Credit: Illustration: Megan Herbert
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FEDERAL ELECTION
Last year was the hottest year on record. The evidence of the climate crisis is everywhere. Unprecedented fires and floods throughout the world. Increasing cyclone activity including in areas that don’t usually get cyclones, such as Cyclone Alfred, which hit the Gold Coast earlier this year and the increasing rate of polar ice cap melting.
The 2025 election appears to be one where the so-called climate wars have been won by the deniers, sceptics and apathetic.
The climate crisis has barely been mentioned by either of the major parties. Dutton has offered up dubiously costed and information-poor nuclear power plants, which is just an excuse to keep mining fossil fuels, and policies to increase petrol use and encourage the purchase of petrol-guzzling murder utes.
Albanese has been completely silent on fossil fuel mining, sidelined his environment minister and rarely attacks Dutton on his fanciful and costly nuclear fantasy. You’d be forgiven for thinking there is no climate crisis in Australia.
It appears the only hope to see action on the climate crisis is a hung parliament with the Greens and teals holding the balance of power so they can drag Albanese, screaming and kicking to the table to acknowledge the climate crisis.
An outright win for the ALP or LNP will pour petrol on a burning planet.
Rohan Wightman, Muckleford
Power cost cuts useless as we fry
It is unfathomable that the climate crisis happening right now is off the table as far as the two major parties are concerned. Are they scared of tackling the issue which is going to define whether the planet thrives or suffers irreparable damage? Or they just pandering to the voters who cannot think past their cost-of-living woes. We need a statesman who can inspire us and the world to do more to combat climate change. Tax cuts and electricity bill handouts will be useless if we are all frying.
Margaret Collings, Anglesea
Vote for the nation’s interest before your own
Columnist Kate Halfpenny (12/4) writes that she will not vote on the basis of self-interest in this election. I have never really understood why people do. I look to the party whose policies further the national interest. Because I see the furtherance of the national interest as being in my own (and others) self-interest.
David Fry, Moonee Ponds
Dutton now opposing his own policies
The role of the opposition is to oppose, hopefully in a constructive fashion. Peter Dutton is using it in a more brutal fashion. He continues his divisive attack on Anthony Albanese, labelling him a liar who can’t be trusted, weak, deceptive and the cause of antisemitism in Australia. Now add that he won’t be able to follow through with AUKUS.
In a sense, Dutton is now opposing his own policies. He flipped on reducing the federal public service by 41,000 and similarly recanted on doing away with working from home. Not discarded altogether is small business tax exemptions for entertainment, nor the nuclear power dream that has been getting less prominence since respected organisations including the CSIRO have questioned its cost and timeframe. I suspect his gas strategy may suffer the same fate as it is critically examined.
It would seem what’s left then is the age-old strategy of appealing to the electorate’s pocket.
The opposition is relying on the short-term removal of fuel excise and a multibillion-dollar tax handout. Dutton’s other claims are that he is a better choice than Albanese and the Coalition is a better money manager. I understand the small target approach, however, a fistful of dollars, character denigration and no substantive policies are surely not enough to achieve victory.
Bill Pimm, Mentone
Dutton’s hero’s policy fails
Any doubts about Peter Dutton’s leadership will be confirmed in his idolisation of John Howard “The biggest influence of my political life has been John Howard,″ (″Coalition firebrand invokes Trump in ‘make Australia great again’ call, 13/4).
To this day, we suffer the legacies of Howard’s leadership; his politicisation of the public service; his privatisation of aged care; his unconscionable halving of capital gains tax, a prime cause of inequity and our housing crisis; the terrible cost of his commitment to the pointless Iraq war; his increased funding to private schools resulting in the most divided education system in the world; his selling of our gas to China for less than we pay ourselves (and ironically Dutton highlights his plans to reverse his hero’s policy).
Howard changed Australia from an egalitarian, caring society into one of dog-eat-dog – and this is the direction Peter Dutton wants to take us.
Bryan Long, Balwyn
Policies miss point
The major parties are proposing short-term financial incentives to help first home buyers get on the property ladder. While these policies will have immediate appeal, as an architect I can say they fail to consider one significant cost of home occupancy, namely the ongoing cost of heating and cooling due to environmentally inefficient floor plans and barely compliant construction.
Energy bills can be reduced to almost zero by smart house design and wide use of solar and batteries. Coupled with the availability of modest and more affordable ″starter″ houses and reduced approval and construction timelines, such requirements would save both first home owners and later occupants more over the life of the dwelling than a quick handout now.
Jim Holdsworth, San Remo
Much airtime, little detail
It seems apparent that Peter Dutton has the privilege of excessive airtime during the pre-election period. Although he has plenty to say, there is not much substance in his policies. There is an emphasis on nuclear power without any real detail, particularly regarding the treatment of nuclear waste, the initial cost, and the time of implementation.
George Rettie, Foster
Youthful, wider view
Caitlyn Dunkley suggests some interesting ways to improve Australia (″I’m a first-time voter. I think this country should reflect on what it proclaims to be″, 13/4).
Two of them stand out. Her support for more research into nuclear energy and the storage of radioactive waste shows that young Australians might be more open to Peter Dutton’s nuclear proposal than many older Australians might assume.
Caitlyn’s call for a social media ban for ″under 18s at least″ is also rather surprising. Her forthright assertion that the harm caused by social media outweighs its positive effects reflects a sort of ″radical conservatism″ which might seem at odds with the progressive position of many of her other views. Her suggestions do not all belong to one ideological worldview and that is what makes her article worth reading.
Rod Wise, Surrey Hills
Gen Z to Boomer
Congratulations to Caitlyn Dunkley for her well-considered article about caring for our society (13/4).
Her sentiments resonate with this Boomer, and I am devastated that so many of her friends suffer from mental illness. I am also distraught that my generation has not provided the kind, safe, egalitarian society she wishes for.
However, I can assure her, there is an army of people who ″sacrifice comfort, money and time to help vulnerable Australians″. They’re called volunteers and that’s a tradition I sincerely hope continues.
Jane Ross, San Remo
THE FORUM
Cancer centre cuts shame
Every week, I take my two-year-old daughter to the Royal Children’s Hospital so she can fight for her life. We are eight months into a 2-year treatment plan for leukaemia.
Last week, we were told that 10 full-time roles, affecting 13 staff in the Children’s Cancer Centre, were being cut. This includes positions in mental health, social work, and art therapy. These professionals hold families together in the darkest moments of our lives, and they help our children avoid the kind of trauma that lasts a lifetime.
We were told the cuts were due to changes in philanthropic funding. That didn’t make sense then, and it makes even less sense now.
Now, just days before the Good Friday Appeal, art therapy has been plucked from the fire, a tidy PR fix to make things look better in time for the cameras. But the rest of the cuts are still quietly going ahead.
So what’s the real story? Were donor funds quietly redirected? And what kind of system depends on donations to deliver essential care? If this is the best we can offer children with cancer, we should all be ashamed, and we should demand better.
Lucy Fisher, St Kilda
RCH cuts are personal
I was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour when I was 13. I was treated at Royal Children’s Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. I survived and have some late effects and I will always need monitoring. During treatment, I was really traumatised and felt very isolated. What helped me feel a bit normal and helped me move forward with the usual things like school was the support I got from people like the music therapist Merridy, the hospital teacher, the neuropsychologist, the education support lady and other members of the team there that might not seem so necessary. Without this kind of support I wouldn’t have been able to successfully complete my VCE and go on to complete further education.
Creativity and visual language have been a powerful method of not only sharing my personal experiences with cancer but also a tool to cope with the diagnosis and the aftermath.
It’s what helped me in a very uncertain and isolating time. It gave me confidence, a goal for the future as well as a way to build connections with others.
I am very surprised and disappointed that these kinds of valuable jobs are being cut from the hospital.
Dylan Negri, Diamond Creek
Tariffs on the run
Quietly overnight, Trump removes tariffs on computers and smartphones and the big companies such as Apple and Nvidia heave a sigh of relief. This is tariffs on the run, changing daily each time the inept administration realise it has shot itself in the foot. Xi Jinping is right: America is a laughing stock.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so unnerving.
Yvonne Trevaskis, Hobart, Tas
Israeli silence telling
Ranem Abu Izneid’s quest for answers (″Five months after West Bank injury, Ranem is still waiting for answers″, 13/4) is a case of the proverbial canary in the coalmine. The world has been promised countless inquiries into actions by the Israeli military that prima facie are either illegal, excessive or reckless, such as the recent killing of 15 Palestinian health and emergency workers.
Such promises do not appear to lead to the disclosure of facts or any admission of culpability. Particular instances like these are symptomatic of Israel’s defiance of international law.
If Ranem can’t get answers, what hope for justice have the people of Gaza got, bombed relentlessly and starved of food, medical supplies, shelter and services?
Tom Knowles, Parkville
Meditative delight
I could not agree more with Norman Day (″Serene and stunning, this beloved concrete slab has its own security guard″, 10/4) that the MPavilion designed by Tadao Ando must remain where it is in the Queen Victoria Gardens. It is breathtakingly beautiful in its simplicity with a meditative and almost spiritual quality.
There is no other example in Australia of the work of this internationally renowned architect. We are so fortunate to have this building in Melbourne for all to appreciate. It would be an act of vandalism to destroy such a fine addition to our cultural landscape.
Mary Wark, Hawthorn
Singing is a cakewalk
Your correspondent (Letters, 13/4) asks AFL club presidents to reserve half an hour this week to coach their players in singing the team song with elocution and pleasant pitch. I didn’t realise that the primary purpose of singing the song was for fans to have a vocal delicacy. If that’s the case, mute the telly and pop the Fable Singers on Spotify.
Seeing the camaraderie and physical energy in singing with gusto brings joy and pride to most fans. Take heart in the effort shown to get the win, and let the boys celebrate as personally as they see fit in the moment.
By the way, it’s “see the barrackers are shouting”, not ″vocalising″ (tongue removed from cheek and best luck against my Dons for Anzac day).
Maddalena Galli, Doncaster
Bad hair day
My involvement in the AFL tipping competition has me mortified. Aside from Gold Coast and Adelaide, clubs I thought would kick on, all seem to have slid backwards or are marching on the spot. The Demons, Blues, Dons, the Roos are all having a lend. All chatter, no batter.
Even the Cats and the Dockers are caught somewhere between Melbourne and Queensland: Champions one week, mediocre the next. At least the Tigers are having a genuine crack.
The leading tipsters surely have a great life. They must spend all week drooling over Champion Data, there wouldn’t be enough hours left for gainful employment. I once had a full head of hair. I’m now on the verge of phoning Ashley & Martin. Can anyone out there help me?
Paul Dawson, Hawthorn East
AND ANOTHER THING
Federal election
Henry Kissinger once said that democracy is too important to be left to the people. I reckon it’s too important to be left to the politicians.
Alan Eason, Miami, Qld
With apologies to Keats’ ode To Autumn, now is the season of bribes and hollow promises.
Jon Smith, Leongatha
While governments remain too timid to revisit negative gearing and continue to just tinker around the edges on supply, it will continue to be out of reach for many.
Annie Wilson, Inverloch
John Howard’s legacy was a raft of middle-class tax and welfare lurks. Peter Dutton’s housing policy shows the Liberals have learnt nothing, making real reform ever harder to achieve.
Peter Bennett, Clifton Hill
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price admitted that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Probably best to say nothing sometimes. At least now we’ve had it confirmed.
Philip West, Jan Juc
Trump
Never before in human history, has every single person on the planet been impacted by the misguided grievances of one narcissistic individual.
Rod Allan, West Melbourne
Should the president really use a high-pressure shower head to wash his beautiful hair? His thatch looks about as robust as his tariff policy.
Don Phillips, Fitzroy
These are my deals, and if you don’t like them ... well, I have others (with apologies to Groucho Marx).
Belinda Burke, Hawthorn
When is someone going to tell the US president that a high trade deficit just means that people are buying things, and that the economy is booming?
Matthew Hamilton, Kew
How long before Trump blames stock exchange crashes around the world on Joe Biden?
Pete Sands, Monbulk
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