Majority suffer due to idiocy of the few

Credit: Cathy Wilcox

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E-BIKES

Electric bikes have become popular because of their convenience and low cost to run. Some don’t have a car. All you need is an e-bike and a train timetable to get around. The suggestion that they be banned from public transport (“Electric scooters and e-bikes face ban”, 23/7) will have a significant impact on cyclists.
They use them with public transport when just public transport is not convenient. They often ride to a station due to the distance and then when they reach their destination. If they are banned there will no doubt be more cars on the road. The decision will impact a significant number of cyclists that look after their e-bike because of a few that choose to take risks. Also people want e-bikes to be registered. Why should the majority suffer due to the idiocy of the few?
There are other means to address the risks. Have a special section in the final carriage with fire extinguishers: Ensure that retailers adhere to minimum safety requirements for e-bikes; implement a process that second-hand e-bikes can only be sold with a roadworthy certificate from a registered bike retailer. Are all cars banned because of risks with unroadworthy cars? Are phones banned on trains because the battery may catch fire?
Michael D’Aloia, Coburg

E-bikes on trains a danger
I am not a regular train commuter, however the last few times I have travelled home on V/Line from Melbourne to Geelong has been late evening on a Friday or Saturday after an event. I have been highly concerned about the e-bikes that get crammed into the doorway areas of the trains by delivery riders. The riders get on at Southern Cross and generally exit at Wyndham Vale or other suburban stations. The riders stack their bikes wherever they can, and block access to the exits. It is standing room only on the train anyway in the evening, but people can barely get on or off the train due to the e-bikes. Passengers are unable to access toilets because the toilet entry has become a temporary bike rack. If there was a fire due to one of these bike batteries exploding, it would be very difficult to exit in a hurry, as V/Line carriages only have doors at the front and the rear of each carriage. Each of these entries is clogged by three, four or more bikes.
It is a huge safety concern, and a disaster waiting to happen.
Kate Scorpo, South Geelong

Life without e-bike is isolating
As a 68-year-old with a congenital disability I use public transport extensively. Utilising an e-bike and our wonderful suburban train network enables me to attend medical appointments, access my community, and visit friends and family. Having cycled for the past 60 years, it is only recently that I began riding an e-bike and the benefits to my mental health have been astonishing.
If e-bikes were restricted on public transport my life would be diminished and isolate me. Riding mine enables me to remain mobile, independent of car ownership and engaged with living a full and social life.
Kaye Trainor, Richmond

Older e-bike riders are not problem
It is very disappointing to read of a possible ban on e-bikes and e-scooters on trains. Such a ban would impact very severely on my bike club of 340 members. The club offers 42 rides a month around Melbourne districts, with as many as 14 rides starting at rail stations. Many riders have e-bikes.
The loss of enjoyment and healthy recreation will impact us severely. Other e-bike and e-scooter riders such as school kids and commuters will also lose access to active transport. Yet, mobility scooters would be allowed – most are battery-powered. Proper regulation of e-bike batteries is not enforced, and that is the problem.
Certainly the problem is not a bunch of older e-bike riders.
Elaine Hopper, Blackburn

THE FORUM

Cancel AUKUS now
Your page one news story (″⁣$800m more given to US for AUKUS″⁣, 24/7) baffled and enraged me. Soon, we’ll have paid $3 billion and it’s not even certain that AUKUS will happen.
Donald Trump is famously erratic and some of his advisers aren’t keen on AUKUS. And, furthermore, it looks as if a condition of buying the submarines will be that Australia fights alongside the US in any conflict over Taiwan. A war that the US will likely lose (Taiwan is about 200 kilometres from the Chinese mainland), adding to its long list of military follies and failures of recent decades. And, presumably, Australia soldiers will die.
The war will also mean the loss of our biggest trading partner, so our economy will be in ruins. How, I wonder, will we ever find the money to pay future instalments for AUKUS to the US when our economy has been wrecked? In the meantime, Trump can’t be bothered having a brief meeting with our prime minister.
Anthony Albanese needs to show some decisiveness. Cancel AUKUS now and ask for our money back. We need to find other places to buy submarines to defend ourselves. France, perhaps?
Edmund Doogue, Crawley, WA

Morrison in Congress
Under whose auspices did former failed prime minister Scott Morrison appear before a US Congressional committee? (“Australians ‘going to sleep’ on China threat, Morrison tells US Congress”, 24/7).
Apparently, he claimed that he was appearing in a personal capacity. Does he really believe that being a former prime minister not carry weight with the Americans?
As Michael Koziol reported, Morrison accepts no accountability for the breakdown in Australia’s relationship with China and blames Australians for being asleep to the dangers of our largest trading partner.
I suspect that Morrison’s commentary has more to do with his senior role at American Global Strategies, an advisory firm that, among other things, carries out lobbying on behalf of armaments manufacturers.
James Young, Mt Eliza

Legal instruments
In “Watchdog pleaded for help to curb abuse risks” (23/7), Noel Towell reports that oversight authorities are so understaffed and underfunded that they could only fully investigate a few of last year’s 1500 reports of abuse in childcare centres.
But all Australian jurisdictions have a reasonably staffed and funded workplace law enforcement body whose investigators must “monitor and enforce compliance with″⁣, for example, the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) or Victoria’s OHS Act.
All such Acts impose a duty on workplace operators to first, identify all risks to the health (including psychological health) and safety of both “workers” and “other persons” (including children) at their workplace, then eliminate – or at least minimise and control – those risks.
It’s a preventive duty. If WHS/OHS inspectors find a serious unaddressed workplace risk, they can issue, on the spot, a compliance-compelling “improvement notice″⁣.
Although duty or notice non-compliance is a heavily penalised criminal offence, the crucial child safety point is that such notices can quickly prevent harm, or further harm, before it happens or continues.
Max Costello, North Melbourne

Turning the tide
Re “Council’s final warning for Frankston mansion owner’s sea wall”, 22/7. It was King Canute who was possibly the first significant leader who made a point of reminding his courtiers that no mere mortal has the power to hold back the tide.
In more recent times, there’s been plenty of coastal hydraulics experts who’ve explained the dangers and folly of building a hard wall to contain and tame the waves.
Other marine engineers have counselled the importance of leaving the primary and secondary dune systems to nature, to accommodate the seasonal fluctuations in tidal and wind dynamics, as well as the dangers of building in sand, including sandstone, well known around the Australian coastline for its vulnerability to erosion
Then there’s the numerous consistent, combined research findings from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and more localised data analysis that confirms not only that the high tide is rising due to the cumulative consequences of climate change but, in many regions the tide is rising faster than the worst case scenario envisaged by the IPCC.
And yet, one man in his mansion in Frankston, thinks he can hold back the tide? Tell him he’s dreaming.
Bernadette George, Mildura

How to quit
Fiona Patten’s article was concise, well-written (″⁣Australia has become the global village idiot on quitting smoking″⁣, 24/7). I agree with all her points. As a former smoker, I changed to vaping 13 years ago and four years ago decided to stop that also. Vaping, in my opinion, is the only way to get off cigarettes completely and should be easily available.
Ingrid Pezzoni, Toorak

Learn to like politics
Even as a schoolgirl, I was keenly interested in politics and could not understand why most of my fellow students didn’t care at all. As an adult, I find nothing has changed. Most people I know vote because they have to, some even barely know who the current political chiefs are.
Age has nothing to do with political responsibility, but maybe more effort could be made within the school curriculum to encourage political awareness and the importance of participation in political debate. Hopefully, that would also result in better candidates.
Valerie Johnson, Eaglemont

One vote each
What a great idea. Give extra votes to those who ″⁣contribute more to the successful running of our society″⁣ (Letters, 24/7). Success, by implication, is the gaining of wealth. The wealthy already have superannuation tax concessions, family trust tax concessions, capital gains tax concessions, negative gearing and expensive tax minimisation accountants. Let’s give them more votes so they can vote themselves even more tax avoidance schemes. Those who cannot afford tertiary education or a house, or who cannot hold a full-time job because they have disabilities or are single parents, would only have one vote, at least until the multiple-voting rich removed that privilege. Australia is supposed to be a democracy, not a plutocracy. That is why we have ″⁣one vote one person″⁣.
Helen Moss, Croydon

Push for ceasefire
For the past 60 years or so, there has been little anti-Jewish activity in Australia but it has increased significantly lately. I have been surprised by some people asking why this sudden increase has occurred. There is much violence in the Middle East but the main thing that has changed is the starvation and killing of defenceless people in Gaza day after day.
This is a very disheartening, distressing saga. Some Australian residents will protest peacefully, others may act violently towards entities associated with Israel. Some people think the best way to stop attacks is to censor Australians but this is not resolving the root cause.
Further, citizens should not be prohibited from rational discussions on national and international issues. Our current laws can handle racial hate speech and violence.
Meanwhile, the Australian government should apply pressure on Israel to agree to a permanent ceasefire.
Graham Kelley, Mount Waverley

Words not enough
The government is being disingenuous in saying that all our exports to Israel are non-lethal. We supply parts that are vital to the IDF’s military strikes. Even worse, last year the Israeli weapons and surveillance company, Elbit systems, was awarded a $917 million contract with Australia. Seventy-eight Labor branches are now calling for the government to impose sanctions on Israel, yet nothing happens (″⁣Immense frustration’: Labor base demands sanctions against Israel″⁣, 24/7).
Words are not enough, the Labor Party needs to hear the calls of its members and of Australians and impose sanctions on Israel without further delay. The cruelty being perpetrated in Gaza must end.
Lorel Thomas, Blackburn South

A tasty read
While agreeing with your correspondent about the sad decline in readership among men (″⁣Young men have stopped reading books – and these are the reasons″⁣, 22/7), I flinched wearily at yet another drive by slap at fantasy and other genre fiction.
An equally jaundiced reader of fantasy could view the genre of literary fiction as pretentious navel gazing. And as for the claim that a scarcity of literary fiction ″⁣diminishes our ability to understand each other and address issues at the core of our society″⁣, it neglects the possibility that the best of fantasy and genre fiction does it in a profound and sublime way that literary fiction simply cannot.
Fantasy and other genres can take us out of the mundanity of the here and now into wider, more expansive considerations of the human condition.
Such works as Piranesi’ by Susanna Clarke or Kazuo Ishiguro’s writing certainly help develop empathy and a desire to make sense of the world in a movingly insightful way, and are tasty as well as being full of nourishment.
Michael Pryor, Alphington

AND ANOTHER THING

Credit: Matt Golding

Scott Morrison
Who asked Scott Morrison to speak to US Congress? He was an abject failure as a politician, displaying appalling judgment. Haven’t they got that message? Or has he been asked because he’ll say what they want to hear?
David Ashton, Katoomba, NSW

Now we know why the Trump regime seems so out of touch with public opinion in Australia. To get a view on what we think, they consulted Morrison, who has been in the wilderness for a full term of parliament.
Tony Haydon, Springvale

When is Morrison going realise that he is irrelevant?
Corrado Tavella, Rosslyn Park, SA

Trump world
Another $800 million to the US for AUKUS? Talk about money for jam. Donald Trump must be laughing all the way to the bank.
Jane Ross, San Remo

I hope imported US beef is well labelled as such so I can tell if it’s from you Donald!
Steve Melzer, Hughesdale

American beef: Risk management or politics? Should we ask the varroa mites and fire ants?
Barbara Lynch, South Yarra

Biosecurity restrictions lifted on US beef? Don’t panic, label it as American beef and let the Australian consumer decide.
Sean Geary, Southbank

Furthermore
Re “Love for murdered Idaho students “, 24/7. Those extraordinary victim impact statements from those exceptional university students and deeply loving parents – proof of the mightiness of the pen. And of their remarkable courage and character. And a guiding light of humanity for the rest of us.
Nina Wellington Iser, Hawthorn

Finally
Re “The best player in the AFL walked away from $2 million”. My Sicilian nonna, born in 1895, and who only had three years of formal education had a very apt proverb when it came to how much money you really needed: “Shrouds don’t have pockets”.
Peter Russo, Brunswick West

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