Cathy WilcoxCredit: .
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It is too often forgotten in the Senator Fatima Payman furore that the issue that triggered her defection was whether to recognise Palestine now or later, essentially a matter of political judgment. It was not any failure by Labor to recognise the nightmarish horror being suffered by Palestinians in Gaza, which would much more obviously have raised a conscience issue for her.
Certainly there is a strong case, which I have made both privately to the ALP leadership and publicly, that Australia should join the more than 140 countries that now recognise Palestinian statehood – not just as the final outcome of a political settlement, but as a way of helping kick-start it. To do so would not be to reward Hamas for its October 7 outrage, but benefit Israel as well as ordinary Palestinians. Achieving a just two-state settlement, accommodating reasonable Palestinian aspirations, would by far be the best guarantor of Israel’s long-term security.
The government’s current position captures the spirit but not the urgency of the ALP platform. Senator Payman, I and many others wish it did. But her obligation, and opportunity, within the caucus, was – as she well knew – to swallow the disappointment of a decision not wholly satisfying her own strongly held belief, and fight within the party-room to change it, as many of us have done over the decades when similarly challenged. Australia’s international voice on these matters is not inconsequential. The irony is that, by taking the defiant stand she has, Senator Payman has now made it politically harder for the government to take the small extra step in its recognition policy that would be in everyone’s interest, Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Gareth Evans, foreign minister (1988-96),
Leader of the government in the Senate (1993-96)
A futile gesture by the senator
What did Senator Payman expect to achieve by crossing the floor to vote for a meaningless Green’s motion that was never going to pass? She has not changed government policy. She has not prevented one death in Gaza. She has merely destroyed her reputation as a team player and created more division and conflict in our country. That’s not the way to achieve peace – anywhere.
Margaret Ludowyk, Brunswick
A prayer without meaning or effect
Anthony Albanese claims that faith-based parties would risk “Australia’s secularised political culture”. Why, then, is the Lord’s Prayer read at the beginning of each day’s parliamentary sitting? Beseeching a so-called “Almighty God” to bless parliament and prosper the work of thy servants to the advancement of thy glory is hardly consistent with a secularised political culture. And judging by the shenanigans in recent sittings, the prayer fell on deaf ears.
Angela Smith, Clifton Hill
Comic opera now and then
I’m reminded of W.S. Gilbert’s words in the comic opera HMS Pinafore in which Sir Joseph Porter KCB, sings of his rise from humble beginnings as an “office boy to an attorney’s firm” through various stages until he eventually becomes the First Lord of the Admiralty. On the way he spends time in parliament, of which he says, “I always voted at my party’s call and I never thought of thinking for myself at all.”
John MacInnes, Warrnambool
The senator should resign
Australia does not need regression to faith-based politics. The DLP years bear witness to that. Senator Payman was elected to represent West Australians, if she cannot do that she should resign, not be used by others to gain their ends.
Doris LeRoy, Altona
THE FORUM
Silenced majority
The article ″Falsehoods, denials face survivors of October 7″ (8/7) on the nine months from the horrors of October 7 highlights the data misinformation and denial but overlooks the horrendous hate on an orchestrated scale. It is important to realise that the vitriolic speech against Jews on the steps of the Sydney Opera House was hurled even before Israel started to respond in Gaza.
News is being selectively channelled by AI algorithms in unfathomable directions. Presentand historical facts are hidden among emotive misrepresentations. Rational conversations and discussions are impossible. It seems we have lost a platform for open conversation. Has the silent majority become the silenced majority – now unable to raise an audible voice?
S. Haupt, Glen Iris
Ripple effects
The article ″Falsehoods, denials″ exposes how the Iranian backed terrorist proxy organisation Hamas is framed naively by many Palestinian supporters as being a nationalist grouping occupying the high moral ground. The noted media commentator Mary Kostakidis is cited as not believing Hamas militants would have diverted from their hostage-taking mission to rape women in the October 7 attacks.
It is worth noting that the recent Iranian election support for a moderate president has been attributed in part to public discontent there with Tehran’s funding of militia groups like Hamas. The latter is a brutal outfit that has oppressed Gaza’s youthful demographic and continues to sully the Palestinian cause. ″Useful idiots″ in Australia help compound this tragic cycle with their denialism. Valid criticism of the IDF’s indiscriminate military tactics is blunted accordingly.
Jon McMillan, Mount Eliza
Premier, show courage
There was shock and surprise throughout Victoria when previous premier Daniel Andrews cancelled the Commonwealth Games. In hindsight, it was probably the right thing to do.
Now is the right time for the current Premier Jacinta Allan to cancel (or at least postpone) the Suburban Rail Loop, and possibly slow the road crossing removal projects, successful though they are. It will take the same courage that Andrews showed, and I hope that Ms Allan is up to it.
Does the government have a priorities list that helps them distribute money? From the way that funds are distributed, and good projects starved of cash, I very much doubt it.
John Pinniger, Fairfield
Party will thrive
Some commentators have likened the religious identity-based politics of the 1950s-formed DLP, which used the pulpits of the Catholic Church to promote its agenda, with the mooted Muslim Party. However, the DLP petered out because the ethnic Catholic mix in Australia changed from predominantly Irish, and church attendances decreased and priests ceased promoting the DLP. The mooted Muslim Party – as reported, also a religious identity-based coalition – will thrive as the Muslim population in Australia increases by birth and immigration and its messages are promoted to its people by its imams. It will be generations, if ever, before this influence peters out.
George Greenberg, Malvern
What lies beneath
I wonder if below the surface of the pile-on against Senator Fatima Payman there’s some unconscious bias, stemming from unease with her cultural connections, religious practices, appearance and gender?
Kevin Burke, Sandringham
Not our problem
Australia should not bear the brunt of conflict in other countries that has nothing to do with us. Rallies of support are fair enough but demonstrations of unrest are against the grain. Defacing property and mounting political campaigns that stray from domestic issues are not in Australia’s interest. Certainly not on race or religious values.
Michael McKenna, Warragul
Dogged optimism
Columnist Charlotte Mortlock (8/7) discusses the collapse of religious affiliation and celebrates the ritual of the dog park, but suggests that religion may come back in vogue. I hope not.
The notion that the best way for people to get together is to discuss baseless ideology and consider our wretchedness in the eye of the conditional love of a supreme creator is not one I favour.
Given the choice of the church or the dog park, in a modern world, I say “amen” to loving my neighbour and looking out for them, in the dog park.
Julian Guy, Mt Eliza
Doggone parallels
Surely Charlotte Mortlock is making a joke when she compares the benefits of dog ownership to those of religion? Whatever we might think of them, all religions attempt to address the perplexing existential questions of Gauguin’s painting: Where did we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Dog ownership to faith then, is like a toy boat is to a sea liner.
Peter Drum, Coburg
Health will be the loser
Irrespective of government, health always bears the brunt of cuts when any budget is in deficit. Such cuts in the long term, result in exponential costs. An example of this is a person falling into a river. If we had a robust and well-supported health system, that person would be rescued, cheaply and quickly.
By contrast, cutting back on health, chances are, that same person in the river travels further down into the rapids before being rescued. They will probably require resuscitation, intensive care, and if they are lucky, be discharged home.
The cuts could also result in that same person suffering ongoing health problems, requiring more monetary support. The worst result could be they are dragged out of the water dead.
Health requires a lot of money to be managed properly. Cuts only provide a short-term solution to an ailing budget, and only work in theory for politicians and economists. An economy is made up of people who live in communities. Unfortunately, as essentials in our communities keep being reduced, over time, communities will continue to break down, and those who are vulnerable will be increasingly affected. A caring community is rich community.
Jenny Knox, Doncaster
Don’t forget Bendigo
With the Airport Rail terminus impasse apparently now resolved, the remaining question is whether its final design will facilitate or block a future onward link with the Bendigo-Echuca-Swan Hill rail corridor north of Sunbury. This short connection offers a game-changing strategic opportunity for much faster and safer regional services that bypass suburban ″stopper″ lines, and would, in effect, give Bendigo an international airport. Stronger regional cities are essential to provide Victorians with greater living choices, in turn relieving metropolitan growth pressures.
Rod Duncan, Fellow, Planning Institute of Australia
No to raising rates
The report ″Debt helpline inundated by the ’working poor‴ (8/7), states that ″housing costs were the single largest issue″. Why then this madness of responding to inflation by increasing interest rates, pushing mortgages and rents higher.
Apart from stress for mortgage holders, what are increased interest rates achieving? It has no impact on two of the major inflationary costs, namely soaring insurance charges, and building and construction shortages, some the result of flooding caused by climate change (″Why we can’t shake inflation″, 7/7).
Columnist Ross Gittins has written of other policies the government could introduce to bring down inflation. But politicians are not the ones living in fear of their families becoming homeless.
Jan Lacey, North Melbourne
Hey Joe, time to go
Joe Biden has proven to be a competent president, with the US recording low unemployment, long-term infrastructure building and climate crisis action. He clearly is better for most Americans than Donald Trump. On policy, Biden should win.
But in the real world of politics, image is important, especially for undecided voters. And the optics of Biden’s debate performance were terrible for him. It could cost him the election.
Even if Biden won in November, every statement and public appearance during another four-year presidency would be judged by many in terms of his age, not on the issues.
Politics is unfair, but Biden should stand aside for a younger Democrat before it is too late. His legacy would still be one of long service as a senator, vice president and president. If he lost to Trump, that would be the defining moment of his is career.
In Australia, Bob Hawke replaced Bill Hayden as leader of the Labor Party in February 1983. Hawke then won the national election five weeks later. America is not Australia, and this does not prove that a successor to Biden would win against Trump. But it shows that it is possible.
John Hughes, Mentone
The murdering village
After watching the British murder-mystery TV series Midsomer Murders for almost 30 years, I am now surprised to be told it may contain ″violence and crime scene images″. Somehow the 388 murders, 250 attempted murders and the title of the show hadn’t alerted me to the fact that there was likely to be some violence during the episode.
The warning is a reflection of either the sensitive nature of some people who may be upset easily or it’s just a warning to us that the woke world is stupid.
The real mystery is why are there people still living there, given how deadly it is?
Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill
AND ANOTHER THING
Global politics
You know the Labour Party in the UK has morphed into its conservative rival when its leader, and now prime minister, gets to be addressed using the honorific sir.
Jessie Mackenzie, Brunswick
After all the social media-amplified assassination hysteria against Joe Biden, it is timely to remind readers that a vote for a brain-dead Joe Biden is still preferable to a vote for Donald Trump.
Brian Burleigh, Cowwarr
Decency has prevailed in the British and French elections. Even a form of it prevailed in Iran. Let’s hope the Americans keep it going by denying the White House to Trump.
John Walsh, Watsonia
All this talk of a Palestinian state is meaningless. Unless the UN puts a peacekeeping force in Gaza and the illegally occupied West Bank there will never be a Palestinian state.
Dan Drummond, Leongatha
Transport
I hope I can catch a train to the airport for a departure before I depart the planet.
John Manfield, Blairgowrie
I will be cheering when Melbourne is serviced by fast electric trains to our regions and other capital cities.
Jenny Smithers, Ashburton
Furthermore
Would a new political party supported by Indigenous Australians and Palestinians be named the Dispossessed Party?
Stephen Baldwin, Frankston
Identity politics as caring, kind humans is exactly the basis of what Australia, and the world, need so desperately.
Barbara Fraser, Burwood
I’d like to see George Brandis (Comment, 8/7) analyse the benefits of privatising public utilities before he throws in the scare of the socialism trope.
Peter Baddeley, Portland
Finally
If Gen Z men don’t like feminism/gender equality, they don’t “have a problem” – they are the problem.
Liz Levy, Suffolk Park, NSW