Stop your whingeing; we have it easy on Covid compared with poor countries

Tuesday night’s news bulletin began with indignant huffing and puffing over the slow vaccination rollout in Australia. This was followed by heart-wrenching images of seriously ill Indonesians unable to get a bed inside Covid-overwhelmed hospitals.

The simple solution to Australia’s vaccination issues would be to send all our allocated doses to parts of the world where they are so desperately needed. To do otherwise would be the behaviour of compassionless, spoilt and selfish children. It is one thing to enjoy our enormously higher standard of living with token aid and charitable offerings to salve our guilt. It is quite another to prioritise the infinitely small risk of an Australian falling to Covid over that of countries overrun with the possibility.

Matt Handbury, Darling Point, NSW

It is disappointing to read correspondents complaining about our vaccine rollout rates. Have a look at the position in poorer countries. Those countries don’t have the hospital care the rich West has. Nor can they get vaccines, nor can they afford income and business support programs, or policing to control lockdowns.

South Africa just now has rioting and looting, caused by despair. There is even a chance that society may break down in some countries as the pandemic worsens. And if things do get better, as those countries rely on tourism, the rich West will eschew visits there for a long time, making the recovery much tougher. Take a deep breath and be thankful of our position as perhaps the luckiest country.

Ian Morison, Forrest, ACT

Friends like us

In voicing their grave concerns on the fate of Afghan interpreters and their families (“Dark hour when we leave allies to their fate”, 13/7), David Savage and William Maley noted that “shabby abandonment by politicians has a long history in Australia”.

I, too, hold a deep foreboding that the lack of urgent action by the federal government, to safeguard Afghans who assisted Australian troops over the past 20 years, could become a moral stain on Australia’s character. Airlifting these people to a safe place where humanitarian visas can be properly processed is simply “the right thing to do”.

Under the previous Labor government, escalating asylum-seeker deaths at sea became an embarrassing failure of government. The Australian public deplored the horrendous loss of life, and it was no surprise when the Coalition’s “stop the boats” campaign swept Tony Abbott to power in 2013. The Afghan issue could similarly become an albatross around the Coalition government’s neck that could undermine the government’s campaign for re-election.

This issue is crying out for bold action by Defence Minister Peter Dutton, of which he has shown he is eminently capable.

Neil Hair, Beacon Hill, NSW

Paul Kelly’s opening lines about bath time in the late 19th century elicited a wry smile from me because that was the bath time routine for my parents and me in immediate postwar London (“Let down by the golden promise of the digital age”, 14/7). It was a little unusual by that time, but we lived/worked in a building that had been a 19th century workhouse in London’s East End, the only building still standing out of a whole block.

Seventy-plus years later, I learn in the article by David Savage and William Maley that Winston Churchill and Bertram Ramsay brought out both French and British from Dunkirk. I see a different attitude to our friends in war today. The mean-spiritedness of our bureaucracy to those who helped Australia in Afghanistan is depicted so well by John Spooner in Wednesday’s cartoon.

J. Halgren, Latham, ACT

Rural power

It is encouraging to read about the new Australian Energy Market Operator chief executive’s vision for an electricity grid capable of supporting 100 per cent renewable energy (“100pc renewables target for national power grid”, 14/7). We also need a vision for renewable energy, storage and micro-grid facilities that addresses the needs of regional Australia.

Regional communities are blessed with solar and wind resources, but often are the most at risk from power outages due to events like bushfires and deficiencies in the grid. There are some great examples where members of rural communities banded together to reverse local vulnerability through smart investments in renewable energy, storage and micro-grid facilities that ensure supply and reduce emissions, while enabling locals to invest in their energy solutions.

The federal parliamentary energy and environment committee is considering legislation (the Australian Local Power Agency Bill) for a program and specialised national support agency for community energy projects. It deserves bipartisan political support.

Jim Allen, Panorama, SA