Growing influence of our faceless government bureaucracy

Archbishop Anthony Fisher is right when he says the NSW government’s decision to take over the Catholic cemetery management at Rookwood in western Sydney is shocking (“Caring for the dead is a spiritual mission, not secular”, 27/5).

There is an intrinsic element of basic humanity, a reverent spirit of respect for the dead, inherent in cemetery management by all faith institutions that no secular government department could ever hope to provide.

The NSW Government’s backflip on its promise to work jointly with the Catholic Church on solutions to cemetery management is a shocking betrayal of trust, not just for people of faith.

The growing influence of our faceless government bureaucracy has been alarmingly insidious since Federation. It is a betrayal of trust for all those good, fair-minded people on all sides who fought for the hard-won compromise between church and state that was achieved during our pre-Federation colonial history and was enshrined in our Constitution of 1901. It betrays their efforts, insults their legacy and does not reflect the natural goodwill of the vast majority of people in today’s Aussie electorate.

The NSW Premier should rethink her government’s position quickly, lest all people of goodwill — faith believers, atheists and agnostics alike — lose faith in a government now seen to be controlled by the cold, faceless bureaucracy.

John Bell, Heidelberg Heights, Vic

Archbishop Anthony Fisher writes that “Christians, Jews and Muslims are united in their concern that the graves of their dead continue to be respected and that dignified burial be available into the future”. As the horrific scenes of Covid carnage from India will have brought home to many, Hindus do not bury but cremate their dead. As someone born a Hindu and now a practising atheist, even I am appalled that the management of cemeteries is to be taken over by the bureaucracy. This should not have been allowed to escape from a thought bubble.

Ramesh Thakur, O’Connor, ACT

Surely a leader as savvy as Gladys Berejiklian should recognise the dangers in this cemetery management issue? Needlessly upsetting faith communities is not only insensitive, it’s just plain unwise.

Terry Birchley, Bundaberg, Qld

EV envy

Milos Karapandzic (Letters, 27/5 ) has it all wrong. Judith Sloan (“Costly hazards on the road to electric vehicle take-up”, 24/5 ) is spot on. The comparison with Norway is inappropriate. Our vast distances will for the foreseeable future confine purely electric vehicles to high-population areas, to be charged at home or designated charging stations.

It is pertinent that a large Japanese manufacturer has very profitably introduced a range of hybrid vehicles to Australia. Hybrids do not stress the grid, or depower at bad times. I suspect that hybrids will have far less carbon footprint over the manufacture and life of the vehicle. The market will sort it out.

Geoff Bowden, Tewantin, Qld

Milos Karapandzic compares electric vehicle take-up in Australia with Norway’s take-up of 87 per cent. He doesn’t state that Norway is nowhere near the size of Australia, Norway subsidises EV purchases and, most of all, Norway’s power grid is interconnected to the largely nuclear-driven European grid — that is, plenty of power with which to charge these “green” machines.

Dennis Winn, Clifton Beach, Qld

NSW Labor was spent

Assertions that the Penrith state by-election swing against NSW Labor on June 19, 2010 was driven by hostility toward my government are completely unfounded (“Memo, Albanese: state by-elections do matter. Just ask Kevin Rudd”, 26/5).

Obviously, federal conservatives opportunistically claimed it was a rebuke of federal Labor, just as state Liberals claimed victory on state issues.

The bottom line is, after 15 years, the NSW government was crippled by scandals on the watch of factional warlords such as Eddie Obeid, Mark Arbib and Karl Bitar. There were four premiers in five years. Another minister was publicly outed as gay in a homophobic outrage masquerading as journalism.

To top it off, the outgoing member was caught lying to ICAC — an embarrassment for premier Kristina Keneally, who had previously stood by her. Is there any wonder there was a 25 per cent swing?

The greatest chutzpah came when Arbib and Bitar, having comprehensively sabotaged NSW Labor, cited the by-election as they campaigned to install a more factionally compliant leader. They also circulated manufactured market research.

When they struck in the June 24 coup, this newspaper’s Newspoll had Labor ahead 52-48 — a vast cry from the Penrith result.

A decade later, the fruit of the faceless men’s political handiwork is plain for all to see.

Kevin Rudd, Brisbane, Qld

Batteries rock

So let me get this straight. For a fifth of the cost of the $600 million gas-fired power station announced by Scott Morrison last week for NSW (to be used only 2 per cent of the time and supporting only 10 jobs), the connection of the large-scale battery in Queensland (in response to the failure at the Callide coal-fired power station) will support 23 jobs and will deliver cleaner, cheaper and more reliable energy to power up to 57,000 homes a year, and store 150MWh of energy. I feel like Australians are being duped by the Morrison government. Lucky for him, we’re all just quiet Australians.

Andrea van Eyk, Panorama, Qld

R. Watson (Letters, 27/5) calls for more baseload coal power, yet South Australia’s lead remedy for blackouts has proven to be faster, cleaner, smarter, more effective and great for consumers. The Tesla mega-battery was much maligned by some ignorant folk, but the SA public are winners.

Jim Allen, Panorama, SA

Unruly class

Any teacher would empathise with House of Representatives Speaker Tony Smith. It appears that the euphemistically named Question Time is merely an opportunity for members of parliament to bellow their disapproval at one another and to impede any opportunity to collaborate on such important matters as effectively addressing the pandemic.

Ed Sianski, West Moonah, Tas