Historian and heritage specialist James Lesh is quoted as saying “there is little to no evidence that heritage is a barrier to housing supply (“Tug-of-war in the inner west set to hit home across the city”, January 8). The attack on heritage is in effect the same land grab on older inner-city areas that developers ran in the late 60s and early 70s, a campaign all about developer profits and not about affordability of housing or good urban planning. We are indeed in a housing crisis, but levelling our oldest, densest suburbs and removing the little architectural heritage we have won’t make housing more affordable. The “market” has created and continues to drive unaffordable housing and the only solution is for governments to step in and re-build social housing to the level it was in the 1970s. The federal government must also abolish negative gearing and impose a capital gains tax on second and further housing. As for areas with little in the way of heritage, perhaps the post-war commuter belt suburbs along the East Hills, Illawarra and Northern railway lines would offer both big blocks and easy access to public transport within 30 minutes of the city centre. Colin Hesse, Marrickville
Three Californian bungalows and a church in MacArthur Parade up for heritage listing.Credit: Janie Barrett
Young people want to live in inner suburbs precisely because of scale and character, not just accessibility. The pro-development lobby must know that land values alone in heritage inner suburbs will render new builds widely unaffordable. And older houses are often replaced by huge modern ones, not affordable housing. We have to stop viewing housing as a means of wealth-creation. And government urban planners, not developers alone, must step up and design the kind of sympathetic low to medium-density housing you see in, say, Amsterdam suburbs. Alison Stewart, Riverview
Residents who seek to protect the historic character of Sydney’s early suburbs and who provide important feedback to ensure development is good aesthetically and environmentally have not created the housing crisis; the fault lies with years of policy failure resulting in the commodification of housing, and vast greenfield, low-rise developments that lack infrastructure. There is no evidence that heritage protections limit supply significantly, but tweaking of heritage protections to allow dual occupancies can be achieved. It is largely the built form and streetscapes that attract people to places such as Balmain and Summer Hill. Wrecking that character based on incorrect assumptions is in nobody’s interest, except developers. Marie Healy, Hurlstone Park
The concern about removing heritage listing from suburbs is perfectly understandable. State governments have ridden roughshod over the desires of locals and councils about the way suburbs and communities should develop. Planning about how to best increase densities has been almost non-existent and by default has been handed over to developers who are dominated by nothing other than profits. The result for communities has been totally negative. Until state governments can do better than an all encompassing rezoning of 400 metres around transport hubs and add some thoughtful planning to the issue then communities have every reason to be concerned. Geoff Wannan, Dawes Point
Religious ‘freedom’ or the right to religious coercion?
With the exception of the right to actually have children, the rights of parents are neither fundamental nor foundational (“Firing staff for sexual ethics at stake”, January 8). They are instead derivative, derived from the rights of their children, and so subordinate to those rights. Parents do not have a right to have their children treated in a way that harms other children, and forcing LGBTQI students to hide their sexuality lest they be expelled harms them immensely. Martin Bibby, Beecroft
Religious schools’ lobby groups claim that it would be a breach of religious freedoms to remove their current exemptions from the Anti-Discrimination Act. They claim they must be able to hire or fire staff on the grounds of adherence to their definitions of Christian ethics, especially on sexual matters. What they are arguing for is not religious freedom, but the right to engage in religious coercion. They want to retain the backing of the state to compel their staff to adhere to religious teachings around permissible sexuality, on pain of dismissal from employment. This is an outrage.
Schools are taking government money to engage in discrimination of the sort that it is rightly illegal for the government to perform in public schools. Religious organisations should have their Anti-Discrimination Act exemptions removed for any activity they perform with the assistance of public funds. Greg Platt, Wyoming
How far could such unkind discrimination take us if taken to its logical conclusion? Clearly religious freedom must be a qualified right. It’s time the churches accepted that they operate in a pluralistic society with a firm division between the church and the state. Sue Adams, Dulwich Hill
Each census shows that more and more Australians are losing their religion, yet religious groups are demanding the right to discriminate against LGBTQI groups, including by expelling students. As LGBTQI groups are also Australian taxpayers, any move to grant or continue the “right” of religious groups to hurt others should mean that such groups do not receive one cent of taxpayer funding. Pauline Croxon, Undercliffe
Parents should have the right to choose a school which reflects their beliefs, whether that is for a secular or religious education. Teachers know what the ethos of a school is and should expect to operate within that ethos. I don’t understand why teachers would choose to work in a school whose beliefs they don’t support. These are very simple principles which deserve to be respected; I can see no benefit in having schools dragged through the courts for upholding their advertised faith. Vivienne Parsons, Thornleigh
Northern Ireland not a model for the Middle East
Ray Bassett writes that “Northern Ireland found a path to peace. Are there lessons for Israel/Hamas” (“An Irish lesson for Middle East”, January 8)? However, he neglects to inform the reader that the Northern Irish government is dysfunctional and hasn’t operated for several years, with the two extremes of the political divide refusing to cooperate with each other. The Northern Ireland power-sharing arrangement needs to be redesigned so that, if extremists won’t cooperate, centrists can govern instead. Peter Marshall, Captain Flat
An Irish lesson for the Middle East? Credit: Jim Pavlidis
I agree with Ray Bassett’s observation that “unless there is some form of communication, there is no path to peace”. However, I think he avoided the underlying tenets which need to be sorted out. In the case of Northern Ireland, the Irish constitution claimed that the whole of the island was Ireland - a point which the population of Northern Ireland, who wished to remain part of the UK, did not accept. The resolution to this was achieved by the Irish government agreeing to arrange a referendum to change their constitution so that the Republic of Ireland no longer claimed Northern Ireland. In the Middle East there is a similar set of mutually exclusive tenets regarding the existence of Israel. It seems that Hamas believes Israel should not exist whilst Israel believes it should. Unless at least this is sorted (never mind the myriad other issues), I fear there is unlikely to be a lasting peace - but talking is certainly the path to get there. Juan Roberson, Leura
Plain sight
As a person who may be a particularly likely target of hate and violence by neo-Nazis, I think that the ban on public self-identification is a grave mistake, forcing them underground (“Nationwide ban on display and trade of Nazi hate symbols now in effect”, smh.com.au, January 8). I’d prefer them to be easily identified so that the threat they pose is in plain sight. Andrew Cohen, Glebe
Boys’ club
The Liberals just don’t get it (“Libs fear as gender out of balance”, January 8). Despite exposed misogyny and losses to the teals, their policy of selection on merit has failed to increase female representation. This is because their culture and basic fabric is the old boys’ club, which is opposed to and frightened of progressive change. Thus, the dominance of white men in their preselections and their opposition to any progressive policy, whether it be tax, climate, indigenous affairs or social welfare. This also explains their nine years of governing inertia, the elections of Abbott, Morrison and Dutton, the emasculation of Malcolm Turnbull and why Bridget Archer is in Coventry. To be an effective party again, they need grass root and administrative change, lose their tin ears and once again be a broad church. Rowan Godwin, Rozelle
Today’s piece on women and the Liberal party reminds me of the famous Churchill quote, “I no longer listen to what people say. I just watch what they do. Behaviour never lies”. The internecine war within the Coalition around gender is both long-running and self-defeating. Think of Julie Bishop, Julia Banks and Bridget Archer as examples. All moderates, all outspoken independent thinkers and advocates, all well-respected and ultimately either resigning or placed under constant pressure internally to tow the party line. Look at the rise of the teals; invariably a woman candidate, at the cost of Liberal seats. Not even the co-author of the 2022 election review; Jane Hume, would comment. A dreadful position to be in considering that Elizabeth Couchman was one of the original founders of the Liberal Party. I wonder if female Liberal ministers would have given us the robodebt debacle?
Bernard Stever, Richmond
Liberal MP Bridget ArcherCredit: Alex Ellinghausen
While gendered preselection is a problem for the Liberal Party, a bigger problem is policies. As things stand the party seems to be more focused on the past decade than the next. Lindsay Foyle, Stanmore
Do Dutton and the Libs not understand that the only way to win back their traditional seats is to preselect high-profile, successful women to take on the “teals”? Denis Suttling, Newport Beach
On behalf of Messrs Dutton and Littleproud, I would like to know if any of these women wanting to get into politics know how to cook and when to keep silent in the presence of a man? If not, how dare they think they can represent a Coalition electorate? David Neilson, Araluen (NT)
It looks like the Liberal Party have got the wrong end of the problem. It’s not preselecting more women but getting more women to join the party and attend branch meetings. Until this is done, there will not be a significant pool of talented women to select from. And, in any event, the views of women in the development of party policy would be invaluable. It simply beggars belief that a long-established party has not bothered to accommodate the 50 per cent of the talent available. Pasquale Vartuli, Wahroonga
Outdated disaster
How refreshing to see the Australian Federal Police come out strongly against that organised and outdated disaster called Summernats (“Police investigate brawl involving crowd safety staff at Summernats car festival”, January 8). Is it any wonder that rev-heads juiced up on alcohol end in violent confrontations? The police spokesman saying that these people haven’t evolved very far and that an IQ station should be “policed” at the border is refreshing. John Kingsmill, Fairlight
Summernats car in the burnout competition.Credit: Photo: Martin Ollman
Swim schools
With the number of tragic drownings occurring, swimming education should be readily available to all students (“Ninth drowning in two weeks as man dies on NSW Central Coast”, January 8). The Department of Education does provide learn to swim programs. However some schools have forgone, or greatly reduced their participation, in these life saving programs. The excessive cost of bus hire is a major factor in substantially increasing the costs. Full access to all students, regardless of socio- economic circumstances, will save lives. John Cotterill, Kingsford
Dead boring
The recent correspondence describing listening to Peter Dutton as “feeling like being lectured by an undertaker” reminds me of the description of Margaret Thatcher as “talking to you like your dog had just died” (Letters, January 8). Aidan Cuddington, Umina Beach
Silence of the lambs
Pity about the almost 650,000 young lambs that were transported to slaughter before Christmas because of an “oversupply”(“Lamb price heads down as farmers cull herds”, January 8). Janine Burdeu, Mona Vale
Relative truth
Truth is elusive and elastic (“The complicated truth about ‘truth’”, January 8). Were it not so, there would be no need for courts. Tony Doyle, Fairy Meadow
In years gone by, “my truth” was called opinion. David Ailwood, Figtree
Bath time
I was delighted to read the Lismore baths have reopened after the disastrous 2022 flood (“Almost two years after the flood, Lismore gets its pool back”, January 8). I learnt to swim there too, one summer well over 70 years ago. In those days, it was only a 30-yard pool but a welcome relief to a muggy Lismore summer. Viv Mackenzie, Port Hacking
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