Private citizens forced to bear increasing costs of health services

Add this to the removal of further tests from the Medicare subsidy list and the freeze on rebates, and we have a clear shift in funding medical services away from government and towards the private citizen. This, Mr Turnbull is one form of privatisation!

Chris Aulich, Giralang

Each year in April, the health insurance funds increase their charges. What is not advertised is that at the same time the federal government reduces its rebate to customers on private health insurance.

So instead of an increase of 5 per cent, an aged couple may face an increase of 7 per cent.

At one stage we were receiving a rebate of 40 per cent. Now, I find that our rebate has been reduced to 35.722 per cent.

Having passed the magical age of 80 I expected the rebate to be increased.

I have been advised by my health fund it is more likely to be reduced further and may finally disappear altogether.

So much for the government encouraging people to remain in health funds.

Ken Waters, Maida Vale, WA

I have been reflecting on the squandered opportunities by successive governments over the past 20 or so years [or more] to establish a sovereign wealth fund similar to that of Norway.

Others have written and spoken about it to little avail, notably Paul Cleary (in his book Trillion Dollar Baby) and on ABC Radio National, Late Night Live (31.8.16) when he said: "The really big lesson from Norway is not the size of its trillion-dollar fund; it is the way every single krone of surplus revenue has been converted into foreign currency.

"Norway has a commodity-based economy like Australia's, but it has built a giant hedge to help manage the boom times and protect against the inevitable periods of subdued commodity prices. This explains why Norway is a creditor nation that has almost doubled its net foreign assets to around 185 per cent of GDP since 2010. That is the equivalent of Australia having amassed net foreign assets worth $3 trillion. Instead, we owe the world $1trillion."

This spectacular failure is a pox on all our governments and they should all be ashamed of themselves.

Chris Fowler, Bywong, NSW

The Australian Test cricket selectors are to be commended on selecting "younger" players Matt Renshaw, Nic Maddinson and Peter Handscombe in the Australian squad – along with the perennially overlooked Chad Sayers.

The recall of Matthew Wade is another matter. It is obvious he has not been selected on the basis of his wicket keeping performances. Wade's on-field sledging performances in the recent disastrous ODI tour of South Africa were an embarrassment and he was eventually sanctioned for "displaying behaviour deemed contrary to the spirit of the game".

The selection of Wade condones this behaviour. It is a nonsense that interim national selectors chairman Trevor Hohns can see it as nothing more than Wade being a "tough competitor".

Peter Crossing, Curtin

The idea that giving every citizen an unconditional pension would solve several social and economic problems has become popular in the media, but Peter Martin ("The case for a basic income, no questions", November 20, p17) is incorrect in writing "... that's how it is with rights – they're universal".

That may apply to rights agreed to by the United Nations but most rights are qualified.

The right to security in old age in the form of a pension is means tested.

There is no rational reason a basic income should be paid to the well-off.

Another debatable point [about a universal wage] is the social effect. It is claimed "sit down money" is destroying remote communities where there is insufficient work available. It may be necessary to pay a proportion of the basic allowance as food or rent vouchers.

There may also be truth in the saying the devil makes work for idle hands, but we may have no choice if automation makes most people unemployable.

The issue of equity was being raised 300 years ago in John Milton's play Comus, in which these lines appear: "If every just man that now pines with want had but a moderat and beseeming share of that which lewdly-pamperd luxury now heaps upon some few with vast excess, nature's full blessings would be well dispenst".

P. Edwards, Holder

I often agree with Julian Cribb's writings, but his call for people everywhere to react to Trump's election by forgetting about government actions on climate change, and just doing it yourself, is the height of unrealism. ("Trumpet call on climate", Comment, November 21, p14).

For a start, many of the things he advocates, like large-scale switching to renewable energy, suing firms, and resisting fossil fuel developments, rely crucially on government laws and regulations to succeed.

Also, they are voluntary, and are the type of action well-off people in wealthy countries can do, but cannot be expected of most people on earth.

The actions Cribb advocates are worthy, but not remotely enough.

Trump's election is certainly a wake-up call, but more than anything else it is a wake-up call to all other nations (almost all of which recognise the threat to a liveable globe from climate change) to unite, to make the US do what most of its own citizens actually want: help prevent catastrophic global heating.

A minority-vote win in 4.3per cent of the world's population cannot be allowed to ruin the future of us all.

Paul Pollard, O'Connor

By implicitly criticising the ACT's increase of funding for political parties (to $8per election vote), the article by Kirsten Lawson ("Windfall of $1.7m goes to parties", November24, p2) aggressively misses the point of the increase.

In a time when commissions on corruption are dredging up allegations around Australia, this kind of move is precisely what's needed to help prevent similar misdeeds.

Simply put, providing public money saves politicians from the muddy business of soliciting donations from private interests. The knee-jerk moral outrage about politicians "voting themselves" more money is misplaced. With this step, the ACT enacted one of the most progressive and sensible campaign finance regimes in Australia.

Dr Ron Levy, senior lecturer, ANU College of Law

The matter of ex-colonel Karel Dubsky's complaint against the Australian Defence Force gives lie to the army's claim to be dealing effectively with serious misconduct cases, past and present.

David Morrison's posturing has recently been giving the perplexing impression that all is finally in hand.

But in fact we can take a sigh of relief that all is as expected – past abusers have never had their many promotions reviewed, but anyone innocent that gets sucked into an inquiry can expect to have their careerterminated.

The army thinks it has daringly put everybody on "double secret probation", suitably to quote Animal House, but in fact has just managed to create an exception that proves the underlying rule.

Alex Mattea, Kingston

Aluminium and carbon fibre racing bicycles are dangerous anachronisms. They are prone to catastrophic failure due to fatigue fractures ("How a bike ride turned to tragedy", November23, p1). Bicycle racing's governing body limits racing bicycles to designs that are as obsolete as the 12-metre yachts that haven't won the America's Cup since 1987.

A racing bicycle can't match the 80km/h achieved in 1986 by an upright non-racing bicycle with a modern, durable steel frame, let alone the 144km/h achieved recently by a recumbent bicycle.

Leon Arundell, Downer

In reviewing The Fencer, a film about Estonia, Paul Byrnes ("The flick of Soviet occupations", November24, p21) needs to get his history right.

He writes that "The Soviets arrived in 1940, drove out the Nazis, then annexed the country". This is, of course, quite wrong. The Soviets annexed the Baltic countries in 1940 under the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Hitler's agreement: there was no German military there.

A year later, Hitler attacked the USSR, occupied the Baltics and began murdering Jews. The German occupation ended in 1944 when the Red Army returned and the Soviet terror was reimposed. Russia finally withdrew in the 1990s.

Alan N. Cowan, Yarralumla

The Institute of Landscape Architects' event for kids and their parents in Haig Park (opposite Lonsdale Street) on October30 was one of the best events I have seen in Canberra since my sons and I came to live here 50 years ago.

I passed by on my way home from the Queanbeyan River Festival, and never have I seen so many happy kids and parents enjoying so much fun in one of Canberra's best, but usually empty, parks.

There were beautiful green deckchairs everywhere, little kids riding joyfully around on bikes, dads and kids having so much fun in the mud bath, big cardboard houses, kids mucking around with delicious ice-cream and a coffee bar.

I have always thought how sad it is in Canberra that most of the beautiful parks are always soempty.

I remember wonderful Sunday markets many years ago by the lake near Blundell's Cottage.

Please, can some wonderful organisation try and bring weekend fun for kids and parents to Haig Park or other parks every month or two?

Penelope Upward, O'Connor

At the time of writing, The Canberra Times has not reported, nor commented on, Noel Pearson's criticism of the ABC as a racistorganisation.

Whether people agree with Mr Pearson, or consider the criticism ill-directed, the views of Mr Pearson, who for many years has advocated for the interests of the indigenous communities, deserve respectful public consideration.

For mine, Mr Pearson's comments illuminate the fact that the media, and our politicians, focus too little on the success of many who identify as Indigenous in maintaining their cultural identity while engaging self-reliantly with Western society.

The Indigenous community is diverse, as is the non-Indigenous community. This, the media and our politicians should highlight.

By directing policies at Indigenous disadvantage, or Indigenous dysfunction, rather than at disadvantage and dysfunction within the Australian community as a whole, the policies acknowledge race within the Australian community. Racial issues are divisive.

We don't need that. Australian policies must respect all our citizens as equals. The media should do so too, highlighting diversity.

No group should have rights or privileges not available to others. No group should expect this. But equivalent support for all vulnerable Australian citizens is a must.

Australia will never go back to 1787. We all need to recognise this. Animosities are understandable. They should not be encouraged.

Ken Brazel, Weston

FACT LIKE FICTION

One wonders if One Nation's political manifesto, ie the perils of Pauline, is based on the script concept of Groundhog Day the movie.

Linus Cole, Palmerston

DEPORTATION THREAT

Don't be too sure that you're safe from a deportation letter from Minister Dutton, Don Sephton (Letters, November 24).

It is by no means clear that Tasmania is part of Australia – note, for example, that there was still an entity called the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania in existence when you migrated across Bass Strait in 1976.

Frank Marris, Forrest

FEARS FOR FUTURE

If Peter Dutton and his supporters are passing on their racist attitudes to their children and grandchildren, I would be more worried about their grandchildren's behaviour in the future than the grandchildren of any particular ethnic group.

Clare Conway, Ainslie

FAULTY TIRADE

Athol Morris's tirade against Dr Amin Saikal (Letters, November 23) contains two grave faults.

First, it misquotes Donald Trump (if that is at all possible, seeing that DT contradicts himself on an hourly basis) and second, it persists in peddling his (Athol's) tiring Zionist rhetoric in a futile effort to discredit the good doctor.

John Rodriguez, Florey

BLAME CLIMATE CHANGE

As I pored over your death notices I spotted a disturbing trend. A lot of old people are dying. I blame climate change. Why not? Everything else is. Add it to the list.

Gerry Murphy, Braddon

A-BOMB REPRIEVE

Warwick Budd (Letters, November 23) says Robert Menzies approved British atomic bomb tests in Australia without consulting Cabinet. Menzies also wanted to use an A-bomb to create a deepwater iron ore port at Cape Keraudren. Fortunately for the WA crayfish industry, and others, an atomic blast was considered too costly by the iron-ore companies.

Colin Samundsett, Farrer

NOT SO SWEET SOLUTION

Barnaby Joyce ("Sugar tax is 'bonkers', says Joyce", November 24, p5) spurns the Grattan Institute's proposal, saying it would harm the sugar industry. He said overweight people should take personal responsibility by eating less and exercising. If they followed his advice they would surely need to cut sugar intake. Wouldn't this have much the same effect on the sugar industry?

David Townsend, Curtin

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