What would Tingle bring to ABC board?

Laura Tingle is a former print journalist now working on-air as a political editor at ABC 7.30. She wishes to stand for election as the ABC staff representative on the corporation’s board. If successful, Tingle would be balancing her “on air” role with the ABC, the National Press Club (of which she is president) and ABC board commitments – involving sometimes onerous committee work. She also writes for other media.

Leaving to one side whether there should be a staff representative on the ABC board at all – the real question is what, precisely, Tingle would bring to the board. As we pay her salary – perhaps Tingle could share with us why a high-paid busy journalist should be elected and what she would seek to achieve in the role.

John Simpson, Melbourne, Vic

Lab most likely

At the start of the Covid pandemic, there were emphatic denials of any possibility of escape from a laboratory in Wuhan, accompanied by cries of conspiracy theories.

Invoking of “conspiracy theories” is one of the most effective ways of suppressing debate. A more effective end to the debate would take place if a proximal precursor to SARS-Cov2 could be isolated from a natural source, and its gene sequence included the interspersed 12 base furin cleavage site required for human infectivity, for which no natural source has been found. But until that hypothetical time, a laboratory leak will remain a viable possibility. Recent events suggest that the tide of debate is turning (“US shift on Covid: lab leak blamed”, 28/2).

James Goding, emeritus professor, Monash University

Home bonanza

Local, state and federal governments are doing the best they can to add more social, low-income and disadvantaged housing, despite the negative comments of the opposition and many other naysayers. However, residential homes are being built at an astronomical rate. New housing estates are being developed and house and land package sales cannot keep up with the demand. While many on housing loans are feeling the pinch, there are obviously many who are not daunted by the financial climate and are buying new homes. These new subdivisions are good for the building business but it is to be hoped the necessary infra­structure is being put in place to accommodate the additional houses.

Alan Leitch, Austins Ferry, Tas

Reality bites

Tell me, Amy Hiller (Letters, 28/2), when Australia ships our coal to China and India for their use, do the carbon dioxide emissions magically become a non-carbon burning fuel commodity? Is there something different happening in the thousands of Chinese and Indian coal-fired power stations that prevents you and your climate catastrophist friends from protesting outside the Chinese and Indian embassies in the same way you continually protest against your country’s use of the same coal for reliable and affordable energy?

David Spratt, Mosman, NSW

Amy Hiller has for some time stridently advocated for immediate action against coal and gas to save the planet. I ask if Hiller has now travelled the road to Damascus, as her latest letter beseeches “compromise and collaboration” to achieve emissions reductions. That is what many of us letter writers have championed for many years. Compromise with economic interests. Collaboration to consider whole-of-life costs and practicality of alternative energies to coal and gas, including adopting nuclear.

And I would add the words “facing reality”. Renewables have their limitations: many large countries are not going to curb their coal and gas usage; world population growth continues unabated; and the need for defence preparedness (entailing massive energy usage) to protect us from the despots of the world.

Ian Morison, Forrest, ACT

Rural resilience

To escape the heat and mowing the lawns I watched an old episode of the ABC’s Back Roads. There were two distinct messages from the experience. How resilient people are in rural Australia when things go so horribly wrong. I refer to the cyclone-­infused floods in the Gulf Country a few years ago with thousands of cattle drowning. The second was how much the quality of the ABC’s presentation has deteriorated in those few short years from factual to alternative to almost mythical.

John M. Bain, South Bunbury, WA

Nazi hate speech

Contrary to Arthur Klepfisz’s beliefs (Letters, 28/2), Weimar Germany extensively prosecuted hate speech, and Nazi propagandists such as Joseph Goebbels and Julius Streicher were frequently in court for their anti-Semitic writing and speeches. To outsiders and the marginalised, this only enhanced the Nazis’ credibility and conspiracy theories.

D. Straface, Perth, WA