The football codes are at least making efforts to deal with the problem of traumatic brain injuries caused by knocks to the head brought about during their contact sports contests (“‘He couldn’t see’: Bloody chaos could change Tszyu’s career”, April 1). Boxing on the other hand and UFC do not disguise the fact that their “sports” have as their objective the knocking of an opponent senseless. The recent Tim Tszyu-Sebastian Fundora fight, much hyped by the media, developed into a bloodbath, serving only to prove that professional boxing on which so many promoters, agents and other hangers-on sponge livings, is a decadent activity. Ray Alexander, Moss Vale
Tim Tszyu (L) takes a punch from Sebastian Fundora during the ninth round of a title fight at Las Vegas, Nevada. Credit: Getty Images
As I’ve aged, I’m less able to stomach some contact sport. I grew up watching Friday Night Fights with my father on black and white television and Tony Mundine remains my favourite boxer. I watched a bloodied Jeff Harding defeat titleholder Dennis Andreas in a Rockyesque “come from behind” bout. I went to the fights to see Jeff Fenech and Kostya Tszyu and witnessed more Mike Tyson annihilations than I can remember but I knew from one picture that the 20cm height advantage and reach of Tim Tszyu’s opponent Sebastian Fundora, would not end well for Tszyu. Shame on Tszyu’s corner and the referee for allowing the fight to continue for another ten rounds whilst Tszyu was blinded by his own blood from an earlier cut in his forehead, whilst battling an opponent, who before the fight started, had the statistical physical advantage. Clare Raffan, Campsie
The actions of the ABC News channel in leading its Sunday evening bulletin with graphic and bloodied images from a boxing match must be condemned. This newspaper’s use of a similar image in an article on the activity of a boxing match is regrettable. Boxing is a pugilistic activity in which to belabour another human being into unconsciousness is called a victory. It is, literally in the event reported, a blood sport - with an appalling record of later life dementia and related cerebral issues. Yet the news and sports news media treat it with enthusiasm, in much the same breath as they constantly condemn aspects of football codes that have far lesser violence and instances of concussive activity in their purpose. The word hypocrisy hovers over our perception of a media that has these double standards. Brian Kidd, Mt. Waverley (Vic)
Football codes have finally taken reasonable affirmative action on trying to protect head injuries. About time, yet we watch boxers belt each other into submission and fight on with severe facial cuts. Governments need to step in and ban this gladiatorial madness. Denis Suttling, Newport Beach
When one party in an affray is hit so hard he is blinded by blood it is called serious assault. When it occurs in a boxing ring it is called sport - hard to believe this is legal in the 21st century. Stephanie Edwards, Leichhardt
Your headline read: “‘Fight should have been stopped’: The bloody chaos that could change Tszyu’s career”. I am of the belief after seeing samples of the bloodbath that it should never have started at all. Is this really a sport for the 21st century? Lorraine Hickey, Green Point
Liberal policies have made housing less affordable
The Coalition love making false equivalences (“Bragg flags housing ‘perversity’”, April 1). While a self-managed super fund (SMSF) can invest in residential property, that property cannot be accessed until the beneficiary is retired. That is completely different to allowing people to raid their super and purchase a property for immediate use. But the real unfairness was the Howard government changing the rules in the first place to allow SMSFs to borrow in order to purchase property.
SMSFs should never have been allowed to borrow money for any purpose, and probably never allowed to directly invest in existing residential property either. This has only worsened housing affordability that the Liberals pretend to care about, and who now seek to pour even more fuel onto the fire. Brendan Jones, Annandale
The housing crisis. Credit: John Shakespeare
There is one important difference between the Coalition proposal and the treatment of SMSFs. The Coalition plan keeps housing and superannuation separate and allows people to deplete their superannuation to put the money into housing. Apart from the fact that it will just boost the price of houses (as has been shown with all such schemes that give home buyers extra money) it will mean that when the person comes to retire, they will have less in their superannuation fund. They may be more likely to have a home, but they will have less money to put food on the table. They will be worse off. The treatment of SMSFs actually puts the house in the superannuation fund – it is part of their retirement investment. The buyer can access the money to buy a house without depleting their superannuation funds and the amount they need to live on in retirement. This suggests that the solution is not to allow people to take money OUT of superannuation, but to allow them to put the home (and associated mortgage) in superannuation, including non-SMSF funds. David Rush, Lawson
I think people should think outside the square on house prices. Many suggestions involve throwing more money at home buyers. All it does is drive up the price. Try this thought exercise - all the banks reduce how much buyers can borrow. Do house prices go up or down? Of course, less money around to buy houses will mean prices come down. Banks don’t want to do that because they want to sell bigger and bigger mortgages. It doesn’t matter if it is using super, first home buyer’s grants, reduced interest rates or reductions to stamp duty. More money available will drive up house prices. Neville Turbit, Russell Lea
True democracy calls for involvement by all
The culture of our democracy has changed much over the last 50 years (“Cap rich donors but not us: unions”, April 1). We are mostly no longer members of anything much, certainly not unions or churches, much less political parties. This change has seen the growing demand of institutional parties to rely on funding from other institutions like unions and big business. While I certainly concede the ACTU’s argument that “unions and civil society groups advocate to better our society” , the absence of any democratic input of union members into where their money goes offends against democracy. Independent MP Kate Chaney’s suggestion that unions and businesses require “shareholder or member approval” before they can make a donation has a lot to commend it, as does a low limit on individual donations to stop billionaires or even millionaires from having a disproportionate influence on our democracy. Better still would be that we all acknowledge we’re part of a society, not just a loose connection of individuals, and that we actually join and get involved in the discussion on our future. Who knows, we could once again see parliaments where most people had done something outside of working for the party machine. Colin Hesse, Marrickville
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, immediately springs to this writer’s mind. Not to mention the audacity, let alone the hypocrisy, of the unions. Crikey! Rose Lysnar, Orange
The Labor Party historically is the political wing of its affiliated trade unions. To equate an affiliate union (comprised of thousands of workers) funding a political campaign with a wealthy individual funding candidates who will influence policy to his personal benefit or a major corporation that seeks to benefit wealthy shareholders is a false analogy. Wealthy individuals or corporations can openly affiliate with the party of their choice but would rather hedge their bets so that they can buy influence in a Labor government in case their preferred party doesn’t form government. Paul Pearce, Bronte
This represents an extraordinarily concerning potential development in Australian democracy. That the ACTU and its acolytes see their right to force-feed their version of “virtuous social activism” via multimillion-dollar campaigns while dismissing others’ right to fund, canvas and express alternate points of view is the richest (rotten) egg presented this Easter. Mark van Laarhoven, Ascot (Qld)
Old white dinosaurs
Your correspondent’s plea not to sacrifice young women to the cause of civilising Newington students and improving their behaviour with the opposite sex sounds reasonable enough but it’s not the current students who need civilising (Letters, April 1). Rather it’s the old white males with their placards and noise standing at the Newington gates like a bunch of hawkers and costermongers who need to be civilised. There have been four waves of feminism and this bunch has missed the lessons of them all. Trevor Somerville, Illawong
Hazard reduction
I have a solution for the Leichhardt Oval situation (Letters, April 1). West Tigers need to win the competition and, as per the Parramatta fans of the 1980s, burn the grandstand down. This way, a new facility with modern amenities will be built. Terry Wooldridge, Mona Vale
Leichhardt Oval Credit: Steven Siewert
All Leichhardt Oval needs is a good upgrade? No. All Leichhardt Oval needs is a decent home team. Jeremy Brender, West Richmond (SA)
Lost opportunity
It is a tragedy for Australia that the previous government favoured continued fossil fuel production at the expense of developing renewables (“Energy giant backs ‘green hydrogen’ for its power plants”, April 1). We now witness a major energy provider with plans to incorporate green hydrogen in its gas turbines, yet is constrained by limited supplies. This versatile fuel can also be used to power vehicles, can augment energy storage by batteries and pumped hydro for base load electricity production, and be converted into green ammonia for nitrogenous fertiliser and fuel for shipping. If the clock could be turned back a decade and greater support be directed at research and development of green hydrogen, our nation would be at the leading edge of the global energy industry. Roger Epps, Armidale
EnergyAustralia has seen the light: it will begin replacing some of the methane (which produces CO2 and water vapour emissions when burnt) in its Tallawarra B gas-fired power plant with hydrogen, which produces only water vapour. Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis using renewable wind and/or solar energy. Australia, including Lake Illawarra, has enormous resources of both wind and solar radiation. They should be used to generate clean, green energy. Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin (ACT)
Compassion deficit
In this dog-eat-dog materialistic world, it tragically seems to have become the norm to neglect the caring element that is so integral to a holistically “healthy” health system, inadequate funding within stripped-back policies being unable to incorporate the basic needs of compassionate care of us humans (“When funding healthcare, don’t forget the care”, April 1). The need for visibility of most health policies has taken precedence over genuinely compassionate care, along with a lack of nurses and subsequent lack of time for the quality care we all yearn for and need, especially in our later years. Body and soul are treated as separate entities with the soul left to fend tragically for itself. We certainly need more ethically thinking Samaritans involved in the policy department. Judy Finch, Taree
Italian style
Malcolm Knox nailed it in his article (“A cafe isn’t a rent-free office. So Zoom off”, March 30). People in coffee shops sitting for hours working on a tablet, laptop, phone and one coffee is a habit that’s increasing and a cause of some resentment among business owners and coffee shop patrons. How about we adopt the Italian tradition of drinking coffee at a counter – standing up? For those who want to sit, make it more expensive and let’s add a set time for vacating the table. It might make it easier all round – for those in a hurry, staff taking orders and for those using a table as their office, who pay more for the privilege. Linda Shaw, Braddon (ACT)
Love story
The phrase “not a dry eye in the house” came to mind, as I’m sure that I was one of many to have teared up at the conclusion of the beautiful story of lovers Stephanie Short and the aptly named Valentin Dimitrov Hadjiev eventually reunited to be able to have many happy years together (“Lovers apart for 22 years ‘married by Albanese’”, April 1). Anne Ring, Coogee
Stephanie Short and Valentin Hadjiev with Anthony Albanese, then the opposition leader in 2020.
Today’s story of prevailing love ably assisted by the member for Grayndler demonstrates the power of compassion and good governance. Vale Val. Janet Argall, Dulwich Hill
Sunny spell
That can’t have been Easter, the weather was too good. Michael Deeth, Como West
Pick a lane
Forget improving English and maths in our schools. Can we please concentrate on teaching the difference between left and right? After driving on major highways over Easter I found that some motorists think the right lane is left and many more are so confused that they stick to the middle lane. Margaret Grove, Concord
The secret’s out
Residents of the Hills District have long understood that we live in a great part of Sydney (“Road to success for ‘quiet achievers’”, April 1). The last thing we needed was having it splashed across the pages of today’s paper. Tim Overland, Castle Hill
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