Credit: Cathy Wilcox
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For decades most Australians didn’t care about Australia Day. They weren’t sure when it was or what it was about, but they appreciated the public holiday when it came. Since John Howard was prime minister, Australia Day has been actively promoted as our national day and a serious and sometimes bitter debate has erupted over the appropriateness of the January 26 date.
This conflicts with one of the traits of our national character in that traditionally Australians don’t take anything too seriously. People who take things too seriously are called ratbags. Ironically, Australia Day is now the most ″unAustralian″ day of the year. The best, and most Australian way, to celebrate Australia Day is to not celebrate it. Luckily, irony is also a national characteristic.
Peter Martina, Warrnambool
Let’s look to the next generations
On a tram last Saturday, I sat next to an eight-year-old boy. His grandmother and sister sat across the aisle. We chatted. He was in grade 3, loved opera, played the piano and was soon to also take up the violin. He said he read a lot. One of his riveting statements was that “on January 26, 1788 we were all colonised”.
How true. It’s time all Australians carefully reviewed the values and deeds of the British who colonised Australia in 1788; note the good and the bad, progress made, what negative value baggage we still carry from that time, what further changes we want, and how to best achieve that change. Let’s get it right for the next generations.
Jennifer Gerrand, Carlton North
We don’t need to be so mean-spirited
Think about the worst trauma that your family has suffered in the near or distant past, then imagine how it would feel if you were expected to celebrate that event on that day every year. When a change of date would make such a difference, why are we being so mean-spirited and thoughtless in causing repeated grief to our First Nations peoples?
Grace Brisbane-Webb, Skye
What’s happened to the principle of a fair go?
When Captain Arthur Phillip established the first foreign colony at Sydney Cove, he had been charged by the British Colonial Office with the responsibility of respecting the traditions of the native populations of the lands he inhabited. Today we seem to still be struggling with this process.
Our First Nations people have been very patient. They lost the opportunity of a Voice to parliament and are still reminded of the invasion of their land by an annual day of celebration by the descendants of the invaders. There are a number of possibilities for the celebration of Australia’s achievement in becoming a federated democracy while avoiding a conflicted association with the initial invasion of native lands.
After all, it’s probably safe to say that Australia Day, to most non-Indigenous Australians, is simply one in a string of public holidays whereas, to many Indigenous people, it’s a reminder of a counter-cultural event. So what’s happened to the Australian principle of “a fair go”?
John Davis, East Malvern
Don’t ignore the silent majority
Are our state and federal Labor governments so tone deaf that they cannot read the room and hear the mood of most Australians? No to the Voice, changing the date of Australia Day, to anti-semitism, to the disruptive behaviour of destructive protesters, and a very big no to the relentless leftist, woke, progressive insanity of Labor’s pursuit of idealism over commonsense. For anyone in doubt, just check the views of the silent majority reflected in recent polls in every state.
Peter Baulch, Safety Beach
THE FORUM
Not tradie sweetener
The latest sweetener by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to encourage builders to employ more apprentices will not solve the tradie shortage for the domestic market. The lure of six-figure salaries and conditions such as site allowances and rostered days off on large commercial projects will attract these new tradies as soon as their apprenticeship is complete.
Peter Roche, Carlton
The PM’s strength
Since 1984, nine referendums have been put to the Australian people, and all were defeated. I cannot recall any previous government being continually criticised in the media for having the debate and letting the electorate decide the outcome to a proposed change to the Constitution.
Anthony Albanese and his government displayed strength and courage in putting the Voice question to the people. Contrary to this, Peter Dutton quickly withdrew his commitment to hold another referendum when the Voice proposal failed. The opposition leader pursues a false narrative of his own strength when compared to that of the prime minister. I trust that the electorate and media will sort through the hype and note that strength of character is measured in actions, and a commitment to prosecute your beliefs regardless of the potential outcome.
Chris McCallum, Nathalia
Man of his word
George Brandis damns Anthony Albanese with faint praise (Comment, 27/1). But he would, wouldn’t he?
Whether or nor Albanese gains a second term, it’s worth pointing out to Brandis that although the Voice referendum failed, it was a pledge by Albanese before he won office. I knew, Brandis knew, we all knew that that was what Albanese promised, the country voted for him and he won the election. He reiterated that pledge on his first day in office.
Politicians are so often pilloried for breaking their promises. Albanese did not break his promise. I believe that there was nothing cynical in Albanese’s commitment to the Voice. It was a deeply held belief that Indigenous people should be recognised in the Constitution.
For Brandis to demean what was an election promise and a personal commitment as an abject failure doesn’t take into account the concerted and cynical effort by his side of politics to destroy the Voice and make sure it couldn’t succeed. Yet they blame and mock Albanese for its failure. It’s a crying shame.
Judy Hungerford, Kew
Poll demographics
Re the article ″Voters turn to Dutton as inflation figures bite″ (23/1 ?). Yeah right. Obviously, the voters have forgotten the debt left to us by Scott Morrison at the last election, as well as other little financial messes like the sports rorts and station car parks. Where are these poll figures coming from? The cashed-up side of town?
John Cain, McCrae
Ley’s bizarre comparison
Australia Day and time for a politician to say something weird. In this case Sussan Ley, who has compared the arrival of the first white people in Australia to some future mission to Mars, presumably funded by the US taxpayers and overseen by Elon Musk.
This is a bizarre comparison. For one thing, everything the British navy found was relatively familiar, things like people, water, plants, sand, air, clouds, blue sky. Apart from being a bit warmer it wasn’t a lot different from home. None of that is remotely like landing on Mars where the temperature ranges from -153 to 20 degrees, there’s no food or readily available water, or air.
Second, there was a reason for visiting Australia – they wanted to conquer and plunder new lands to increase the power and dominion of the empire. I’ve yet to hear a good reason for going to Mars, other than soothing the ego of Elon Musk.
Graham Parton, Beechworth
Arrogance writ large
Sussan Ley’s comparison of the ″settling″ of Australia by the British to Elon Musk wanting to colonise Mars is spot on. The idea of ″terra nullius″ writ large. There probably isn’t life on Mars, although we really don’t know and clearly we don’t care. Just like the British thought Australia was empty, except for the Indigenous population, and went ahead anyway to claim it for themselves. The arrogance is breathtaking.
Claire Cooper, Maldon
Imperialistic mentality
Sussan Ley’s Australia Day speech was more like a tirade of an imperialistic mentality. Her words ″they did not come to destroy or to pillage″ are beyond belief. They massacred our First Nations people, stole their land, institutionalised their children and had no respect tor their cultural languages and practices. Aboriginal people were seen as inferior to white people (this racism continues today). Let us remember this was done with a Bible and a gun.
Judith Morrison, Nunawading
Trump’s non-Putin deal
President Donald Trump often said that he would end the war in Ukraine in one day. The fact is, Trump can end that war but not through any deal that he hopes could be made with Putin. He could use his strength to hit those countries that are not pulling their weight in enforcing sanctions on Russia. Russia could not survive for long by only trading with supporting dictatorships like China, North Korea and Hungary.
There are still some countries, (like India), that could hold the key to bringing this war to an end. If Trump is the deal-maker he proclaims to be, now is the time to use his power and skills, by incentive or coercion, to put more countries under pressure to fight Russia economically.
If he was at all clever, he could exempt all those countries that are upholding sanctions on Russia from the tariff increases he is proposing. That would help bring pressure to bear on Putin while reducing the inflationary impact that his proposed tariffs will have at home.
Ian Payne, Blackburn
Good left unharnessed
It’s such a shame that the wealth and power of Donald Trump and Elon Musk won’t be harnessed for the good of the US and the world, but to their detriment.
Colin Smith, Dandenong
Idiocracy reigns
The article ″Trump’s ridiculous ‘meme coin’ lays bare crypto’s rotten underbelly″ (26/1) gives warning to the volatility of cryptocurrency and its ″degenerative cousin, meme coins″. Underneath the veneer of faux respectability afforded by the presidential mantle, Donald Trump is continuing with his snake oil salesman behaviour that he is renowned for. The article makes valid points, the main one being the rich will get richer and the bulk of the participants in this latter-day Ponzi scheme will get fleeced.
If the truth be known, Trump is leading a government in the form of an idiocracy run by an oligarchy of billionaires with an authoritarian leaning. They are using cryptocurrency and their disruptive conspiracy theories to manipulate and control the uneducated and ignorant in their quest to mine them for money.
David Legat, South Morang
Grabbing territory
Germany in the 1930s experienced overwhelming nationalism and a yearning for so-called strong leadership. Then came the territory grabs. Contemporary America also is experiencing overwhelming nationalism and yearnings for “strong leadership”. And guess what, the territory grabs have begun: Greenland and the Panama Canal.
Frank Jones, Melbourne
Robber barons in power
It’s been tempting to laud the ″tech bros″ as today’s equivalent of the great minds of the Renaissance, such as da Vinci, Galileo and Copernicus. Sadly, today’s geniuses have proven to be little more than high-end grifters who really seek only more money and power. The swing of allegiance and fealty from Obama/Biden to Trump confirms that they are not the true Renaissance men we hoped for, but rather the modern version of the robber barons of the Gilded Age.
Mark Morrison, Kew
Bishop’s wisdom
Reminiscent of Michelle Obama’s mantra that ″when they go low, we go higher″, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde displayed the exact attitude. Rising above the partisan squabble of the political campaigning, she reached for the dizzying heights of the great Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Geoff Cheong, Aspendale Gardens
Trump’s character
I wonder whether your correspondent (Letters, 23/1) is aware of the irony of his letter lauding the return of Donald Trump to “restore the rule of law and family values”.
Donald Trump is a convicted felon, has been found in court to have sexually assaulted a woman in a department store, had sex with a porn star while his wife was pregnant (before trying to pay her off) and attempted an insurrection to overthrow a legitimate election. To name just a few examples of his morality.
We clearly have different views on the meaning of both the law and family.
Simon Bennett, Hawthorn East
Carbon footprint dilemma
Should I travel interstate to visit family? So much climate change news is in your face with, for example, three pages of it in The Sunday Age (26/1). And that’s only scratching the surface of so much devastation.
Equally in your face is the temptation to “spend your inheritance” on distant exotic places. Travel agents are hammering cheap fares and packages.
What to do with my carbon footprint? Can I have my cake and eat it?
Martin Hengeveld, Research
AND ANOTHER THING
Grace Tame
Grace, we need more of your bravery.
John Handley, Cheltenham
I stand with Grace Tame. The world would be a fairer place if the media was not controlled by self-interested billionaires.
Jan Downing, Hawthorn East
Re Letters, 27/1: So, now Anthony Albanese is responsible for a T-shirt worn by someone else is he? Really?
Ross Hosking, Blackwood, SA
Furthermore
Re George Brandis’ column on enduring legacies (27/1). He thinks AUKUS is Scott Morrison’s. I think it was robo-debt, vaccine rollout failure, policy inertia and secret ministries.
Frank Flynn, Cape Paterson
Sussan Ley equates the British colonisation of Australia with an American’s dream to colonise Mars. Given what happened here, god help the Martians.
Glen White, Teesdale
As far as we know, Sussan Ley, there are no humans on Mars. Colonising Mars is nothing like colonising Australia.
Jenny Herbert, Metung
How quaint – but troubling – that a senior Coalition member still believes in the discredited theory of terra nullius. Rob Parker, Elsternwick
It is extraordinary that an educated person and member of the opposition could come up with such a silly and erroneous analogy. Brendan O’Farrell, Brunswick
Trump uses loyalty tests on political views for his hires (27/1)? Democracy may not be dead in America, but it has caught a very serious illness.
John Hughes, Mentone
Think Australia, do we really want to become a Trump-pet?
Patricia Rivett, Ferntree Gully
Trump’s bluster, bullying and treating any contrary thought as automatically coming from an enemy shows that Lord Acton’s dictum, “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely” still applies.
Barrie Bales, Woorinen North