How have we parlayed this nation’s rich resources into such a poor energy system?

Have Australians in general and Victorians in particular gone stark raving mad? Here we have a country rich in plentiful energy sources and there are panic headlines about running out of gas (“Regulator steps in over gas shortfall”, 20/7) when Victoria alone has abundant gas sources but has banned extraction.

The country also has coal and uranium plentifully available. We now have low-income households not able to heat their homes because of the high cost of energy. We have people who cannot afford to buy sufficient food because of prices rising due to energy costs.

In Victoria, there is talk of requiring households to get rid of gas appliances and replace them with electrical appliances. Where is the electricity to run all these electrical appliances going to come from? It certainly won’t be generated from wind or solar sources.

Instead of building more bird-slaughtering wind farms at huge profit to China from our steel and made with energy supplied by our coal and gas, let’s use the land to grow potatoes and build clean coal-fired power stations or small modular nuclear electricity generators.

Let’s use our own gas and enable people to have a life again with cheap energy bills and low-cost housing. Let’s make Victoria a manufacturing state instead of one where factories have to turn off their machinery during peak times.

Marian Hinwood, Elsternwick, Vic

It is a concern when the Australian Energy Market Operator has to intervene in Victoria’s gas shortfall yet provides no long-term solution. AMEO chief executive Daniel Westerman has stated: “Gas reserves continue to be depleted at a rapid rate, and we are watching this carefully.”

The AMEO needs to explain how watching the depletion of gas reserves will rectify this gas shortfall.

Don McMillan, Brisbane, Qld

I don’t understand the opposition to mask mandates (“Covid action up to the individual”, 20/7). Am I missing something?

Masks are a non-invasive, extremely useful device against Covid; they are not harmful to the wearer. It is a simple thing to do that has significant benefit, and the epidemiologists repeatedly tell us this. Perhaps it is my age (50-plus), or my profession (nursing), but it seems a no-brainer to me. Unfortunately, politicians have taken over the narrative and the medical and scientific experts are being sidelined.

We barely raise our eyebrows now at the three score and more of people dying every day; it has become a meaningless number hidden in the news. The pusillanimity of the premiers is quite disappointing.

I suppose these non-mask wearers say they are taking personal responsibility for their own health, but what about the aged, infirm and immunocompromised? What about the teachers who get repeat infections from their students? What about the workers who cannot afford to take more time off work? I am sure if they become infected they will be very glad for the masked health professionals to care for them if hospital awaits. Then they will listen to the medical advice, but why wait until then?

Caroline Thomson, Kew, Vic

Your article (“NSW ICAC: Ex-ministers facing criminal counts”, 18/7) on the charging of three former ALP MPs by the DPP as a consequence of an ICAC inquiry into Australian Water Holdings noted that former Liberal premier Barry O’Farrell was engulfed in the affair.

It concludes by saying O’Farrell was forced to resign as a result of falsely denying he received a gift of an expensive bottle of wine from the chief executive of AWH. This gives the misleading impression that O’Farrell was implicated in impropriety.

In fact, O’Farrell was guilty of no more than a “massive memory fail”, as he put it. On April 16, 2014, he was recalled to the witness box at ICAC. The transcript of that hearing shows that counsel assisting, Geoffrey Watson, stated there was no suggestion of corrupt conduct by the premier.

David Clune, Artarmon, NSW

Kel Richards’s claim (Letters, 20/7) that the proposal for the voice is intrinsically racist should be resisted. Racism is a prejudice – a prejudice about race – and not to be confused with any distinction based on race. If the distinction reflects some relevant property – in this case, that of being descended from the original inhabitants – then it does not imply any prejudicial attitudes, and so is not racism.

Stephen Buckle, Glebe, NSW

I am betting that Labor will not be reducing funding to “its ABC” in its efforts to find budget savings (20/7), despite falling ratings across key programs.

Tom Smith, Bowral, NSW