ISIS brides forfeited their rights

Your Newspoll indicating majority support for the non-repatriation of Islamic State brides and children (“Don’t let ISIS wives return: poll”, 22/10) is surely not a surprise in light of the Coalition’s emphatic electoral win in May and the subsequent return of Peter Dutton to the role of Home Affairs Minister. Most quiet Australians would shudder at the thought of what might be had Labor won and Kristina Keneally ascended to the role of managing our borders.

The Left and the Greens, who view domestic affairs through the prism of smug self-righteousness and dwell within a parallel political universe, bizarrely believe that redemption is somehow possible for hardened fighters and their immediate families. However, if our citizenship pledge of “loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey” is to have a pointy end and mean anything, then there must be a penal action that effectively shuts the door on treason.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott was correct in his affirmation several years ago that “anyone who raises a gun or a knife to Australians simply because of who we are ... has forfeited his or her right to consider themselves one of us”.

Peter Waterhouse, Craigieburn, Vic

I confess I lost faith in human behaviour a long time ago but it is at an all-time low in the current political and social situation. People are always being called on to be proud of our political system and Christian origins so where is the evidence of that in the survey regarding the Australian women and children held in Syria?

To abandon innocent children and women who made an inescapable and foolish decision in their teens makes our claims of being Christian untrue or shows how shallow we have become. These people will be brutalised, raped and possibly killed by either the Turks or Syrian mercenaries while we stand back in a holier than thou manner. This lack of humanity seems to always come from right-wing politicians regardless of the country involved. How great is Australia? I am ashamed to be called Australian.

Roger Bridgland, West Hobart, Tas

Superpower influence

In his opinion piece Michael Sexton mistakenly writes Crimea was “accidentally attached to Ukraine at the dissolution of the Soviet Union” (“Trump will not play by the rules of the foreign policy establishment”, 22/10). It was, in fact, voluntarily returned to Ukraine by the Soviet Union in 1954. This is not a good start for a historian. Sexton then claims Russia has a right to a sphere of influence in its region, but the US does not have a similar right over Venezuela, a revealing contradiction.

Of course, neither has the right. His argument avoids a crucial similarity, that the citizens of Crimea and Venezuela are now victims of the oppressive regimes of Putin and Madura, and a crucial difference, that Russia has taken over a neighbouring country and the US hasn’t.

Patrick Morgan, Boolarra, Vic

Back door is open

As predicted, the rorting outcome of the Medivac refugee bill has come to pass. Ben Packham’s article (“Medivac refugees bypass hospital”, 22/10) reports 135 medical evacuations, with only 13 of that number briefly hospitalised, 43 refusing investigation and five refusing treatment — so much for the offshore detention health crisis. These transferees can now claim legal support, effectively blocking their return to detention.

Do we hear any apology from the Greens, Labor, the ABC, the Australian Medical Association, Zali Stegall, or any other bleeding hearts who created this situation? ScoMo must push to reverse this law before the backdoor entry to Australia becomes a stampede.

Graham Pinn, Maroochydore, Qld