Fail rate of renewables key reason for high price of electricity

CSIRO’s claim that nuclear electricity is more expensive than wind and solar power (“Costs cloud Dutton’s nuke plan”, 9/12) is easy to subject to fact-checking.

In nuclear-powered France, electricity is cheaper than in wind and solar-powered Germany; a lot cheaper. In other words, nuclear-powered electricity is a lot cheaper than wind or solar.

So what did CSIRO miss in its report? It missed the fact that nuclear power provides reliable 24/7 electricity while wind and solar power are intermittent. Solar power fails every night. Wind power fails frequently. Those failures make wind and solar extremely expensive, and they are the reason Australia’s electricity prices have skyrocketed over the past few years.

They are also the reason the Australian Energy Market Operator is now warning of impending blackouts. Australia needs cheap, plentiful, reliable electricity. Nuclear energy can provide it. Intermittent wind and solar energy cannot.

Mike Jonas, Exeter, NSW

Flag of disposition

Australia has been a divided nation since 1788: the colonists and the Indigenous people.

To pretend we are one nation with equal rights and opportun­ities (the Coalition argument against the voice) is a fallacy for the majority of Indigenous people. The Aboriginal flag at least recognises the traditional custodians of the land who have been in this continent for 60,000 and not 236 years. The colonisation of Australia was inevitable and is also an integral part of Australia’s heritage, and should be acknowledged and be part of the education of our young. However, to propose that it was a positive experience for Indigenous people ignores the documented history of the colonising nation.

Peter Dutton’s announcement on the flag may well be a transient proposal, primarily for political pointscoring (“Dutton flags end to show of division”, 10/12).

Andrew Whyte, Mount Martha, Vic

Leave it, Peter Dutton. No need to create the division you are trying to stem. Pledging not to fly the Aboriginal flag is a step too far. Bite the bullet and suggest pushing a new flag: take the Union Jack off the top corner and replace it with the Aboriginal flag. Unite and conquer.

Y. Bursle, Sherwood, Qld

Peter Dutton makes a valid point by stating that no other country has flags other than their own national flag representing them. Good on him that he is able to read the room and is aware of the groundswell that the quiet Australians are feeling.

Mike Flanigan, Wellington Point, Qld

Finally, a political leader who says correctly that this country needs a single flag. I suggest that’s a huge vote winner in itself when the electorate will again get the chance to speak with one voice.

Roy Stall, Mount Claremont, WA

AI will make us poorer

While artificial intelligence, if managed well, could be a real blessing with its resultant productivity gains, it would be naive to think that there only will be massive employment disruptions as opposed to massive permanent net job losses (“One in three jobs ‘at serious risk in AI revolution’ ”, 10/12). This time it really could be different despite the inevitability that some new jobs will be created. Politicians, business leaders and welfare advocates urgently need to think about the vastly changed employment landscape on the horizon.

We as a society need to seriously consider ideas like a job guarantee, universal basic income and a reduction to the work week (with no loss of pay) to share the remaining human work around. If not, then perhaps within a generation we could be living in a society with a few ultra-wealthy robot creators and masses of destitute people.

Michael Westacott, Cairns, Qld

RBA’s male parade

James Glynn (“Chalmers’ big chance to give RBA some firepower”, 9/12) names several people with extensive knowledge, skill and experience in the finance and banking industry.

There is a suggestion these people would be appropriate to be appointed to the new interest rates setting board of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Unfortunately for the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, all of these people are men. Would the Labor government be brave enough to appoint six men to the board to sit next to two other men (deputy governor and Treasury secretary), leaving the governor as the only female member, even if men do constitute the best candidates?

Judi Carr, Strathalbyn, SA

When the union movement and Labor Party president Wayne Swan are demanding interest rate relief, then the Reserve Bank can be confident it is accurately managing the economy settings, despite the incessant inflationary actions of the Treasurer (“RBA getting it wrong on jobs”, 10/12).

Tom Moylan, Dudley Park, WA