ALP is sleepwalking through the nation’s cost-of-living crisis

ALP is sleepwalking through the nation’s cost-of-living crisis

The Business Council of Australia gets it, the Reserve Bank also gets it, and the long-suffering people of Australia can feel its ­effects, but Labor is sleepwalking past the high cost-of-living issue as if it doesn’t exist, and has conveniently convinced itself that someone else is to blame (“Bad policy risks living standards”, 20/11).

There is a real cost-of-living crisis in this nation and the responsibility for it falls directly on the shoulders of the Albanese government through its reckless policies and uncontrolled spending. The next election will be centred on the economy and that puts Labor in the crosshairs of the electorate who is feeling the hip pocket pain. There will be no loyalty to the Labor Party when you’re struggling to feed your family and pay the bills.

Tom Moylan, Dudley Park, WA

Other people’s money

Australia’s superannuation funds now hold $4 trillion, prompting the Reserve Bank “to warn the sector has created new risks to the stability of financial markets, and magnifying shocks in the future”. Unlike banks, telecommunications, general and life insurance, for example, the superannuation sector has chosen not to have a code of conduct, which highlights concerns of transparency and accountability. One example, where there is a legislative requirement for trustees “to act in the best interests of members”, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and ASIC have failed to enforce the law regarding inappropriate and incorrectly spending of members’ money on sponsorship, promotions and advertising. The time is now for government to introduce legislation to protect members’ funds (other people’s money) from unaccountability and lack of transparency by trustees of superannuation funds.

Kenneth Gregson, Swansea, Tas

Evidence matters

As Janet Albrechtsen says, if we are serious about ensuring fair trials, evidence matters. And so, too, does presumption of innocence which has lately been reduced to a polite fiction. There is a wonderfully instructive story told of the Roman Emperor Julian. Early in his career, he set aside a conviction for corruption on the grounds that the accused’s right to a presumption of innocence had been set at naught by a crusading prosecutor. “If it is sufficient to deny,” the outraged prosecutor protested, “who will ever be guilty?” Julian’s reported response deserves to be chiselled in stone above the entrance to every court in the land: “And if it is sufficient to accuse, who will ever be innocent?”

Terry Birchley, Bundaberg, Qld

Art of the deal

There is no greater challenge for US president-elect Donald Trump than Vladimir Putin’s latest threat of a nuclear response to Ukraine launching US-supplied long-range missiles into Russian territory. But if history is any guide, the 1962 Cuban missile crisis demonstrated that when these same two nuclear-armed powers were forced to choose between mutual annihilation and compromise, sanity ultimately prevailed and their leaders chose to compromise. Moreover, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin has set about building the world’s most powerful nuclear ­arsenal to ensure a post-Soviet Russia would never again be placed in a similar position of weakness. This leaves Trump with no other option than to negotiate a deal.

Vincent Zankin, Rivett, ACT

Iron Lady

What an interesting and timely article by Timothy Lynch who asks, why can’t the left produce successful women leaders in politics? I think it’s a syndrome of left-wing politics, which involves men boxing in women, so that they can be usefully manipulated. It’s based on the elevation through the ranks and the way that women are separated and categorised. Israel’s first woman prime minister, Golda Meir, a Labour stalwart, was initially overlooked, but when in office was subject to the idiosyncrasies of her Knesset co-ministers. This might be put down to the insecurity that stems from progressive histrionics, typical of the woke left. Kamala Harris was the perfect example. In the parties of the right, however, you see the appointment of women not out of party obligations. They seek an individual, woman or man, based on their proven ability to succeed.

In Britain, Margaret Thatcher advocated for specific actions to be observed or taken and completed them with alacrity. Lynch writes “conservative women may be fewer in number … but they may be better trained”. I think it has a lot to do with the individual, strength of character, resilience, intuitive self-belief and basic guts, which makes leaders of women in politics, just like anywhere else. In the case of the US, powerful women seem to be more of a threat to the Democratic Party’s male proponents than their more forward-thinking and inclusive Republican Party counterparts.

Aviva Rothschild, Caulfield, Vic