release of the Coalition’s nuclear policy, I am disturbed by the process that has been adopted. The seven site conundrum: nowhere are we told that seven sites equal seven reactors. What sort of reactors – generation III or later, such as AP1000 or APR1400 (design process started in 1992 and still to be certified in the United States)? No mention of costs (either capital or operational) – rather, attack the CSIRO because its GenCost report is bad news for nuclear power. Finally, as the party of markets, what do the markets say? Silence. So, which private corporations are furiously lobbying the current government to lift the moratorium? No one. This is not a policy but a piece of election-ware with a use-by date of one day after the next federal election. Ian Caddy, Cheltenham
The construction of seven large nuclear reactors is probably going to require the services of about half a million skilled construction workers and millions of tonnes of construction material. The construction of housing is an emergency priority. Australia has a shortage of workers and materials in the housing sector. Can anybody see a problem here? Don Leayr, Albury
Pay your way
Ross Gittins reminds us “that most people retire on some combination of super and the age pension”, which is another way of saying that the older retired generation is being supported by the taxes paid by the younger working generation (“Enough to retire? Almost certainly”, December 18).
Traditional, yes, but unsustainable – and devoid of intergenerational equity. Retirees should do more to meet their post-retirement costs and not rely on government welfare. It is ludicrous that a couple can have a million dollars in assets (excluding their home) and still get a part-pension.
Maurice Critchley, Mangrove Mountain
Sleeping easyCredit: Simon Letch
Ross Gittins forgets one growing and insidious incursion into retirement costs, and that is strata and community levies. These were increased for me by 41 per in the first COVID-19 year and increase year-on-year; this year by just over 4 per cent. Many of us would like to sell up but stamp duty, agents’ fees, legal, removal costs, let alone the difficulty of finding a place we can afford and another set of levies we struggle to afford, deters us from taking that option. Janet Cook, Waverton
- To submit a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, email letters@smh.com.au. Click here for tips on how to submit letters.
- The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform. Sign up here.