Some early settlers did not want to be here, let alone invade Australia

Rather than invading, many settlers had no choice.

On Australia Day, I think of why my family is here. It was not any invasion on our part — rather involuntary in reality. The first to arrive was an Irishman from Ballymascanlon, County Louth, transported in 1851. Poor bugger, in 1849 he was convicted of stealing clothes and sentenced to seven years of transportation. He ended up across the other side of the world against his will.

He didn’t “invade” Australia. On hot days like Friday I’m sure his descendants would rather be in cooler Louth. Every January 26, I think what our life would have been like if he hadn’t stolen those bloody clothes.

Not all of us were invaders, some were just involuntary, innocent victims of political decisions. If it wasn’t the English, it’s not as though no one else would have turned up. In part, whether it’s January 26, or not, is not that important — we are all here anyway and no one seems to want to leave — although I have a list of politicians I wish would bugger off back to where their ancestors came from.

To move Australia Day before we come to an acceptable position is avoiding the issue. It’s like leaving the room halfway through a heated argument, leaving the issues unresolved.

Des Heaney, Canberra, ACT

Targets, not quotas

Australian women contribute as much as men, so it’s time our honours system reflected that (“Gender quotas for honours list ‘not needed’ ”, 25/1). The Labor Party supports a target of women receiving 40 per cent of honours by 2020.

Targets are not quotas. Targets do not undermine merit. In fact they do the opposite. Just as in business or sport, targets help promote and reward merit. Targets focus the mind on what’s to be achieved, and allow you to measure progress.

Women are doing outstanding work in every part of the nation. The big problem is that they have always been much less likely to be nominated for honours.

Tanya Plibersek, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Canberra, ACT

Renewable insanity

The Bureau of Meteorology said last week that temperatures in western Sydney in 1939 were hotter than the “record” it had announced the previous day.

A look at your graph comparing power sources to demand shows the absolute insanity of relying on renewables, when the best wind power could produce in Victoria and South Australia was 4 per cent or less (“Heat stress: power crisis hits home”, 25/1).

Kevin Begaud, Dee Why, NSW

Kowtowing to the Left

The coincidence of high temperatures and high demand for power in Australia is as predictable as summer. Despite the obvious, ill-informed virtue-seeking governments in SA and Victoria have kowtowed to the gods of the green-Left, given the finger to common sense and science, and destroyed cheap and reliable base-load capacity in the name of ideology.

The blackouts, power restrictions, loss of production and heat stress add up to a lesson to other governments of what happens when too much reliance is placed on unreliable sources of electricity.

Marc Hendrickx, Berowra, NSW

Molecules outnumbered

I’m starting to feel sorry for those little carbon dioxide molecules, struggling out there in the atmosphere against almost impossible odds to intercept fugitive heat energy attempting to escape into space to create a frozen planet.

They are outnumbered by a factor of 2500-to-one by the other gases out there which are apparently doing nothing to help, but now they are copping the blame for doing their job too well, and causing global warming.

Peter Davidson, Ashgrove, Qld