Last Post: Backflips on ports and WFH, batteries and business

Peter Dutton has backflipped on public servants returning to the office while Anthony Albanese has backflipped on the ownership of the Port of Darwin remaining in Chinese hands. One-all (“PM’s credibility all at sea over Darwin port intervention”, 7/4).

Ron Hobba, Camberwell, Vic

As Anthony Albanese has proved timid in dealing with China over its recent naval escapades around Australia’s coastline it’s highly unlikely he’ll risk causing it offence by recovering the Port of Darwin.

Frank Reade, Macquarie, ACT

Albo’s electioneering penchant for picking up babies appears to be working.

Alex Cleave, North Fremantle, WA

Reading Robert Gottliebsen’s column provided little comfort (“Here’s how Trump hopes his plan will play out”, 7/4). He spoke of Donald Trump taking enormous risks in business. Well, Trump has been bankrupt at least twice. Do we want that for the world?

Paul Everingham, Hamilton, Qld

The Newspoll question should be: “Who do you trust to lead us out of the next recession?” The answer no doubt would be Peter Dutton. Australians should consider this on May 3.

Tim Abrams, Beecroft, NSW

With all this talk of the cost of domestic batteries to store electricity from rooftop solar panels, I am surprised there is no mention of the risk of fires from these lithium batteries. Has this problem been solved?

Don Higson, Paddington, NSW

You would think that in today’s hi-tech society somebody would have come up with a way to make a journalist’s question to a politician audible at a press conference. But no, we have to listen to silence or an inaudible mumble and then try to guess what the question might have been from the politician’s answer – no easy task. Surely it cannot be that hard to fix.

Ross Hudson, Mount Martha, Vic

The warning by University of Queensland senior law lecturer Dr Dani Linder to her students that they should “watch what you say and what you do” if they want to do well in their law degree is something more akin to a communist dictatorship than a university campus (“Lecturer lays down the law on race”, 7/4). For the university spokesman to say “they had conducted a review that found no issue” with the comments is bewildering.

Riley Brown, Bondi Beach, NSW

The word of 2025 is already locked in: tariffied, the absolute fear and dread associated with Trump’s economic policies.

Geoff O’Brien, Eltham, Vic