Liberals have work to do in pointing out Labor failures

Liberal voters are feeling increasingly let down by Peter Dutton’s lone-hand election campaign.

Apart from not attacking Labor’s poor first term, never did the Liberals warn voters of the radical plans Labor had for changing the country’s economic future: punitive taxes (from which the politicians are exempt); lack of any real vision for manufacturing, aside from fantasy titles such as Building a Future Made in Australia, that will deliver nothing; and increasing subsidies to sink into a failing energy system.

Sussan Ley had better buck up, and fast.

Julie Winzar, Palm Beach, Qld

The Liberals and Nationals, like the coast of NSW, need some sunshine as they tie up the loose ends of their temporary separation, removing the mud after the waters recede but with an awareness that some of it will stick.

Some soul-searching will be needed for the two parties’ joint reconstruction and resurrection. The public has proved to be fickle in its voting choices, and the preferential voting system has worked wonders for Labor while the primary vote tells a more sober story. As Labor watches from a politically secure distance, the Liberals and Nationals have to prove they are worthy of forming a government that can really serve the nation.

Stephanie Summers, North Turramurra, NSW

Innovation in peril

So we are to be taxed on anticipated profits (though the Labor Party will ensure that politicians are exempt). This shows the contempt that is meted out to those who value innovation and risk in this country.

I have no idea how we will be able to have any heavy industry in Australia going forward. It may not matter to the ALP as these industries are in country regions.

Shane Phillips, Loxton, SA

Speak out on AFL

Your article regarding the AFL’s code of silence is an essential read (“Code of silence: AFL fails concussion test”, 24-25/5).

It should serve as a wake-up call to Australians young and old on the medically established long-term consequences contact sports such as AFL and the NRL have on the health of players from youth sports onwards.

It will take courage to make the seismic changes needed that may include bans of play below certain ages to heavy fines, but the moment calls for it.

We are spending millions in mental health each year as a country, yet fail to see the mounting evidence that brain injuries trigger mental health challenges years after the injuries were sustained.

Sport is good. But contact sports that are known to have debilitating lifelong impact on the lives of players is wrong.

Carmen Benitez, Sydney

Taiwan security vital

This week the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organisation, is meeting in Geneva.

Australia recently reaffirmed our support for Taiwan’s participation at the WHA as an observer. As it has significant public health expertise, Taiwan should be included in the WHA and the WHO. But beyond supporting Taiwan’s participation in international organisations, the bigger challenge here for the Albanese government is to explain why Taiwan’s security matters to us and why we should defend a vibrant Asian democracy.

Too many of our so-called strategic experts argue that Taiwan must be let go. China’s military is too strong. Taiwan is not the hill to die on.

But if China occupies Taiwan, it gets ready access to the central Pacific and beyond. Moving south, and Australia is cut off. That’s why we need to be part of a credible regional deterrent against any Chinese moves on Taiwan.

There’s also the huge political effect of 23 million free people coming under the domination of the Chinese Communist Party.

Taiwan’s “unification” with the PRC would see every country in the region rush to cut a deal with Beijing. We’d be deluding ourselves if we thought distance would save us.

This year we saw a task group of Chinese warships circumnavigate Australia and conduct live-fire exercises.

Anthony Bergin, Reid, ACT

Our China ‘problem’

Chris Uhlmann writes, “If a politician cannot criticise the Chinese Communist Party for fear of losing Chinese Australian votes during an election, then we have a problem” (“It’s not racist to hold the line on who lives here”, 24-25/5). Such a problem also raises the question: if there is such a large cohort of Chinese Australian voters that an election can be swung when a party is successfully and erroneously besmirched as being anti-Chinese, what happens if – or when – Beijing’s political interference and bellicose territorial push comes to the shove of outright military action?

Deborah Morrison, Malvern East, Vic