Greens don’t deserve a free ride back into parliament

Labor MP Josh Burns was spot-on when he recently said voters should deny preferences to the Greens. It’s about time Labor joined the Coalition in taking a stand. The Greens have gone from environmental advocates to a hard-left outfit that seems more interested in stoking division than solving real problems. Their stance on Israel and Hamas has crossed a line. Too many Greens MPs have downplayed or refused to condemn the horrific October 7 attacks, while parroting talking points that amount to support for a listed terrorist group. It’s no wonder Jewish Australians are feeling abandoned. This isn’t just about foreign policy; it’s about the kind of politics we want in this country. The Greens have become radical, extreme, and out of touch with mainstream values. They don’t deserve a free ride into parliament on the back of Labor or Coalition preferences.

John Kempler, Rose Bay, NSW

Risk of collapse

The problem with maternity care in the private health sector is just the canary in the coalmine (“Birth safety: warning siren”, 12-13/4). The contradictions in the health system are now existentially acute. In private, excessive money is taken out by procedural specialists; shorter-term surgical stays mean investment is being wasted, and equipment and technology costs are spiralling. With private health insurers able to obtain only about a 3 per cent a year increment on their premiums by government diktat, while real costs within private hospitals are going up many times that amount, the whole system is unsustainable.

It seems likely that what will survive in the private system will be discreet interventional work on reasonably healthy insured older people needing bits replaced or tidied up in smaller hospital units, and office-based practice not requiring the backup of a large-scale hospital.

Even so, insurers will increasingly have to make deals with practitioners to limit out-of-pocket top-ups or even incorporate them in a single moderated payment. Most consumers will need to be in a modified public system, which increasingly will have to become means-tested.

Eugene Walters, Richmond, Vic

Mind the gap

I respectfully disagree with Jennie George’s proposal for a gas reservation policy as a solution to the east coast gas crisis (“Economy will run out of gas without reservation policy”, 12-13/4). It’s yet another short-term market intervention that fails to address the underlying problem: the need for long-term, affordable gas supply to support industry and the economy. Over the past decade, increasing government intervention has done nothing to improve long-term supply security. Victoria’s proposal to subsidise an LNG import terminal, using taxpayer money to import gas while placing price controls on local supply, is neither fair nor sustainable. If we are serious about energy security, the path forward is clear. Approve local gas projects, build the infrastructure and restore investor confidence.

Don McMillan, Paddington, Qld

Port of Darwin

To me, as a former Northern Territory chief minister, the decision to sell the Port of Darwin to Chinese company Landbridge seemed like good news. In my time the almost non-stop Maritime Union disruption helped kill off traffic from the few shipping lines then still serving Darwin. So what could be worse than giving this a try? If the Chinese had wanted to gather intelligence they could have bought a house in the suburbs and stuffed it with electronics or placed some operatives in Darwin for a lot less than $500m. What intelligence will the Chinese gather?

There’s a naval patrol boat base, an RAAF base where the planes fly in from the south mostly. And there’s an army tank regiment where I understand the officers fly in from the south too.

And Uncle Sam has a modicum of forces there, not really enough to get excited about. There are services communications stations, too, but why spend $500m to listen to them when you could do so for $1m?

Paul Everingham, Hamilton, Qld

Hate epidemic

The shocking anti-Semitic exchanges by the two lawyers unearthed during unrelated litigation in Sydney regrettably is, it seems, becoming all too common in Australia (“Lawyers’ messages of hate exposed”, 12-13/4. I’d like to think the average Australian is not anti-Semitic and no doubt we will be told these two lawyers are in a minority. However, as a Jew, I am coming to the conclusion this may not be the case going by the epidemic of anti-Semitism stemming from and evidenced by so many examples within our universities, parts of the left-wing media, the arts, non-government organisations, parts of the Muslim community and the Greens. I have yet to see any credible push back by the so-called majority of Australians, including our politicians.

Michael Burd, Toorak, Vic