Last Post: Old Labor values, Payman’s new party and lobsters back on menu

Peter Beattie warns that the Albanese government’s two-state solution for the Middle East is a daydream. Without some radical regime changes in the region it would be a nightmare.

Dave Kirkham, Frenchs Forest, NSW

Thank you, Peter Beattie, for your commonsense approach to the Middle East imbroglio (“Mid-East debate stymied by weak leaders, activists”, 11/10).

It proves the values of the old Labor Party still survive, just not in the Albanese government. How profoundly disappointing.

Michael Fishpool, Carindale, Qld

At last, a Labor luminary stating the bleeding obvious

Alex Cleave, North Fremantle, WA

I have some questions for Fatima Payman and her new political party: Will there be serious discussion about the human rights of women in Afghanistan and Iran? Will the new party condemn the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7? Will the party include Jewish candidates? I suspect I probably already know the answer to these questions and anticipate that this new political entity will be nothing more than a mouthpiece for pro-Palestinian propaganda.

Russ Fathers, Tweed Heads, NSW

I thought senators were elected to represent their state in our legislative house of review. Today we have a senator who represents not the people of her state of Western Australia but a party formed to agitate on international matters, specifically the conflict in the Middle East. Our great democracy is being hollowed by white ants who have no interest in our society or its conventions.

Paul Clancy, Tanunda, SA

We will all remember where we were and what we were doing the day we heard the news “Aussie lobster back on Chinese menu”.

Paul Haege, Darling Point, NSW

Western Sydney University chancellor Jennifer Westacott deserves praise for unequivocally condemning campus anti-Semitism, but in the same breath she condemns “Islamophobia in any form, full stop”. For the edification of the public would the chancellor provide a case in point of campus Islamophobia?

George Fishman, Vaucluse, NSW

Is it just me or have other readers noticed the apparent evanescence of fringe groups such as Extinction Rebellion? I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that since the October 7 massacres the professional activists that do the rounds of such disruptions have been fully occupied by their latest cause de jour?

Ian Pearson, Barton, ACT