Last Post, November 24

Hedley Thomas’s Gold Walkley was very well deserved.

Take a bow, Hedley Thomas (“Gold Walkley for Thomas’s Teacher’s Pet”, 23/11) He kept us in suspense with his brilliant articles on the disappearance of Lyn Dawson. This was an assiduous analysis of a potential crime that I hope will be solved, and only because a clever, hard-working journalist at The Australian felt that a young mother’s disappearance deserved to be investigated. Congratulations.

Lesley Beckhouse, Queanbeyan, NSW

I see Bill Shorten is going to subsidise batteries to selected households. This will be at great cost to little benefit and will prove to be as deadly as the pink batts.

Roger Henry, Mansfield, Qld

The rebate for batteries proposed by Bill Shorten appears to be an enticement to incur further household debt with annual loan repayments being more than existing average power bills (“Labor faces industry backlash”, 23/11). All this with little proof it will eventually lower power costs.

Roseanne Schneider, Toowoomba, Qld

It’s easy for Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen to take 20 per cent of retirees’ income by taking their franking credits, leaving no practical alternative means for oldies to replace this vital income.

Vern Walther, Warrawee, NSW

As a long-suffering customer of a once great and trusted bank, I suggest that counsel assisting the royal commission, Rowena Orr, should be nominated as Australian of the Year. Her cross-examination of the Commonwealth Bank chair was masterful.

Douglas Taylor, Tugun, Qld

I see Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has 64 advisers in his office. Having one to help with tying shoelaces in the morning and one to help with pyjamas at night, what do the other 62 do?

Paul E. Bowler, Chapman, ACT

Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy won’t need a decentralisation policy if Melbourne’s population reaches 10 million. Most of us will have fled to the country long before that point.

Geoff O’Brien, Eltham, Vic

A question for Muslims and non-Muslims: why would Muslims ever want to integrate with non-Muslims, whom Allah has decreed to be “the vilest of animals in (his) sight’?

Gabrielle Lord, Randwick, NSW

The suggestion by ABC acting managing director David Anderson to allow financial freedom should be seriously considered. By listing the ABC as a public company on the Australian Stock Exchange, financial freedom would be guaranteed and long-suffering taxpayers would save more than $1 billion annually.

Gerald Krynen, Terrey Hills, NSW