Credit: Cathy Wilcox
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The question of extending Australian voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds has recently been mooted. As has been noted, there are some politically informed and interested young people and there are also many who have little interest in politics at this busy stage of their lives. It has also been suggested that voting for this age group may not be compulsory. There may be people in other age groups or categories who would view the special exemption from compulsory voting for 16- and 17-year-olds as discriminatory and seek exemptions. Where do we draw the line?
Australia has one of the most stable democracies in the world. Changes of government happen smoothly and without bloodshed. Many of the most important elements of our democracy derive from the political reform movements in 19th-century Britain. Hard-won policies such as compulsory voting and the secret ballot means that people cannot be prevented from voting by bribes or threats from powerful people and we have the freedom to vote in private for the candidate or party we choose. We also have the great advantage of elections being run by a respected independent body, the Australian Electoral Commission, which manages the electoral process including the vote count. Political parties or candidates also have the option of providing volunteer scrutineers to monitor vote counting. Changing the rules for some groups of people is a dangerous precedent that may have many unintended consequences.
April Baragwanath, Geelong
Little currency in cash condition
Your correspondent’s suggestion (Letters, 22/7) that 16-year-olds are allowed to vote “when they have a taxable dollar in their pockets” raises some interesting issues. Would pensioners and others who don’t pay tax lose their vote? Then, of course, there’s the pesky part-pensioners? Perhaps they could get a part-vote, voting for the House of Representatives but not for the Senate, or should it be the other way round? It all sounds a bit too complicated to me.
Jo Bond, South Melbourne
What about a more nuanced approach?
At 20, I was required to register for National Service with the possibility of conscription to Vietnam but not allowed to vote as I turned 21 two months after the election. So I can understand the frustration of young people who take an interest in politics but are not allowed to vote. However, I suspect that many 16- and 17-year-olds aren’t all that interested in voting and shouldn’t be forced to do so. What about a “nuanced” position? Allow discretionary voting for 16- to 24-year-olds and bring compulsory voting from 25 years on. But then I am not sure that we do “nuance” too well in Australia.
Graeme Head, Newport
The more votes the merrier
If we are to allow 16-year-olds to vote, perhaps we should amend the voting system so that voters can become eligible for extra votes as they contribute more to the successful running of our society. People could perhaps earn extra votes when they obtain full-time jobs, do charitable work, get married, have children, buy a house or reach certain levels of education. On the other hand they might lose votes if convicted of crimes. Why does it have to be one vote one person?
Tony O’Brien, South Melbourne
The young need to be encouraged
The Liberal Party, as well as encouraging more female representation, could also pay close attention to encouraging more young voters to contribute to changing the mindset of party politics and enter politics to make a difference and mentor them to do so. Thinking outside the box on issues that will make a difference for their future and our present concerns, can provide vitality and ideas in discussing opportunities for change. Unless change happens, nothing changes. We will all benefit.
Christine Baker, Rosanna
THE FORUM
Wrong priorities
The Age reported (“Watchdog pleaded for help to curb abuse risks”, 23/7) that the former commissioner for children warned the state government three years ago that children would be abused if it continued to starve a vital oversight scheme of funds.
Also yesterday, I read that up to 34 large trees will be cut down at Albert Park to make way for the state government’s $350 million upgrade of the grand prix facilities (“Trees cut down for $350m pit lane upgrade”, 23/7). The cutting down of the trees is a shame in itself but to spend $350 million to upgrade the grand prix facilities should be an embarrassment for the government when funds are needed for far more vital matters for the welfare of Victorians.
John Wyatt, Armadale
Just wasted time
Time is often wasted as AFL players watch ″the shot clock″ or amble backwards just before taking a kick. There must be several minutes in each match as players watch the clock tick down, or go back to their preferred range, before actually lining up and moving into their kick.
Just wasted time.
Robert Yates, Rosanna
Remove the rorts
The report, “What the average person with $3 million in super looks like” (23/7), misses the critical issue. No one needs to have $3 million plus in super, other than to profit from overly generous tax concessions. The proposed “tax” on super earnings on balances above $3 million is easily avoided. Shift the excess assets out of super into a personal account, thus holding them directly rather than indirectly via a super fund.
And large assets such as farms can always have several claims written on them, one of less than
$3 million held by the super fund (still benefiting from the tax concession) and the other held directly on personal account (subject to normal tax rates).
It is well past the time that the superannuation tax rorts for the well-off were removed.
Kevin Davis, Emeritus Professor of Finance, University of Melbourne
Community’s wellbeing
The announcement of a pilot program (“Dozens of schools to open up sports facilities after hours for western communities”, 23/7) enabling public schools to open their sports facilities after hours is a fantastic move to support community wellbeing.
While additional support will be needed for logistics, security and maintenance, these are manageable challenges compared with the benefit of activating existing community assets.
This initiative is a small but powerful example of productivity reform, showing how government and community can better align to unlock underused infrastructure.
Private schools that receive government funds should also be supported to make their facilities accessible when not in use. If the public is contributing, the public should benefit.
James Atkins, Glen Iris
Private access appeal
I wonder how many private schools open their beautiful grounds to public use? If it’s good enough for public schools to do it, surely it’s only fair that exclusive private schools, which are recipients of huge amounts of public money, should do so also.
Rod Oaten, North Carlton
Future thinking
The Liberals criticised state Labor’s decision to build the desalination plant years ago, but the water requirements of today’s data centres show the decision to build was prescient. Critics of the Suburban Rail Link please note.
Peter Bennett, Clifton Hill
Workplace romance
While I agree with Jenna Price (Comment, 23/7) that being exposed publicly for cheating in a relationship is not necessarily a bad thing, I have to take issue with regard to workplace matchings.
My wife and I were high school teachers back in the ’80s. There were staff and students who saw us meet, date, marry and have our first child, in six years.
It was an acceptable, healthy and completely normal human experience for those young people to witness. In fact, it probably taught them a thing or two.
To belittle the fact that workplaces are where you might meet a potential life partner seriously underestimates the value of the social aspects of having a job in an organisation.
Frank Flynn, Cape Paterson
Different realities
I question the concept of reality of Amir Maimon, Israel’s ambassador to Australia, in his claim (″Israel condemnation channels Australians ‘distress’ over Gaza″, 23/7) that the joint statement of 28 countries regarding the deaths of civilians queueing for humanitarian relief in Gaza as being ″disconnected from reality″. Are these deaths not real? The Israel Defence Forces fire ″warning″ shots against threatening groups. More than 800 have died whose only threat to the IDF might be empty containers or their own shoulders to carry sacks of flour. Is this not reality? And how do ″warning″ shots hit bodies?
As well, it is reported that Palestinians have died from starvation.
Does he deny this reality as well?
Greg Sturges, Woodend
US should follow our lead
Jerry Hendrix, who holds a senior role in the US Office of Management and Budget, wants to know whether Canberra is ready to help the United States take on China (″Trump’s new submarine chief a critic of Australia″, 23/7).
Why? In what regard? If America has a problem with China, let them deal with it. They could take Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s approach: he was respectful and knew he was a guest.
Greg Bardin, Altona North
Hit the brakes
Three decades ago, then-premier Jeff Kennett told Victorian taxpayers that we would not be asked to meet the cost of the grand prix. Yet the race has been a financial car crash for taxpayers, who have paid $1 billion to host it, and the bill is growing by more than $100 million each year.
Rather than apply the hand brake, the cash-strapped Victorian government has now promised $350 million to a company to construct a pit building and corporate facility in the Albert Park Reserve.
When will this lunacy stop?
Sarah Russell, Mt Martha
For humanities sake
Thank you Ross Gittins (Comment, 23/7) for keeping public objections going to the Australian government’s continuing devaluing of the study of the humanities. The content of my teenager’s history curriculum is the most valuable thing for life ahead, out of all the content of all the subjects studied.
Ruth Farr, Blackburn South
The trade deficit
I recently bought a small electronic device that was made in Vietnam.
It was well made and works well. But it got me thinking about how many products we use in Australia that would have been manufactured in China, Vietnam and other Asian countries.
How they would have been produced by low-wage workers, probably earning much less than the Australian minimum wage.
How we consume these products without the slightest thought about the workers who labour to produce them and the care and skill they put into providing for our unappreciative consumption.
David Fry, Moonee Ponds
Been there, dung that
Your correspondent (Letters, 21/7) takes issue with columnist Kate Halfpenny using the euphemism, “bathroom”, instead of, presumably, the more “honest”, toilet, lavatory, loo or dunny. Arguably though, toilet, lavatory and loo are themselves euphemisms akin to bathroom –
all originally referring to bathing and grooming oneself (“loo” has its origins in the Proto-Indian-European root word “leue”, to wash).
Now all have been repurposed to refer – euphemistically – to the business of emptying the bladder and bowels.
If the coy use of euphemisms irks, then perhaps “dunny” is the way to go, being the abbreviation of the British dialect word, “dunnekin” – from “dung” and “ken” (house). There’s nothing euphemistic about “dunghouse”.
Deborah Morrison, Malvern East
The horror of Gaza
Your editorial (23/7) sums up the horror that is Gaza – citizens killed at unsafe aid distribution sites, increasing numbers of children starving to death, the IDF now destroying the city of Deir al-Balah where thousands of Palestinians had sought refuge, the Israeli determination to build a “humanitarian city”/concentration camp for 6000 Palestinians. You state, “It is impossible to know what Israel’s end game is”, but is that really so?
On ABC Radio National, Israeli author and journalist for Haaretz newspaper, Gideon Levy, declared that the end game was ethnic cleansing, thus joining the United Nations’ Antonio Gutterres, who has warned of it.
The statement of the 28 nations condemning the destruction and death being wrought on Gaza and its people is commendable and a long time coming but must surely be only the first step towards a ceasefire, the return of hostages and peace. Otherwise, we are all complicit, through inaction, of the tragedy that is Gaza.
Anne Sgro, Coburg North
This cycle must end
Your editorial is totally correct. The appalling suffering in Gaza must end immediately, both for Gazans and the hostages still held by Hamas. It is time for both parties to stop arguing about who started it, like schoolyard protagonists. The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is too severe for such arguments.
There have been conflicts occurring in the Middle East between Israel and other parties for many decades. The constant cycle of violence must end, and a permanent cessation of hostilities in Gaza now would be a good start to a better future, marked by stability and peace, for all inhabitants of the Middle East.
Andrew Trembath, Blackburn
Credit: Matt Golding
AND ANOTHER THING
Politics
Frustrating to hear Sussan Ley trotting out the old ″no-new-taxes″ line. As a nation we need to consider all ways of maintaining and improving our schools and hospitals.
Michael Brinkman, Ventnor
Has anyone ever seen Jacinta Allan without a hard hat on?
Ron Mather, Melbourne
Furthermore
Australia wants peace in Gaza. Trump wants piece of Gaza.
Scott Lowe, West St Kilda
Hopefully the monthly inflation figures will help increase the age pension, especially the single pension. Rates, insurance, food, everything has gone up way beyond what the twice yearly pension increase compensates for.
Carole Ruta, Benalla
Gadget-filled cars and pedestrians wearing headphones staring at their phones. What could go wrong?
Neale Woods, Wattle Glen
Penny Wong’s call for a ceasefire in Gaza will achieve nothing. Australia should immediately apply the strongest possible sanctions on Israel including a total ban on the export of all military materiel.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
Thank you, Marcus Bontempelli for showing us that more can still be less when it comes to players chasing megabucks in the AFL. He has accepted substantially less from his beloved Western Bulldogs than he can get elsewhere.
Ian McKail, Cheltenham
“Airlines looking to regional airports as gateways to International flights” (22/7). Geelong has a fantastic airport, but we have to drive past it to find a flight to most of Australia – forget about the rest of the world.
Margaret Skeen, Pt Lonsdale
Finally
″Online sperm donors faces crackdown″ (21/7). Monty Python were correct when they said ″every sperm is sacred″.
Robin Jensen, Castlemaine