Deeming-Pesutto saga is trashing chances of Liberal recovery

Among the wreckage of the Deeming-Pesutto saga, party ­luminary Jeff Kennett is doing the Victorian Liberal Party no favours by continuing to justify John Pesutto’s right to be bankrolled by the state party after his failed defamation court ­appearance.

Kennett bizarrely wrote to the party administrative committee: “It is wrong that one of our colleagues should be threatened with bankruptcy for doing his job.” Most of the thinking population know it was not Pesutto’s job to publicly hound, bully, background, defame and expel a fellow MP for speaking at a “Let Women Speak” rally.

Pesutto’s moral blindness to stubbornly pursue this error of judgment, despite numerous warnings about the obvious consequences of this course of action, should never be rewarded with a cash payment or loan to protect the bankruptcy of a tone-deaf politician who has actively advanced the Liberal Party as having a “woman problem”.

Lynda Morrison, Bicton, WA

Peta Credlin’s outline of the latest instalment in the John Pesutto and Moira Deeming saga is as dispiriting as it is well-penned. Pesutto made the wrong calls from the get-go, while the principled Deeming stood up for truth.

The conservative, conviction politician walked her talk, while Pesutto ran amok, treating Deeming disgracefully.

Defaming colleague Deeming, demoting her from the party, without a decent apology, and now unable to cover the $2.3m in indemnity costs ordered by the Federal Court, Pesutto continues to add insult to Deeming’s in­juries. It’s a travesty on so many levels.

Mandy Macmillan, Singleton, NSW

The one thing that troubles me in the Deeming-Pesutto saga is that the main players are good people, at least on the surface. No one can argue with the intent of Deeming to advocate for the personal rights of women and their desire to have access to places of privacy and safety.

As a husband, father, father-in-law and grandfather of females, I support Deeming every step of the way. It worries me there are Liberal MPs who do not share these views. There is a lot of skulduggery going on behind closed doors in the Liberal Party and not all of it is related to Deeming. Members are entitled to be told what’s going on.

Peter Surkitt, Sandringham, Vic

New campus nadir

When you think things can’t get worse with anti-Semitism in Australia, Sydney University reaches a new nadir (“Campus ‘a hazardous workplace for Jews’ ”, 5/6). The report by SafeWork NSW is alarming. Key words critical of Sydney University stand out: “high-risk psychosocial hazardous workplace endured for 11 months because of ‘inactions of the university to eliminate hate’ ”. Jewish students and staff were the victims. This is the same university where vice-chancellor Mark Scott got a $150,000 a year performance bonus. For what? How is it possible that major leadership failures were accepted and rewarded?

Lee Smith, Kenmore, Qld

We need Uncle Sam

Hugh White asserts that we live in a post-American world, where Australia’s decision to increase defence spending should not be seen as the price we pay for the US to defend us, but to instead defend ourselves independently of the US (“Yes, spend more on defence, because we can’t rely on the US”, 5/6). By his own admission, however, White believes the US cannot win a war with China over Taiwan. It would likely end in a stalemate that either precipitates a nuclear standoff or escalates to a nuclear war. According to White’s strategic calculation, Australia would need to become a nuclear power in order to defend itself independently. This is why he suggests South Korea is thinking of deploying its own nuclear weapons. Hence, given we live in a nuclear-armed world, Australia’s national security must ultimately be founded upon the global strength of US nuclear deterrence.

Vincent Zankin, Rivett, ACT

Economic vandalism

For more than a decade, the NSW and Victorian governments have discouraged investment in local gas development. Now, facing a self-inflicted gas supply crisis, their solution is to import LNG (“Climate change spend surges $9bn a year”, 4/6). NSW refuses to approve the Narrabri gas project and is building an LNG import terminal at Port Kembla, while Victoria is pushing for one in Geelong. Even worse, the Victorian government wants Canberra to underwrite this terminal. Imported LNG does not attract state royalty taxes, unlike locally produced gas. So taxpayers are being asked to subsidise foreign gas that will unfairly undercut Australian producers. This is economic vandalism. It penalises domestic gas suppliers, robs royalty-receiving states like Queensland, and forces taxpayers to foot the bill for unnecessary infrastructure. We are literally funding our own disadvantage.

Don McMillan, Paddington, Qld