Working from home has not helped public services

The work-from-home problem will not go away (“Home affair for our public servants”, 31/1).

As an older user of public service services, I must say that the increase in the number of public servants has had little or no improvement in helping me access any of the service offices, either by phone or email.

Whether this is due to the public servants working from home or not, I cannot say.

Accessing almost any office requires the mandatory lecture on good manners and the information that they are experiencing a heavy number of calls.

When and if someone actually answers the call, it is comical to hear the interesting background sounds that come from working from home.

Our inner cities are becoming towers of empty office space – the run-on of working from home that was introduced during Covid to keep the wheels of business going, resulting in unforeseen consequences suffered by inner-city small business. It also results in another “class divide” – those who can and do work from home, and those who can’t.

Most obvious, however, is the burgeoning public service numbers with little productive improvement for the ordinary citizen as a result of the change in practice.

Many of them seem to be phantom images.

One positive: we are all surely sharing the cost of these public servants working from home or in the office.

Glenda Ellis, Drummoyne, NSW

People working outside of the Canberra bubble surely would be asking how a person can be in the office only one or two days a week on a consistent basis, and how those people justify their working arrangements and productivity.

Private enterprise is testing the waters on work-from-home arrangements that evolved during Covid and, in many cases, it is winding back the privilege.

How is it that our federal government is not doing the same?

At a time when we are told by the Prime Minister and Treasurer that wages are increasing, we see evidence of people wanting it both ways – an easier life for more pay.

Not a bad deal when you can do most if it from home.

Tim Sauer, Brighton East, Vic

Renewables give hope

A letter writer about renewable energy (“Energy fallacy”, Letters, 31/1/25) rightly points to significant challenges, such as grid reliability, electricity prices and engineering complexity.

These are real concerns as countries transition to cleaner energy sources. However, global evidence shows these challenges can be managed effectively.

And although there is a lot of support for nuclear power in the US, solar and wind have become the cheapest forms of new power generation in many states, offering stability against volatile fossil fuel prices.

By reducing dependency on imported fuels, renewables also enhance energy security.

Julia Paxino, Beaumaris, Vic

Letter writers have pointed out the intermittency of solar and wind is a problem.

But not if you build storage.

As any householder lucky enough to afford solar panels knows, if you add battery storage, you are pretty much self-sufficient.

Fiona Colin, Malvern East, Vic

Where are the patriots?

Ben Packham’s article (“ ‘Who will fight for nation?’: Leahy alarm”, 31/1), quotes former army chief Peter Leahy as saying “a decline in national pride is at the heart of the Australian Defence Force’s personnel crisis”.

Leahy warns “a culture of entitlement, identity politics and victimhood is diminishing the pool of potential recruits”.

This analysis clearly exemplifies the results of the years of indoctrination of our young, both at schools and universities, which has eventually achieved the left-wing desire to destroy patriotism, quite apart from achieving Labor’s intentionally huge influx of immigration from non-democratic countries.

Why are we surprised to discover that a generation brought up to feel shame and guilt would have any interest in defending their country?

Deirdre Graham, Moss Vale, NSW

The politicians of the past 30 years, of all persuasions, should hang their heads in remorse that they should have overseen the current situation involving our younger generations.

The elimination from school curriculum of the wealth of our history, literature, civic and national achievement has systematically reduced the younger generations’ potential.

So obsessed with political correctness and social fads have our leaders been that the key elements of our education system have been white-anted from within.

Noelle Oke, Albury, NSW

I’m not surprised the Australian Defence Forces are struggling to get new recruits.

Why risk being deployed to overseas combat areas only to return home and be accused of war crimes?

Margy Knudsen, Taringa, Qld