Credit: Cathy Wilcox
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.
ELECTION
Former conservative politician George Brandis (“Trump dodged a bullet. Let’s hope the world does, too – and he loses”, 4/11) highlights the concerns of many if the US election returns Donald Trump to the presidency. For those of us who value democracy, the rule of law and a world that shuns tyrants, there is a high level of trepidation pending the outcome of the election.
In a country that has given the world so much, let’s hope the US can not only save itself but reassure the world that it had the good sense to reject a candidate whose main purpose is to serve his own ego and interests.
Anne Lyon, Camberwell
Many Trump supporters in our midst
Admirable as George Brandis’ observations are about Trump, he could readily have identified the “right-wing commentariat” barracking for Trump in this country. It includes a significant number of Brandis’ former colleagues in the Liberal Party as well as the Murdoch press and Sky News. Those Australians who rely on these media sources for their perception of Trump and the American political scene will have an entirely different view to Brandis and the many letter writers and commentators who feature in the pages of The Age. The 73 per cent of Australians that Brandis quotes as not wanting Trump returned to power is reassuring, but the 27 per cent who would welcome a Trump return reflect a disdain for the principles of democracy.
Brian Kidd, Mt Waverley
Who will be counted?
Donald Trump has long been making accusations of cheating and sowing seeds of doubt into fertile ground about the validity of the result if he loses the US election. It is going to be interesting to see what Rupert Murdoch, who has long wielded significant power over governments across the globe, and his News empire do should Trump lose or show signs of losing. Will Murdoch stand by the democratic principles that allowed him to build his empire, or will he bend to Trump’s will by supporting the claims? Murdoch may also want to consider that the powers recently conferred on the US president relating to “immunity for official acts” can also apply to the current president.
Rod Eldridge, Derrinallum
Inspiring injection
Why are women who strive for high office held to such a different standard than their male counterparts? The US presidential election is the latest example where a high-calibre, energetic and intelligent woman with a strong CV that covers a history of public service is not given the credit she deserves. Every day we hear Kamala Harris described as uninspiring (“Trump dodged a bullet ...”) or indecisive (“In the grander scheme”, Letters, 4/11). Harris’ late injection into the presidential campaign was anything but indecisive or uninspiring. Her dynamism, her positive nature, her commitment to democratic principles and her career as server of the public should be celebrated and supported.
David Brophy, Beaumaris
Lives on the line
Nick O’Malley’s article (“Platitudes won’t save us”, 3/11) highlights the urgency for all nations to achieve their Paris climate commitments and then greatly lift their ambition in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. In this US election it will be the decisions of low-information voters in seven swing states who will greatly influence the trajectory of the world’s climate policies. It is doubtful that many of those voters will have heard of the disastrous flash flooding in Spain or made the link to climate change as driving the increased frequency of extreme weather events. It’s not democracy on the line; it is a liveable climate for us all.
Jenny Smithers, Ashburton
Great achievement
I have been astounded by the extraordinary journalism by Farrah Tomazin covering the US elections. She has written so many engaging, insightful stories in a chaotic and unpredictable election. It has been appreciated by readers of The Age.
Grant Nowell, Bowden, SA
THE FORUM
Generational divisions
I’m unsurprised that proposed changes to HECS to address intergenerational unfairness has created controversy (“Coalition attacks Labor’s HECS debt cut plan”, 4/11). As a Boomer, I’ve learnt hypocrisy has no bounds, noting the objectors’ arguments against the proposal. And without embarrassment, this is typically the same cohort that has vociferously resisted attempts to fix former prime minister John Howard’s mess of unsustainable middle-class tax welfare.
Howard’s tax policies, apart from leaving structural deficits affecting the funding of defence, health, aged care, etc, have led to deleterious impacts such as housing unaffordability and other intergenerational disparities.
If these objectors wish to be taken seriously, they should focus on abolishing nonsensical franking credits and returning superannuation to its original intent rather than the tax and estate planning behemoth it has become. And then also recalibrate the overly generous CGT discount and modify negative gearing.
Carlo Ursida, Kensington
HECS hypocrisy
The Coalition has come out swinging over the government’s plan to reduce HECS debts. They claim the plan is unfair because it only helps 3 million people out of 27 million Australians. It also claims it is unfair because the beneficiaries will eventually earn more money because of their study. This is the party that is happy to spend nearly $3 billion each year to help the just over 1 million people who negatively gear property so that they, too, will become richer. I am sure that Peter Dutton can explain the obvious contradiction.
Ross Hudson, Mount Martha
Reduce the debt
In 1951, Sir Robert Menzies, showing great wisdom and recognising the importance of education in the future of Australia, introduced the Commonwealth scholarship scheme. Whereby any student who got reasonable matriculation results got his or her university fees paid. I, for one, benefited from this. Gough Whitlam went one further and made university free. There are still some politicians who benefited from that.
Then Bob Hawke introduced HECS. Ever since, graduates have been burdened with debt – in recent times, onerous debt.
Anthony Albanese is offering some amelioration of that debt as bait for the forthcoming election but the debt will remain and is a stain on our society.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
Abolish fees altogether
Anthony Albanese’s declaration that students choosing to enrol in university or TAFE “should be driven by one consideration alone: what is best for the student” (“Building a 2025 election win: Albanese starts campaign early”, 4/11) is disingenuous. Notwithstanding the much-needed reduction in the income threshold for repaying HECS, the government has done nothing to repeal the massive increase in HECS fees for arts degrees the Morrison government instigated.
For many students, especially from low-income backgrounds, a major consideration of university or TAFE is being saddled with a potential lifetime debt. A debt that may make getting a home loan difficult, and which, in these tough and uncertain economic times, is an unwanted burden.
It’s time to abolish HECS so post-secondary school students can really make a choice between university or TAFE based entirely on what’s best for them rather than what’s best for their hip pockets.
Rohan Wightman, Muckleford
Row, row your houses
Your correspondent (Letters, 3/11) rightly asks for solutions to the housing shortage in place of Jacinta Allan’s towers. Alternatives can be found in the UK, which has territory of a similar size to Victoria, with a comparable distribution of land use between primary production, conservation and urbanisation. Despite these similarities, the UK houses a population more than 10 times larger than Victoria’s 6.5 million, while still keeping over 70 per cent of households in houses rather than flats.
The reason is that about half the houses are either semi-detached or row houses, the latter typically being terraced. In Australia, we have a long-standing obsession with single-storey detached houses (what the Brits call bungalows) when in reality, many people would be well-suited by row or semi-detached dwellings, single-storey or double, including duplexes and triplexes with one residence on top of another.
Along with low-rise flats, these alternatives would be a great way to increase density without destroying urban landscapes with apartment-block monstrosities or the loss of gardens and trees on subdivided plots dominated by fully detached units.
Jason Foster, Mirboo North
Seeking refuge
The cries are increasing in vehemence around the world, notably right now in the United States, and locally, even on The Age’s letters page: “No more immigration.” At the same time, refugees are fleeing their war-torn countries, tyrannous regimes, and climate change-induced natural disasters, while potential haven nations, citing any number of conveniently plausible reasons, close their borders. Where on earth, our shared Earth, will these countless desperate people find new homes?
David Johnston, Healesville
Service failure
What a surprise to read that VicRoads service has worsened after privatisation, even after “key VicRoads’ service targets were quietly reduced when it was privatised ... two years ago”.
Politicians always promise improvements under privatisation, but reality tells another story. Transport, telecommunications, electricity, gas, water: every privatisation has resulted in poorer and more expensive services, while the money so obtained disappears into a black hole to cover up for politicians’ mistakes.
George Fernandez, Eltham North
Murder by proxy
Charli Powell, 17, and Molly Wilkes, 22 – two young women who took their own lives in the context of intimate partner abuse – are invisible victims (“‘It’s murdering them by proxy’: The women’s deaths not counted as domestic violence”, 3/11). Because the same core feature embedded in partner abuse – hidden abuse (coercive control) that no one else can see bar the woman herself – is precisely what investigators missed in these cases. These women are invisible victims who are not counted in domestic violence statistics.
Indeed, part of the problem no one wants to talk about is that the workforce which responds to domestic violence (police) don’t ask the right questions (for a variety of reasons) to elicit the correct context of domestic violence. In terms of survivor testimonials (that I listen to daily in my social work practice), survivors are let down repeatedly – not least of which in taking a woman’s concerns seriously when the abuse is escalating.
But making matters worse, the missing context of domestic violence leads to a snowball effect of subsequent wrong assumptions by experts as incisively delineated by forensic criminologist Professor Jane Monckton-Smith.
Nevertheless, the perpetrators who push women to take their own lives because they see no way out should be held to account, as should the blindsided system that fails to come to their aid because it misses the context of partner abuse. These are hard truths that must be closely examined to save women’s lives.
Jelena Rosic, Mornington
Getting a leg-up
Like Jacqueline Maley, I enjoyed one leg only (“An invite to the Chairman’s Lounge would perk anyone up. But MPs should pay for it”, 3/11). While checking in for a flight from Singapore to Kazakhstan, I was surprised to be offered an upgrade to business class. I turned to the person in the queue behind me assuming there must have been a case of mistaken identity. Sitting up the front with an unsolicited upgrade rarely comes to me as I expect nothing and am thus rarely disappointed.
Geoff Gowers, Merricks North
Make a difference
When you throw out your rubbish, do you know where it goes? It’s like sweeping dust under a rug — just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s gone. The rubbish gets taken to a landfill where it’s buried in the ground, but it stays there, polluting the earth for years.
Instead of hiding our waste, we should recycle and reuse more. Otherwise, we’re just leaving a big mess for future generations to clean up. We can’t fix this nightmare if not everyone commits to it. I know it sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but it’s worth it. If we don’t clean it up, who will?
Here is a small example: For Halloween, instead of buying lollies with lots of packaging, my mum bought Smarties with zero plastic. These are some of the easy ways you can make a difference.
Georgia Paxino, 9, Beaumaris
Disfigured lips
I was horrified to see an article in The Age on the appalling fad of “lip plumping” (“Burn, baby, burn: Do lip-plumping beauty products actually work?” 4/11). Despite slow progress over the years to view women as something much more than domesticated Barbie dolls, society is still encouraging and expecting women to disfigure their bodies for the approval of others. It is ironic that the more (so-called) “developed” a society is, the more insecure, fearful and superficial it becomes.
Julie Christensen, Blackburn North
Fragile love
Warwick McFadyen offers a tender, perceptive and heightened fragility, that comes with the loss of a child (“In a moment, the world slips off its axis”, 3/11). So often we take for granted the love between parent and child – “the words, the touch, the laughter, the smile”.
His article resides in an inner core – and tears.
Judith Morrison, Nunawading
AND ANOTHER THING
Credit: Matt Golding
Politics
I’m looking forward to the finale of the reality TV show known as the US election. This series has gone on far too long.
Craig Tucker, Newport
Americans are preparing for the festival of liars, lawyers, litigants and lunatics. It’s more scary
than Halloween.
Jon Smith, Leongatha
If Kamala Harris appears to be winning the US presidential race, the events of January 6, 2021, at
the Capitol will have only been a warm-up to the real event. Fasten your seatbelts for a bumpy ride.
Randall Bradshaw, Fitzroy
What the world needs now is for all Trumpian couch potatoes to watch telly throughout election day.
Bernd Rieve, Brighton
The races
Trump v Harris, a two-horse race that stops the nation.
Paul Custance, Highett
I’m looking for a sign for the Cup. Is there a horse called No Trumps?
Kevan Porter, Alphington
I can take or leave horse racing but it’s one of the few opportunities for people en masse to really dress formally and socialise.
Ian Macdonald, Traralgon
Furthermore
Some good news at last. It was so inspiring to see the ordinary and caring citizens in Spain who, armed with brooms and brushes, walked in a procession to help clean up after the horrific floods.
Mary Fenelon, Doncaster East
What result could have been expected from the privatisation of VicRoads (“VicRoads was sold off with a promise of improved service. Instead, service got worse”, 3/11) other than a more expensive, poorer service and the transient sugar-hit to government coffers, as from every previous such privatisation?
Joe di Stefano, Geelong
Finally
Farewell Fay Marles, thank you for your wonderful work for women’s rights and social justice. Your many achievements will live on in our memory.
Sandra Torpey, Hawthorn
The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.
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.