Credit: Matt Golding
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Housing solution, please
No, James Newbury, I don’t really want to see Melbourne full of high-rise housing towers either (Comment, 2/11). But I agree with the Premier Jacinta Allan that we need to accept some change in order to ensure that there is sufficient, affordable housing for all. What is your solution to the housing crisis?
Bronwyn Benn, Burwood
Housing solution, given
James Newbury is right, the lack of housing should be fixed by decentralisation. Regional cities could become more attractive with moderate growth, which would help develop quality hospitals, schools and other services. Perhaps governments could financially incentivise businesses to establish branches in such cities, so further attracting population growth there.
Marguerite Marshall, Eltham
Reservoir of liveability
The article on Reservoir (2/11) was delightful and well researched on what, or in fact who, makes Reservoir so liveable and protected into the future.
The restrictive covenants on the Greenlands estate lots help protect the amenity long-standing residents have created over many decades. Just like Camberwell and Brighton, Surrey Hills, Beaumaris and beyond, trees have been planted long ago so, today, crown the urban landscape and add charm and shade to the neighbourhood while cleaning the air.
But don’t just look at the planning rules and land titles, understand and respect the people who live there too, as this article did. There’s greater scope on a large block to tweak the original dwelling design and especially to build over the garage, thus offering views while still leaving room for mature trees and veggie gardens and tranquil privacy.
Trees are fundamental to human health, we’ve known it for millennia and these days it’s called biophilia, but you can bet no one’s talking about that in Spring Street.
Bernadette George, Mildura
Weir is that?
I often hear people mention Reservore, which I think is somewhere to the east of Pascavale and Essedon.
Heather Glassford, Williamstown
An American dream
As Waleed Aly (Comment, 1/11) says, the deep divisions in the US have been widening for decades. However, his point is weakened by referring to Donald Trump’s culpability in fomenting these divisions. Blaming Trump lets the nation off hook. As Nick Bryant shows in The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself, the US has a long history of internal division and dissent. Given this history, the hope that Kamala Harris can ″turn the page″ and move the US forwards to a less polarised future seems wishful thinking.
Rod Wise, Surrey Hills
Freedom in a ballot
Tony Wright (2/11) is absolutely correct in his assessment of voting as a duty and a privilege. What people who regard compulsory voting as tyranny do not seem to understand is that the term is shorthand for compulsory casting of a ballot.
Nobody is compelled to actually vote. Anyone can simply accept the ballot paper and put it straight in the box without even marking it.
Any electoral official counting ballots later can attest to the fact that people do this, just as they can see the comments and drawings that people make on the ballot papers instead of voting.
There is no penalty for this, although they ought to realise that, if they can’t be bothered casting a valid vote, they really can’t complain about the result.
Juliet Flesch, Kew
What Hamas should do
Your correspondent (Letters, 2/11) expresses his angst about the ongoing tragic loss of innocent Gazan lives. The war that Israel didn’t start could end tomorrow if Hamas were to free the hostages, lay down its arms, and renounce its hitherto commitment to annihilate the Jewish state.
Geoff Feren, St Kilda East
Fix our priorities
″Perpetual growth is a false narrative″ writes a correspondent (Letters, 31/10). I disagree. We need growth to provide employment opportunities, renewal and revitalisation in our community. We certainly do need, however, to reduce our ″ecological footprint″, so we should promote certain types of growth and not others.
Shane Wright, in the same issue, writes of the explosion of dementia in our country, and the shortage and undervaluing of specially trained carers (″Consider quality of life when attempting to live forever″). We need growth in this area, and others in the health sector, to cope with the demographic ″iceberg″ we are sailing into. It is not sheer growth that is the problem, it is the nature of it. We need to switch from giant V8 pickups and huge plasma TVs to services like aged care. Such changes will improve our lives and take care of the need to reduce our footprint on the environment.
Ian Sharp, Somers
Close the gender chasm
Analysis of US politics shows a gender chasm that could decide the election as Donald Trump shamelessly woos the manoverse and bro vote into his camp. Clearly these men see Trump as their model of masculinity, something that makes most women cringe.
I am eternally grateful for the men in my sphere, all of whom are good and kind and tender and funny. None of them are so insecure that they have to demean or mock women. That doesn’t make them less as men, it doesn’t make them less strong, it doesn’t make them less male or appealing.
But it does make them good people to be around. They don’t feel they have to patronise or protect women, they don’t feel threatened by us and they don’t put us down.
I hope good men like the men I know prevail in the US election so the gender division that we should have outgrown decades ago is finally seen for what it is – chronic insecurity and a strong desire to hold onto long-held privilege.
Judy Hungerford, Kew
Perceptions matter
It’s time our politicians became better acquainted with ″the rules″ that govern the rest of us. Conflict of interest? Plausible deniability? The pub test? Claiming they’ve followed the letter of the law is not enough when they made the rules in the first place. No matter what the rules say, it’s the perception that counts: if they take that as a guideline, they won’t make too many mistakes. Our elected representatives need to earn the respect that their position demands.
Jenifer Nicholls, Windsor
Upgrades good value
The RAAF operates a number of specialised aircraft to transport the governor-general of Australia and the Australian prime minister. Imagine the outcry and the cost if Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called on said aircraft every time he needed to fly somewhere. Free upgrades on Qantas flights makes much more sense, not to mention better value for the taxpayer.
Phil Alexander, Eltham
Thanks to science
Your correspondent (Letters, 1/11) outlines correctly that the biggest mistake made during the COVID-19 pandemic was in the failure to deliver vaccines in a timely manner. The errors were not only made by politicians.
Many people claimed that it wouldn’t be possible to produce a vaccine in a short time frame, and when that did happen they condemned it for the small number of adverse effects, overlooking the many lives saved. There was a lot of bad opinion, and some of it persists. Formation of a national cabinet was a victory, and it offers guidance into the management of public health catastrophies. There was much that was positive that I wrote a weekly column for a regional newspaper for 32 weeks during the pandemic, and often included the aphorism – ″the scientists will save us″, as they did.
Dr Clyde Ronan, Yarrawonga