Jack Waterford (''No mould, male or female'', February 8, p11) may be right that there is no mould for a political personality, and particularly a prime minister, but there is something very mouldy in the media reporting on our present Prime Minister.
It smells of what many senior women have experienced in workplaces and other forums, subtle double standards such as a strong man can be considered ''assertive'' where a strong woman is ''aggressive''. This is what pervades the media reporting.
Julia Gillard is no ''Easter Island statue'', nor a ''blokey larrikin'', nor a ''bland ordinary but gauche figure''. She, like many of our leaders, shows us many sides - serious when reporting something of note; drawn and pale when talking about a tragic situation of a disaster; feisty when countering her opposition in Parliament; gracious and intelligent when mixing at world forums; smiley, articulate and at ease when being interviewed (such as by Willesee); and, by accounts of everyday Australians who have met her, warm, funny, chatty, drily witty. And so on. One has to only stop, look and listen with openness rather than jaundice, and there she is.
If voters ''still do not know'', as Waterford says, then it is because the intermediary, the translator, namely the media, is not stopping to look and listen with openness but just circulating a stereotype.
M. Castello, Griffith
To my knowledge ''mea culpa'' has never passed the lips of any journalist I have read. So it is interesting in his defence of the media that Jack Waterford does not acknowledge the radio ''talkback jocks'' as being a part of the media, when he claims ''there is little sexism in the media reporting of the PM''. If he had he certainly would have to have included the media in the ''public abuse of her''. Certainly the emails doing the rounds from the public reflect much of the misogyny that is broadcast .
L. Bennet (Letters, February 8) should have included that being ''born a female, clever and a PM'' is a triple blow in the current political scene.
Patrick Flynn, Page
OBSTACLES TO GROWTH
Nicholas Stuart (''Who would dare to introduce new ideas for new economy?'', February 8, p11) does ask the right question. Growth, as he notes, has underpinned all economic theories since the 1600s, but now there is a crisis of confidence.
He cites ''the drain on unrenewable resources; prospect of climate change; depression in Europe; rising power of Asia'' as all adding to uncertainty.
In his 2011 book The End of Growth, Richard Heinberg writes that there are three primary factors that stand in the way of further growth. These are: depletion of important resources including fossil fuels and minerals; proliferation of negative environmental impacts arising from the extraction and use of these, not least climate change; and disruptions due to the inability of our financial systems to adjust to the above.
Canadian financial and energy analyst Nicole Foss, currently touring Australia, warns that the current credit bubble is about to burst. This will set off another recession from which we will not fully recover because of energy shortages, especially oil.
Jenny Goldie, Michelago, NSW
CLIMATE LETTER
H. Ronald (Letters, February 6) reminds us of the Murdoch media's latest own-goal: the farcical letter from 16 scientists published throughout the international Murdoch press and ultimately in The [semi-]Australian. The signatories were, typically, physicists, geologists, astronauts and former oil industry employees.
What Ronald failed to mention is that this absurd compendium of long-debunked nonsense was immediately repudiated in a reply to The Wall Street Journal on February 1 from 38 of the world's most experienced, genuine climate scientists.
The list of signatories included noted Australian climate scientists such as Matthew England and Steven Sherwood from UNSW, David Griggs from Monash and David Karoly from the University of Melbourne - all from our most respected universities.
They described Murdoch's 16 as: ''The climate-science equivalent of dentists practising cardiology.''
Felix MacNeill, Dickson
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