Cartoon: Matt Golding, after Michael LeunigCredit: Matt Golding
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PETER DUTTON
Shaun Carney (“You can dress Dutton as ham”, 30/1) hit the nail on the head when he says that Peter Dutton has done a masterful job weakening the prime minister and the government. Unfortunately, in the process of attacking and denigrating the work of the government, the opposition leader and his second-rate team – I would add Jane Hume, Michael Sukkar, Dan Tehan, Ted O’Brien, Michaelia Cash, Sarah Henderson, Perin Davey, Barnaby Joyce and Bridget McKenzie to the list that Carney put forward – have done nothing to strengthen or build Australia as a country. In sporting parlance, the opposition has been very effective in preventing the government (and Australia) from scoring. However, if they happen to create a turnover at the next election, I am not at all confident that they will know what to do with the ball.
Alex Donaldson, Hawthorn East
People are thinking of mortgage rates, not Dutton
Shaun Carney should not be surprised that Peter Dutton is in contention at the next election (Opinion, 30/1). Contrary to democratic theory, most voters do not carefully weigh up the merits of two alternative governments at elections. Rather, voters consider how they think the incumbent has performed. The recent Resolve poll of Victorian politics shows that the chaos within the opposition is not as powerful in voters’ minds as the weaknesses, real or perceived, of the Allan government. Similarly, in federal politics many voters are not thinking about Peter Dutton in the ways Shaun Carney is. They are probably not thinking about him much at all. But they are thinking about their mortgage, the price of groceries and the unremarkable man currently in the top job.
Rod Wise, Surrey Hills
A habitable planet depends on who we elect
The combination of Dutton for prime minister and Trump as president would be frightening. America is the world’s second highest CO2 emitter, yet Trump has already withdrawn America from the Paris Climate Agreement. As Shaun Carney (30/1) writes, voting for Dutton would give the LNP ″permission to go slow on or avoid the transition to net zero″. Do we want this earth to be habitable or a hellhole of floods, bushfires and intolerable heat? We have run out of time. Choose now. Use your vote.
Lyn Shiells, Glen Iris
Dutton’s talent pool is shallow
Shaun Carney makes a very salient point. It takes a team to win a premiership, not just a captain. If you look beyond Peter Dutton (and his absurd attitude to climate change), what do you see? Angus Taylor as treasurer? Perhaps. Michaelia Cash as defence minister? Spare me.
Tim Douglas, Blairgowrie
Outrage and resentment for sale
Oh, Shaun, surely we need a bargain-bin leader, negatively decrying progress with simplistic slogans and little thought beyond getting elected? After all, let’s not get into a war with China – let’s take it over instead. We buy all their plastic baubles, so surely we own a piece of it by now? And those pesky African gangs? Maybe let’s build a wall! No, wait – let’s take them to the border and, well, umm, teach them to swim. The question of valid ballot papers is lurking at the election, just in case the hard man has a hard landing. And Sussan Ley, a visionary teacher of history with Mr Musk as her higher power, what’s not to love? Dutton isn’t offering governance – he’s selling outrage and resentment, hoping we’ll buy it. Let’s not.
Catherine Ross, Sandringham
Leadership should be substance, not style
The correspondent whose dilemma is whether to vote on the basis of whether the leader doesn’t explain anything well or has nothing to explain (Letters, 30/1) might be helped by phrasing this another way – do you vote on style or substance? Too much political reporting and discussion is about style. When it comes to actual government and governance, substance is of much greater importance.
Christine Pinniger, Fairfield
THE FORUM
State secrets
“Forcing people to sign secrecy agreements ... is designed to protect their privacy, not the government’s reputation, the state transport infrastructure minister says” (29/1) What twaddle. Does not the individual have a right to decide if he/she wants their privacy protected?
Such agreements should place the discretion to choose privacy in the hands of the citizen, not the government. The conclusion is that the secrecy is in the interests of the government, not the citizen, but whether Liberal or Labor in office, isn’t that always so?
Vincent O’Donnell, Ascot Vale
Campsite confusion
As an avid user of Parks Victoria campsites for more than 20 years, I am horrified to find out that I have been locked out of most campsites until mid-winter due to its free camping policy.
Basically, every site in Victoria is booked out at weekends, although on a recent visit to Johanna Beach I found it was less than 50 per cent occupied despite the perfect weather.
People are not incentivised to show up or cancel their bookings, resulting in under utilisation of our public campgrounds.
Why can’t I camp on a booked site if the people who booked it (for free) haven’t shown up by 5pm?
Parks’ staff at Wilson’s Prom have told me for years that lack of funding is the reason the world-class Sealers Cove section of the Eastern Circuit has been closed since being flood damaged in 2021. I would have thought summer camping fees might help to ease these woes.
Mick Zippel, Torquay
Woke pendulum swings
Your correspondent (Letters “Awake to Woke”, 30/1) illustrates perfectly, if unintentionally, the problem with using gross generalisations. Stating that ‘Woke ideology is emotional, intolerant and unforgiving’ demeans concerns that might be important to vast numbers of people who might agree that some of the extremes of ‘wokeness’ are beyond the pale, much like the extremes of almost any ideology.
The pendulum swings too far one way, then too far to the other, but somewhere in the middle lie genuine concerns about the treatment of many groups who have been ignored, disadvantaged or vilified for far longer than they deserve.
Setting yourself up as an arbiter of how far the pendulum should swing makes you just another ideologue to disparage the majority who belong to the reasonable centre.
Trevor Holland, Lower Plenty
Life is complicated
Your correspondent (Letters, “Awake to woke”, 30/1) gives examples of wokeness that all readers would be happy to acknowledge are ridiculous. But it is a problem when anyone who articulates the need for sound social policies is instantly dismissed as woke.
There are certainly some fringe causes drawing more of the oxygen of public debate away from more worthy ones, but to simply dismiss any issue left of where we personally sit as “woke” is lazy and unhelpful.
Life is complicated, but we do have to deal with it.
Julian Guy, Mount Eliza
Unfairly dismissive
I was disappointed to see the phrase ‘undergraduate petulance’ used by a recent correspondent (Letters, “And another thing”, 29/1) about Grace Tame. This wording is not merely a critique of her actions; it carries deep-seated biases about age, gender and power that deserve to be challenged.
Calling her behaviour ‘petulant’ plays into a well-worn pattern of dismissing women’s defiance as childish sulking rather than legitimate dissent. Time and again, women who express strong views, particularly when challenging authority, are framed as emotional, immature, or lacking in class, when they are brave and bold.
The use of ‘undergraduate’ as a pejorative reinforces an elitist attitude that devalues young people’s voices and suggests that only those with more experience or status are entitled to serious consideration. It’s a convenient way to undermine activism and insulate power from critique.
Criticism is fair game, but it should not be steeped in gendered and elitist dismissiveness. The choice of words matters.
Tina Berghella, Edithvale
You can’t cancel me
If being woke involves having a social conscience; paying attention to historic injustices and atrocities (including indigenous and both Israeli and Palestinian) and their continuing impact; voting/working for an equitable world; putting my hand up to help others, not myself, then I’m woke. I will not be cancelled.
Greg Malcher, Hepburn
Taming the tides
Experts are calling for a managed retreat response to coastal erosion (″Rising Tide″, 28/1), which suggests nothing more can be done.
As someone with 55 years’ experience in risk management, geomorphology and hydrogeology, I note that coastal processes at Inverloch are very dynamic, and large volumes of sand cycle from beach to inlet to beach etc.
Using fixed engineering structures to control dynamic processes have been tried, but have not worked. Nourishment of the entire surf beach would work, but would involve a substantial dredging operation, probably over some months, with a ballpark cost of about $40 million.
Clearly, we need to look at value for money. Using a widely applied, semi-quantitative risk assessment approach, it can be argued that the potential value of damage to property, infrastructure, ecosystem function, habitat, species, threatened species, native vegetation, land use, amenity, Indigenous heritage and tourism could be worth about $700 million in dollar-equivalent terms.
The program would be cost-effective and inform coastal protection measures, not just at Inverloch but also around Australia.
Dr Adrian Bowden, Brighton
Politicians ignore reality
Climate change is a reality, no longer an “option”. How much more proof do we need? It requires bipartisan support from our politicians to start to halt its destructive effects . The devastating bush fires and floods and parts of the rest of the world cannot be denied. Every human being and animal walking this earth are continuing to suffer from its consequences.
If both political parties consulted experts we could work towards the best economic outcome for us all. We are all in this together. Why are politicians hell-bent on dividing this nation for political and vested interests gain? Every citizen who has installed solar panels and so on is contributing to our wellbeing. Why aren’t politicians?
Christine Baker, Rosanna
Trump’s reach
I’ve just returned from Bogor, Indonesia, where I was part of a team from an Australian university who support refugee-run schools. Refugee children are not supposed to attend local schools. Nor are their parents allowed to work, so they exist in an insecure, hand-to-mouth limbo. Many single men have been separated from their wives and children for more than 10 years.
Most of the refugees in Indonesia are Afghan Hazaras fleeing genocide by the Taliban, a regime that Australia recently fought. The large Hazara community in Australia is prosperous and well integrated (with many supporting relatives stuck in Indonesia). Most Hazara men in Indonesia are skilled building workers. Yet Australia refuses to resettle any refugee who arrived in Indonesia after July 2014, and our taxes are used to detain those refugees in Indonesia.
Many of the refugee families I met had been accepted for resettlement in the United States. Trump has now cancelled that process. Australia should revoke the July 2014 rule and allow family reunion and immediate resettlement in Australia for recognised refugees in Indonesia.
Miriam Faine, Hawthorn
Self-reliance needed
Donald Trump has political talents and a swagger acquired in his real estate years. Many consider him impressive. On the other hand, it’s widely believed outside the MAGA movement that Trump is narcissistic, dishonourable, a habitual liar, vindictive and a blustering bully. And, beyond a perverse shrewdness, he doesn’t seem especially smart.
Trump is also fickle and reckless with international relationships. Alliances and global norms are quickly subordinated to his ego. This ego is then confused with American national interests and what used to be called US ‘leadership’.
Importantly, Trump’s approach resonates with 77 million American voters and much of Congress. It’s more than a blip. Therefore, allies such as Australia need to consider a Plan B. Enhanced self-reliance, rather than tighter integration with US policy, would be a good step.
Andy Butfoy, Bunyip
Enough crime
Can we stop publicising the life and death of the criminal who recently met his demise in Melbourne? I have lost count of the number of articles The Age has printed about him. This could easily be seen as a way to fame for those young people committing crime.
Suzanne Storer, Whittlesea
Regional tennis
Tennis Australia needs to do more for tennis at the grassroots level. The sport appears to be in decline, particularly in regional areas. There are lots of very good courts around the country under utilised.
It’s worth remembering some of our top-rated players started out in country and suburban areas – Rod Laver and Margaret Court, for example. There is no doubt TA is doing a wonderful job of running the AO, but it is too focused on it. TA needs to be doing more than building the AO bigger and bigger.
There is talk of playing a match on the MCG. A better idea would be to get the game played more on the existing courts around the country. The long-term future of the sport lies with people playing it, not watching it.
Martin Moore, Preston
AND ANOTHER THING
Credit: Illustration: Matt Golding
Good news, bad news
Is there any economic news that would make Opposition shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, happy?
Peter Randles, Vale South
Seems like the only people not happy about a drop in inflation are in the Coalition.
Peter Baddeley, Portland
Is it Peter Trump or Donald Dutton? The latter has a certain cadence.
Peter Crocker, Strathmore
Peter Dutton may be dressed up as ham, but his messaging is mostly spam.
Peter Thomas, Pascoe Vale
Furthermore
New Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt doesn’t want journalists in the front row of media conferences: she wants parrots.
Paul Dockeary, Seddon
An American soldier must now be committed to ″an honourable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life″. Pity that does not apply to the current president.
Nadia Wright, Middle Park
Which AI app is impartial and uncensored?
Ian Roberts, Sth Melbourne
Just do it
Writing an email assisted by AI is like a conversation between old friends who always try to finish each other’s sentences.
Sandra Torpey, Hawthorn
If a direct airport rail link is not forthcoming (Letters, 30/1), is an express metropolitan bus from some designated train stations a possible alternative?
Wendy Brennan, Bendigo
The airport train line was the “unwarranted infrastructure” (Letters, 30/1) in the Bolte era. Fifty plus years later, it’s the infrastructure we’re “crying out for”. There must be a lesson in there somewhere.
Peter McGill, Lancefield
Finally
The more we focus on Mars the more likely we are to accept the ″inevitability″ of climate change. Just ask the fossil fuel industry and its propagandists.
Bernd Rieve, Brighton
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