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Credit: Illustration: Badiucao
AMERICAN ELECTION
I’m glad that Donald Trump was not seriously hurt by the shooting in Pennsylvania because no-one, not even those whom you vehemently disagree with, should ever be exposed to actions like this.
However, this demonstrates how toxic and dangerous this presidential election campaign has become. On one side you have a decent, smart man whose best days are behind him, while on the other you have a man who lacks decency and who speaks of retribution. I fear the worst is to come and one of these two men, or both, may not survive it.
Samantha Keir, East Brighton
Anti-Trump rhetoric encouraged this
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump is both shocking and disgusting. Despite one’s political views, political violence cannot be tolerated in any form.
I am concerned about the rhetoric used by some in recent years to describe Trump. Describing him as a threat to democracy and a Russian collaborator etc. is ridiculous and grossly unhelpful language. Unfortunately, some listen and act. Hopefully, we will see immediate change in the use of language which focusses on policy instead of ridiculous rhetoric.
Mark Skermer, Scoresby
Trump’s incitement of violence has consequences
Donald Trump incited sedition and encouraged appalling violence to try to overthrow election results on January 6. He ignored the loss of life resulting from that violence, and praised the rioters. He mocks victims of political violence, smirking when mentioning the brutal attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
He should not then be surprised when someone follows his lead and tries to use violence to make a political point. This is a very low point in American politics, to be deplored, but unfortunately, one which could happen here. We have seen vandalism and hatred by ‘protesters’ directed at government members in recent months, and I fear it would not take much to escalate into the violence seen in America. We must be vigilant and call out unacceptable behaviour whenever we see it.
Louise Kloot, Doncaster
Will there be hope for gun reform now?
The attempt on Donald Trump’s life is to be condemned. Despite his divisive, hateful and violent rhetoric, the next president of the USA should have the ballot box, not the bullet, decide the fate of a presidential candidate.
If Donald Trump is elected, then perhaps, having been the target of gun violence, he may be more amenable to gun law reform.
Harry Kowalski, Ivanhoe
Assassination attempt will hand Trump the keys
Out of a population of 333 million people, Americans selected Trump and Biden as candidates for the next presidency. To my mind, both are misfits.
Americans seek a strong leader able to take on Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jung Un, and clean up well-publicised domestic issues. Despite strenuous personal beliefs, Biden is not up to it.
Domestic politics, personal rivalries and bigotry have painted the Democrats into a corner. If Biden fails to quit willingly, he cannot be removed. The election process previously rejected Hillary Clinton – a ″white female”. It is not yet ready to elect black Kamala Harris.
As for Trump, an assassination attempt does his cause no harm. Being a convicted felon, as bad as it sounds, is no bar to running. What about lying? It seems to go with the job. Placing the foibles of the human experience aside, it will be the system that seals the deal. Voting is voluntary, which ensures vacillators will abstain. The complex system allows the multi-millions of Trump loyalists to hand him the keys to the White House.
Jim Lamborn, Doncaster
Nothing bodes well
Joe Biden’s deep knowledge and long experience have made him a fine president. But a second term will only come about if he can again defeat Donald Trump, in a gruelling campaign for which he now appears much less fit. Peter Hartcher calls Biden’s Democrat doubters “hand-wringers and bed-wetters” who should have known how it would be (Comment, 13/7). But surely none of them, nor indeed anyone else, could have imagined that Biden would fare so badly in the recent debate. Even if he and Trump are level-pegging in a new poll after yesterday’s attempt on Trump’s life, that poor debate performance alone bodes ill for the campaign.
Anthea Hyslop, Eltham
THE FORUM
Corruption costs the state
Jacinta Allan must respond to the CFMEU allegations of corruption especially regarding their leader John Setka. How is it possible that the media could carry out the investigation that uncovered the corruption issues, where are those in government responsible for prevention and investigation of organised business crimes?
Can Allan explain how the Labor government’s connections to this union were unaware of the corruption and what effective independent bipartisan body will now investigate? The Big Build must now be thoroughly investigated.
Ross Kroger, Barwon Heads
Impotent leaders
John Setka resigns, and we learn that government and police have been impotent in showing the goons the full force of the law. Thank God for honest investigative journalism - we should give these journalists a standing ovation.
Kerry Walker, Natimuk
Nothing will change
I remember Norm Gallagher and the Builders Labourers Federation of 40 years ago. Corruption and intimidation are endemic to that industry’s union.
Like changing the deck chairs on the Titanic, John Setka’s departure will make no difference to the construction industry’s problems.
Tim Butler, Alphington
Credit where it’s due
I’m no Labor fan, but credit where credit is due. If the Victorian Labor Party had the guts like its federal counterparts five years ago in dismissing Setka this state would be a far better place today.
Alistair Nicoll, Balwyn Nth
Stare down the bullies
If John Setka had pulled the plug seven months ago, Victoria’s native ducks could have had a future. Setka had an easy win over Premier Jacinta Allan on duck shooting. He thought the AFL would also be cowed by his threats, but he lost that fight. Now federal MP Tony Burke – who called out Setka’s thuggery and bullying in the footy fiasco - has moved to split the CFMEU. We need a premier who can stare down a bully.
Joan Reilly, Surrey Hills
Youth crime penalties
This is an important moment for considering penalties for youth crime (“Compromise will be key for Allen to manage youth crime”, 12/7). Imposing harsher penalties will not deter youth crime but will exacerbate it as young people are caught up in the justice system.
Diversions are key and the work already done on this for the new bill should go ahead in its aim to increase criminal responsibility to 12 years old.
Jan Marshall, Brighton
Crime characteristics
There is nothing alarmist about being disquieted by the current character of youth crime. While we have always had kids mucking up, typically they were not killing or disabling multiple people with stolen cars, or dragging 14-year-olds out of car doors until they drive over them, or stabbing homeowners who defend their families and property, or ramming police vehicles, or spitting on the dead bodies of their victims.
The list of heinous atrocities is too long for a letter, but there is no doubt that the public is right to be alarmed. When confronting some young kid in the act of doing you wrong in your own home may end in your bloody demise, of course you have to be concerned. To pretend otherwise is to be wilfully obtuse.
Peter Rushen, Carnegie
Airport link now
If the government goes ahead with the Suburban Rail Loop and fails to build the airport rail link it will drive the nails into its own political coffin. There is almost universal support for a dedicated rail line to the airport and almost none for the SRL.
It seems that Jacinta Allan is transfixed by the spectre of Dan Andrews hovering over her shoulder, driving her government to complete his vanity project over the far more worthy airport link.
Greg Hardy, Upper Ferntree Gully
Myki’s free ride
What struck me most from a recent week in Sydney was that 99.9 per cent of the time on light rail, bus or ferry people tapped on and off with a travel card. Maybe more inspectors with an effective advertising campaign could possibly change people’s attitudes.
As a frequent traveller on Melbourne trams, it annoys the hell out of me that a maximum of 50 per cent appear to pay.
Francis Bainbridge, Fitzroy North
Rural fares are cheap
Victoria may have some of the harshest Myki fines, but we also have some of the cheapest fares, especially in regional Victoria. It is irritating to sit on a train and watch, so many people not bothering to tap on.
Michael McKenna, Warragul
Well-heeled evaders
While Melbourne might have the highest penalties for fare evasion compared to many countries, it might also have the highest rates of fare evasion, a statistic that is not mentioned in the article, “Myki fines among the world’s harshest”, 15/7.
I regularly catch the 12, 16 and 96 trams and the 246 bus and my assessment is only half the passengers tap on. If passengers can board with $5 takeaway coffees, wearing good shoes and carrying branded designer satchels and bags they can afford to pay their way.
Geoffrey Conaghan, St Kilda
Owl deaths
Re “Owls of despair: Death via rat poison” (12/7). I urge the regulatory authority (APVMA) to accelerate the obvious decision required to ban the general use of the toxic SGAR type rat poison before its presence in large numbers of possums ingested by the owls will decimate the owl population. I recently came across an almost perfect specimen of a deceased tawny frogmouth near the entrance to the Botanic Gardens. The delight of observing a now very occasional sighting of these owls in the gardens has now turned to despair.
Jennifer McDonald, South Yarra
Attlee’s heavy lifting
By quoting only Winston Churchill, Peter Hartcher (“Architects of peace on the march” 13/7) ignores the true architects of the post-war peace policy. The famous ‘Big Three’ photo of Churchill with Stalin and Roosevelt at Yalta disguises the fact that it was Attlee and Truman after Roosevelt died, who framed postwar recovery. Attlee replaced Churchill at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, after Churchill had been unceremoniously dumped by an electorate best placed to deliver judgement on him. Bretton Woods-GATT, Yalta, Potsdam, the formation of the UN, the Marshall Plan, NATO etc. all contributed to the establishment of the ‘Long Peace’. Attlee, meanwhile, was also creating a welfare state, dismantling an empire and rebuilding Britain.
In contast, Churchill, who was broke, was conducting a speaking tour to raise money and publicise his forthcoming books on “The Second World War”, which were mainly ghost-written by others. Even his evocative “iron-curtain” phrase was second-hand. Churchill was his own great publicist and he did it very well. Peter Hartcher would do better to quote from “Churchill’s Shadow”, by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, a more balanced review of his legacy.
Meanwhile, if we are to learn anything from the past, let’s give credit where credit is due.
Dick Davies, North Warrandyte
Survival of the species
Senator David Pocock and wife Emma are “pretty excited” about their baby due in November (“My week of agony living the life of our super-fit senator”, 13/7). Baby is all the more reason for their convictions for health and climate advocacy.
Barbara Fraser, Burwood
Gaza’s toll counts
Your correspondent (Letters, 13/7) wonders why protesters against Israel’s actions in Gaza have not taken to the streets after Russia bombed a children’s hospital in Ukraine last week.
I suggest an answer can be found in the scale of the atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza and our government’s failure to condemn its ally.
Israel has bombed many hospitals in Gaza. UNICEF has called Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza “a war against children” due to the number of children killed, injured, orphaned, and suffering from disease, hunger and thirst. James Elder, a UNICEF spokesman, has said that he has never seen such devastation and despair as he is witnessing in Gaza, which he describes as the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
Despite these continuing horrors, western governments including our own have failed to condemn Israel or take any meaningful action to stop the carnage and razing of Gaza, in stark contrast to the unequivocal condemnation of Russia and the support, military and in other forms, provided to Ukraine.
Angela Smith, Clifton Hill
AFL fireworks
It appears that the AFL is arranging for Katie Perry to provide the entertainment for the AFL Grand Final. Why is it so obsessed with providing overseas artists for the day, rather than utilising the wonderful talent that Australia has to offer?
Footy fans go to see the Grand Final, that is their main interest, the entertainment is secondary. The footy crowd would be more appreciative of local talent being showcased on such a big stage. Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly, Nick Cave, Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel to name just a few would be far more accepted by an Australian crowd than an overseas artist.
Alan Leitch, Austins Ferry, Tas
AND ANOTHER THING
Trump shooting
America has had four presidents assassinated and now Trump joins Roosevelt and Reagan in those targeted but not killed. Maybe Trump will reconsider his support for the NRA.
Lesley Black, Frankston
The attempted assassination of Trump is an awful thing, but in a country so fractured and so awash with firearms, are we really surprised it happened?
Malcolm Fraser, Oakleigh South
Without nomination of a deputy, the unfortunate shooting of Donald Trump raises the leadership vacuum if Trump or Biden withdraws from the election race
Frank Collins, Selby
Donald Trump stoked the flames of violence back on January 6, 2021, and promised that there would be a “bloodbath” in this year’s campaign if he wasn’t elected. The pigeons have come home to roost.
George Djoneff, Mitcham
Given Trump’s assassination attempt, he might now focus on gun control. The murders of thousands of innocents hasn’t moved him but perhaps a close shave might change his mind.
John Rome, Mt Lawley, WA
Donald Trump survives and publishes on his media site,“It’s incredible that such a thing can happen in this country”. Look at the gun history in the US. Look at the past presidential assassinations. Sadly, it is not incredible at all.
Damien Ryan, Berwick
Fifteen centimetres to the left would have tested the MAGA cult’s commitment to the Second Amendment.
Owen Wells, Mont Albert North
Following the Trump shooting attempt, the cry went up “there is no place in America for this kind of violence”. Have they checked their gun violence statistics recently?
John Page, Glenroy
Donald Trump’s own words have made him sound like America’s greatest threat to its own democracy. Except that this weekend’s political violence, if perpetuated, would greatly accelerate that likelihood.
John Groom, Bentleigh
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