Credit: Megan Herbert
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As an ongoing participant in the pro-Palestinian rallies on a Sunday over the past two years I am impressed by the orderliness, the commitment and combined intent of the crowd in coming together to express their horror at the annihilation of the Palestinian populations in Gaza and the West Bank. We feel helpless to do more than support each other and raise awareness, particularly of our politicians that the West, including the Australian government, is complicit. We supply parts that are used in armaments. While I condone none of the anti-Jewish behaviour of a few which we became aware of through publicity and which occurred last Friday, I cannot see how it relates to the extraordinarily committed protests on Sundays in support of the suffering Palestinians.
The poster that sums up the lot of the Palestinian children reads: Orphaned, Maimed, Limbless and Starving.
Julie Moran, Hawthorn
Australia has no influence to stop carnage
The point of protest is to pressure those who have power, who are in control, to do something. Freedom rides and the moratoriums in Australia were important in forcing the Australian government to act on issues which they controlled. In what manner can protest marches in Melbourne pressure a government on the other side of the world to do something? No matter how righteous the cause, and it is righteous, there is nothing the Australian government can do to stop the carnage in Gaza. In fact, it is likely the events of Friday and Sunday will negate what little influence the Australian government may have had over the Israeli government. Israel’s government can rightly say the survival of Israel is necessary now more than ever, to protect Jews and provide a safe haven, as they are so unsafe in Melbourne. The Sunday marchers should have self-censored (Letters, 9/7) after the attacks on Friday. Over almost two years, the marches have achieved nothing except making Jews feel unsafe in their own country. Louise Kloot, Doncaster
Israeli government is not taking notice
The problem with the weekly demonstrations against the war in Gaza is that almost nobody is taking any notice of them any more. If they think the Israeli government are, they are clearly mistaken. The Israeli government doesn’t care what Australians or any other country thinks, they barely take any notice of the US who are one of their major funders and therefore should have influence. Everyday Australians don’t need this protest to make us aware of what is happening in Gaza; the horror is fed to us daily on many variations of news platforms in much more graphic detail than any protest march can show. The only people who unfortunately have to take notice are the proprietors of businesses who have to close their doors every week as it is impossible to trade.
David Parker, Geelong West
Full marks on two fronts
Full marks to The Age for its integrity in publishing Lorne Frank’s letter (9/7), which very effectively rebutted the editorial of July 7. And full marks to Frank for defending those who continue to peacefully protest against the ongoing atrocities being committed against Palestinians in Israel.
Peter Gerrand, West Melbourne
Please, no more chants of death
″Death to the IDF″ is just as bad as previous chants. Due to the hostile neighbourhood, every Israeli citizen, from the age of 18, is enlisted to the IDF with few exceptions permitted. Most males, at least, are required to do army reserve until they are well over the age of 40. Chanting for the death of every young high school graduate in Israel is nothing short of abhorrent. Furthermore, chanting ″death″ to anyone should not be tolerated in our country. Enough is enough.
Debra Rhodes, Armadale
THE FORUM
Review higher education
Thanks for placing columnist Jenna Price’s denunciation of the devastation being wrought in our universities (Comment, 9/7) adjacent to Danielle Wood’s preview of the productivity roundtable (″Mojo the secret to reform success″).
Price describes how our universities are being destroyed by the combination of dependence on full fee-paying international students and the perceived need to cut the costs of teaching in order to direct fee income into (commercialisable) research. Surprisingly, Wood does not mention universities in her review of possible productivity reforms. As an academic with long experience of teaching in China I can testify to the astonishing investment China has made in university development over the past 30 years, the outcomes of which underpin the advances in technology (and productivity) described by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (″Trump’s big, beautiful mistake will have China licking its lips″, 8/7).
I urge Wood and other participants at the productivity roundtable to pay more attention to reversing the failures of higher education policies since the reforms of the late 1980s.
David Legge, Brunswick East
Not an industry
Jenna Price’s piece is a sad but true reflection of the state of the tertiary sector.
Universities in days gone by were institutions where eager students would be able to learn freely from leaders in their field. They were institutions where you could test the limits of argument and endeavour and dream of growing into a learned profession. Universities were seen as an indicator of the health of a country’s education system and, ultimately, the health of our democracy.
Gough Whitlam did a great thing for our young people (and the country) when he made universities free, giving people of all ages and backgrounds the opportunities to get better. However, in recent times universities have become just another way for our country to generate money from overseas (students). Our academics are forced to only do things that have a ″return″ while the vice chancellors fight, not for academic excellence, but to get the most number of students through at the least cost. Our politicians should be ashamed at the way they have allowed our once admired system to be trammelled. I can only add the following to Price’s lament: Education is not an industry.
Shaun Quinn, Yarrawonga
The risks of AI
Danielle Wood nominates the increased usage of AI as her No.1 discussion point for the upcoming productivity roundtable. She acknowledges there are risks that require increased regulation. While the focus of the roundtable is to reduce redtape and increase productivity, the increasing use of AI is indeed a double-edged sword. Big business will be salivating at the costs to be saved and the fewer employees it needs by AI’s greater use. Not all the financial benefits of increased productivity should flow to business profits and executive bonuses. Robust controls-protections will be needed to support workers in their immediate and long-term displacement.
A Labor government should not be encouraging the slashing of redtape and introduction of new work practices that exacerbate the position of those workers and consumers bearing the brunt of any new technologies.
Peter Thomson, Brunswick
Morality and war
Your correspondent (Letters, 9/7) suggests that few now doubt the moral rectitude of those who take part in Melbourne’s weekly Gaza demonstrations. But one is certainly entitled to question the righteousness of those, like your correspondent, who have nothing to say either about Hamas’ vile war crime of continuing to hold Israeli hostages, or its human shield strategy that inevitably maximises civilian loss of life.
The foremost tragedy of this war is that so many appear to be motivated more by their desire to demonise and delegitimise Israel, than by genuine concern for the welfare of Palestinians.
This is perhaps best demonstrated by the uniqueness of this conflict in which efforts to allow civilians to get out of harm’s way have been steadfastly resisted. Israel is accused of ethnic cleansing in wanting to facilitate this, but when it doesn’t happen, it’s accused of genocide.
Geoff Feren, St Kilda East
What is chant’s origin?
The fact that demonstrators chanted ″Death to the IDF″ in Melbourne last Sunday deserves more thought. During the rallies against the Vietnam War, no one chanted, ″Death to the American forces″. I know. I was there. When demonstrators marched against the war in Iraq, this did not happen either. No one has marched and chanted for the deaths of Putin, Bashar al-Assad, the generals of Myanmar, or the leaders in the Sudanese war, all ongoing, or recent conflicts.
Where could this come from? Surely this is more than anger at the IDF?
Pia Brous, Armadale
Living in harmony
Listening to the Rabbi of the East Melbourne Synagogue on ABC Radio on Monday was inspiring, especially when he spoke of a recent admission of one of his children to the Royal Children’s Hospital.
At the hospital, he was in a discussion with Muslim and Christian parents. They spoke about what a wonderful country we live in. Australia is made up of many nationalities and cultures, but we must co-exist harmoniously. It is the best country, let’s keep it that way.
Peter O’Brien, Newport
Why muted response?
There has been a public outcry about the attacks on two synagogues from our leaders, but hardly a peep out of them, especially the LNP, about the wanton destruction and slaughter going on in Palestine.
John Cain, McCrae
Putin is not worried
I doubt that Vladimir Putin will be too concerned over angering Donald Trump with his intransigence over the Ukraine war he seems uninterested in ending. Putin needs to only wait a few days for Trump to change his mind yet again or if that fails Putin can nominate Trump for a Nobel prize – it seems to be the popular move at the moment.
Ross Hudson, Mount Martha
Trump, meet Kissinger
On the other hand, a Nobel Peace Prize would put Trump in company with the likes of Henry Kissinger – seems about right.
Maurie Keenan, Balaclava
Protecting the oceans
Australia certainly extends beyond Portland, to South Australia and beyond (Letters, 7/7). And the problem of algal bloom around SA is both a major problem itself, and a symptom of the ″marine heatwave″ in the oceans around Australia.
The core problem is global warming, including of the sea. In 2024, then environment minister Tanya Plibersek, extended the area of marine parks, including off the coast of Victoria and South Australia. This brought the total area of protected marine space to 52 per cent of Australia’s ocean territory.
That is a start, but not enough. Marine scientists are calling for $40 million to be spent on marine research and damage mitigation.
There is already some focus on worsening bleaching to coral on the Great Barrier Reef. This effort must be extended to cover all of Australia’s marine areas.
John Hughes, Mentone
Teaching is a calling
I feel obliged to reply to several letters (8/7) about teacher training.
In 1958, I started a two-year course in a UK residential teacher training college. As well as visiting several different types of schools and attending lectures relevant to our choice of courses, we had six teaching practices in classrooms. I completed the course in 1960 and was qualified to teach in secondary schools.
When I migrated to Australia in 1971 the authorities here accepted my teaching qualification and experience. I retired from a very enjoyable teaching career in 2003.
My own secondary education was in a grammar school where all the staff had to have a university degree. Some of my teachers were very good and some, in spite of their degrees, were not.
Teaching is not a job. It is a calling comparable with, say, nursing.
Chris Rhodes, Gisborne
The erosion of joy
Managerial culture came to universities in the 1990s (Comment, 9/7). The most noticeable change was the growth of university bureaucracies. To support a corporate culture, university bureaucracies became gigantic. Campuses were filled with layer upon layer of administrators.
As a result of these bureaucratic layers, academic activities such as teaching, research and publishing became onerous. The joy of being an academic, and making a contribution to knowledge, was slowly eroded.
Dr Sarah Russell, Mt Martha
A conciliatory gesture
After analysing his own behaviour, Benjamin Netanyahu must see Donald Trump’s behaviour as deserving of a peace prize. Dropping only a handful of enormous bombs on another country would seem conciliatory.
John Groom, Bentleigh
A noble endeavour
I’m now soliciting support to nominate myself for the Nobel Prize for Literature for my body of work in Letters to the Age.
Peter Price, Southbank
AFL out on the full
The AFL has lost the plot with its proposed in-season tournament to keep the fans engaged. Instead, how about just progressing all clubs to the finals.
Jenny Bone, Surrey Hills
Credit: Matt Golding
AND ANOTHER THING
Trump
Benjamin Netanyahu nominating Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize is a very dark and scary sick joke.
Brendan O’Farrell, Brunswick
What an absolute insult to the prize itself.
Carole Ruta, Benalla
Donald Trump nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize – an oxymoron in keeping with the contradictory naming of the prize.
Greg Curtin, Nunawading
I’d like to nominate RFK jnr for the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
Stephen Baldwin, Frankston
″Donald Trump is like an auctioneer in an ill-fitting suit and loud tie, trying to sell a property that no one wants to buy.″ (Stephen Bartholomeuz, 9/7). A perfect image of TACO Donald Trump.
Kay Moulton, Surrey Hills
The Trump administration is like one big game of Deal or No Deal.
Ron Mather, Melbourne
Furthermore
How wonderful to have a system of interest-rate settings based on economic reality, not government whim.
Graeme Rose, Wangaratta
Discussion about the AFL’s two-tier competition distracts the football public from bigger issues like the league’s dependence on gambling revenue.
David Cayzer, Clifton Hill
Surely the AFL isn’t spooked by the State of Origin in the NRL? Three games that pack out the stands and rate highly on TV but the regular attendance at weekly matches is minuscule compared to the crowds that flock to the AFL.
Phil Alexander, Eltham
I can see the merit in your correspondent’s recommendation to split the league into two tiers. However, that system would prevent us seeing the Pies v the Blues in the near distant future.
Bryan Fraser, St Kilda West
An Emperor penguin taking any notice of a Trump tariff? You’ve got to be joking.
Margaret Skeen, Pt Lonsdale