Andrew DysonCredit: ,
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number. No attachments, please include your letter in the body of the email. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.
Nearly every day there are headlines like “State faces [another] big bill”, but it is actually us, the ordinary Victorians, who have to meet this increasing debt.
It seems we are paying ever-more taxes, while having important health and other services restricted in order to pay off the debt. There are many questions to be answered, including, why are we currently being forced to pay billions for a Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) which would give a few people the choice to travel by rail from Cheltenham to Box Hill, while those of us living in the north of Melbourne or regional Victoria suffer from lack of [any?] public transport? Suspending this underfunded project could surely help towards balancing our budget. Elizabeth Meredith, Surrey Hills
Public poorly served by privatisation ...
Can anyone point to privatisation that has led to better and/or cheaper services for the public. It seems to me that most of them mean losing a source of public revenue while leaving the public to pay more. The airport is just a particularly expensive example.
The cost of building Skyrail from the nearest point of the standard gauge line to the airport boundary would be hardly anything compared with, say the SRL, and far more needed. From the airport boundary to the terminal would be the responsibility of the privatised airport and should certainly be under the terminal like every other airport I have taken a train to. One built up in the air would be much less convenient for travellers.
Sometimes I travel from Northcote to Bentleigh. I take a train into the city and another out to Bentleigh. No SRL needed. Same with other journeys.
Loch Wilson, Northcote
... It was the best thing ever happened
It is laughable to suggest that union-led public transport strikes were infrequent events and no more disruptive than normal closures for maintenance (Letters, 5/6). The people making these claims obviously never caught trains and trams in the 1970s and ’80s, when strikes, often called with minimum notice, were widespread and regular enough to cause major disruptions. Privatisation of government-owned transport “services” was the best thing that could have happened.
Greg Hardy, Upper Ferntree Gully
Don’t fix what isn’t broken
The debate regarding a railway link to Melbourne Airport has resurfaced. This issue has been discussed many times, dating back to when I was a boy in the 1970s after the airport was first built.
It might be best to check this whole proposal. Do we really need it?
I recently travelled to 15 European countries in eight weeks. When I arrived home in Melbourne, I caught the airport bus. I went to a ticket box, spoke to a person, and had the option of paying cash (with change given), or paying by card. The airport bus left every 15 minutes and took only 20 minutes to arrive at Southern Cross Station.
This whole process was so much easier than travelling to or from airports in London, Copenhagen, or Amsterdam, where there are long queues to ticket machines, some of which only take cash (with no change given) or cards. There were also no staff present at those locations to assist people having trouble buying tickets. Is there any reason to fix something that isn’t broken, especially if that costs many millions of dollars? I don’t think so.
James McInnes, Kensington
THE FORUM
Too late for nuclear
How can we consider a change of course to nuclear? It’s now apparent that climate breakdown is happening faster and is more devastating than was predicted. The potential of nuclear as a solution to reaching net zero emissions is at least a decade or two away. That makes no sense.
Why not do what we know works now? If not, how can we hold our heads up when our kids say, ″What were you thinking – waiting for nuclear while the planet burns?″
Carolyn Ingvarson, Canterbury
Fresh political air
I agree with your correspondent’s position (Letters, 5/6) regarding the shift towards independent candidates. It is a breath of fresh air to have MPs unencumbered by unreasonable party strictures or the corrosive effects of lobbyists, who are able to represent their constituents with passion and integrity. The influence of teals and other independent MPs, on the federal government, has generally been constructive. I trust voters will respond positively towards the existing independent MPs and new independent candidates at the next federal election.
Maurie Trewhella,
Hoppers Crossing
Unnecessary suffering
The article ″Agonising pain after beauty treatment″ (4/6) on women suffering burns from laser removal of genital hair was horrific. It is surely time for doctors, social media and the press to assure young women that genital work is unnecessary except in cases of serious abnormality.
Juliet Flesch, Kew
Attention, GMA
I offer the Game Management Authority – free of charge – a three-point plan to “reduce waterfowl wounding in game hunting” (CBD, 4/6, Letters 5/6):
One: make sure duck hunters can see what they’re doing. Ban shooting pre-dawn, post-sunset, in fog and rain.
Two: make sure shooters can retrieve injured birds. Ban shooting in bushy, reedy areas.
Three: less shooting means less wounding. Reduce the season length and the bag limit.
Did no one at GMA think of this before buying the plane tickets to Denmark?
Malcolm Cameron, Camberwell
Cashing in
Your correspondent (Letters, 5/6) is correct. Numerous times I’ve had tradies offer the option of cash with no GST included. The latest was a quote for a kitchen and bathroom upgrade in my brother’s unit of $40,000 in cash. There goes $4000 in GST.
By the same token, some of these cashless payments are plain highway robbery. A car bill this week was for $880 (incl. GST) whereby I had to agree to the surcharge of around $9 which is calculated on a percentage basis. What’s percentage got to do with it if the actual transaction, regardless of amount, costs a fixed amount?
Both need to be fixed.
Paul Haarburger,
Traralgon
Shame the racism
Susan Carland (Comment, 5/6) provides a timely broader perspective on the scourge of racism. We can’t cherry-pick racism; there is no sliding scale, with antisemitism at the top (for the time being) and a crowded mass at the bottom of Islamophobia, anti-African, anti-Indigenous etc, largely ignored except by those who have to live with it every day. Racism is evil, all racism. It has to be named and shamed wherever it occurs.
Pauline Seitz, Rippleside
Bendigo’s Muslim support
Susan Carland’s distressing article reminds Bendigo readers of protests against the building of Bendigo’s mosque.
Melbourne friends assumed then that Bendigo was a racist city, but most protesters were later found to have come from outside; the week before, Bendigo councillors voted to permit the building of Bendigo’s mosque.
Some time later Bendigo’s Muslim community organised a rally in support of Christchurch Muslims who had been attacked. This rally was to be held in a public space, and an open invitation was issued to those wishing to support the Muslim community.
I attended to show my support, and found a large number of non-Muslims doing the same thing.
We smiled to see so many women in sandals with large headscarfs around their shoulders as we worried about whether we should remove our footwear or cover our hair. We were delighted to find the building full of Muslim supporters, and overwhelmed by the gratitude of the organisers.
Carland speaks against Islamophobia. The rest of us should not only avoid hate speech but give Australian Muslims any support that we can. A smile in the street costs little, but it is a start.
Anna Summerfield, Bendigo
Reconciliation now
I’m sorry your correspondent (Letters, 4/6) had to experience racist comments while handing out Voice information, however she was not alone, we all did and sometimes the commentary was so vile it would reduce volunteers to tears. What makes someone, in a wealthy bayside area, state that all Aboriginal people need to be rounded up, they already get too much, they haven’t been here for 60,000+ years or much much worse. And it was relentless, every day volunteers would hear comments like this. It demonstrated to me that truth telling and reconciliation can’t happen soon enough.
Samantha Keir, East Brighton
Power of lobbyists
If the Indigenous Voice to parliament was going to be racist and entrench discrimination, how is it that we accept big business lobbyists’ direct voice to parliament? Surely their role discriminates against the vast majority of us who have no such access.
Jennie Epstein, Little River
Hale the librocubicalarist!
Thanks to The Age Superquiz (5/6), while reading the newspaper in bed, I realised I am a librocubicalarist! It prompted me to conduct further research: seems I am more specifically a ″sesquipedalian librocubicalarist″ – one who enjoys reading books in bed.
Sally Davis, Malvern East
The human touch
I’m with your correspondent (Letters, 5/6). I patiently stand in line at the only checkout sometimes open at the supermarket because I want to do my bit to keep workers in a job. As well, the contact with another person is much friendlier than that with a machine, and for some people is the only human contact they have in a day.
I use cash whenever possible too, and encourage others to do so. Keep up the good fight to keep cash flowing.
Margaret Collings, Anglesea
Let’s stop the DV cycle
I am 97. My productive years were spent trying to save women and children trapped by domestic violence. Many of them could not escape, some did, some died.
It was clear that there was something seriously wrong with the men involved, for who was it that bruised and battered so many women? Other women? Of course not. Are all men violent? Of course not. Overwhelmingly, men are decent. I have known marvellous men, many of whom are appalled by the present situation.
Being involved in one of Australia’s first women’s refuges with great policing support there was shared despair at the cycle of misery. Now it’s even worse.
How dare anyone criticise Jacinta Allan’s progressive appointment of a Parliamentary Secretary for Men’s Behaviour Change? Social media and pornography are damaging the brains of young men. Some harbour more disrespect for females than ever before.
I sometimes wonder why I am on the Honour Roll of Women 2013 (Tas). I tried to rescue families only after damage was done. The Victorian premier seeks to create an environment where, God willing, rescue itself may not be needed.
Yvonne (Bonnie) Roberts,
Sandringham
Defensive barriers
The ADF is looking to source recruits from permanent residents who have been living in Australia for 12 months because it is unable to attract sufficient Australian citizens.
Australians may be put off joining the ADF for a number of reasons including the willingness of Australia to follow the US into questionable wars like Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, the human rights violations and war crimes that have been exposed and the treatment of whistleblowers who report adverse behaviour. Also, the appalling carnage of war is now evident from graphic video footage posted on social media.
The ADF might attract more people if it expressed an intention to prevent rather that participate in wars.
Leigh Ackland,
Deepdene
Kew rethink please
Kew residents are still waiting for the Kew Recreation Centre to be rebuilt and will be waiting for the foreseeable future. We don’t want the library demolished as well.
Perhaps the Boroondara Council could consider adapting and expanding the existing structure instead of demolishing it.
Sue Norman, Kew
Snail mail, literally
In 1963 as a young girl, I so looked forward to letters that came regularly and took only one week to arrive at my London flat from my family back in Australia. Today I posted two cards to my very young granddaughters in London and was told they would take three weeks to arrive. Is this progress?
Patricia Hood, Brighton
A TV giant
With the death of John Blackman we have lost one of the funniest, wittiest characters ever to grace the Australian TV comedy scene. And just when we need him most in today’s sad world.
Vale, Dickie Knee. Remembered always, with a smile.
John Bell,
Heidelberg Heights
AND ANOTHER THING
Leaves
Forget leaf blowers (Letters, 5/6). Buy a blower vacuum (not expensive), collect the leaves, add to your green compost bin or put back on your garden beds. Excellent mulch.
Rosemary Lithgow, Maryborough
Leaf blowers, the second most pointless use of fossil fuels after jet-skis.
Geoff Collis, Eltham
Leaf blowers should be converted to leaf vacuums. Then neighbours could just suck it up.
Peter Thomas, Pascoe Vale
Leaf blowers may be noisy and tasteless, but they are colourless and odourless unlike ubiquitous neighbourhood firepits.
George Reed, Wheelers Hill
Furthermore
Come election time, Peter Dutton will find that voters won’t buy nuclear, but solar sells.
Greg Curtin, Nunawading
Bill Shorten’s $310,000-a-year speechwriter leaves me speechless.
Graham Cadd, Dromana
Regarding the not-so-stellar radio ratings for Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O, could it be that Melbourne has better taste than Sydney?
Marie Nash, Balwyn
Your correspondent wants the cost of nuclear from Peter Dutton (Letters, 5/6). I want the LNP plan for solar, wind, gas and coal from now until whenever nuclear is implemented.
John Hughes, Mentone
A cheaper way to reduce waterfowl wounding rates (CBD, 4/6)? Stop shooting them.
Helen Breier, Brunswick
″Shorten’s warning to Putin over war″ (4/6). What next, is Bill Shorten going to shirtfront Vladimir Putin?
Robin Jensen, Castlemaine
When was the last time a team with fewer wins was higher on the AFL ladder than a team with more wins?
Peter Walker, Black Rock