I have recently returned from a visit to Europe, first to a conference in Switzerland and then to see family in England.
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In each place, whenever the talk turned to Australia, one of the first questions on people's lips was, in varied ways: "Is what we see in the media about Australia's inhumane treatment of refugees and asylum seekers really true?" Sadly, I had to tell them that it was.
It both saddened and shamed me to realise that this is the picture of our potentially great nation that is etched in the minds of people on the other side of the world.
Surely, it is time for some lateral and generous thinking on new ways of dealing with the situation we face.
Margaret Lancaster, Curtin
Entitled on panel
I have little faith that most of the individuals named to make a "root and branch" review of parliamentary entitlements have much idea of "community expectations" of fair work expenses.
Why, for example, are any present or past parliamentarians in the review team? Will the recommendations from the review be open for discussion by the community? Tony Abbott tells us that parliamentarians must work on "what matters to the Australian people ... who expect politicians to be working for them"!
So why, for example, have we now heard that Tony Burke has had trips to China, paid for privately? Who was he working for? The whole community?
Adrian Gibbs, Yarralumla
Population balance
I was saddened to read Mikayla Novak's article "Relax our borders, reap the benefits" (Forum, August8, p5). She conflates xenophobia with the economic argument of infrastructure congestion. Playing the race card in this way has no place in a civilised discussion on migration. In my 20 years as a member of Sustainable Population Australia, I have found widespread acceptance, even enthusiasm, for multiculturalism.
Ms Novak urges higher immigration for Australia, oblivious of the fact that our country has had, for the past 12 years, among the highest population growth rates in the developed world, due largely to immigration. In 2013, in the OECD, only Israel and Luxembourg had higher rates (Annual Labour Force Statistics). In comparison, our economic growth, expressed as GDP per person, is rather ordinary. We cannot expect to maintain our welfare state and our present population growth rate.
Unlike the rest of the world, Australia may not yet be in population overshoot, but we're not far off. With a population over, say, 25million we will find it very difficult to protect our fragile natural environment. In any case, with the problems facing humankind this century, it would be wise to keep our numbers sensibly low.
Nick Ware, O'Connor
Mikayla Novak's plea for mass immigration is disarming, starry-eyed stuff from an economic libertarian. The vision of perfectly mobile and competitive labour resonates with faith in the positive power of unfettered market forces to promote growth and spread wealth.
Unfortunately, this faith is not shared by the world's more influential proponents of economic liberalism, who know how to swing the lever to exploitation, exclusion and government rescue when it matters to them.
Paul Feldman, Macquarie
Mental health cure
Professor Allan Fels contends there is so much mental illness in society that it is a significant cause of reduced workplace productivity and, of course, he is absolutely correct.
However, his prescription for this malady is increased access to mental health practitioners. Here, he is absolutely wrong. Instead of addressing the causes, he is doing what usually happens: addressing an effect with a Band-aid.
The causes of mental illness include: the capitalist system that subordinates everything to the bottom line; prioritisation of space travel and war over poverty and sickness; corrupt and incompetent governments, government agencies, banks and businesses; corrupt, incompetent, brutal and racist police forces; war and aggression the world over; destruction of the environment due to corruption, incompetence and greed; lack of respect and consideration for others; corrupt, brutal, antisocial, incompetent and discriminatory justice systems; and discrimination against the poor and in favour of the rich.
Until the causes of mental illness have been addressed by world leaders, mental illness will grow and continue to wreak havoc around the world. As I have opined often: "If you are not depressed, there must be something wrong with you."
Peter Nielsen, Calwell
Israel's grim statistics
Alan Shroot (Letters, August 7) regales us with statistics about how wonderful he thinks Israel is now that there are universities where before there were none. Perhaps he also noticed Israel has imposed a pathetic six-month "administrative detention" order on Mordechai Meyer for fire-bombing a Palestinian family ("First Jewish extremist held under terror law", August7, p10), leading to the deaths of 18-month-old Palestinian Ali Dawabshe and his father, Saad, as well as critically injuring his mother and brother. Let's hear him defend that.
Chris Williams, Griffith
Pity NRL widows
So, Channel 9 has done a record sports broadcasting deal with the NRL and we are supposed to celebrate? Celebrate what? The fact that some teams may be forced to play on a Monday night, then back up on the Thursday or Friday night? The fact that footballers will be at greater risk of burnout simply so that Nine can saturate the airwaves with four nights a week of footy?
I love rugby league. I subscribed to Foxtel so that I could see the Raiders play (they are almost never on Nine). But I refuse to watch Thursday night footy and only watch Monday night if the Raiders are playing (as this week). Tuesday and Friday are work/school days, and "rugby league widows" have enough to put up with already, with Dad (and the boys?) watching footy on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Saturation may kill this great game, and I refuse to be party to it. Let's hope Foxtel's deal doesn't include Tuesday and Wednesday night games.
Stuart Kennedy, Corunna, NSW
Safety still neglected
Without in any way commenting on specific matters before the courts or the royal commission inquiring into certain union activities, any reader of your pages will have come across stories with adverse comments on some construction sites.
Some stories related to owner-occupants of apartments with long-running claims against the building developers who appear to have cut corners, this impacting on building quality. There have been stories about death and injuries on Canberra building sites. I recall some years past hearing from my then 19-year-old grandson and his mates of young men on building sites without previous experience being sent up on high scaffolding without any safety harnesses.
The numbers of such stories and the gravity of some of the matters cited do lead one to think there has been and remains a need for much stronger health and safety inspection, and quality supervision of the construction industry by the ACT authorities, and to draw the conclusion that it has been as well for local workers in the industry that the CFMEU has been vigilant about worker safety. Has there been any link drawn between the sites where deaths and injury have occurred and the presence or not of CFMEU health and safety inspection?
Marie Coleman, Watson
Double standard
Shane Rattenbury ("ACT must raise its voice on euthanasia and demand its rights", August 8, p5) is right when he says that the decision by the Commonwealth to legislate to remove the right of the people of the ACT and the Northern Territory to legislate for euthanasia is "indefensible ... undemocratic and discriminatory". Canberrans, he says "should have the same rights as other Australians".
I do not support euthanasia, but I agree it is outrageous that our right to legislate on this one issue has been taken from us.
Imagine then what the residents of Norfolk Island think of the recent decision of the Australian government, with the full support of the Greens and Labor, including all of Labor's ACT and NT members and senators, to not just deny them the right to legislate in relation to euthanasia, but to abolish self-government on Norfolk Island altogether.
It really is a bit rich for anyone who is a member of one of the parties that, against the wishes of the residents of Norfolk Island and without consultation, removed all of their legislative capacity and sacked their parliament, to talk about discrimination and a lack of democracy and a denial of legislative capacity.
Jon Stanhope, Bruce
I totally empathise with Shane Rattenbury on euthanasia.
It is time governments let individuals make decisions that are right for them. It is time beliefs are accepted as an individual choice and a person can live by their own conscience and not by politicians who are voted in to act on behalf of citizens, not on behalf of God (that can be left to the churches people go to by personal choice).
Heather Sorensen, Kambah
Abortion protests
Minister Shane Rattenbury rejects the suggestion that banning protests outside the Moore Street abortion clinic is an attack on people's rights. ("Minister marks past as he pushes protest bill", August7, p9).
He affirms the right to protest, but not in a way that infringes on an individual's right to access services for her own health. Like most pro-abortion advocates, he concentrates on the supposed rights of the woman. But what about the rights of others involved in this procedure? What about the rights of the father of the unborn child? What about the rights of medical doctors who are asked to perform this operation, and the nursing staff? Above all, what about the right to life of a healthy unborn child?
As a society, are we comfortable about terminating the life of a child sometimes only weeks or months before birth? Why should that be perfectly legal and acceptable, while killing a newborn child a few months later is murder?
The minister speaks of the individual woman's right to access services "for her own health". But to be pregnant, in most cases, is not a life-threatening disease. If the mother is unwilling or unable to raise her child herself, then there are many couples who are seeking babies to adopt. While they wait for years, as many as 100,000 healthy unborn babies each year are put to death in their mother's womb.
If the prayers outside the Moore Street clinic save even one life, then not only Christianity, but other world religions would affirm that is a good outcome.
Father Robert Willson, Deakin
A weekly prayer vigil by a small group outside the abortion clinic in Civic ignited debate about freedom of speech and the right to protest. Whilst they are important issues, recent revelations from the United States about activity in clinics there have sent shock waves across the US and beyond.
Investigation into Planned Parenthood, the main provider of abortion in the US, uncovered illegal trade in the sale of body parts of aborted babies.
Dr Deborah Nucatola, an executive and prominent abortionist, admitted the sale of fetal tissue, including organs, such as heart, lungs and livers. In graphic detail, she explained techniques used to harvest the organs intact, increasing their price.
Many state governors are demanding defunding of the organisation and prosecution. Coca-Cola, Xerox and Ford have all dissociated themselves from Planned Parenthood.
Calls for a similar inquiry have already been made in the European Parliament. Such exposure raises compelling questions. How do clinics anywhere dispose of the remains of aborted babies? What controls are in place to ensure such trade does not exist in Australia?
MLA Rattenbury would serve us better by addressing such grave concerns rather than by his intent to suppress a handful of protesters. The revelation from, probably the leading abortion provider in the world, leaves no doubt: abortion is more than a woman's health issue; it is a matter of life and death.
G. Burnell, Narrabundah
Advice for police
If police really want to build trust with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities ("Police need Indigenous recruits to build trust", August9, p5) they should appoint some of them as "real" police, with all the power and responsibility that goes with the title. Surely, we have grown from the time when ATSI people were judged only good enough to be "liaison officers" – little power or authority, just insufficiently valued low-grade work.
Sue Schreiner, Red Hill
Canberra a car city and likely to stay so
"The future is now: why the cars of today feature tomorrow's technology" (Drive, August8, pp4-5) has many intriguing descriptions of future improvements to our cars – sacred components of our families, Canberra in particular.
The maintenance of these exotic features will, of course, be beyond the capability of normal car repairers. Already there have been instances of cruise control malfunctioning, with terrifying results. Oh well, never mind, total recall, back to the drawing board, a minor modification is on the way.
What next? Whatever it might be, the first consideration is the price increment, research into what the market will stand, the cost to advertisers, then to the developers. Automobile economics.
Here are two developments that won't happen. 1. Cut out all the gimmicks and expensive parts of the appearance in order to make the car cheaper.
2. Make a car that parks in a smaller space; not the ingenious robotic manoeuvring algorithm. That has been done. We should pack more cars into the same space. Automobile economists know this is their principal task.
Meanwhile, agitate for greater car parks, damn the tram, criticise cycleways. We're a car city.
Jack Palmer, Watson
Scientific fail
If anyone believed Tony Abbott ever learnt any practical science, they would surely have had their minds changed instantly on seeing the ABC's 7pm news on Friday. The children using a Bunsen burner to heat something in a test-tube were very properly wearing their safety glasses and lab coats, but our intrepid PM felt no such need, despite his very close inspection of the experiment. He could easily have lost an eye. Not a good example, but it might say something about the government's dismal attention to science.
Dr John Rogers, Cook
TO THE POINT
The Canberra Times wants to hear from you in short bursts. Email views in 50 words or fewer to
letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au.
POLLIES OVERENTITLED
First Bronwyn Bishop, then Tony Burke, now Joe Hockey overspending on travel. We are often told that "if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys", but it seems that if you pay a lot, you get grasping, self-interested careerists more interested in feathering their own nests than anything else. I wonder which is worse?
Gordon Soames, Curtin
One thing we have learnt from the present entitlements' scandal and past and present royal commission would be that when rogues fall out, good people prosper. Another thing that is obvious to all of us is that we must protect the whistle blowers. Any government which tries to muzzle whistleblowers should be voted out of office at the first opportunity.
Howard Carew, Isaacs
I would like to think that MPs and PMs who make a fine show of doing charitable good works do so at their own expense and do not claim travel and accommodation from the taxpayer.
Rosey Stanier, Torrens
DISOWNING THIS FATHER
I agree entirely with S.W.Davey (Letters, August8) re the silly media habit of referring to Philip Ruddock as "father of the house", which can be taken as a term of respect, which I don't think he deserves. "Father" is a term that suggests creating something – which Ruddock certainly has not done in relation to the federal Parliament.
Rod Holesgrove, O'Connor
TRAMS BEST OPTION
Why keep wasting money on reports forecasting the job creation results of building light rail? It's clear that some will always want to contest the results. We need to provide a better public transport network in Canberra. Most can agree with that. No option for doing it is perfect in every way, but light rail is the best in so many ways.
Susan Walls, Yarralumla
WHATEVER NEXT?
Can we now assume that it's OK for young male MPs or MLAs to bottle-feed their babies in the chamber ("Jones and little Maximus breastfeed into history", August 5, p2)?
Roger Marchant, Lyneham
UNPALATABLE
I was interested to read ("Overseas push upsets Pie Face locals", BusinessDay, August8, p6) that franchisees are discontented with their involvement in the Pie Face chain and will walk away as soon as they can. Having bought their product last week and finding it inedible, I am not surprised; there is unlikely to be any return business.
Valerie Quigley, Crace
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