Poll-driven populism

I find it disappointing to see Mr Rudd telling punters how much better off they all will be now that the dreadful (but previously the answer to our greatest moral challenge) carbon tax has been removed and then finding the necessary make-up money by reducing, delaying or even abandoning some really important carbon reduction measures.

This is not real, courageous leadership - it is poll-driven populism. Is the Australian electorate so dumb that it has to be fed this pap like a poddy calf?

I find it insulting to have to listen to Mr Rudd's patently untrue explanations for the change when everybody knows he is doing it to defuse one of Mr Abbott's main projectiles. Is it too hard to level with those whose votes you seek and tell the truth?

I suppose I will just have to grit my teeth and put up with it, hoping that these tactics will keep Abbott out of the Lodge. I hope there will not be any more such surrenders to banality, but it seems that not only in war but also in politics, the first casualty is truth.

Jim Gralton, Garran

Thank you for a most perceptive and informative editorial (''Rudd's throwing the switch to vaudeville'', Times2, July 19, p2).

As so aptly described, Kevin Rudd has certainly ''thrown the switch to vaudeville'' ever since he was reinstated to the detriment of governing. It can only be hoped that the majority of voters see it that way, too.

His statement concerning the abolition of the carbon tax is being somewhat liberal with the truth. Legislation will have to pass both houses of Parliament and it is doubtful whether the Greens would support such a motion.

Also, this is not an original Rudd thought, as Tony Abbott said he would abolish the tax on the day it was announced by Julia Gillard.

Again so rightly stated, ''Mr Rudd's vaudeville act this week has been off cue'' and, like most performers, once the veneer starts to become transparent, so the audiences start to dwindle.

Rudd would do better if he quit the stage and started governing.

N. Bailey, Nicholls

Richard Denniss (''Someone's silver lining'' (Forum, July 20, p9) keeps referring to the science. It's a throw-away line as he doesn't understand it himself.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is claimed to have increased from about 290 parts per million by volume (ppmv) to about 400 ppmv, over 100 ppmv increase.

During the last 17 years 30 ppmv, close to 30 per cent, of that increase has occurred with no statistically significant increase in average global temperature.

This surely demonstrates that CO2 has very little effect on the climate/warming of the globe (Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] agrees). Something else obviously has much greater effect.

Mr Denniss further demonstrates his lack of scientific understanding when he calls atmospheric CO2 a pollutant.

We cannot survive on this Earth without it.

Plants start to shut down and die when the CO2 concentration is at 190 ppmv or lower. We are living in a atmospheric CO2-starved period.

More CO2 in the air is beneficial to the biosphere, food production is greater and no one would be complaining about that.

Fossil fuel-fired power is cheap, reliable and the basis for our prosperity. Don't let them take it away from us.

One wonders how much thinking or research is done in Richard Denniss' think tank.

J. McKerral, Batemans Bay, NSW

Richard Denniss sticks firmly to his warmist faith. His problem is that most people now realise that warmism has been the greatest con of the last 25 years.

The Pacific islands are still there, as are the Seychelles. The recent drought was not severe in comparison to the one at the start of WWII or the extreme drought from 1894 to 1908. All the dams are now full despite warmist fearmongering of just six years ago. Extreme weather events have not increased; there is no evidence that the oceans are more acidic. CO2 levels are still below the levels recorded in the early 1940s and 1870s.

Warming stopped 15 years ago and as the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of St Petersburg makes clear, based on empirical evidence and not computer models, we are now entering a cooling phase.

Our trade competitors realise the truth and avoided burdening themselves with CO2 taxes and renewable energy targets. Our competitive advantage has been cheap power and our governments have destroyed that.

Brian Hatch, Narrabundah

Andrew Barr (''Fire amid the ice: Brumbies hold on in thriller'', July 22, p1) says a roofed stadium in Civic is a necessity. Rubbish! Canberra does not need a new stadium. We have a perfectly good stadium in Bruce. Lower attendance numbers at games has everything to do with Foxtel, price, the team's performance and their connection with the community, not the weather.

We have been attending Brumbies games since 1996. Any person who supports these codes, being Rugby or League, fully understands that they are played in cold weather and people happily rug up for the occasion. Warm stadiums with a roof belong to the basketball fans, not Rugby or League supporters. If a larger capacity is necessary, then upgrade the northern and southern ends with more seats. By the way, traffic on roads surrounding the Civic pool is almost at a standstill around the time of night that Canberrans will typically arrive for a regular Friday night game, a deterrent to say the least. Canberra crowds will not increase because of a stadium with a roof, they will increase when they feel a connection with their team, a job for the management of the club. So leave our Rugby games at Canberra Stadium where the parking is easy and where the experience, weather and environment is an enjoyable one.

Alison Gerrard, Macquarie

I favour on-shore processing of refugees. Statistics show that, as a group, they are middle class, well educated, hard-working and well behaved. They still comprise only a small part of our total migrant intake. We are richer per capita than almost everyone else on the planet and, despite what rednecks and greenies say, we are practically empty compared with almost any other nation on the planet; particularly our closest neighbours.

But the refugees could help Papua New Guinea, a potentially rich country stymied by transition problems. An influx of workers with modern skills could be just what they need. Our loss could be their gain.

Of course, it will be difficult enough integrating them into Papua New Guinea society and providing decent circumstances for them to do so. Let's just hope that politicians there don't elect to use them as a football for political advantage, like ours have. Then they'd have no chance.

Initial signs are not good. I saw one Papua New Guinea minister on telly talking about the conditions on Manus Island. Do you remember that song ''Wassa matta you? Gotta no respec? Why ya looka so sed? It's-a not-a so bed. It's a nice-a place, ah shut up-a your face!''

S.W. Davey, Torrens

One can only wonder if Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill have looked into issues for the refugees and PNG citizens for Mr Rudd's new refugee policy of sending and resettling ''boat people''.

Is he aware that the majority of ''boat people'' are Muslim and they will be ''resettled'' in a country that is predominantly Christian? Will the women and children feel safe in a completely alien culture?

Is the infrastructure for refugee camps, health facilities and schools, that Australia has promised to fund, going to miraculously appear within the immediate future?

Will the PNG community readily accept these people when many of them themselves are living in poverty and without work? One wonders how the PNG citizens feel knowing Mr Rudd has deemed their country to be a deterrent for refugees.

Sheila Duke, Ainslie

Have Kevin Rudd and his yes-men completely thought through the implications of this new Australian policy towards asylum seekers?

Sure, they know that it's morally bankrupt, that it's a stain on their personal consciences, that it's a new low in pandering, that it's the international equivalent of rich people paying poor people to do their military service for them and that it reduces Australia's standing in the world so far that we can never again speak on moral issues without hypocrisy.

They know all this but consider it all offset by the probability of getting more votes. But do they realise that betraying all our notions of the ''Australian character'' will also mean changing the national anthem? The line in the second verse, ''For those who've come across the seas, we've boundless plains to share'' will have to go, obviously. ''For those who've come across the seas, bugger off'' is probably the most accurate substitute but it doesn't scan so well. So, to start the ball rolling in this important national dialogue, how about, ''For those who've come across the seas, well, PNG's quite near''?

Martin Richardson, Aranda

I'm grateful the Department of Immigration and Citizenship published photos of the damage to buildings, facilities, and vehicles caused by rioters on Nauru. We should see how our $60 million is abused.

DIAC carefully omits photos of any human incarcerated at Nauru, so we taxpayers cannot see the damage our $umpty-ump billion has done to the already fragile souls we put in the hot, humid, concrete-and-tinny sheds we see vandalised and burned.

People just like you and me but for the lucky circumstances of our birth. Held behind gates, at the mercy of a system that gives them little information, and even less understanding about the determination of their status - especially given recent chaos within the Nauruan government processing their claims.

Given the pictures released, DIAC and our government appear to show us what they really value - dollars and buildings, not people. What a tragic state of Australian values!

Judy Bamberger, O'Connor

I read with great interest Mark Hearn's article ''Capitalism needs compassion'' (Times2, July 15, p4) , particularly the sad case of Donna Penny. But nowhere in his article did Mark state the source of the problem that Donna Penny faced in having better access to what was presumably a terminal allocated pension. I was diagnosed on February 14 with bulbar-onset motor neurone disease, and faced the same problems. I was unable to access the much higher amount in my TAP, and had to increase payments from my much smaller regular allocated pension.

The source of that problem is the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994-REG 6.01A. The regulations allow restrictions to be removed in certain cases, one of which is the owner of the pension suffering from a terminal disease.

The catch is the way REG 6.01A defines a terminal disease: ''(a) two registered medical practitioners have certified … that the person suffers from an illness, or has incurred an injury, that is likely to result in the death of the person within a period (the certification period) that ends not more than 12 months after the date of the certification.'' Most victims of MND, and of the majority of other terminal diseases, survive for more than one year. The most unfair part of this rule is that such people are likely to face increasing medical costs, and are in greater need of accessing their own money than the person who dies quickly.

The only way to change this is for the government to change the regulation to ''not more than five years after the period of certification''

Dr John Penhallurick, Fraser

The Japanese Fisheries Agency must wonder about the ledger on the boardroom table especially if the Whaling Commission hearing goes against it.

Stocks of whale meat in Japan are currently about 5000 tonnes. Consumption is less than the supply and only 11 per cent of the population bought whale meat in the past year. The industry is propped up by millions of dollars annually in subsidies including some funds diverted from the tsunami reconstruction resources.

Each year Japan faces a PR problem that must tarnish the country's standing in the eyes of the global public and with its allies. The value of a lethal scientific study program does not seem rational and may be a front for something else.

At the same time, the stocks of Pacific bluefin tuna have dwindled to 3.6 per cent of the original population and 90 per cent of the current catch of this species have not reached reproductive age.

The World Wildlife Fund estimates that the Atlantic bluefin tuna also fished by Japan, will become ''functionally extinct'' in three years. Japan consumes 80 per cent of the global tuna catch of which stocks are seriously depleted. The agency must find it tempting to stop whaling on condition that they are granted more access to Australia's already fragile tuna resource.

It may well be that the costly Japanese whaling program is all about tuna.

Digby Habel, Cook

Frank O'Shea, (''Wanted: driver pure as snow, or at least tattoo-less'', Times2, July 18, p5) gives us a wry analysis of the value of tattoos in the identification of bank robbers.

He reminds us that the Christian churches reject candidates with tattoos for holy orders and speculates that tattoos may be banned in the Bible. Perhaps such scholars may turn to Genesis chapter 4, verses 11-16, where we read of the curse and mark of Cain. The Hebrew word translated as ''mark'' could mean a sign, an omen, a warning or a remembrance. Cain had murdered his brother Abel.

Perhaps the mark served as a warning to others not to commit the same offence.

Such a mark would be a standout in a police ID line-up!

Robert Willson, Deakin

END THE CRICKET SHAME

Have we now reached the same level of ineptitude in cricket? Perhaps the umpires could ask the English bowlers to bowl underarm, or maybe a tennis ball could be used. Cricket Australia - please bring them home on the first available plane to save further embarrassment.

L. Christie, Canberra City

SINKING ALP'S BOAT ADS

I see that Labor has exempted itself from its own rules re scrutiny of government advertising ''on the basis of extreme urgency'' to get its ''you won't be settled in Australia'' rant out to refugees. Which begs the question: do the thousands of refugees scattered across Indonesia only get the Saturday edition of The Canberra Times, or do they opt for seven-day delivery? It must have worked, though, because the boat in the ad doesn't have a single person on board.

Dallas Stow, O'Connor

LAUGHING LONGEST

Bill Deane and L. Kirwan (Letters, July 20) are right. ''Us'' is wrong and ''we'' is correct. I realised at the time (Letters, July 19) that it was grammatically incorrect usage but thought ''bugger it - in the interest of humour and emphasis, let's invert the grammatical paradigm!'' ''Us'' is more redolent of solidarity, while ''we'' sounds a tad twee. My letter was just for a laugh - and some get the humour and some don't.

I hope Deane and Kirwan had a laugh at my letter. I certainly had one at their expense.

Ron Theory, Duffy

SPOKE IN BIKE RACKS

Terry George (Letters, July 17) complains that our Green/Labor government is reneging on a commitment to install bike racks on every Canberra bus. This scheme must really be an unusual waste of money if this government is trying to dodge it, given how many other bits of empty Green symbolism get bankrolled.

Armed now (surely) with statistics on how frequently these devices are used, and how much their installation has cost taxpayers, I'd like to know the average cost per use and how that compares with the average fare.

Michael Jordan, Gowrie

BURGER CHAIN BEEF

Every Sunday morning, my walking group and I enjoy our weekly walk around Lake Ginninderra, Belconnen - except for sight of rubbish that has drifted down from the top car park or been left around the outside eating areas. From there, it floats on to the grass and walking path to end up in our beautiful lake. The litter is well-identified. Think well-known hamburger chain. These takeaway outlets are part of Canberra's littler problem, so they need to be part of the solution.

A. Medcalf, Belconnen

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