The big spend looks like it will become the big stuff up

She`s a big country mate; BHP, the big Australian; the big prawn; the big merino; and now we have the big spend. Curtesy of politicians, we went into a spin over a virus and trashed our economy. Now we are trying to correct the spin from the wreckage, with one foot on the big-spend throttle, the other foot on social distancing. It is a concept that looks good on paper but in reality is unworkable and will eventually crumble.

The big spend is a powerful political device and the government knows this; the question is, how long can it carry on? It was inevitable that it would have flaws, because it is easy to trip and fall when you make policy on the run, the latest propping up of the building industry is a good example.

Why not spend the money on public projects, social housing, roads and dams? It would create the same number of jobs.

I see the long-term consequences of the big spend being the big stuff up, unless we take a more practical approach to the road ahead, or long march out if you are a Victorian.

Blade Johnstone, Victoria Point, Qld

Investment manna

Given Australia’s dependence on foreign capital inflows, it is reassuring to learn that concerns over China’s debt-trap Belt and Road Initiative will not mean any blanket discouragement of investors from growing our economy (“Foreigners face tougher test to invest”, 5/6).

Areas such as energy, transport and bio and cyber security must receive more attention than they have had in the past, but discretion must be exercised. It is too late to cancel rash actions such as the leasing of the port of Darwin to state-owned entities, but future ventures such as that proposed by the Victorian government must be blocked.

We should be confident in Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s ability to liaise with our security services and strike the right balance in applying the foreign takeover powers.

John Morrissey, Hawthorn, Vic

The news that the federal government is to tighten foreign investment guidelines is manna from heaven for the nation. Australia should have ultimate control over its critical assets.

There’s no doubt that people blanch at the thought of foreign interests taking our farmland, infrastructure and residential property. The pandemic has shone a brighter light on this issue as never before, particularly as there is growing fear that our prized assets, some now devalued, will be vulnerable to foreign takeover.

Tim Sauer, East Brighton, Vic

Settlement questions

Rewriting Australian history has been going on for decades where the observations of early Australians such as Ion Idriess, who lived with the native population, are unrecognisable today. Idriess’s books portray a raw honesty uncomplicated by political correctness (“Shire madness as councillor rewrites history”, 5/6).

It defies reality to suggest that when the first ancestors arrived in successive waves over the centuries they didn’t displace those who had preceded them. Political correctness has delivered a distorted and patronising version of Aboriginal life as modern historians strive to attribute positives that never existed and erase negatives that did.

Bruce Collison, Banks, ACT

The Bradshaw rock art in the Kimberley depicts figures and regalia that predate Aboriginal drawings. While there is never an ideal time to discuss Aboriginal ancestry the Labor spokesman who described Brooke Collins’s comments as “grotesque, disgusting, highly offensive” is silly. The left will not engage in an intelligent debate about the origins of indigenous Australians.

Pretending the first Aboriginals were not immigrants is naive.

Greg Jones, Kogarah, NSW