We will see you at the barricades

Boomers have earned their tax breaks

Young Oxford alumni Adam Creighton (“Boomers’ Howard-era tax breaks punishing the young”, 12/2) is full of self-righteous hot air in attacking those who paid his scholarships and fees to get where he is now. I started work at 24 with my BSc and BEC and added a BBus, MBus and PhD in the next 30 years. I had perhaps one week off a year, perhaps five local holidays and no overseas holidays in the past 40 years — suspect he has a good two each year. I work as many hours a week as he does, say around 55 hours. I enjoy every minute and use the superannuation benefits I richly deserve. We will see you at the barricades if you want to change these, and remember as a group we have more actual combat experience than you have even read about.

David Arelette, Yarrambat, Vic

Adam Creighton claimed in his article about tax breaks for boomers that tax concessions for retirees were costing the budget $1 billion a year. Further, that this money could be used to cut marginal tax rates for all. But according to the ATO figures for 2018 there were 13.5 million taxpayers in Australia. This $1bn could reduce tax by a whopping $75 each. Equally, retirees could claim that part of tax revenue directed towards child care could be re-directed to pension increases. And this was a generation that received no child care support and had university fees and much lower levels of family support. Maybe horizontal equity is being redressed after all.

Allan Ramsay, Hornsby, NSW

Congratulations to Adam Creighton for a long overdue article on how the tax burden falls on the various demographic groups. Those making a lot of noise about the possible removal of the cash refund of franking credits, where no tax is being paid by the recipient in the first place, would be well advised to keep a slightly lower profile. Nobody likes to have something taken away from them, especially when it concerns the hip pocket nerve but, as a matter of equity, members of self-managed super funds in pension phase receive very favourable tax treatment even without the cash refund.

Peter Jones, Subiaco, WA

A study in excellence

Well done, University of Wollongong, leading the way, providing the example of integrity for other Australian tertiary institutions. Now, in the interests of transparency, could the sandstone universities publish the clauses ensuring academic freedom in their MOUs for their schools of Chinese and Middle Eastern studies?

David Cook, Drummoyne, NSW

The Ramsay Centre’s first university degree course does not look as “comprehensive” as you suggest in your editorial (“Wollongong degree a winner”, 13/2). Here is a list of important topics apparently not included in the 16 core units: ancient Egypt; the Mysteries; Horace and Catullus; Dante; the Renaissance mystics such as Meister Eckhart and Jacob Boehme; the Romantic movement; the Perennialists (or Traditionalists) of the school of Rene Guenon; monarchy and aristocracy; and recent conservative masters such as T.S. Eliot, Russell Kirk, Carl Jung, Mircea Eliade, Eric Voegelin and J.R.R. Tolkien. There seems to be too great an emphasis on applied reason and too little coverage of aesthetics and metaphysics. There also seems to be a democratic bias.

Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

Anti-Semitic Greens

Thank you, Janet Albrechtsen for calling it like it is (“Greens have two faces and one is the ugliest of bigots”, 13/2). We cannot sit around as was done in the 1930s waiting for those abhorrent attitudes and practices to just “go away”. As you said, many Jews (this one included) embrace Green policies aimed at the environment, but never could I vote for any party that also embraces bigotry.

Ruth Franklin, St Ives, NSW