Does Peter Dutton not comprehend diplomacy when he objects to the wording of the government’s October 7 statement that expresses solidarity with Jewish Australians and condemns antisemitism, but also calls for a de-escalation, a ceasefire and a two-state solution (“Bipartisan play dashed by Dutton’s war of words”, October 9)? Or is he once again cynically deploying populism to use inflammatory language that, Trump-like, reduces complex problems to absolutes for the sake of his own political gain? Far easier to appeal to base emotions with incendiary oversimplifications than acknowledge the complexities of issues which need care and understanding, not fire and brimstone. Alison Stewart, Riverview
It is hard to believe that anyone, let alone a leader of the opposition in Australia, would oppose (for whatever reason) a government motion calling for peace and sympathy for all lives lost in the conflict. Dutton is incarnating himself into both a Tony Abbott in negativity and a Donald Trump in divisive politics. He has turned the Liberal Party into a shadow of the US Republican Party by opposing almost every action of the Albanese government, seemingly irrespective of merit, and plays to the ultra-conservative base of the party. He obviously sees it as a path to winning the next election. Since he has become the leader of opposition, his ultra-negative tactics have made sure that the Indigenous Voice to parliament referendum was defeated, climate action is slowed down and the housing solutions bill held up. Greens, too, are helping him by going to opposite extreme in thwarting government actions on many of those issues. We need parliamentarians who care for people, not their own power grab. Bipin Johri, Epping
Credit: Cathy Wilcox
Peter Dutton and his ineffectual lemmings under him could not even agree with the government on condemning a terrorist attack that has started a war with an ever-increasing death toll. Adam Bandt’s Green senators held up placards in the Senate for a photo opportunity, acting like naughty schoolkids rather than debating like politicians. Both Dutton’s No-alition and Bandt’s Greens should be ashamed of their behaviours in Parliament House this week. Mark Nugent, Lugarno
It appears quite certain that Peter Dutton subscribes to the Abbott playbook, which means that he believes his role as opposition leader requires him to say “no” to almost everything. It seems not to matter whether a certain course might be good for the country, or might have the capacity to calm tensions; our Peter will have none of it. It’s no, no, no, all the way. Derrick Mason, Boorowa
Peter Dutton sees no reason why Australia should give any consideration to the plight of Palestinians and Lebanese. He insists we should give unwavering support to Israel, which Dutton says shares the “same liberal democratic values as Australia”. More than 42,000 people have been killed in Gaza, more than 1500 in Lebanon, and nearly 100,000 have suffered lifelong injuries. Are these the values Australia shares? Dutton thinks that he and his Israeli friends are the “civilised people” of the world. The evidence on the ground suggests the opposite. Jan O’Leary, Springwood
After successfully dividing Australians a year ago, Dutton is at it again. And again. William Forbes, Medowie
The government bill condemned the Hamas attack, expressed solidarity with Jewish Australians, condemned antisemitism, called for a de-escalation and a ceasefire and supported a two-state solution. Dutton, the non-visionary, seeks to gain political points and dismisses this bill. He is not fit to be a future PM. John Cotterill, Kingsford
Credit: Will Dyson
What is wrong with “trying to walk both sides of the street”? At least Albanese is recognising that the problem affects both sides. Peter Dutton should be condemned for not recognising that people, regardless of political or religious persuasion, are people. He is right to condemn Hamas for its callous disregard of the lives that it hides behind to shield fighters. But why transport an overseas conflict into our multicultural and multifaith community? Does he not see the people of Gaza and Lebanon as human beings with an innate right of safety? The late Yasser Arafat once cried “we [the ordinary citizens in Gaza] are not animals!” That still rings true today. Pasquale Vartuli, Wahroonga
Former Palestinian president Yasser ArafatCredit: Reuters
What’s wrong with a ceasefire and a two-state solution to the conflict in the Holy Land? For Peter Dutton, it’s wrong because the other side of politics proposed it. Just like his opposition to the Indigenous Voice to parliament, his actions are designed to damage his political opponent. It is an ugly and vicious tactic, a reflection of Dutton’s character. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Chris Moe, Bensville
To what end is Dutton promoting division? The October 7 attack of Hamas on Israel was abhorrent. Israel’s response was abhorrent. Decades of geopolitical posturing in the Middle East has been abhorrent. Further escalation would be abhorrent. Mutual recognition of Israel and Palestine can be the only circuit-breaker possible for this problem, and the parliament should be demanding this rather than looking for moral superiority or political capital in religious and ethnic divisions. Ian Bowie, Bowral
The Coalition leader has criticised the prime minister for walking on “both sides of the street”. Is he suggesting that Albanese should unequivocally take sides in the Middle East conflict? More than anyone else, Peter Dutton was the catalyst that polarised public opinion in the Voice referendum. In all probability, he was positioning himself for political gain. Once again, he is further dividing public opinion. Roger Epps, Armidale
I appeal to Australians to ignore Peter Dutton’s efforts to divide this country along racial and religious lines. The tactics borrowed from Abbott’s playbook worked during the referendum and led to families being divided and our Indigenous people being devastated. Don’t let him tear us apart again. We know the tactics and we know where they lead us. Carole Hayes, Newtown
Forget fossil fuels, gas, nuclear and renewable energy. The negative energy generated in federal politics has grown so strong it will power everything, even the destruction of Australian society. Enough! Judith Fleming, Sawtell
Lesson still lost
The Hamas leader-in-exile is probably right when he predicts that the Palestinian group would rise again (“Hamas will rise like a phoenix, chief promises”, October 9). Its foot soldiers will be young men who have been orphaned, who have siblings with amputated limbs, whose education was disrupted, whose homes were reduced to rubble and whose harrowing childhood memories have never left them. Martin Luther King Jr said “hate begets hate; violence begets violence”. Why does it take us so long to learn the lessons of history? Bernard Moylan, Bronte
Hamas rising like a phoenix is likely to bring more pain upon Gaza. General Sun Tzu said an evil leadership will risk burning their nation to the ground to rule over the ashes. The Gazans’ tremendous sufferings resulted when Hamas began killing and kidnapping hapless innocent civilian Israelis in Israel on October 7, 2023, and Hamas leaders would fully know that Israel will strongly retaliate. The war in Gaza has also, not unsurprisingly, morphed into strong, unjustified, antisemitism sentiments and actions in Australia and worldwide. Steve Ngeow, Chatswood
EVs winning race to the future
Anne Ring reflects on her personal experience with an electric vehicle (“Are we there yet? When it comes to EVs, not even close”, October 9). Well, a single snapshot in Anne’s photo album can never capture the whole experience because every moment in the development of EVs brings significant change. Poor battery performance when temperature changes may have been a problem in EVs made before 2020, but certainly not now. Range, charging speed, charger availability and performance, battery energy density, and, more significantly, price are rapidly becoming more favourable every day. My wife and I, both retired, have owned our EV for just over two years, and have travelled more than 35,000 km throughout NSW and Qld and can only leave drivers of internal combustion vehicles, both young and old, the words of Bob Dylan from our youth: “Your old road is rapidly ageing, please get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand, for the times they are a-changin.” Paul Gannon, Coopers Shoot
Onwards to the futureCredit: Bloomberg
As with internal combustion engine vehicles, EVs are not all the same. Like Dr Ring, I am an older (retired) driver irrevocably committed to electric vehicles. My vehicle has a somewhat longer range – 533 km compared to 450 km – and trip charges much more rapidly: typically 20 minutes compared to “an hour or more”. All I need to do is enter the destination, and the vehicle will tell me where to re-charge, how long at each charge station, how much charge I will have when I get there, and how many minutes I need to charge to optimise the trip for overall minimum charge times. Additionally, the autopilot is vastly superior to any that I have used before, and most of the time, city or country, the car is driving itself. This makes trips much more relaxing, as well as safer (one crash for every 11 million kilometres driven compared to the average for all vehicles (in the US) of one crash every 1.078 million kilometres driven). James Walsh, Woronora
Protesters should pay
What price protest?Credit: Janie Barrett
Protests are an important part of democracy and help the unheard be heard (“Protest ban due to expense is a bridge too far”, October 9). Protests for events and situations happening overseas, however, have little effect except to become a 10-second newsflash on television screens. Protests for pressure on local authorities have better outcomes than those of governments thousands of kilometres away. Spending $5 million to police protests that may escalate into violence is a huge invoice to pay for futile attempts to change the outcome of events that the UN, International Court of Justice or other world leaders have been ineffective to change. Creating social media storms is of equal value in such attempts at changing geopolitical outcomes. If the protest organisers can’t control the mob, let them foot the bill or the political groups behind them, not make my local hospital pay by being denied staff or equipment. Manbir Singh Kohli, Pemulwuy
Departing repartee
Your correspondent (Letters, October 9) notes how we writers often pen a missive to these columns, only to realise moments after posting what would have been the perfect response, but too late. The French have, of course, the exact phrase to describe such a situation – l’espirit d’escalier – “the thought on the staircase” or on the way out. Ross MacPherson, Seaforth
Sports come up short
The answer to sport divisionsCredit: Nick Moir
Apologies to your correspondents (Letters, October 9) but spending four hours in a Lithgow pub watching an over-hyped, stop-start American game or following racing multihulls that resemble aeroplanes rather than actual yachts does not do it for me. Another correspondent’s idea of reading a book has merit, but for me, my sport of choice this summer will be a swim in the pool and the odd dunk in the ocean. And it might be better for me. Robert Hickey, Green Point
Debugging devices
Maybe it’s my operating theatre background (“Multitudes of bugs ‘thrive on filthy phones’,” October 9), but disinfecting my phone after a day’s use has always been my practice, along with washing my hands when returning home from shopping, etc. However, let’s not get too fixated on debugging, as the list of culprits, such as steering wheels, credit cards, TV remotes, and computer trackpads, is endless. Elizabeth Maher, Gordon
What is lurking under your hand?Credit: Pozniakova via The New York Times
As part of my year 8 Science lessons, my students would test various surfaces to find out which contained the most microbes. Consistently, student toilet seats were the cleanest, and the filthiest surfaces were the insides of pencil cases and lips. Stephen Kirk, Blackbutt
I’m sure I was not the only reader to be reminded of the prescient work of Douglas Adams. In his Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Adams wrote that the replacement or comparable species of human beings, the Golgafrinchans on the Ark Ship B, were wiped out by a virus caught from a dirty telephone. This happened after they had sacked all of their telephone sanitisers. There is an important message to all of us here from Adams, which now appears to be coming true. Pauline Croxon, Earlwood
Multitudes of bugs “thrive on filthy phones”? What would you get if you tested people’s hands, clothes, shoes, luggage, table tops? So I’m not going to copy Dr Tajouri and sterilise my phone five times a day. Most of what would be on it would be from my hands. Steve Bright, North Avoca
I never thought I’d see the day when so many doctors would be making dirty phone calls. Graham Lum, North Rocks
Age giveaways
May I suggest there are more telling giveaways of one’s age (Letters, October 9). “Orwellian”, Beatles lyrics, utopian memories of the three Rs at primary school in the ’50s and beginning letters with “May I suggest” spring to mind. Peter Farmer, Northbridge
I’m afraid the reason for the sad dearth of letters from the young is that a vast number of them just don’t read newspapers. I am astonished when I say to the young folk, “Did you read where so-and-so, etc?” and the reply is “Oh, no-one reads newspapers any more”. Tom Boorer, Dungog
I think I might be one of the senior letter writers to the Herald. I recently asked Siri what my life expectancy was, and straight away Siri deftly changed the subject. Ray Smith, Guyra
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