Labor has lost this worker’s vote

After a life of working hard and saving, nest egg is to be raided

I’ve voted Labor all my life, but I feel this will not be possible at the next federal election. My reasons are as follows: I have worked my butt off all my life to give my family a comfortable home and my children a good education. The two children have left home, now work hard themselves, are good citizens and have never been to a Centrelink office.

I’ve planned every stage of my life and, with some luck, I am a self-funded retiree. I do not receive a part-pension though my wife and I have a Seniors Health Card, which indicates our total income is below $87,884.

Our retirement is comfortable, but not lavish. All my investments are in franked shares. If Labor is elected at the next election and implements its policy of abolishing franking credits our annual income suddenly drops to $61,519 (almost 30 per cent). With the world and Australian economic future not looking too rosy some of these companies could even reduce their dividends. I’m sure you would agree that if you were in my position you would not be happy about this looming scenario. Many of my friends are in a similar financial conundrum and feel the same way as myself.

Anthony Patrick, Terrigal, NSW

Sound and fury

North Queenslanders deal with floods with stoic resolve; Tasmanians meet bushfires with brave determination. But Zali Steggall and now Julia Banks chant “climate change” like a Greek chorus, mouthing lines others have written for them.

Steggall and Banks would like to link floods and fires to their climate scaring, but avoid the lack of evidence. Their emotionalism without facts or policy is sadly characteristic of today’s independent candidates — it is enough to sound the trumpet and trust fear will call voters to follow. Voters in Warringah and Flinders should ask what damage to the economy these candidates will inflict with their mindless appeal to populist ignorance.

Geoffrey Luck, Killara, NSW

It’s a stitch up

Don Portors (Letters, 2-3/2) postulates that had it been “thousands of hectares” of cotton dying from lack of water, rather than fish at Menindee, we would have heard an “uproar”. Well, the “thousands of hectares” of cotton he invokes didn’t die because, in the absence of water for irrigation, they weren’t planted in the first place. On Cotton Australia’s figures, plantings at Bourke were down from 4000ha last season to nil this season and at Dirranbandi a mere 300ha was planted, whereas in water-abundant years about 30,000ha would have been planted.

These and other irrigation-reliant communities (and not just the growers) are doing it tough as a result.

There has been no “uproar” because despite the financial pain involved in lost or forgone crops, cotton growers are realists. They accept the fact that when the water is there, they can grow a crop (and generate much-needed regional employment), and when it’s not, there’s nothing they can do about it, except wait for the inevitable turnaround.

Peter Austin, Mount Victoria, NSW

Absent fathers

The father figure John Carroll praises (“Blessed transformation of the patnal instinct”, 2-3/2) is very much an upper middle class man: two parents, two incomes, two professionals. While this experiment may produce sons that have insights into their fathers, and while these insights might lead to further benefits in subsequent generations, the same thing is not happening in lower socioeconomic groups where the number of single-parent families is increasing. Mostly these single parents are women. Sons of single-parent mothers may well find themselves excluded from any healthy male role models. Who will paint this picture?

Keith Russell, Mayfield West, NSW