LETTER: Pauline's burqa stunt gets my vote

I WILL be voting for Pauline Hanson. She wears the burqa in the Senate and is derided by her fellow senators.

STUNT? One Nation senator Pauline Hanson removes the burqa. Picture: LUKAS COCH

Burqa ban

I WILL be voting for Pauline Hanson.

She wears the burqa in the Senate and is derided by her fellow senators.

They all stand up and clap the condemnation speech of Attorney-General George Brandis.

It just shows you how out of touch these politicians are.

They must live in ivory towers, completely out of touch with the common man.

If you are a motorcyclist, you must remove your helmet when entering a bank.

Fair enough, you say, that's sensible.

Now imagine three burqa-clad persons, perhaps one pushing a pram down Bourbong St.

It's a Friday morning the streets are packed with shoppers.

Suddenly the burqas are pushed aside and you see three people with automatic weapons.

They open fire and 20 people are on the ground, dead or injured.

Terrible, eh?

What would those senators think then?

Should we ban the burqas, like other more courageous countries have done?

They are so out of touch that they would probably say: "We cannot do that. We have to respect the rights of minorities."

Minorities in Australia, our great country, have too much power.

They are accepted here and so should follow our laws and culture, just as we would have to do in their countries.

JOHN SCARBROW

Bundaberg

Smart pollies?

WELL can someone tell me about these talented people becoming representatives of government when they have not even got the common sense to fill out an election form correctly?

The law is the law they themselves in the past have stated what must be, yet they cannot conform with these laws.

Do we want people in the parliament who are stupid or blatantly break laws to suit themselves?

Get rid of these smarties now and if necessary change the laws again or send them back to school to teach them right from wrong the Aussie way.

JEREMY FOSSEY

Elliott Heads

Off track

IT'S HARD not to agree with EI Saint (NM, 19/08) but the writer goes "off piste" in the latter part of the letter where they become "wary of recent arrivals who would infiltrate our political system."

Citizenship and Australianess is a complex issue.

In my case, I, as my father's issue, became a British subject with my parents.

When I attempted to regain my original citizenship the country of origin told me me parents had renounced it in their oath of allegiance as British subjects.

When I tried to renounce my British subject status, I was advised that it was up to the minister of immigration, not me, to make such a decision and he declined to do so.

So, after the British Immigration Act of 1972 when in 1980s I needed a passport I, after much paperwork and red tape, was awarded an Australian citizenship certificate.

So, I am an Australian by conviction and an Australian by citizenship.

Am I any more or less an Australian citizen as one who gained citizenship yesterday? I'd say not.

As far as Australianess goes, I was an Australian as soon as my little feet stepped on the Melbourne docks in the mid 1950s.

Nearly 70 years later I am still an Australian.

A happy aging Vegemite.

I was nearly drafted for the Vietnam War. And I made my career teaching Australian children.

However, I have never been accepted as a really "true Australian."

My name betrays my foreign birth and whenever I make controversial comments I am invited to return whence I came.

Citizenship or lack of citizenship doesn't enter the equation.

It doesn't seem to occur to anyone that were I to return whence I came I would be a refugee without refugee status.

Citizenship is not the same as Australianess.

Perhaps Australia should flex its feeble muscles and decree that no person can hold Australian citizenship and any other citizenship; any person who gains Australian citizenship simultaneously renounces all other citizenships.

Funny but I seem to remember that at my parents' Australian citizenship ceremony, the oath of allegiance included renunciation of other citizenships.

I wonder will my children born from an Australian woman from ancient British stock have the same frustrations I have had to endure?

DIETER MOECKEL

Wonbah

Power scare

EVERYWHERE I go in Bundaberg, I am meeting people who are frustrated, angry and fearful about the price of power.

I have even heard that some of our elderly residents are turning off their fridges at night to save on their power bills.

The LNP understands the effects higher power prices have on Bundaberg families - in contrast to a Labor government that has shunned every single Queenslander from outside the south-east corner.

People in regional Queensland will be paying their share for Labor's power plan, but the offer of cheaper prices will be available only to those in south-east Queensland.

What a slap in the face that is for those living in Bundaberg, who have been slugged to the back teeth with record power price rises under this Brisbane-centric Labor.

Regional Queensland households, businesses, manufacturers and farmers cannot not afford another three years of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Labor's record high energy prices.

This is just a cynical attempt from Ms Palaszczuk in the dying days of her government to pretend she cares about rising power prices, and it just shows how desperate Labor has become to secure votes ahead of the next state election.

The wholesale price of electricity has shot up by 70% under the Palaszczuk Labor Government - that's their record.

Labor created this mess - it started with Beattie and Bligh when they locked in Queenslanders for higher power prices, and now Ms Palaszczuk is making it worse.

DAVID BATT

LNP candidate for Bundaberg