Yes, the ''Clayton's deal'' has ultimately borne fruit. However, Australians will never believe that a deal was not negotiated to induce the boat people to disembark from the Oceanic Viking.
It is surprising, not to mention somewhat arrogant, that our Prime Minister, who has the privilege of governing this great nation, seems to think we are all somewhat lacking in perception.
No boat people elsewhere have been offered a 4-6 week fast track to resettlement, and those who disembarked from the Oceanic Viking are evidently receiving preferential treatment and have been segregated from all other boat people currently detained in Indonesia..
Get real, PM. We are not mugs and will not be hoodwinked by you or any others of your Government.
N.Bailey,
Murrumbateman
Who do these so-called asylum-seekers think they are to demand this and that, and then get provided with all the lurks and perks by the Australian Government at taxpayers' expense?
A far simpler resolve would have been to order the Oceanic Viking to sail to Sri Lanka and have the Sri Lankan authorities remove them from the ship. Logical? Yet, whenever did common sense or logic exist with the Rudd Government?
What annoys me more is that, after my wife and I married overseas some years ago, my wife migrated to Australia. She had to go through the due immigration process to firstly gain temporary residency (including to be out of Australia before being granted), then, a further two-and-a-half year wait for permanent residency to be granted. No ''lurks and perks'' were ever afforded to her/us.
How stupid were we? She should initially have flown to Australia and claimed asylum at the airport. We would be so much better off now if we had also used and abused the system back then.
Peter Meredith,
Queanbeyan
STASI DOWN UNDER
Having just been through the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and thus the dismantling of the notorious Stasi secret police, it seems it is alive and well in the land of the fair go.
Whatever one thinks of the actions of the whistleblower Andrew Wilkie, who exposed the lie about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the revelations in the SBS program on Wednesday, November 18, of the actions against him were Stasi-like.
From the acolyte in the prime minister's office who spread the word around the press gallery that he was unstable due to his marriage break up; his ONA boss belittling his role in the organisation; the lawyer who was given the task of reviewing Wilkie's book for publication but instead handed it over to the government; the senator who seemed to have had, but denies having, access to a classified document to which he was not entitled; and then finally, and in some ways the classic tactic of the secret police state, the demand by the attorney-general's department, having censored his book, that Wilkie sign a declaration that he would not disclose that it had been censored! Wilkie quite rightly told them to stick it!
Eric Hodge,
Pearce
CHAMPION TOWNS
It is wonderful to learn of a $300,000 Australian Research Council study grant to Queensland's Griffith University to attempt to discover why Wagga Wagga has produced a swag of sporting champions (''Wagga a town of champs, but why?'' Canberra Times, November 17, p.16).
It is widely known that many towns throughout Australia punch far above their weight when it comes to producing sporting champions.
Wagga is a leading example, but it is by no means the only one.
Some towns are renowned hot spots for producing champions in a particular sport, while others, such as Wagga, have the happy knack of producing champions across a whole range of sporting events.
There is something uniquely Australian and practically sensible in a study that targets the human social factors in this regional country town phenomenon, rather than the white coat standard biophysical measures which all too often fail to identify or stimulate the heart and soul of this country's wonderful sporting success. It is to be hoped that the researchers will also include a study of Wagga's promising pool of wheelchair basketball of talent and Paralympic athletic champions who are waiting to be discovered in the Riverina region of NSW and elsewhere around Australia.
At long last, this is a study that promises to begin to properly identify and harness the amazing sporting pool that exists in our country regional areas.
I wish it the greatest success and hope that more research grants of this nature are awarded in all states and territories.
John Bell,
Lyneham
PLAUSIBILITY GAP
Aert Driessen succinctly articulates the hypocritical absurdity of climate change denialism (Letters, November 17).
He professes his disbelief in human-induced climate change on the basis that there is no evidence for the theory, yet on the other hand he happily asserts without a shred of evidence that all government-funded scientific organisations around the world are engaging in mass fraud in order to ensure ''job security and research grants''.
The problem that climate change denialists face is that no matter how implausible the theory of climate change may apparently be, it is always more plausible than the alternative theories that climate scientists are spectacularly incompetent, or that they are complicit in a conspiracy to rid the world of capitalism.
Simon Leeds
Nicholls
In the course of a week we have heard from Senator Nick Minchin that climate change is a leftist conspiracy (ABC Four Corners interview, 9 November 2009), and from Lindsay Tanner that concerns about overpopulation are nonsense because our population density is much lower than Bangladesh (speech to the Property Council of Australia, November 13, 2009).
For ministers for deregulation, factors like our quality of life, a damaged environment, and depleting stocks of water, topsoil, minerals, forests and fisheries should not hamper property developers or polluters.
Why plan or take responsibility for our actions when growth is god, and technology will save us?
The global imperative for every nation to stabilise and then reduce its population is not even on the radar (apart from Kelvin Thomson's).
But as the price of oil seesaws back to pre-GFC levels, watch what happens to the price of food.
Ruth Cully,
Hughes
DIVIDED VIEWS
The parallel in Pope's November 11 cartoon between Israel's security barrier and the Berlin Wall is completely fatuous. The Berlin Wall was built by an oppressive regime trying to keep its people in, and hundreds died trying to breach it.
Israel's security barrier was built by a democratic country trying to keep terrorists out, and it has saved probably thousands of lives by doing so. Israel's security barrier may well come down in the future, but only if the terrorist threat facing Israel's citizens ends.
Alan D. Shroot,
Forrest
TALK IS CHEAP
Another headline for the small of mind and short of sight: ''Woolcott paid $1300 a day for brief'' (November 18, p.1).
Spending 0.002per cent of the $25billion we fork out for defence on actually talking to our neighbours about foundations for future regional prosperity and security makes good sense.
And the number of pages in a report is no measure of the value delivered.
A handshake and a detailed and informed discussion between senior leaders in 23 of our closest neighbours is far more important than yet another report.
It's the difference between ''doing'' and ''reporting''.
Rather than a cheap shot at Dick Woolcott, one of our nation's longest-serving, most dedicated and inspired public servants, we should be thanking him for once again heeding the call to service.
Kirk Coningham,
Duffy
NOLANS SEPARATED
Beware of the Stanhope Government's public consultation regarding the Old Bus Depot building. In 2004 his Government held a feasibility study, including public consultation costing $45,000, regarding the Nolan Foundation Collection, as to whether it should stay at the Nolan Galley, Lanyon, or be moved to the Canberra Museum and Gallery. Professor Don Aitken, chairman of the Canberra Facilities Corporation announced, ''The consultation shows strong support for retaining the Nolan Gallery at Lanyon and for developing improved gallery and facilities there'' (Canberra Times, September 15 2004, p.7). In 2007 the Nolan Foundation Collection was moved to Canberra Museum and Gallery. The Nolan Gallery remains empty and neglected. When will the Government return the paintings to their original home and save this important part of our heritage?
P. Swaffield,
Curtin
FUND GRASSROOTS SPORT
I see the ''Coates'' of the world (Australian Olympic Committee) have resurfaced this week after a long lay-off, with the usual attempts to blackmail the Australian public with threats of ''we will only finish tenth in London'', because his trough of never-ending taxpayers' money is drying up.
Mr Coates, I and no doubt a lot more Australians couldn't care less about the number of medals we might or might not get in London.
Surely there is greater merit and more benefit to more Australians in providing the limited sports funds to the grassroots level of sport to help combat obesity and get more of the population active, than squandering millions of dollars funding Coates and his hangers-on with endless overseas trips.
L. Christie,
Canberra City
WHY ONLY SCIENTOLOGY?
With many distressing and disturbing allegations raised in Federal Parliament about abuse within the Church of Scientology (Canberra Times, November 19, p.4), it is only right that an inquiry into this organisation be launched.
But why is Scientology the only religion to have its tax-free status reviewed?
Isn't it high time that other organisations such as the Catholic Church (and others) also be reviewed for tax-free status following hundreds of years of similar claims (and convictions) such as those aired about Scientology by Senator Xenophon?
Tim Lewis,
Palmerston
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