Credit: Illustration: Alan Moir
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.
ANTHONY ALBANESE
Niki Savva is right: Anthony Albanese’s time as Labor leader must now be short – whether or not Labor forms government after the election (″If Albanese wins the next election he should celebrate, then step aside″, 5/12).
He is no natural leader. He gained the leadership through backroom machinations rather than through an open and contested election. He showed potential leadership at the 2022 Garma Festival, just after his election victory, when he announced that the overriding priority of his government would be the full implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
But then he provided no leadership for the Voice referendum, and abandoned any implementation of Treaty or Truth-Telling without further debate.
This tragedy set the tone for his term as prime minister. The recent flurry of legislation allowed bills to pass with some amendments, but his sudden deferral of the ″nature positive″ legislation, without consultation with his minister, in part, because he reportedly did not want to give the Greens a victory, suggests political petulance unbecoming in a national leader.
Anthony Albanese brought Labor into government on a wave of hope. That hope has been largely sucked away in the undertow of his leadership shortcomings.
Albanese’s future as party leader must now lie in months rather than years.
Chris Young, Surrey Hills
Prime minister has limited time to make change
Anthony Albanese is in danger of being a one-term wonder. He better get his act together fast, otherwise the next election will result in either a Labor-Greens minority government or a Peter Dutton-led coalition government.
Paul Stiles, Mount Gambier, SA
A quiet achiever
Niki Savva does no one favours by dismissing our prime minister’s efforts.
As a voter, I see Albanese as a quiet achiever, which is how our country should be run. We don’t need the headlines every time an opposition member calls out a member of parliament for something that is commonplace.
Albanese has headed a government which (among other things) has passed 32 bills in parliament in one day. It has repaired relationships with China and PNG. It evened out the tax system slightly and improved conditions for workers.
It legislated the emissions target and invested in renewables and recycling.
It has also delivered a budget surplus two years running (amazing, considering what it was left with). It has improved Medicare and the PBS. It has set up the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
It has also funded social housing through the states and territories and supported women escaping violence.
Hey, this is not bad for a first term. Let’s give him another one so he can continue the good work. Changing leadership would only confuse the message to voters.
Sue Acheson, Rokeby
THE FORUM
Agree to disagree
I woke up to hear the news of the fire at the Adass synagogue. A deep pall spread over me. How could such hatred exist to attempt to destroy a place of worship, a place where people get their emotional sustenance, a place of peace?
Yes, I know there is disagreement, anger even, in our community concerning the Middle East. But surely, we can agree to disagree.
Surely, in this haven for so many, we can live together in harmony? Now I have to wonder. I am grateful that my mother, a Holocaust survivor, did not live to see this.
Miriam Gould, Malvern
Don’t forget the past
The attack on the Adass Israel synagogue diminishes us as a civilised society. While we have had to watch the barbarism that is playing out in the Middle East, we cannot descend into perpetrators of violence against Jewish people here in Australia and especially attacking a place which is sacred to them.
We cannot choose to forget the past. Visit the Holocaust Museum in Melbourne, and be reminded of what hatred does.
As Australians, we must value and respect our diverse, multicultural society and value what we have.
Anne Lyon, Camberwell
Sets back peace hopes
The moral bankruptcy of our government’s support for the latest anti-Israel UN resolution is demonstrated by the sheer untenability of the excuses various spokespeople have used to justify it.
They say it will advance a two-state peace. The Palestinians have been the recalcitrant party all along, yet this motion gives them what they want, and makes practically no demands on them. Rewarding recalcitrance, as this does, just encourages more, and will set back peace hopes.
They say it doesn’t prejudge final status issues. It demands Israel unilaterally withdraw from all the territory the Palestinians want, when final borders were meant to be negotiated as a final status issue.
They say it returns to the Howard government position. That was a far less draconian resolution, and at a completely different time, before five years of Intifada and the October 7 atrocities.
It’s clearly just all about politics. But what is the long-term price on the Western world?
Stephen Lazar, Elwood
World has changed
Re ″Nova Peris speaks of William Cooper’s 1938 protest against persecution of the European Jews″, 6/12.
The world has changed and the persecuted are now the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
I have no doubt that if William Cooper were alive now, he would be leading protests in support of those Palestinians – ″strangers to him but bound to him by a shared understanding of suffering and the unyielding belief in justice″.
Danny Cole, California Gully
Limits of truth telling
The correspondent (Letters, “Thorpe no distraction”, 5/12), in defending Lidia Thorpe’s view that “Truth telling” should have preceded the Voice referendum discussions, makes a brave assumption. That is, that Australia’s white population could have been persuaded by an education program in relation to, as he puts it, “the severity of the destruction of Indigenous people’s and their culture” by British colonisers.
More realistic, arguably, is the view articulated famously in the 1968 ABC Boyer lectures by the eminent anthropologist, Professor Bill Stanner, that there exists in this nation an entrenched “cult of forgetfulness” and “a great Australian silence” on the part of white Australians in trenchant denial of the now fully documented over 400 Indigenous massacres from 1788 to the 1930s.
The wilful mischaracterising by the federal Coalition of the Voice to parliament as a “third chamber of parliament” ensured that substantive government-initiated “Reconciliation” was doomed. Sadly, this remains the stark reality of race relations in Australia today.
Jon McMillan, Mount Eliza
Thwarted model citizen
I thought I was being a responsible citizen, following the recognised strategies regarding the climate and growing social and environmental responsibilities.
I down-sized, added solar panels and a battery, converted completely from gas to electricity, and covered my property in as many trees and plants as possible.
I read the albeit limited, information regarding plans for properties like mine that are within 800 metres of the closest station. I also attended several town hall meetings to gain further information. It is clear that most constraints on development will be changed, especially the heights of buildings (six storeys in this case), and affected residents will not only not be notified about proposed developments but also will have no rights to object.
Councils will have no say if developments are “deemed to comply” under the new regulations.
If a property adjacent to mine is bigger than 1000 square metres, either in its own right or by a consolidation of adjacent properties, it will be allowed to have a six-storey construction on it and remove all existing tree canopy. This would overshadow my solar panels and undo all the positive outcomes I will contribute in the future.
The need for more housing is self-evident and multiple dwellings on properties is sensible, but these need to keep in mind other strategies that are already in place
Jenny Callaghan, Hawthorn
Woolies defector
I’m a rusted-on Woolies shopper, but I’m currently shopping at Coles and will continue to do so while Woolies’ management pursues dehumanising options of AI monitoring of humans. People are not robots.
And I suspect the company’s actions might contravene work health and safety responsibilities.
I don’t like shopping at Coles, but I’m discovering new products I didn’t know existed, and I’m enjoying catching up with fellow Woolies shoppers as we roam the aisles of its competitor.
Mandy Kirsopp, Haven
Not so mobile youth
Re “Catcalls, aggression, male domination: Why women aren’t cycling”, 6/12. As reported, a major deterrent to young women cycling is the fear of being injured from a collision with a motor vehicle.
We know there is a desperate need for safe cycling infrastructure, and progress on this is painfully slow.
But our government’s failure to address this is having a terrible impact on people’s travel options, particularly for young women. There seems to be an unwritten expectation that people don’t need to cycle because they can always drive a car.
Yet, aside from the environmental consequences, the cost of running a motor vehicle is very high.
Young people are particularly affected by the cost-of-living crisis – many of them are struggling to pay for a roof over their heads and food for their table. And we make it difficult for them to get around cheaply and safely by bike? No wonder young people are angry.
Andrea Bunting, Brunswick
Driving hazards
Two weeks ago, I had a tyre replaced after a pothole strike while driving to Yea. Today, I hit another pothole I couldn’t see.
The roads around Melbourne, and all over Victoria, are falling apart, and are increasingly hazardous, due to lack of maintenance.
Temporary traffic lights and low speed limits remain in place for months. I ride motorcycles too. Many potholes are potentially lethal for motorcyclists.
I know Victoria is broke, but a government that fails its basic responsibility to maintain roads doesn’t deserve to be there.
Ian Black, Essendon
Stay classy
Christmas approaches, another fine year of letters courtesy of this classy newspaper.
A mix of all sorts, right and left wing, the clever, not so clever, the consistent painful types, the occasional gem.
Self-expression is good for the soul, no matter your opinion. Ignore the fear tactics (cost of living), have a happy Christmas, and love what you have.
Cliff Ellen, Rye
AND ANOTHER THING
Credit: Illustration: Matt Golding
Nuclear costings
One would hope that Dutton’s nuclear fantasy would cost less than Labor’s renewables and gas plan as it will only produce 4 per cent of our requirements in 30 years’ time.
Ross Hosking, Blackwood, SA
Dutton’s nuclear costings and timeline homework is well overdue. Meanwhile, renewables supply 39.4per cent of the grid, and rising every day.
Jenny Smithers, Ashburton
It’s pathetic that all that the major parties can argue over is the cost of each other’s proposals rather than the substantive issue, which is what is best for Australia.
Peter Randles, Pascoe Vale South
I’m reminded of the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when considering the policy void in the LNP. Apart from an uncosted plan to build six nuclear power stations, who can name one other LNP policy? Anyone, Anyone?
Robert Stephenson, St Kilda East
Furthermore
Perhaps the CBA could pay customers $3 for each deposit. That would be interesting.
Wasyl Abrat, Mornington
I’m firmly in favour of the new social media restrictions. I would also like to see the government ban computer games, television and rock’n’roll.
Will Callahan, Barongarook
New housing towers ″a lot of effort to get where you started″ (5/12). When will our state government listen to experienced housing experts and refurbish rather than redevelop existing towers?
Lindsay Donahoo, Wattle Glen
Here’s me wondering what to do with all my “stuff” cluttering up my house, and then I see Cathy Wilcox’s cartoon (6/12). I am lost for words.
Veronica Paskins, Somers
Wilcox’s thoughtful cartoons usually make me smile and sometimes even laugh out loud, but on Friday (6/12) it made me cry. Brilliant work.
Dianne Chitty, Moonee Ponds
Why does the media copy the latest American bastardisations of English? We don’t envision the future, we envisage it, same as we televise the news not television it.
Merryn Boan, Brighton
The opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.