Last Post, January 5

Letter writer has shown that pill testing is not a simple matter.

David Scarr’s (Letters, 4/1) cogent examination of drug testing emphasises the need to canvass the possible consequences of a decision to test a substance. Additionally, the technical inadequacy of in-situ testing magnifies the embedded complexities. The proponents of drug testing may be thus prone to fallacious reasoning that is often wrong, but never in doubt.

Robert Bright, Yorkeys Knob, Qld

Barnaby Joyce has highlighted the economically bereft nature of policies proposed by the Labor Party (“Chaos is just a vote away”, 3/1). Inadvertently he has demonstrated why Malcolm Turnbull had to be replaced having failed to argue the obvious against Labor policies.

Mal Alexander, Vermont, Vic

People banging on about socialism after the harm it has inflicted, is like victims revisiting the crime scene. No matter how you cut it, socialism is bad. We see pilot programs for universal basic income and await interim conclusions.

Arthur Giannopoulos, Mitcham, SA

The reality of a Labor government looms on the horizon unless the Coalition tackles this dangerous possibility by pointing out the negatives. The effect on the building industry of changes to negative gearing and the effect on self-funded retirees of changes to franking credits would be a starting point.

Leo Vilensky, Castle Cove, NSW

If politics is about doing, Sussan Ley does not back Margaret Thatcher’s advice that if you want something said, ask a man, but if you want something done, ask a woman (“Ley backs Lib gender quotas”, 4/1).

Steve Ngeow, Chatswood, NSW

Anglican priest Rod Bower is a show pony. The refugees he supports are those who arrived by boats thus pushing down the queue the refugees who didn’t go country shopping.

John Sparke, Maroubra, NSW

Do-gooder activists such as Rod Bower seem to have forgotten Stalin and the gulags. I dare say Nauru isn’t so chilly, but when you rely on hyperbole details aren’t important.

Elizabeth Moser, Newtown, Vic

Peter Farrell (Letters, 3/1), I too have, like, noticed another verbal tic among the young folk. It’s, like, really annoying but I don’t think anything can be, like, done.

Richard Allen, Barwon Heads, Vic

Peter Farrell so correctly calls out the so-and-sos who use the word so when it makes no grammatical or logical sense. So far, so good, but it’s not only young people. It includes so many people of all ages. So, we need to recover language that is just so rather than merely so-so. Is there a problem? So, like, absolutely.

David Morrison, Springwood, NSW