On Anzac Day, Peter Dutton’s vision of 2.5 per cent of GDP towards defence spending makes a person ask just where we are heading as a society (“Dutton heeds Trump’s call on defence, vows to massively outspend Labor,” April 24). Today’s public holiday reminds us that there are no winners in the horror of war. We should rather direct our energies to creative war-prevention projects. When the major parties start to genuinely talk about matching our spending on defence with well-planned, international peace projects, humanity may be progressing. Sadly, we humans all too often react according to our own fears, which keep us victims of a redundant mindset. A new sort of leadership is needed if we are ever going to survive as a species. Any political vision worth its salt needs to have at its core a celebration of our common humanity. Give peace a chance. Neville Williams, Darlinghurst
Nuclear on shaky ground
This week’s Hunter Valley earthquake, just near one of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s proposed nuclear power plants, confirms yet again that his nuclear propositions are “on shaky ground” (“Nuclear labelled the ‘Voldemort policy’,” April 24). There are simply too many unanswered questions for us to feel this is a rock-solid idea. Regional Australians are asking where the water to cool these power plants will come from. And is this water to be taken from food-growing farmers? Beyond water, where will the nuclear waste be stored over the next tens of thousands of years? It is a fact that radioactive waste is almost always stored on-site, so is that the plan in Australia too? The Hunter Valley earthquake leaves us asking: is a nuclear-powered future up to the challenges of an unstable world? Will all this uncertainty prompt another Dutton backflip? Karen Campbell, Geelong (Vic)
Credit: Cathy Wilcox
This week’s earthquake in the Hunter should be another nail in the coffin of Dutton’s nuclear power agenda. The fossil fuel lobby should be congratulated on fighting a successful rear guard action to delay renewables in Australia, ever since the re-emergence of oil and gas worldwide throughout 2022. I left the offshore oil and gas industry in 2017 during a period of massive downsizing and rig sell-offs. The majors, Shell, Exxon and BP, virtually all started to invest in renewable and commence renewable departments. Most have now downsized or completely defunded these green departments. Australia is the third-most optimal country for offshore wind turbines in the world, yet has none. Repeated studies show whales are not killed by turbines, nor birds in any numbers approaching offshore platform and rig flaring. The endless bureaucracy delaying offshore wind in the Gippsland obfuscates the fact that offshore wind here would replace 22 rusting platforms and more than 580 kilometres of seabed pipelines. Taiwan is terminating their last nuclear plant by 2026, partially due to security. We should maintain John Howard’s 1998 ban for all the other valid reasons. Peter Clive, Manly
Herald coverage of energy policy appears to be increasingly one-sided. Coalition costings and modelling have been publicly available for months, yet we have seen no review. Conversely, there is no questioning of Labor assertions, but only what appears to be repetition of simple soundbites. Where are the costings of Labor’s renewables plan? As best as we can establish, based on AEMO’s system plan, Labor will cost us $671 billion to make the transition. This ignores the loss of agricultural land, the environmental damage and, longer term, a heavier reliance on gas. It also fails to account for the sources of funding and the higher costs consumers will need to bear to make it profitable enough for the private sector. You may disagree with the Coalition’s policy, but at least they have been transparent with their modelling – which shows a cost of only $331 billion. Surely voters are owed some form of justification from Labor (or some analysis from the Herald) as to why we should be paying hundreds of billions of dollars more, and still burning even more fossil fuels? Or is this the real “Voldemort policy”? Rob Ritchie, Mosman
Another Coalition policy backflip, this time only two days after Dutton had announced he would leave EV tax breaks alone (“Dutton U-turn on EV tax breaks”, April 24). I can’t remember such a shambolic campaign with so many policies abandoned during the campaign, and the promise of new policies, missing details and costings “to be announced” prior to the election, or even after it. Does the Coalition’s befuddlement stem from laziness, incompetence or sheer arrogance? Surely Dutton’s own “I don’t hold a hose” statement that he “is not a scientist” so can’t say if climate change is real, should dismiss him from consideration as a prospective PM. Any real leader would have educated themselves on such a major issue and source of such division within the Coalition. For two parties that appear so desperate to regain power, the Liberals and Nationals have so few viable policies that one must wonder why they are bothering at all. Alan Marel, North Curl Curl
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he will dump tax breaks on EVs.Credit: James Brickwood
At least Peter Dutton holds a hose, as the frequent photos of him pumping petrol can attest. Anna Searls, Randwick
Here we go again with Peter Dutton spur-of-the-moment policies. Let’s get rid of tax breaks for EV vehicles. And of course previously, let’s build a nuclear power plant at Newcastle (“City high-rises shaken by Hunter quake,” April 24). Nothing makes any sense. Ken Pares, Forster
It would appear Peter Dutton woke up to a message from his advisers that supporting EVs was too woke. While Dutton has photo ops pumping costly overseas petrol into internal combustion cars, EV owners are plugging into their solar-generated power points at next to zero cost. It’s all too woke for Peter. Real men like the smell of unburnt hydrocarbons and the sound of a high-revving engine. Meanwhile, we EV drivers are reducing Australia’s import bill, cleaning the air we breathe and driving silently from the stop light, leaving our petrol-driven rev-heads in the dust. Neil Ormerod, Kingsgrove
It’s hard to keep up with the opposition leader in the policies department. Just when I thought I had all the facts to make an informed decision on election day, the ever shape-shifting Peter Dutton performs yet another policy backflip, this time on EV tax breaks. This man could get a job in Cirque du Soleil. Work from home flip-flops, referendum imaginings, the 41,000 public servants now expected to die off naturally, and now an effective new tax designed to sink the EV revolution. It’s hard to keep up. Bill Young, Killcare Heights
Low standards
It’s high time that lies in political advertising and promotion was outlawed. It is not right that individuals need to threaten the Liberal Party to have misleading, misappropriated and doctored content removed (“Liberals remove TikTok post after influencer calls in lawyer,” April 24). I’ve received Liberal Party voting instructions, in what appears to be an official voting envelope, twice this month. Let’s not forget the AEC purple signage in Chinese, detailing how to vote Liberal and installed at voting booths. And Clive Palmer’s death tax lies in Queensland. Until we drag election advertising up to consumer advertising standards, the immoral behaviour will continue and the less astute will be tricked into voting for a party that doesn’t respect honesty or the truth. Anne Matheson, Gordon
Future proofing
It appears our nation’s natural abundance might guide us to good fortune yet again (“Australia to spend $1.2 billion on stockpile of crucial minerals” April 24). Just how our pollies straddle the diplomatic demand for our critical minerals between a once-reliable ally against our largest trading partner is a delicate high-wire act. Clearly doing so-called “deals” with a self-proclaimed presidential genius, potentially involving securing defence allegiance, is fraught with uncertainties. Relying on big brother US in defending our shores clearly is a thing of the past. Compromising our national sovereignty just isn’t an option. Forming stronger alliances with our South-East Asian neighbours, who will also need our critical minerals, seems a more sustainable long-term goal. Equally, learning a financial lesson vis-a-vis Norway’s Oil fund, rather than trading windfalls away in “defence deals”, might assist in future proofing us for safer, more prosperous times. Cleveland Rose, Dee Why
Follow the money
I thoroughly approve of private schools seeking to boost their coffers through philanthropic bequests (“Private schools pursue bequests,” April 24). Their success in this endeavour will mean that they will no longer need funding from the public purse which can be returned to state schools, where it rightly belongs. The next step should be to withdraw charity status from private schools as has been recommended by the Productivity Commission. Patricia Farrar, Concord
Cranbrook School says the cost of funding a scholarship in perputuity stands at $750,000.Credit: Wolter Peeters
It is astounding the lengths private schools will go to feed their insatiable appetite for funds. Now they are drafting will clauses to help you distribute assets after you die. And the wording shifts any tax liability (which is possible) to the estate and not the tax-advantaged school. Covering all bases. Lesson: take the song Taxman off the funeral service playlist. Michael Blissenden, Dural
Pregnancy pause
Michelle Goldberg highlights the issue of a declining birth rate in the US, which is also happening in Australia (“How Trump can boost the birth rate,” April 24). She mentions cultural reasons around domestic drudgery involved in raising children, but also the aversion of many women to partnering with Trump-supporting men, who are getting the wrong message about how to make themselves attractive prospects as fathers. The best thing the president could do for the birth rate would be to resign, she writes. In our case, I believe that climate change is becoming a factor in lowering the birth rate as increasingly extreme weather evokes anxiety about the world that one’s children and grandchildren will inherit. I believe that as well as his old-fashioned chauvinism, Trump’s extraordinary denial of climate change is also contributing to the fall in the US birth rate. Mike Foale, Maleny (Qld)
It seems like the bond market is the only entity that can keep Trump in check. Whenever he babbles on about tariffs or sacking the Fed chairman, the bond market sells off. It then dawns on Trump that the cost of servicing the nation’s $36 trillion debt increases. The same for his highly leveraged companies. It also means the value of his reported $400 million holding of US treasuries declines. Hence the backdown. Nothing like the “hip-pocket nerve” to bring a bit of sanity to the debate.
Mike Kenneally, Manly
Perhaps the Pope’s funeral will turn into what Jim Hacker of Yes, Prime Minister fame said: “It will be a working funeral, no time to socialise.” Getting some key leaders together for a chat might be useful, but of course Trump will be there so no doubt he will regard it as a state occasion for him. Can’t wait to see him elbowing his way to the front, as he did in that G7 meeting. Maybe the others need to lock arms? Or maybe the Vatican can give him the wrong address. Tony Sullivan, Adamstown Heights
Why would anybody discourage Donald Trump from attending the Pope’s funeral? Being exposed to grief, prayers, dedication, sacrifice and hope for the future may even be beneficial for Trump. I doubt Pope Francis would have seen anybody as beyond redemption. Rosemary O’Brien, Ashfield
Donald Trump will attend the Pope’s funeral.Credit: AP
Trump says he is looking forward to attending the Pope’s funeral. Brings to mind the quote from Alice, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, who said of her father: “He wants to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral and the baby at every christening.” Victoria Harrington, Thirroul
Maybe Trump would like to stay for the papal conclave as well – there is a vacancy after all (“Build bridges, not walls: Where the Pope fell out with Trump”, April 23). Then a quick trip to London to see King Charles. Imagine, Pope President Sir Donald Trump. Given his tenure so far, nothing would surprise. Patrick McGrath, Potts Point
Oh, come on, Cory Alpert, take another look at the Catholic Church (“Pope’s care for others reflected the best of all of us”, April 24). How can an all-male, misogynistic institution that is against birth control, against abortion and against divorce be said to reflect “the society in which we live”? Rob Wills, Brisbane (Qld)
Park your car plans
Complaints about no additional parking in the Leichhardt Oval redesign proposal is a clear example of motonormativity aka “car brain” (Letters, April 24). All fans don’t need to drive in a private car. The light rail with links to heavy rail is minutes’ walk away. There are bus services and many footpaths and shared paths to the stadium. Ensure there are drop-off areas, access for wheelchairs and strollers, disabled and secure bicycle parking, but more private car parking on game days is not necessary. Tim Coen, Ashfield
Chris Minns is making his case for half of Moore Park golf course being turned to open space harder with every new stroke of his quill. The push to increase density around transport hubs is a nightmare for councils representing the communities that will feel the impact of more traffic and people on already overstretched infrastructure. Developers are seizing on affordable housing being incorporated into developments as a way to exceed the planning limits designed to protect the ambience and liveability of our suburbs. Regarding the redevelopment of Leichhardt Oval, as correspondent Peter Craig asked: “Where are 20,000 football fans supposed to park?” (Letters, April 24). He goes on to suggest “perhaps there’s a plan as not yet revealed to acquire acres of parkland and cover it with bitumen and white lines.” My goodness, Mr Minns. Christopher Woodley, Vaucluse
On the move again
My cohort, mostly widows, have sold their family homes, mostly to younger families. They have downsized to units or apartments as their “forever homes”. Now they are being harassed by developers so that perfectly adequately units can be pulled down to build high-rises, giving great profit to the developers. I am not sure if Premier Chris Minns intended that outcome in his push for greater housing density. Unit owners are constantly bombarded by developers hoping to persuade them to change their minds, allowing enough votes in the strata to buy out the block. This is causing much distress to many people, both owners and renters, and could result in further people becoming homeless. Leigh Fincke, Cremorne
Coal hard cash
Eddie Obeid is to keep the $30 million that he made from a corrupt coalmining deal. What a disgrace. It seems that crime does pay after all (“Eddie Obeid to keep his ‘socks and jocks’ along with $30 million”, April 24). Paul Duncan, Leura
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