Credit: Cathy Wilcox
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MELBOURNE
Adam Carey’s report on Melbourne’s housing options (“UK capital offers lessons for Melbourne’s housing woes”, 28/10) has several significant points that we can learn from in the development of the Allan government’s 25 activity centres. In particular that the local councils mentioned have taken a leading role as developers, establishing not-for-profit companies. The buildings are architecturally designed with gardens, landscaping and open spaces. New housing options need to be for a family and not the small studio apartments that have grown around Melbourne, and preferably not more than five or six storeys so they integrate with the neighbouring housing stock.
What appears to make the London examples successful is integrated public transport that is consistent and comfortable and located where growth is occurring. One only needs to look at the Western Ring Road (M80) any time after 2pm to see the amount of traffic on the road due to a lack of public transport. The examples in the article remind us of what we lost when we got rid of the housing commission and allowed our building growth to be dominated by the private sector.
Let’s hope the proposed activity centres genuinely meet Melbourne’s housing needs.
Denise Stevens, Healesville
Protect the green
So, Melbourne is to become the new London. There are lessons that we can learn from that great city. One is its beautiful parks and gardens including Hyde and Regent’s parks and St James and Kensington gardens. They provide oases of green calm amid the towering buildings and are much appreciated by locals and tourists.
Governor La Trobe had a similar vision for Melbourne and set aside large areas of land for open space, parks and gardens. Unfortunately, much of this has been encroached on by sporting complexes, railways, hospitals and other public buildings. It is essential that what is left is retained, and that any new developments have adequate space for public rest and recreation.
Sandra Torpey, Hawthorn
Rural alternatives
Melbourne’s growth rate is more than double London’s due to a large immigration intake. So instead of forcing more people into one city, straining the infrastructure and forever ruining the things that make Melbourne an attractive city (graceful Victorian and Edwardian homes, mature trees, public gardens, large parks, wide avenues) we should be encouraging new arrivals to settle in regional centres. Perhaps a visa condition of living the first three years in a rural area (similar to the Bonded Medical Program). Governments can offer incentives for metropolitan businesses to decentralise to provide more employment opportunities. Subsidised housing should be built in rural centres rather than squashing more high-rises into existing suburbs. Our country is vast – not like England – so we must find our own answers. Many towns in regional Victoria are dying due to depopulation. Let’s encourage more growth and facilities in these areas and solve two problems in one.
Julie Christensen, Blackburn North
Design solutions
Melbourne has a mild temperate climate and its latitude is 37 degrees south. This makes our city different from many others. Recognising this, for many years planning decisions have been made on the basis that sun access should be available after the spring equinox up until the autumn equinox, to private outdoor living spaces and to the windows of habitable rooms.
As an architect, I can say it is possible to steadily increase population density while adhering to this principle, allowing a variety of medium-density building heights and setbacks, depending on location and orientation. In some situations high-rise buildings may satisfy these criteria, but in most places the resulting built form is more “pyramidal”.
We do not have to sacrifice Melbourne’s liveability. We just need to stop politicians from panicking.
Simon Thornton, Alphington
The Brighton residents protesting about high-rise developments in their suburb are classic privileged home owners. We have had high-rise apartments and medium-density social housing in Williamstown since the 1960s in several locations. They house new arrivals, elderly residents and people who can’t afford to buy their own homes, and we welcome them to our lovely suburb.
Linelle Gibson, Williamstown
Despite all the politics around housing, the reality seems to indicate you will pay top dollar for a new apartment and will make a loss when you sell. Simple as that.
Craig Tucker, Newport
A couple, named in Sunday’s Age, bought a property in Fitzroy that they “downsized” into. It cost just under $3 million, on four levels with four bedrooms. One has to ask, what is downsizing in today’s terms?
Tom Stafford, Wheelers Hill
THE FORUM
Qantas upgrades
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claims to have declared all his upgrade requests to Qantas (“Anthony Albanese under fire over free Qantas upgrades”, 27/10) but the question remains: why do politicians feel entitled to make such claims? Commercial organisations do not grant favours to politicians out of the goodness of their corporate hearts. We are now left wondering about the Albanese government’s decision to uphold the Qantas objection to Qatar Airways’ application to increase flights to Australia last year.
Ian Brown, Sandringham
Common perk
The brouhaha about Anthony Albanese’s use of the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge is over the top, especially as he has declared all of the benefits received. The airline uses this lounge as a marketing tool. Sports people, celebrities, chief executives and other senior executives, senior public service officers and most federal politicians are all offered membership.
We should consider upgrades of all others, including former prime ministers. While I was never important enough to be offered membership, I had the good fortune to use the lounge on several occasions when travelling with members. My first experience was in the late 1980s when I was flying with Australian Airlines (prior to the merger with Qantas) from Sydney to Melbourne on a highly discounted economy class ticket. As we left the lounge the receptionist handed me my seat allocation: 2A in first class! It is a perk, however we shouldn’t forget that senior people travel constantly for work, especially in the case of the prime minister.
James Young, Mt Eliza
State leadership
David Crowe rightly highlights that success for the Queensland LNP is unlikely to spell victory for the federal opposition (“Why Dutton has cause for concern over result,” 28/10). On climate and energy, in particular, a clear divide separates the Queensland LNP’s centrist approach – matching Labor’s target of 75 per cent emissions reduction by 2035 and rejecting nuclear – from Dutton’s hollow nuclear fantasy. If the federal Coalition is serious about governing, they’d do well to follow the sensible policy lead of their state counterparts.
Sarah Brennan, Hawthorn
Less than gracious
I don’t believe I have ever witnessed a more tone-deaf and graceless concession speech than that delivered by outgoing Queensland premier Steven Miles on Saturday evening. Bizarrely, there was no concession. Normal protocol has dictated that one normally congratulates one’s opposition, wishing them well, before launching into further sentiments. David Crisafulli did this most eloquently at the commencement of his victory speech.
Yet Miles actually had a brazen crack at the former opposition leader, accusing him and his party of being an inferior political movement. Furthermore, as Miles was declaring that the LNP would not have the numbers to form a majority government, viewers at home were concurrently witnessing the seat count on their screens showing the Labor tally descending and the LNP seat count ticking up to 47.
I’m reminded of a pertinent post-grand final comment made by former AFL coach Mick Malthouse, expressing that he was a big believer in being humble in victory and gracious in defeat.What we witnessed in the Sunshine State from Steven Miles was a long way from such a noble aspiration.
Peter Waterhouse, Craigieburn
Blockers or weaklings
I read, apropos the Queensland election result, that “people who elected the Greens ... expected them to play a progressive role, not a blocking role” (The Age, 28/10). I wonder if these people have thought this through. What is a party in a balance-of-power position (e.g. the Greens in the Senate) supposed to do? If they block legislation that, say, does 25 per cent of what they want in an effort to force the government to increase it to 50 per cent, they are called obstructionists. If they let it through they are called weak and ineffectual and not worth voting for.
Even when they have a great win – as in 2009-2012 when they blocked Rudd’s useless CPRS and consequently got Gillard’s effective CEFP (subsequently wrecked by Tony Abbott as a “carbon tax”) – they have Labor rewriting history, ignoring the CEFP part of the story, so as to portray them as mere blockers.
Colin Smith, Glen Waverley
Trump whispering
A glimmer of hope, according to Rob Harris, is that in the event that Trump gains power the world will have in Mark Rutte, secretary-general of NATO, a “Trump whisperer” (“Is the ‘Trump whisperer’ Ukraine’s last hope in defeating Putin?” 27/10). However, going by Shakespeare, he will need to be as good as Decius Brutus, whose job it was to ensure that Julius Caesar turned up for work on the Ides of March. Decius Brutus knew Caesar’s weakness: “If he be so resolved, I can over sway him. When I tell him he hates flatterers, he says he does, being then most flattered.” But would it work with Trump? Caesar was a man of principle, he said he hated flatterers. Trump isn’t, he welcomes flatterers — and uses them.
Claude Miller, Castlemaine
Democracy challenged
Next Tuesday, 419 years after the November 5 gunpowder plot, democracy is again under threat. US electors have a choice — an intelligent youngish woman with a positive, forward-looking message against an ageing former TV reality personality who for the past 10 years has lied, cheated, used and abused the democratic and legal systems to promote his personal interests.
In Australia, this would not be a choice – Australians have indicated they overwhelmingly support Harris — but we can only sit back and look on at the chaos of the electoral workings of a Disunited States of America, the result of which could have a profound impact on our futures.
Richard Jones, Frankston South
Roots of success
A study answers the question of why Australia is so rich (“Why is Australia so rich? This Nobel-winning paper solves the riddle”, 27/10). Of all the former colonised nations, Australia has the highest GDP per person. However, white settlers here did not treat First Nation people much differently from colonisers in other countries. But we didn’t have the use of slavery to extract resources.
Australia also had the early rise of unions in the 19th century; world-first electoral reforms, like the vote for women; and a strong democratic base. What’s more pertinent today is how fair is our distribution of wealth in Australia. I would like to see a study on that.
David Fry, Moonee Ponds
Bank scams
The Age report (“Scammers are targeting Australian bank customers. But there’s one key thing you can’t know”, 28/10) doesn’t state the half of it. I received a notice in my bank app a few days ago stating that a recurring account had not been paid due to a problem with the credit card information. In this instance, lucky me! There were two problems: the demand for money wasn’t a recurring transaction (a company was named but that related to a single transaction completed months ago), and the demand for funds did not originate from the company as stated in the message (confirmed by the company). Upon contacting the bank, the staff were unable or unwilling to tell me the actual source of the request for funds, or how the alert made its way to me via the bank’s own app, or how much was requested by what should have been flagged as a fraudulent demand for money. As we rush headlong into a cashless society, how is the consumer going to be protected from scammers if the banks themselves can’t distinguish between legitimate requests for payment and those from scammers?
David Kennedy, Balwyn North
Customer needs
I received a letter from the Commonwealth Bank. The first sentence reads “The needs of our customers are changing”. The letter then proceeded to advise that its North Melbourne branch is to close and that the ATMs are to be removed too. I can only assume that this action was taken in response to the bank’s customers demanding and clamouring for the need for the bank branch to close and for the removal of its ATMs.
Dennis Walker, North Melbourne
Playground mess
Opening school grounds to the public after hours might seem like a good idea. But at least half of them will bring their dogs (of course), most of which will be left running around off-lead to leave droppings all around the children’s play areas – especially sandy soil and bark-chip areas. So first thing every morning, school staff will have to search the grounds and clean up all this mess. Not such a great idea after all.
Geoff Dalton, East Malvern
Stunning debut
The Adelaide Oval on Sunday was set alight by the sensational 2024 WBBL debut of 15-year-old NSW schoolgirl Caoimhe Bray (whose Gaelic Christian name is pronounced Keeva) and who in a spine-tingling performance took a crucial wicket and scored the winning runs enabling her Sydney Sixers team to defeat the Melbourne Renegades.
Eric Palm, Gympie, Qld
Ongoing waste
Last year my local council changed their hard rubbish collection policy to allow every household to have two free collections per year. Everyone used to put their hard rubbish out at the same time each year. The new system means there is hard rubbish on the nature strip of almost every street all through the year. No wonder people are dumping it illegally – under the old system rubbish dumped outside of the annual collection date was much more obvious.
Linda Chandler, Mentone
AND ANOTHER THING
Qantas upgrades
If flight upgrades are freely given with no expectation of influence, what number does one ring? I can guarantee no influence.
Joan Segrave, Healesville
Anthony Albanese may have declared all his free Qantas upgrades on his parliamentary register but, whether he likes it or not, they do not pass the pub test.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
Let’s not forget the RAAF plane provided to Mathias Cormann for overseas travel in his bid to gain support for leadership of the OECD, before we start talking about politicians getting upgrades.
Annie Wilson, Inverloch
US politics
If the US voters are really smart they will take the Republican cash “donations” and still vote for the Democrats.
Bruce Dudon, Woodend
Further to Matt Golding’s cartoon about the forthcoming US election’s capacity to blow up Mount Rushmore’s memorial to past greatness, consider the date of the election – the fifth of November. Please remember on fifth of November/ Gunpowder treason and plot./ I see no reason why Capitol treason / Should ever be forgot.
Janet Gaden, Marshall
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To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.