The Senate corporate tax avoidance inquiry has heard of billions of dollars being shifted offshore to notorious tax havens. Some of the biggest culprits are major dirty energy companies.
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Chevron paid only $248 tax on $1.7billion profit made in Australia last year, and a group of companies are using a scheme to move $60billion offshore over the next 25 years from the Gorgon natural gas project.
We have already seen major cuts to school and hospital funding. If corporations paid the tax they should pay, we could reverse those cuts without hurting families with a GST hike.
The federal government should take all good suggestions to crack down on corporate tax dodging. Incredibly, the government last week voted down its own anti-corporate tax avoidance bill because the Senate added an amendment to make sure all major corporations have to disclose the tax they paid.
Trevor Farley, Gordon
Approval for war
Britain will not begin bombing Syria until the British Prime Minister is able to obtain parliamentary support.
Australia participates in bombing of Iraq without so much as a parliamentary debate.
Surely, the royal prerogative (or executive power) as the legal basis for a decision to go to war is no longer appropriate in a modern democracy.
Surely, it is time the decision to go to war was put on a modern footing, requiring the approval of the national Parliament.
Ernst Willheim, Forrest
Roots of terrorism
Last week's terrorist attacks in Paris were horrendous. They were executed by men of terror, motivated by unmitigated hate. They were prepared to do what most of humanity would find themselves incapable of. Where did they came from? Who were they? I don't know; perhaps we will never find out. But we do know who created them.
We do know who has been responsible for allowing them to percolate to where they are now. Western leaders are responsible for this terror. They have created this terror through their Middle Eastern policies of megalomania, greed and arrogance. It all started after World WarI and has continued ever since. The most modern culprits have been George W. Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard. It is tragic they will never be held responsible for their actions and for their total incompetence.
Patrick O'Hara, Isaacs
Cycle of revenge
We are not fighting a "war on terror". A war is an event with a beginning and an end. What is happening is a revenge cycle. Terrorists kill some of our innocents – we kill some of theirs. Hatred blooms – and the cycle rolls on and on until a moment of sanity breaks the chain.
We tell ourselves we only bomb "military" targets. That's a lie. We know that terrorists hide among the civilian population. We say that's cowardice, but if they have rifles and we have F16s. Where else could they hide?
The purpose of an act of terror is to feed fear and hatred and provoke an over-response that feeds fear and hatred on the other side. Perhaps we should respond with an act of compassion. What if, for every victim of a terrorist attack, we donate a sum of money to an organisation that saves rather than takes lives? MSF, the Red Cross and World Vision come to mind.
Mike Varga, Holt
Middle East mess
The Paris attacks may provoke nations to collaborate and destroy Islamic State. They may not. If they do, it will come at a heavy price. Air power alone will not suffice. Only armies can conquer the threat IS presents in Iraq and Syria. As they say, "boots on the ground". It's a grim thought.
What is the alternative? If our nation were to join a coalition of forces determined to destroy IS, then we should only participate if there is very substantial representation by other nations of the world; if not a United Nations (and why not?) then an amazingly large "coalition of the willing" would be perfect. But only if we are prepared to fight this war to the bitter end, not just sacrifice our people, our nation's wealth and depart before the task is complete.
If we do not have the stomach for a hard, brutal war, at some personal cost to our nation, and by that we always mean our fine young citizens, then we should leave it alone, and leave the Middle East nations to sort out their mess.
Peter Funnell, Farrer
Abbott's advice
I hope all those people who previously wrote to the editor saying they were more frightened by Tony Abbott's Christianity than by Islamic State are feeling safe now Mr Abbott has gone and IS's reach and influence shows no signs of abating.
They would be the same people who recently criticised him for his speech in London on the need for strong border-protection policies, the one where European leaders sought him out for his successful implementation of the policy here in Australia.
Given the four recent perpertrators of terrorist attacks in Australia were all refugees (or the children of refugees), and at least one of the terrorists responsible for the horrific Paris attacks was a Syrian refugee, perhaps, just perhaps, Tony knew what he was talking about.
And perhaps his critics should also spend some time in south-west Sydney and see what is really going on.
Oh, sorry. I forgot. Those people live in their exclusive suburbs in Canberra, far from any terrorist activity – for now.
Bernie Brewster, Kambah
Crass comparison
Garth Setchell's comparison of France's Friday the 13th death toll with Australia's 2014 road toll (Letters, November 18) was an extraordinarily crass comment.
If Setchell had taken a moment to think, the 129 deaths in Paris occurred in one day, which would equate to an annual risk of one in 1400, in a French population of 66million.
Setchell's callousness in throwing around these extremely sensitive statistics so flippantly shows a complete lack of maturity and judgment.
Jamie Geysen, Aranda
So, not a cage?
So, the independent review into students with "complex needs and challenging behaviours" has produced a 280-page report, which offers a new academic definition for a "cage" as being a "withdrawal space for students with sensory and other complex needs" to be designed and monitored carefully so as to "ensure consistency with human rights and discrimination obligations" ("Teachers and principals left on their own to manage the most challenging students", canberratimes.com.au, November 19). Looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck: chances are, it's a duck.
John Richardson, Wallagoot, NSW
Refugee dilemma
Margaret Clough (Letters, November 18) wants to renounce her Australian citizenship, as she is ashamed so many refugees die overseas because we won't admit them to Australia.
If we were to take Margaret's position, it's not clear to me that there could be any end to our moral culpability.
Unless we took all the refugees in the world (and that seems unrealistic), we could always be held morally responsible for those we didn't take who died as a result.
But, even if we could welcome them all, wouldn't some refugees die on perilous sea voyages who might have lived if we weren't standing on our shoreline with open arms? Whether we deter boat people or open our doors to them, it seems there will be deaths on our hands.
In such circumstances, the right moral course is unclear to me. So, rather than renouncing her citizenship, perhaps Margaret could devote her energies to charting a coherent moral course through these very difficult straits.
Greg Pinder, Charnwood
ASIO failed
The ASIO building, vastly bigger than the previous one at Russell, has been gracing Parkes Way for some time now. Its facade looks out over the lake and is passed by thousands of Canberrans every day.
The present inquiry into the Man Haron Monis attack at Martin Place in December last year has now been told ASIO had been watching Monis since 1996. Yet, it repeatedly determined Monis was not a threat. Even days before the attack, it dismissed information that Monis was dangerous. This was despite the huge funding and staffing resources poured into ASIO since the 1990s.
If ASIO wants to be taken seriously by Australians, and not be seen as simply a security facade with huge but unearned powers, it will have to do better than this.
Matthew Higgins, Ainslie
War memorial
The board of the Australian War Memorial continues to avoid the history of pre-federation armed and government co-ordinated hostilities against Aboriginal communities. Yet, in the Soldiers of the Queen Gallery covering pre-federation conflicts involving state armies and navies (Sudan, Boxer Rebellion, Boer War and Maori War) specific commentary is made of the Victorian Army being used in the maritime waterfront strike of the 1890s and the Queensland Army used in the shearers' strike of the 1890s. Leaving out the frontier wars in the Soldiers of the Queen Gallery surely lessons the historical accuracy of that gallery.
Peter Conway, Braddon
Old boys' network
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Jac Nasser took Ford from being a very profitable company to being close to bankruptcy. It now looks like he is doing the same to BHP. When will the boards of these large multinationals stop looking after their mates instead of customers and shareholders? Extravagant remuneration and perks appear to be embedded in the DNA of the old boys network. It's not so good for the rest of us, however.
B. Phillips, Watson
TO THE POINT
FEATHERS WILL BE RUFFLED
What a positive step forward having a dove as our leader as opposed to a hawk. The interesting thing is all political hawks lead from the rear and not the front.
Malcolm Turnbull will no doubt have the chicken hawks in his mob frothing at the mouth because he refuses to put our military in harm's way, instead choosing to use diplomacy.
D.J. Fraser, Mudgeeraba, Qld
MIGRANT BACKLASH
Decades ago, the Seekers, bless their golden tonsils, sang, "We are one but we are many". But in the present political climate, importing many Syrians of dubious allegiances whose backgrounds cannot be properly checked will only serve to increase fears and apprehensions and quite possibly, further threats to our national security.
Christina Faulk, Swinger Hill
GRASS IS NO GREENER
I will believe the strength of Margaret Clough's shame (Letters, November 18) at being an Australian when she carries out her threat and renounces her citizenship. Oh, and when she leaves the country that she can't abide she might tell us which utopian paradise she finally lands in.
H. Ronald, Jerrabomberra, NSW
GODLESS IMAGE
I have just bought an item from Vinnies which is, essentially, a plastic image of Jesus Christ suspended in a goldfish bowl. I had to buy it because, basically, it is either proof there is no God or, if there is, he's not paying much attention.
Gary Frances, Bexley, NSW
LIABILITIES LESSENED
I note with interest James Hardie Co have reduced in one form or another their implied or otherwise asbestos liabilities.
One word ... shame.
Linus Cole, Palmerston
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