Credit: Matt Golding
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Not a good model
Spot on Richard Flanagan (Comment, 18/1). Anthony Albanese will hand Peter Dutton the election through his do nothing substantial approach to governing. In these tough social and economic times people want a decisive leader who’ll get things done.
Despite only having a fanciful and economically insane policy on nuclear power Dutton is selling himself as a tough and decisive leader.
Albanese is selling himself as the man who barely exists. Swinging voters often vote on impressions rather than policy rigour and Dutton is making an impression that will appeal to many voters, whereas Albanese is making as much impression as a mannequin.
Rohan Wightman, Muckleford
Lasting peace?
Your correspondent (Letters, 18/1) refers to the original 1948 UN vote to establish Israel as being predicated on a two-state solution, and stresses the need for ″the legitimate claims of the Palestinians to be recognised″. The problem is that, for more than a century, enlightened rhetoric has consistently succumbed to brutal realpolitik in the Middle East and it is hard to see this changing.
US President Bill Clinton got close to a resolution in the 1993 Oslo Accord between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and a string of terrorist attacks by Hamas, put paid to that. It must be said, that it is is rarely acknowledged that the seminal 1917 Balfour Declaration, under the auspices of the British government, in support of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, also stipulated ″that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine″. In 2025, it is surely quixotic to envisage a lasting peace in this fraught region where there remains a dearth of leadership.
Jon McMillan, Mount Eliza
In Israel’s court
Your correspondent (Letters, 18/1) states that Hamas’ raison d’être is the elimination of the Israeli state. That may be, but until and unless Israel removes itself permanently from the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territories and stops allowing illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Palestinians will understandably feel deep and profound resentment.
As long as that profound resentment continues you can expect pushback by, if not the Palestinian people, then Hamas. Palestinians have the right to defend themselves. Israel can stop them needing to. Israel must remove itself from all Palestinian Territories, completely and permanently.
Judy Hungerford, Kew
A happy Monday
Your correspondent (Letters, 16/1) in suggesting that Australia day be celebrated on the last Monday in January has contributed a seemingly acceptable solution to the controversy of holding the celebration on January 26. One can understand the concerns that many hold, that our present commemoration of our nationhood on that date, a time which marks the arrival of the British Fleet in 1788 and their raising of the flag of Great Britain on our shores thus heralding the colonisation or invasion of our great land, is inappropriate.
By moving the celebration to a non-controversial period (day rather than date) we would secure a day that all could unreservedly cherish, such as the suggested last Monday in January. It would, in effect, eliminate any connotation other than it being our Australia Day. A special day whose usage would occur only once in each year. A day that would embrace our saying of “having a good day”.
Australia Day, the last Monday of January, a day for everyone to hold dear and enjoy without reservation.
Brian Marshall, Ashburton
Smashing racquets
Why not penalise tennis players who smash their racquets during a match by not allowing them to use a replacement and continue playing, as happens in golf. This will soon smarten them up and improve the game.
Sue Bradshaw, Fitzroy
Two standards at play
So let’s get this straight, Nick Kyrgios can carry on like a pork chop on the tennis court anytime he likes, but when Danielle Collins quite rightly indicates to a juvenile Australian tennis audience to kiss her behind, she’s vilified? Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.
Ginny West, Jan Juc
Default is in the crowd
Well done Danielle Collins for challenging the badly behaved crowd. The booing, applause for mistakes and wilful interference is unacceptable and a shamefully poor reflection on our city. It is a form of bullying, made all the more cowardly through it being propagated enmasse.
Rick Dixon, Mount Eliza
Keep it in abeyance
I didn’t realise there was a Bay 13 at Rod Laver Arena?
Ron Mather, Melbourne
Crassness takes over
Sorry Marc McGowan and Greg Baum, re Danielle Collins antics (“It was petulant, obnoxious but thoroughly entertaining″, 18/1). You got the first two parts right. It seems to be the direction that all sports are heading in. Louder, more confrontation. The more the better it seems with the crowds. Blaring music at the cricket with an avalanche of pyrotechnics going off for added entertainment. Cans and beer being thrown everywhere on the party hole in golf. What can we expect next, blaring music and fireworks at the world chess championships?
David West, Essendon
Wrong defence strategy
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the impacts of climate change are threatening the security of Australia to a similar degree, if not more so, to that of a foreign country attack, invasion or terrorism. We need to put our resources where they will have the biggest impact. I’m not convinced that nuclear submarines, which won’t be usable for well over a decade anyway, will reduce the risk of bushfires, floods, storms or droughts. We might need to recalculate our defence budget if we are to have a secure future.
Jennie Epstein, Little River
Duck shooting failures
With another duck season highly likely on the horizon. State Labor last year ignored its own native bird inquiry and in lieu of banning duck shooting promised to implement before the 2025 duck season, improved animal welfare outcomes.
It would do this through the Waterfowl Wounding Reduction Action Plan, banning the use of lead shot in quail hunting, improving hunter knowledge and skill through mandatory education and training for hunters, including cultural awareness training, strengthening compliance, including further penalties for hunters doing the wrong thing, and greater recognition of traditional owners’ knowledge and practice of hunting and land management, and continuing to implement the Traditional Owner Game Management Strategy.
But, these have not been implemented either. When will Labor stop ducking around and protect our native water birds? How can voters trust Labor if it ignores its own committee recommendations and fails to implement its committee recommendations it has agreed to?
Tim Hawthorne, Maddingley
One election date
Why does the prime minister have the right to decide the election date? It should be set in stone, or be announced by the governor-general. In sport, reigning trophy holders cannot decide what day they will defend. It should be the same in politics.
Peter Sweeney,
Bicton, WA
An omen blows in
Is the Arctic blast about to hit the east coast of America tomorrow a portent of what’s to come with a second Donald Trump presidency?
David Brophy, Beaumaris