Credit: Illustration: Andrew Dyson
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ENERGY POLICY
I was shaken to the core by the Liberal Party’s proposal for the erection of seven nuclear power stations. The cost, whatever that might be, is to be met by each Australian, yet these reactors will not be operational for decades.
As Peter Dutton states, “people are hurting”. Perhaps he should reflect that this is largely due to ten years of Liberal inaction.
Victoria Cook, Melbourne
The new climate wars ignore consequences
Age writers David Crowe (12/6) and Shane Wright (19/6) see through an utterly transparent Peter Dutton. The renewed climate wars are a sad reflection of the selfish, win-at-all costs conservative side of politics. Its aim seems not to have a plan, just scaremongering to win votes. It would much appear to prefer to kick any problems down the road rather than deal with them now for the future of our children. Its decision to abandon climate targets is pathetic. After all, these mostly old white men won’t be around to suffer the consequences of a warming climate that our qualified scientists tell us is an inevitable consequence of our mistreatment of the environment. Not our problem they might say.
Ross Hudson, Mount Martha
Unknown unknowns make a no
Peter Dutton doesn’t know what his emission targets will be. He doesn’t know how much building nuclear power stations will cost or who will build them. He also doesn’t know where any nuclear waste will be stored. Taking a leaf out of his playbook, I guess if we don’t know, we should vote No!
Graeme Gardner, Reservoir
Fearmongering leads to perilous path
Re ″One giant leap towards the unknown″ (19/6). Shane Wright is to be congratulated for his article, which illustrates the death wish we would have embraced if the LNP were to win the next election. He does well to remind us of the unforgivable inaction and political opportunism of the years that the LNP were in power.
Mr Dutton’s fearmongering and disregard of what the majority of the world’s scientists are telling us regarding the changing climate is beyond belief. Our planet is already experiencing rapid ecological change. Is it going to take some catastrophe here to understand what a perilous path it would be to wait for nuclear power to be the answer, in attempting to work towards a sustainable future?
Judith Morrison, Nunawading
We need a secure energy network
I am not in favour of nuclear. It has at least a 15-year (and probably more like a 20-year) lead time. It will take until at least 2050 for any plant to be carbon-neutral. According to the latest reports, nuclear is much more expensive in LCOE (Lifetime Cost of Energy) than renewables. We need to consider storage (for hundreds of thousands of years) of waste.
Even so, Mr Dutton’s strident calls for nuclear (which ignore or try to hide my points above) have some merit. We do need reasoned and considered debate about our energy future. Our energy needs are only going to increase in the future and a secure energy system is imperative.
Earle Orenstein, Caulfield South
Dutton’s plan and the election cycle
Peter Dutton’s nuclear-powered electricity plants program maybe short-lived. If he fails to win the 2025 election then his plans fall behind another three years. By then we will be so much more advanced in our transformation to renewables that the nuclear option is even more obsolete and ridiculous than it is now.
John Rome, Mt Lawley, WA
Kicking an old can
The Coalition would have us believe their nuclear policy is forward thinking. The reality is, Dutton is trying to sell us a decades old policy that other countries are now moving away from. Dutton’s plan is just kicking the proverbial can so far down the road it will result in another 15 years of climate inaction.
Julie Perry, Highton
THE FORUM
AN RBA fallacy
Inflation is nothing other than the Consumer Price Index, which is the change in prices of rents, property rates, food, transport, insurance, health etc. Now, the Reserve Bank of Australia thinks that it can slow down these price increases by increasing the cash rate.
It should be clear to it that by increasing the cash rate the cost of money goes up and so the price of all these items rises. The idea that landlords will reduce their rent increases when the cost of their mortgage on the property rises is a fallacy.
Are local councils going to stop increasing property rates just because the cost of money has risen? No. Supermarkets are not going to stop their price increases when their costs go up either. Consumers may buy less but this does not reduce price. Consumers may cancel insurance, but this does not reduce price rises.
The benefit of increases in the cash rate is price increases benefiting the banks among others.
David King, South Yarra
It’s counterproductive
I have always been a supporter of Palestinian rights and independence and in past years I have rallied with them.
Israel is an occupying force in Palestine. It utterly controls the lives of the Palestinians and has done for decades. The Palestinians are afforded no dignity. Resentment has built up since 1948, and as despicable as the October 7 attacks were they were highly predictable. Now the brutal war in Gaza is affecting life here.
However, much sympathy I have for the Palestinian cause I have no sympathy at all for the destruction and defacing of politician’s offices, nor the fear that the vandals are creating in the community. Those who are genuinely distressed sympathisers of the Palestinian people are finding their cause is getting tainted by the few who just want to cause trouble.
Perpetrating violence and destruction is no good wherever takes place, whether it be in Gaza or here, and using it to make a political point is counterproductive and very regrettable.
Judy Hungerford, Kew
Keep it peaceful
I have never seen such support from Australians and internationally for the plight of Palestinians in my lifetime. To maintain this support, Palestinian movements in Australia must tread carefully.
Daubing parliamentary offices and libraries (″Baillieu library graffitied″, 19/6), violent demonstrations, using groups which might have a wider agenda than the Israel/Palestine dispute will diminish this groundswell of support for which Palestinians have waited so long. Demonstrate but keep it peaceful.
Tony Devereux, Nunawading
Phonics pathway
As a specialist teacher trained and working daily in literacy instruction, I wholeheartedly disagree with Tom Mahoney’s suggestion that the mandate to teach phonics is ill-advised (“What mandated phonics means for Victoria’s haemorrhaging teacher numbers”, 19/6).
As a profession, we must be responsive to evidence. Many teachers will require retraining, and this is necessary to support their skills and knowledge and improve student outcomes.
When I transitioned from a science teacher to a literacy teacher, I was a blank canvas on the views of how to teach reading. After thorough research and putting it into practice, the evidence was clear: explicitly teaching phonics and phonemic awareness was the most effective way to build the crucial reading skills of all students, putting them on the pathway to becoming skilled readers.
Teaching teenagers who couldn’t read Grade 1 texts how to read, proved to me that the structured and explicit approach to teaching reading is the most sensible and evidence-based approach.
Teaching is hard work, and it is made more challenging when students aren’t skilled readers. The mandate is not a panacea, but it is a step in the right direction and has my support.
Name and address withheld
Tax private schools
I’m pleased to see that Victoria receives net tax from 42 high fee paying schools, however what’s disappointing is that 558 are still supported by taxpayers. (″Victorian takes net tax from 42 of 600-odd fee schools″, 19/6).
We must remember that unfortunately they receive the bulk of their subsidy from the federal government, and that we are one of the few countries in the world that subsidises private schooling. The sooner we stop subsidising private schooling the better. If you choose private schools that’s fine, but you should pay for it.
Denise Stevens, Healesville
Cost of ditching gas
I suspect your correspondent (Letters, ″Switch not so easy″, 19/6) was not well advised on costs and complexity in changing over from gas to heat pumps (aka reverse cycle).
We made the change 3 years ago, after years of expensive ducted gas central heating supplemented by a wood heater.
We threw out the gas central heating and the wood heater, replacing all with three reverse cycle units, heating those main areas that needed them. Bedrooms and bathrooms being heated by conventional electric heaters. These are turned on only on the few occasions required. The three units (18kW in total) heat a large house for less than the previous cost of wood alone. They are totally silent and cost less than $11,000, fully installed. There is no issue with piping it is all very small bore. The indoor heaters are floor rather than wall mounted and don’t detract from the aesthetics of a Federation house.
Colin Simmons, Woodend
Rehabilitate ex-prisoners
While it is appropriate that the National Disability Insurance Agency makes sure that providers of disability services are safe, and risks are being properly managed (“Shorten asks states for list of criminals on the NDIS”, 19/6), supporting people who leave prison increases the likelihood of rehabilitation, which increases the safety and well-being of the whole community.
Based on our experience of church members’ engagement with people sent to prison, a lack of support provided to people with disability was often a causal factor in them breaking the law in the first place.
When governments rightly shut down institutions for people with mental impairments, they failed to put in place necessary supports in the community for these people. In some cases, prisons have now replaced those institutions.
It makes far more sense to assist people to be productive members of the community than leave them in situations where they are more likely to return to prison.
Dr Mark Zirnsak, senior social justice advocate, Uniting Church in Australia
Dirigiste thinking
George Brandis’ reflections (″Brexit will dominate the UK election. Not this one, but the next″, 18/6) on UK Labour’s likely actions perhaps reflect his own ideological bent, rather than a fairer appraisal of public opinion. He says we can expect a more ″dirigiste″ government. True, we can anticipate Labour to exert more centralised control, given the disorganised 14 years of Tory leadership clumsily lurching towards a disorganised, laissez-faire, Trump-like, populist approach, which has gutted all the fundamental education, health, housing and transport services that people expect of their government.
Brexit of course was a catalyst. But to envisage an unbridled, ″socialist″ Starmer taking the UK back to the implied dark days of the 70s – I think not. Ironically the major concern of many Labour supporters is that Sir Keir Starmer will be too conservative, when the public wants a U-turn out of recession.
As for the Brandis concerns that imposing VAT (their GST) on private schools will (horror of horrors) force many “middle income families” into the state system, this rhetoric and its cousin, “aspiration”, have served conservative Australian governments well; but is nonsensical in Britain where fewer that six per cent of students attend private schools
John Brooks, Vermont South
US beats Chinese model
The US system might be flawed as your correspondent suggests (Letters, 19/6) but it is still a damn sight better than the China model he seems to be spruiking. Sure, China has lifted around 800 million people out of poverty, but US-led capitalism, for all its flaws, has given billions of people around the world the opportunity of a better lifestyle.
Your corespondent says the US has a “paranoid opposition to socialism and communism″. It sure does, and with communist poster boys like China, Russia and North Korea, why wouldn’t it? The US political system, even with underwhelming Biden and Trump as its best candidates, is still democratic and therefore vastly superior to China’s, where Xi Jinping is the only option.
And your writer might like to ponder the evils of US hegemony the next time Chinese coastguard boats fire water cannon at innocent Phillipines fishing boats.
Greg Hardy, Upper Ferntree Gully
Art of conversation
This weekend marks the departure of Phillip Adams from the little wireless program, Late Night Live, on Radio National. His presence has become such a cornerstone of my evening routine that even my phone has started reminding me to listen in when it hits 10pm.
As a 29-year-old, I am continuously impressed by Phillip’s ability to keep an open mind, critically think and show curiosity to new ideas and perspectives. We all ought to take a leaf out of Phillip’s book when it comes to the art of a conversation. I will always be grateful for the comfort and calmness that Phillip has provided via the humble radio.
Ella Casey, Carlton North
AND ANOTHER THING
Dutton’s nuclear plans
Peter Dutton said that the nuclear power stations would be built by a corporation modelled on the NBN and Snowy 2.0. How late did those projects run, or are running?
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
Which is easier to sell to NIMBYs – wind turbines 20km offshore or nuclear reactors in your backyard?
Bernd Rieve, Brighton
The Coalition has proposed a nuclear reactor at Loy Yang, Gippsland. The Loy Yang site is close to primary schools, secondary colleges and the Federation University campus. Have the tragic lessons of Chernobyl (1986), Fukushima (2011) and Kashiwazaki (2007) been lost on the Coalition?
David Baker, Parkdale
After reading today’s Age I thought – Australia would be a nice place to live, if it wasn’t for the politicians.
David Cayzer, Clifton Hill
The Coalition the better economic manager? I refer to the statistics from Age Insight of May 13, 2023 which illustrated the Coalition has not had a balanced budget since Peter Costello.
Shirley Videion, Hampton
I’m glad I haven’t invested in land in the Latrobe Valley.
Sandra Torpey, Hawthorn
Could Mr Dutton please detail how he would reduce energy prices for today’s consumers?
Fiona Colin, Malvern East
Furthermore
How about if the state schools received the amount of funding that private schools get, and private schools get the funding that state schools get?
Marie Nash, Balwyn
Australians with trade exports firmly in mind should feel pleased that our federal Trade Minister Don Farrell is still tactfully digging his claws into China’s rock lobster ban. Eric Palm, Gympie, Qld
Finally
The ramping of 21 ambulances at the Austin Hospital demonstrates what a failure our health system is.
Mary Fenelon, Doncaster East
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