Credit: Illustration: Cathy Wilcox
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AMERICAN PRESIDENT
Regardless of whether one loves him or loathes him, there is no denying that President Trump will now shake up the civil status quo, not just in the US but throughout the globe.
How the Don 2.0 might embody John Winthrop’s famous 17th century quip of America shining in the world as a city upon a hill, will make for intriguing viewing and critique.
Destabilising world events and domestic disturbances have made citizens feel on edge, and so it is no surprise that voters were willing to overlook Trump’s scandals and bawdy comments by Trump for the sake of reclaiming something of the traditional American values: the right to life, freedom of worship, strong borders, the rule of law, and family.
During this first presidency, Trump made some considerable civil achievements: black unemployment was at an all-time low; border security was strengthened; contentious policies in schools were rolled back; and peace deals were brokered between Israel and three Arab nations.
He now needs a regulator for both his mouth and social media posts, but given the tribalistic nature of the last four years, perhaps this is the right time for a stubborn strongman to flex some muscle in calming troubled waters.
Peter Waterhouse, Craigieburn
The sequel where hate is its feature
So it’s happened, the sequel no one wanted in which hate will be the dominant policy. Future historians will wonder where did it all go wrong? Drill, baby drill. There are only two genders. Asylum seekers are rapists and murderers.
America was at a fork in the road, and it went down the path of hatred towards trans people, Latinos and scientists, to name just a few. The world will never be the same.
Samantha Keir, East Brighton
The power of the 47th president
The reign of 47 (formerly, 45) has begun in the US. Like a pebble dropping into a pond, the ripples will soon be felt around the world emanating from this unqualified man. Surrounded by even more cronies, loyalists and yes men, and with Republicans dominating both houses, the whims of 47 seemingly have no bounds.
Forty-seven has picked a number of people for his cabinet who have no experience of running huge departments. And, with Elon Musk running the Department of Government Efficiency, who knows which government departments will survive?
When the economy crashes due to ill-advised tariffs put on other countries, and a lack of workers due to deportations, will the Americans people ask questions or will they not even care?
Unless 47 decides to suspend the US constitution, which he has sworn to defend, his rule will only last four years. But it might be four years that the US, and the world, will regret.
Jeremy de Korte, Newington
America’s dark past may re-emerge
Presidents have the power to use their enormous armed forces to get their agendas implemented. This is especially worrying given Trump’s immigration policy. America’s past has seen innocent people imprisoned and expelled. Americans must be ever alert not to see history repeat itself.
Glenise Michaelson, Montmorency
No longer the land of the free
It is only day one, and already we see the impact of the “real” president of America. Elon Musk is well-known for his vocal stance against transgender rights. There seems little doubt that Musk is the orchestrator of Trump abolishing corporate America’s inclusion, diversity and equity programs, and that it will be official government policy to recognise only two genders.
Goodbye America, for you are no longer the land of the free or the home of the brave.
Julie Perry, Highton
THE FORUM
Lop-sided human trade
Israel has released 90 Palestinian prisoners, while Hamas has returned three Israeli hostages
A ratio of 30:1 seems a very good result for the Palestinians. Or, it could be an indication of the low regard Israel has for Palestinian lives in comparison with their own people.
This inequality seems to be a strong element of Israel’s attitude towards the Palestinians: We are a peaceful, precious people living where we belong. You are merely violent terrorists determined to drive us out.
Rod Wise, Surrey Hills
Collective Jewish psyche
Ittay Flescher (″One word lies at the heart of Israelis’ and Palestinians’ inability to find peace″, 21/1, sees the only future for the Israel Palestinian conflict in clear terms of understanding on both sides by embracing coexistence.
However, the state of Israel being founded by Zionists following World War 2 as a result of the Holocaust, such that nearly half of Israelis today believe the Holocaust could happen again, and are traumatically concerned that the state of Israel is in danger of being destroyed.
Holocaust fears are not necessarily rational, but they’re part of Jewish-Israeli culture and instilled from childhood in Israelis and Jews elsewhere, and here in Australia too.
When it comes to the threats that Israel faces, including threats from Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza, and antisemitism too, they reinforce a sense of persecution and preserve the collective trauma of the Holocaust.
To overcome these fears Flescher suggests that could change in the next ten years. I’m not optimistic as they are instilled in the collective Jewish psyche.
Jeffrey Kelson, Prahran
Learning from Iran
Hamas has learned the tactics of kidnapping civilians from Iran’s playbook. Iran has a track record of kidnapping, detaining and jailing innocent foreigners and using them as bargaining chips - including the jailing of Australia’s Kylie Moore-Gilbert on fabricated charges.
Over and over, the strategy has worked for Iran and its proxies have learned from it. This current exchange of a small number of innocent Israeli civilians for scores of tried and convicted Arab terrorists, murderers and felons tells the story. No civilised country does this. And somehow, Iran needs to be brought to heel as this disgusting behaviour perpetrated directly by Iran and its proxies can not be permitted to continue.
George Greenberg, Malvern
Hate speech flip
Peter Dutton and James Paterson are pushing the government to further expand ita proposed hate speech laws (“Coalition to PM: Bring on hate speech crackdown”, 21/1).
Is this the same James Paterson that entered politics vowing to repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act on the grounds of free speech, describing the legislation in his maiden speech to parliament as a ‘road to tyranny’?
I would remind Senator Paterson that hate speech begins with speech that “offends, insults, intimidates and humiliates” and ask him - along with others in the Liberal Party, Institute of Public Affairs and right-wing media - to reflect on his earlier defence of peoples’ “rights to be bigots” (to quote George Brandis). Paterson’s previous full-throated advocacy to overturn existing anti-discrimination law has helped contribute to the emboldening of racists, therefore enabling the rampant antisemitism we are unfortunately witnessing in Australia today.
Chris Green, Venus Bay
Grown up tax policy please
The almost infantile planned LNP policy of offering a $20,000 a year allowance to small businesses for entertainment expenses is being received with much acclaim. However, one can only hope that this does not pass for their Coalition tax policy. One could argue that this policy is divisive, in that it divides the small business sector by only benefiting businesses that have clients or staff who could use such benefits. It would be more equitable and efficient to simply offer a tax rebate to all businesses with a taxable income of less than a certain amount.
One would hope that the level of taxation policy debate in the coming federal election improves. For example, the tax treatment of trusts to minimise tax liability should be a policy that both parties should have an opinion on. It, and negative gearing, are the elephants in the taxation room.
Ian Payne, Blackburn
Overstating Deakin’s role
Reporting Deakin’s University’s decision to keep its name, your reporter describes Australia’s first attorney general and three times prime minister Alfred Deakin as ″the architect of the racist white Australia policy″ and claims he was responsible for it.
This is misleading and greatly overstates Deakin’s power and significance. It implies that without him Australia would have taken a different path. It would not.
As I show in my biography of Alfred Deakin, and as other historians have shown, the White Australia Policy was supported by almost all politicians and political parties, including the new Labor Party, as well as by most of the settler population.
Arguments for it drew on nationalism, Social Darwinism, strategic fears, especially of Japan, racial loathing, protection of jobs and wages, and social liberal aspirations for an active citizenry. Shared culture and language were seen as essential for a functioning democracy.
The most vocal opposition was from Queensland sugar planters who would lose access to indentured labourers from the Pacific. Because of Deakin’s eloquence, his arguments for White Australia are now the best remembered. But this does not mean that he alone is responsible for its implementation. The university named after him is to be congratulated for resisting pressure to make him a scapegoat for a past policy that contemporary Australia has now rejected.
Emeritus professor Judith Brett, La Trobe University
Pre-burn concerns
Thank you, for publishing the important work of David Lindenmayer and others highlighting their research findings on the negative impacts of planned burns (″Why pre-burning is no magic bullet to controlling fires″, 21/1). Valuing science over rhetoric, I implore government and fire authorities to take heed and implement the outlined alternative solutions to prescribed burns, including protection of what remains of our precious old growth forests.
Julie Garner, Mont Albert
Petrol price optics
The state government has announced legislation to force bowser prices to remain static for a whole 24 hours. This meaningless but optically pleasant announcement, has still drawn the predictably dire, but vague, warning from the fuel lobbyists that such intervention may have the “unintended effect of increasing average fuel prices”. Given that pretty much all oil prices are locked in well in advance to protect profitability, this “warning” has as much credibility as the gas lobbyists about gas shortages in Australia even though we export 80% of our supply.
Prices could and should be fixed for months in advance, but it takes meaningful intervention, not window dressing nonsense.
Stephen Farrelly, Donvale
Hybrid- vaping analogy
I applaud Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen’s vehicle efficiency standard and electric vehicle only tax breaks. Offering tax incentives for hybrid cars to reduce fuel-powered vehicles on the road would be like promoting vaping to curb cigarette smoking (“Car lobby calls for tax breaks on hybrids”, 21/1). It’s not a solution. Hybrids may cause fewer emissions, but they still rely on expensive imported fuels, exacerbate climate change, pollute the air and subsequently harm our health. Unlike smoking, however, a clean, healthy alternative exists in electric vehicles, which are also cheaper to run and fun to drive. Just like Victorian Labor’s bandaid “FuelWatch” initiative (“Cost-of-living move aims to make fuel prices fairer. But will it work?“, 21/1), hybrid vehicles are a halfway house that will not get us to the end point we need.
Amy Hiller, Kew
Still slip, slop hat
While I share your reporter’s concern over the dangers of skin cancer related to sun exposure (“I live by one of Australia’s most iconic beaches. This is why I only swim at the pool”, 19/1), she has misquoted the data regarding melanoma.
Two out of three Australians are diagnosed with some form of skin cancer at some time in their lives but fortunately only a small proportion of these cancers, between one and two per cent are melanomas which carry a much greater risk of significant morbidity and mortality.
The non-melanoma skin cancers are much more common and usually less dangerous than melanoma, but they also require careful treatment and follow-up.
As always, prevention is better than cure. Use sunscreen and wear a hat at the beach.
Dr Michael Giles (retired), Rye
Braving the surf
On Saturday, the Surf Coast beaches around Anglesea were closed due to very rough weather.
Our daughter’s family and friends visited Urquhart Bluff for a paddle when they saw two fit young men stride straight into a rip.
Initially, they thought they knew what they were facing, but it soon seemed they were struggling trying to swim against the rip.
My son-in-law saved the furthest out and a friend of theirs saved the other.
The rescued were German and had no idea of the local conditions. Very clear signage on this beach would have helped.
Kerry Smith, Clifton Hill
AND ANOTHER THING
Trump in power
One day down. 1459 days to go. Hang in there USA.
George Djoneff, Mitcham
From here on, there will only be two classes of people in the USA. Male and female, rich and poor, friends and enemies. It is so easy to view the world this way as a child.
David Raymond, Doncaster East
Chilling to know that attempted insurrection in the USA is now utterly condonable. There goes another safeguard of democracy in a crumbling state.
Graeme Brewer, Castlemaine
″This administration will only recognise male and female.″ A dark day for respect and inclusion for gender diversity.
Anne Dynon, Brighton
How will the average American fare with the oligarchs in charge?
John Groom, Bentleigh
It was almost amusing to hear that convicted felon President Trump is going to restore law and order to America. However, he probably won’t be too tough on white collar crime or sexual assault, despite his considerable experience in those areas.
Sue Peterken, Berwick
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. Be proud America as the most massive deportation in history is announced.
Gary Bryfman, Brighton
Furthermore
America the courteous bully, now becomes America the rude bully.
Joan Kerr, Geelong
Your headline ″Here to help, Mr President″ (20/1) perfectly encapsulates the tone of our future relationship with the US under Trump, where fawning is the norm.
Tony Haydon, Springvale
Bad enough he won. We do not need to see American democracy at its worst. Was Melania hiding under that hat hoping not to be noticed?
Doris LeRoy, Altona
Finally
The Joker needs to take a chill pill, and Tony Jones needs to give up his comedy routines.
Paul Miller, Albury
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