S haun Carney has asked some questions our prime minister needs to address (“Albanese is drifting into oblivion”, November 14). The Voice referendum’s failure was not a good start to his tenure but the government has not been an embarrassment to this nation – as were the previous Coalition governments. There have been achievements but I admit a strong change manager would have been welcome. I will take Carney to task on the knuckle-duster-carrying bully who seems to keep landing punches. Dutton’s vision for this country is to return to the past and dig stuff out of the ground to make the wrong people wealthier. His agenda is to create fear and anger. At least Albo is trying to make the country a better place. A strong change focus agenda when pleading for a second term might do the trick. Geoff Nilon, Mascot
Albanese is drifting into oblivion.Credit: Dionne Gain
Shaun Carney raises the issue of Albanese’s non-stop campaigning but it was John Howard who actually made that his default position, which has been followed by most of the succeeding prime ministers. Howard weaponised immigration, and Dutton continues this divisive xenophobia and hyper-partisanship. Tony Simons, Balmain
Shaun Carney certainly has it in for Albanese. Almost every facet of our society – education, health, welfare, aged care, housing, Aboriginal welfare and energy policy, to name just a few – needs a radical overhaul to arrest the growing inequality that is one of the greatest challenges we face as a nation. Anyone who thinks Peter Dutton is directing a political narrative that will address these issues is living in la-la land. All I see from the Coalition is the same old tired former ministers reciting the same old lines with the added extra of a nuclear policy that defies all logic. Albo may be far from perfect but his government is doing a reasonable job given the prevailing economic, social and international pressures we face. Phil Peak, Dubbo
Shaun Carney is at it again. Albanese is nothing like Joe Biden – he’s a lot younger for a start, not feeble or weak. He has a progressive agenda for a progressive country. We live in a country where the income distribution is more equal than the US. We have a voting system where everyone has to take part. It is not a winner-take-all system. Shaun likens the next election to a fistfight. We are not the US and should not try to be. Chris Moe, Bensville
Every week Carney’s opinion pieces become more bitter and personal. Yes, you could say Albo has been overly cautious but, given the timidity the electorate demonstrated at the 2019 election, it’s understandable. As for the Voice, Labor merely kept an election promise to Indigenous Australians. I would’ve thought that counted as a show of integrity, as well as the act of a “genuine change agent”? Phil Bradshaw, Naremburn
Shaun Carney continues the regular complaints by commentators in this masthead of Anthony Albanese’s poor leadership. A quick check of subscribers’ comments on this piece confirms that most do not share Shaun’s opinion, and point to the enormous progress this government has made (under difficult circumstances in a short time) compared with the vacuum of the 10 previous years of LNP rule. When government sets out a bold, progressive agenda, Shaun calls it overreach, and when progress is too slow, he says it is underperforming. You can’t have it both ways. Tony Heathwood, Kiama Downs
I hate to admit it but I think Shaun Carney is right. What he was too polite to add is that Albanese has probably lost the opportunity for himself and the party, not to mention the Australian people, to win the next election. Imagine if he were to come forward with the solution, to announce that he is willing to step aside for the greater good. That would be an honourable legacy. Jim Chalmers is much too good as treasurer to sacrifice to the PM seat but Tony Burke would be brilliant. Charmain Brinks, Newcastle
Shaun Carney compares Albanese to Biden but I think a more apt comparison is with Malcolm Turnbull. In their youth, both harboured ambitions to become PM. Both arrived at the Lodge replacing totally inept predecessors (Abbott and Morrison). The electorate had high expectations that both would undertake serious reform. Both demonstrated early in their terms they were incapable of such.
The Liberal Party terminated Turnbull’s tenure. The Labor Party will not do the same to Albanese, but the electorate might. Mike Kenneally, Manly
Fixing systems of care
Many Australian homeless or itinerant people with complex and severe mental illnesses, drug and alcohol problems and physical disabilities also suffer from too little practical support and many discontinuities of care, as was the case in the recent Bondi Junction tragedy (“Inquest to examine Bondi Junction stabbing rampage to stop similar incidents”, November 12). These system-of-care failures can be fatal, yet are avoidable. They could be fixed by evidence-based assertive community treatment and support teams, together with a “housing first” strategy offering social housing dedicated to this population, plus family reconnection and backup.
These are at present treated in a fragmented and incomplete way in NSW, which perhaps only a royal commission can rectify, as occurred in Victoria. The NSW government needs to sequester recurrent resources devoted to these purposes – possibly by raising levies from large businesses, as occurs in Victoria and Queensland – while mental health commissions need statutory powers to prevent diversion of mental health resources to other purposes, as is so often the case in NSW. Professors Alan Rosen and Max Bennett, University of Sydney
Free creativity
There has never been a time when students have needed to be more creative, innovative, flexible and adaptable, with the confidence and skills to use critical and creative thinking purposefully (Letters, November 6).
Arts education forces the students to make choices in the face of a multiplicity of possible answers. If taught properly, the advantage of the arts is that, by its own nature, it is more prone to the application of critical and creative thinking and can foster a set of transferrable skills such as intellectual risk-taking and a tolerance for ambiguity.
This then raises the question as to why the National Education Standards Authority (NESA) is introducing changes to the drama and music syllabuses that will restrict the creative voice, reduce elective options, and place greater emphasis on the written examination. As a former HSC music supervisor of marking I cannot ignore the link between these changes and financial cost-cutting. How can NESA ignore the research on the importance of music-making and the impact these skills have on overall academic achievement? Royna McNamara, Collaroy
Music student and teacherCredit: Eddie Jim
Hidden heritage
Sydney Central railway station, after its recent renovation, now looks magnificent (Letters, November 14). However, this complex, like the nearby Parcel Post building, is doomed to be dwarfed by a 45-storey tower. It doesn’t seem to make any difference whether buildings are heritage-listed or not. Is this the future of Sydney? A jumble of towers jostling for precedence with the occasional heritage building crouching in their shade? Judith Rostron, Killarney Heights
Ruining Sydney, the last bastion of sandstone buildings, is inevitable with the latest Railway Square development. What hope can we have when it’s a state Labor government pandering to rapacious developers? Let’s limit population growth else our major cities will be transformed into urban ghettos. Surely the bureaucrats can see this. Ashley Berry, Toolijooa
Union demands
I see that the government has capitulated to union demands to provide 24-hour train services from Thursday to Saturday nights, no doubt running in tandem with contracted Nightride bus services along much the same routes, at considerable cost to taxpayers (“The threat to stop Sydney’s trains, unless they run 24 hours a day”, November 9). And this on top of four days of free light-rail services, again in deference to the union. Emboldened by these successful forays into sculpting transport policy, perhaps the union’s next step could be to make a move in the opposite direction and demand the government reduce their hours to nine-to-five, with no weekend work, so no one will need to get up early or get home late. Doug Walker, Baulkham Hills
Double-decker seating clearly tops Metro
We need to get over our Metro madness and deference to experts from London (“Metro to have same impact as London’s Elizabeth Line”, November14).
Visitors from London are here to encourage us to spend more on their services while they secretly wish they had our tunnel space for trains. The previous government ensured Sydney Metro would not function like the Elizabeth Line which serves Heathrow Airport and could serve London City Airport as it passes just 200 metres from the terminal. The London Underground is a grid-shaped network. Our governments have doubled down on a radial network which maximises interchange at already busy Sydney CBD stations.
The reversible seating of our double-deck trains is more plentiful and far superior to the sideways rough-riding seating of our Metro trains. Our double-deck trains are so superior to Metro trains that the maker of the new intercity trains sent one to Berlin for this year’s Innotrans exhibition – the world most important rail exhibition. Peter Egan, Mosman
Transport for London commissioner Andy Lord rates Sydney’s new metro line.Credit: Louise Kennerley
Nurses ignored
When I was working as a registered nurse many years ago, our pay was even worse than that of nurses today, relatively speaking (“Why nurses might quit state of origin”, November 14). Whenever the subject of an improvement was raised, it was dismissed with “nursing is a vocation”. Being supposedly too committed to have thoughts of anything as mundane as money does not put food on the table nor a roof over the head. It is instead, nothing but a cop-out for not paying nurses properly. Heather Johnson, West Pennant Hills
I was one of the thousands of nurses who went on strike in response to our ongoing pay dispute with the NSW government. My managers felt it was appropriate to reward the nurses who chose not to strike with coffee and pizza. Translation: you are to be applauded for accepting substandard renumeration and appalling working conditions. Were our tax dollars spent on disincentivising nurses and midwives from their right to freedom of assembly and association? Maybe I’ll move to Queensland. Anonymous
Where were all the doctors in the nurses’ protest for fairer salaries? It’s unconscionable that they aren’t in the front-line barracking for them. Elizabeth Maher, Gordon
“So bad, even the introverts are here” is the best protest sign I’ve ever seen! Even complete with the comma. The nurses deserve a pay rise on the strength of that sign alone. Ian Aldridge, Goulburn
The NSW government is quite ready to spend millions of our dollars on promotions and facilities for big business sports such as Ultimate Fighting Championship and the NRL while at the same time denying wage justice for our nurses. Of course, we all know who will be looking after these sportspeople when they get injured. Peter Bishop, Marayong
The thought crossed my mind that the police force is predominantly male while nurses are mostly female. No, surely not a factor. Margaret Grove, Concord
Sycophant selections
What is alarming is that Trump has chosen cabinet posts from a group of non-elected supporters (“Trump stuns with nomination of loyalist Matt Gaetz for attorney-general”, smh.com.au, November 14). Moreover, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Kristi Noem, Peter Hegseth and Michael Waltz have no special qualifications to commend them for the chosen postings. Even Trump’s deputy White House chief of staff, Dan Scavino, had a previous position as Trump’s golf caddie. Of the chosen ones, only Marco Rubio is an elected senator. Almost all of them are political appointees of the president, do not require Senate confirmation and can be dismissed at the president’s discretion. Here is the opportunity for a dictator to emerge. Thankfully, this could not happen in Australia. Eva Johnstone, Blackheath
Matt Gaetz.Credit: AP
Absolute and unquestioning loyalty to the boss is all that counts when it comes to jobs being handed out in Trump’s administration. The new US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, describes himself as “an unapologetic, unreformed Zionist”, is a close friend of Benjamin Netanyahu and says there is no such thing as Palestinians. It doesn’t sound great for that two-state solution. Bernard Moylan, Bronte
Those doing obeisance to Trump in the lead-up to the election are being rewarded with lofty jobs. They would be advised to take pause and think back to Trump’s previous presidency when various top aides fell like nine pins. But I suppose they think it could never happen to them. Genevieve Milton, Dulwich Hill
More’s the pity he does not heed fellow Republican president Ronald Reagan’s sound advice – to surround yourself with the best people, delegate authority and get out of the way. Steve Ngeow, Chatswood
Unfortunate figures
It is not surprising that that girls often feel helpless when studying maths (“More girls suffering maths test ‘anxiety’”, November 14). Chances are that they have had a non-specialist teacher in front of the class. I have spent a good part of my teaching career with students who thought they could never master basic mathematics. With lots of time and effort, these students have come on in leaps and bounds. One of the best teaching tools was to be able to let the students know it was OK to not get the correct answer on their first attempt.
Until the powers that be get specialist maths teachers into all of our schools, students will be left with well-intentioned, hard-working teachers who can teach other disciplines well, just not mathematics. How sad for our students.
Mia David, Wollongong
Left in stitches
The claim that Australians are “fashion slobs” reminds me of the provocative declaration by British actor Robert Morley in the 1970s that he thought “Melburnians had been dressed by a massive relief operation” (Letters, November 13). Ray Morgan, Maroubra
Make them count
Informal voting continues to be a serious blight on Australian democracy (“NSW town where 93 per cent of ballots not counted”, November 14). While some voters may deliberately choose to vote informal, many others appear to be caught up in the confusion surrounding different rules for different elections. Local council rules, as evidenced in Toomelah, are not consistent with other elections at federal and state level in which voters have optional preferential, options for voting above and below the line, or ballot papers for which numbers are required in every box alongside a candidate’s name. A close look at the informal count in many electorates after an election indicates this situation needs long-overdue attention. Rod Leonarder, Roseville
Paying clip service
Are there other readers who have been collecting articles or the letter’s page from the Herald over the years? If so, how do they store them so they can be maintained without the print fading and their family thinking they are slightly eccentric for holding on to them? Con Vaitsas, Ashbury
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