The Voice referendum came from long years of consultation by successive federal governments with Aboriginal communities and leaders, culminating in the Uluru Statement from the Heart (Letters, October 17). This document called for makarrata – to progress national reconciliation. It was never meant to totally ameliorate Indigenous disadvantage, and it is a shame that we were not ready for this step forward. I wonder how many Australians have read the Uluru Statement. I hope this unfinished business can be addressed. Martin Frohlich, Adamstown Heights
Another straight-faced letter defending the indefensible, explaining away the No vote last year as a considered response to inadequate constitutional safeguards. What a load of rubbish. “If you don’t know, vote No.” Admit it, it was a celebration of ignorance. Peter Dutton cynically opposed the vote for the shallowest of reasons. Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine gave non-Indigenous voters a licence to be racist. The misinformation was epic. Of course if we wanted an educated opinion we could have looked to Anne Twomey or a cast of High Court judges who clearly explained the proposal was modest and overdue, but as it turned out we only needed the flimsiest of excuses to tell the black fellas to shove off. To our great shame. Phil Bradshaw, Naremburn
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese presented with a copy of the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2023Credit: Bill Blair
We are all familiar with Peter Dutton’s negativity by now, but not so much more than 12 months ago. His repeated slogan “If you don’t know, vote No” would have made a big impact. What more was there to know, apart from our Indigenous people offering their ideas to parliament, which it could then accept, alter or reject. Where was the danger, exactly? Glenys Quirk, Forster
Your correspondent uses analysis from ANU to justify the outcome of the Voice referendum: “Australians ... did not see the Voice model put to them as the right approach to remedy” the levels of disadvantage they acknowledge among Indigenous Australians. Wow. How is this statement somehow seen as reasonable, when it’s just another example of non-Indigenous people thinking they know best. Never mind that a Voice (not an “Indigenous parliament”, as falsely claimed by some) was what more than 80 per cent of Indigenous people wanted, after an unprecedented coming together of many of their representatives at Uluru – no, we said: we know what’s best for you, and it’s not that. This, despite the widening of the gap in so many ways. When will we learn, and when will this relatively small aspect of sovereignty be returned to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders? Kerrie Wehbe, Blacktown
Royally irrelevant
I’m with Adrian Mole’s biographer, Sue Townsend: “The monarchy is finished. It was finished a while ago but they’re still making the corpses dance” (“How Charles staved off republic as prince – and now as the King”, October 17). If we must have a head of state, time-sharing a monarch is a brilliantly cheap way of having one. And does no great harm. I’m not much of a republican – it’ll just confuse folks who think a president has to have powers akin to the US model. No, it doesn’t mean that but you’ll likely never get that through to enough people. Best leave well alone. Or scrap the whole “head of state” thing. It’s all pretty pointless. Brin Haisman, Winmalee
Rob Harris says King Charles III is “staving off a republic”. However, the marked contrast between the first visit to Australia by Charles as King and the first visit by Queen Elizabeth II 70 years ago in 1954 is possibly a measure of the direction in which we are sluggishly moving in our relationship with the monarchy. The Queen’s 1954 visit stopped the nation. The King’s 2024 visit will only stop traffic on a few Canberra and Sydney streets. Newcastle, my childhood home, spent a year decorating the city for Elizabeth’s 1954 visit. My class wrote letters of welcome to the Queen. On a drizzly February day, my birthday, some 45,000 children cheered her at the Newcastle Showground, with the city’s population temporarily being more than doubled as people flocked there from the north and northwest. This time, most people may stay at home. Arguably, clinging to the monarchy is a form of 1954 childhood nostalgia. When any glow from the King’s visit diminishes, we may return to a gradual waning of warmth to royalty and conceivably be a republic by 2054. Paul Casey, Callala Bay
What about investing a Tesla Optimus robot as our Republic’s head of state/president? It’s much cheaper to run, requiring just a broom cupboard for storage rather than Yarralumla and Admiralty House, let alone where a governor-general stays in the other states. Actually, let’s have eight of them, one for each state and territory. Saves on travel expenses. AI should have them up to par with all the formalities in next to no time. And no need for a clothing allowance either. Richard Wallace, Balgowlah
Optimus robot, just as good as a King?
What most people don’t seem to realise is that a republic does not need a president. I advocate that the only change we make to our system is to not have a governor general – every other part of our system works very well. Ian Catt, Surry Hills
Like all systems, our political and governing systems occasionally need strengthening, but we should be grateful for their existing strengths, and our luck that we can all be critical and vote for changes without the fear of death. Joy Cooksey, Harrington
The model your correspondents seek is a republic in which the president’s role is ceremonial, with power in the parliament. The Republic of Ireland is the example. Matthew Flattery, Middle Cove
Air pollution
It is clear that at present airlines cannot be trusted to provide viable carbon offsets to compensate for highly polluting air travel (“Qantas carbon fees ’mislead customers‴ , October 17). For a climate-change concerned traveller, the best strategy is a personal carbon offset scheme, modifying one’s lifestyle to minimise the carbon footprint. The installation of solar collectors, minimising domestic heating and cooling, reducing consumption of carbon-intensive products such as fast-fashion clothing, purchase of an EV or commuting by bicycle, and travelling as much as possible by land-based public transport can go some way to offsetting air travel. The best solution is of course to minimise or avoid flying altogether. Geoff Harding, Chatswood
RBA reality check
Many years ago I enjoyed a period in which I earned a good daily rate for my work. Other perks included business class air fares, nice accommodation, etc. There was no problem buying whatever food I wanted. It didn’t take long for the good pay and conditions to enfold one in comfortable self-importance and entitlement. Disappointingly, it was all too easy to become somewhat dismissive of others who were not so fortunate. It causes one to wonder if such detachment from reality and the daily factors in the cost of living is what ails the Governor and the board of the Reserve Bank (“Ignoring cost of living is bananas”, October 17). We have to imagine these people have been on quite grand earnings for a long time and would be considered quite wealthy. Do they even have the misfortune of having to do their own supermarket shopping? If they do, are they so well off that they haven’t needed to notice the rising food costs? Perhaps a school-style excursion to the supermarkets is in order for the RBA board. Peter Thompson, Grenfell
Doctors growing sick of red tape
Perhaps we wouldn’t need to import so many overseas trained doctors if APHRA, the Medical Board and the RACGP had more respect for our home-grown GPs (Letters, October 17). While doctors acknowledge the need for governing bodies to uphold the standards of medical practice, unnecessary bureaucracy is burdensome and an impediment to good medicine. It has caused large numbers of doctors to seek early retirement. Graham Lum, North Rocks
In all the discussions of Australia importing foreign doctors, nobody seems to be considering the effect on their countries of origin. Is it fair that a country spends huge sums of money educating and training its doctors, only to have them poached by Australia? We are a wealthy country and we should be putting more resources into training our own doctors rather than relying on other countries to do this for us. This also applies to many other skilled workers. Jackie Allen, Faulconbridge
An inconvenient truth
Thank you for showing the low ranking of climate change in the public’s “worries” (Letters, October 17). It is significant that the two periods when the public were equally concerned with the health of the environment and the cost of living (in February 2020 and November 2021) were also times of catastrophic weather events – the Black Summer Bushfires and the NSW floods. Unfortunately, during these events our politicians frequently dodge responsibility by declaring “now is not the right time to talk about climate change”, then conveniently move climate change to a lower priority when the weather settles down. In 2022, the consultancy firm Deloitte estimated that unchecked climate change could cost the global economy US$178 trillion over the next 50 years. So, while the government deals with this short-term “cost-of-living” issue for Australians, our leaders should be planning for the potentially huge “cost of staying alive” in an increasingly hostile climate. Rob Firth, Red Hill (ACT)
Oil stains
Tar balls – icky through the agesCredit: Janie Barrett
As a baby boomer who grew up on the south coast of England, I’m amused by the angst generated by the tar balls on some Sydney beaches (“Rolling junk: Tar balls collected from beaches”, October 17). The pebbly beaches I crossed to reach the freezing English Channel waters for a shivering dip were always adorned with blobs of tar that no doubt came from all the oil tankers sunk in the Atlantic during the war. We didn’t even think of it as pollution. It was just what was always on beaches. Our main worry was the wrath of our mums, who had to use lighter fuel to get the stains out of our togs. Alan Phillips, Mosman
Diminishing returns
I am the father of four children and grandfather of one (“Housing blamed for collapse in birth rate”, October 17). Not long ago, one of my adult daughters told me that having a child in your 20s is now seen as the new teenage pregnancy. Young families are getting poorer and achieving less for the same or more work, compared to previous generations. Earl White, Rosehill
Fashion fail
The fast-fashion industry has a lot to answer for (“Australian fashion brands fail to pay garment workers living wage”, October 17). When T-shirts can be bought for as little as $3, one has to wonder just how much of that $3 goes to the garment worker? Consumers have a lot to answer for, too. They are the ones demanding a new dress, a new top, a new pair of shoes, a new suit, all for as low a price as possible. God forbid they wear the same thing twice. Meanwhile, women in developing countries are being overworked and underpaid and putting up with it because a few pennies is better than nothing. It is just so wrong. Genevieve Milton, Dulwich Hill
Delusion of grandeur
Memo to the former POTUS: British physician Sir Robert Geoffrey Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010 for “for the development of in vitro fertilisation (“Trump says he’s ‘the father of IVF’ at event with female voters”, smh.com.au, October 17). Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook
Ticketing tricks
Now that debit card surcharges and supermarket price gouging have been brought to the government’s attention (Letters, October 17), I’d like to suggest a third area ripe for investigation, namely the “booking fee” that accompanies every purchase of tickets to an entertainment venue. At one fee per transaction (even if no printing or postage are involved), it means I pay much more for my single seat than my neighbour who buys six tickets at once. Where is the cost in an electronic transaction to justify the exorbitant fees? Colleen Burke, Drummoyne
Good question
Your correspondent (Letters, October 17) is spot on – loving the English HSC questions. Having assisted as an exam supervisor at a local school, I took a few minutes to have a look at the second paper for Advanced English. Fantastic and challenging questions inviting students to reflect in depth over their studies. Congratulations to the HSC exam committee. Michael Blissenden, Dural
Tuchy subject
Thomas Tuchel, for in spite of all temptation, he should have been an EnglishmanCredit: AP
I don’t understand why it should be a problem for the England soccer team to have a German manager, Thomas Tuchel (“Tuchy subject, but England’s manager should be English”, October 17). After all, it has a German monarch. Before the family name was changed to Windsor in 1917 it was the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. John Lees, Castlecrag
Pudneys in print
Your correspondent may have hit a raw nerve there for me (Letters, October 16) because unless the Pudney brothers is a pseudonym for my grand pets (as smart as they are), they pose little threat to my tally at the Herald. With no pressure on my own three children, I am technically not even a “real” grandmother. And although 40 may be the new 25, my children appear to be having too much fun to travel in that direction. Janice Creenaune, Austinmer
I’m the Pudney brothers’ proud grandmother, with a few printed letters of my own. I’m happy for them to share their youthful perspective gleaned from diverse sources, which, with my influence, always includes print media. Toni van de Wall, Fairlight
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