Liberals fail the pub test, and now the airport lounge test too

That premier said that ordinary voters in a pub would never believe that he could forget such a thing, and therefore his credibility was shot.

It never occurred to him to say he was so used to being given bottles of Grange Hermitage that he could never remember them all.

How different things are today.

Mathias Cormann, the federal Liberal Minister for Finance, no less, says that he just forgot that he had never been charged for flights to Singapore for his whole family.

He also forgot that the travel agent who didn't charge him for these flights was the federal Treasurer of the Liberal Party, and that he was a major donor to the Liberal Party as well.

He would have us believe that this well-connected travel agent similarly just forgot to charge the Liberal Minister for Finance.

This forgetful Liberal minister has no intention of resigning.

Apparently the pub test no longer applies to Liberal politicians.

Apparently they don't care about what things look like or smell like for ordinary voters in pubs or anywhere else.

Grant Agnew, Coopers Plains, Qld

It's amazing to me that despite no evidence ever being offered people keep peddling the myth of people smugglers, a lie then immigration minister Philip Ruddock invented only 20years ago to justify cruelty to refugees.

Asylum seekers have always had the right to come here and seek asylum, ergo they are not being smuggled by anyone.

The notion that there are "smugglers" forcing refugees to flee to save their lives instead of refugees fleeing to save their lives and paying for help along the way is just so deranged I can't believe people think they are clever dribbling out the nonsense.

The even dumber thing is there are no smugglers ever tortured and trafficked by us the way we treat refugees.

The poor Indonesian fishing crew kids are suing us for their illegal incarceration and the other poor fishermen all went home years ago and still people think refugees are smugglers.

Enough.

The fact is people are allowed by law to come by sea, get over it.

Marilyn Shepherd, Angaston, SA

A majority of voters may well support offshore processing, but what they do not support is harsh treatment of refugees.

The democratic decision of the voters has just been made clear on the latter.

Apparently, in Simon Cowan's view ("Refugee bill will help erode trust in democracy", canberratimes.com.au, February 16), "activists" like Dr Phelps, by speaking up for the human rights of refugees, are undermining democracy throughout the Western world.

Presumably the only remedy is conformity, acquiescence and submission by all who Cowan claims to be "elites".

His snide attack on the integrity of the medical panel is misleading.

Cowan disrespects the views and denigrates the character of those who he claims to be a minority or an "activist", while also being quite obviously an "activist" himself.

These seem to be rather odd foundations on which to build a "new system with widespread support" which he advocates.

David Roth, Kambah

Why are people who are connected to iiNet (ie the original TransACT) being told by NBN that if they don't sign up with NBN, then they will be disconnected from the internet, because NBN owns the old TransACT connections?

iiNet tells us that this is untrue. We will not be disconnected. This must be sorted out by the authorities, and the public and the ISPs told the facts.

Adrian Gibbs, Yarralumla

When the Hawke-Keating government introduced the dividend imputation tax "reform" in 1987, it partially opened a can of worms.

The Howard-Costello government prised the can further open, allowing more worms to escape.

Labor now proposes to shove some of the worms back in the can.

It's having considerable difficulty in explaining why taxation benefits in the form of franking credits should be allowed but those in the form of refund payments should not.

Those likely to lose the second form of benefit understandably feel aggrieved.

A confusion about what a company is meant to be seems to be behind this terrible muddle.

Surely the whole purpose and effect of incorporation is to create a legal entity which is separate from its shareholders.

The tax liability of a company arising from its profits should be considered as being completely separate from the personal tax liability of its shareholders.

Allowing either a reduction in the personal tax liability of a shareholder on the basis of company tax paid (by way of a franking credit), or a payment to shareholders whose tax liability is less than the franking credit benefit, is to blur the distinction between two quite separate legal entities.

Neither imputation credits nor so-called "refund" payments should be given. If the government believes this would result in unacceptable outcomes for low-income earners, then it can adjust the tax scales or increase eligibility for social security payments.

Paul McMahon, Isaacs

The world is in a mess with constant wars, floods, famines and insurmountable poverty but we don't seem to be able to elect leaders capable of getting us out of it.

When our current leaders meet, their wives have to suffer the indignity of being kissed by someone who is probably well down on their list of people they prefer to do this with.

Meanwhile the leaders take part in the unintelligent activity of germ-swapping handshaking, which can be manipulated to indicate power.

Not a good start to settling the world's problems.

The alternative hands-together, head-bowed greeting would indicate mutual respect and a desire to work together to create a better world.

We can work together to land people on Mars but not be able to elect leaders who can ensure the continuity of life on earth and an acceptable standard of living.

This should be the target of our research in the 21st century.

Audrey Guy, Ngunnawal

Voters are coming down with asylum-seeker, section-44, franking-credits and royal-commission fatigue. It's about wages and working conditions stupids!

N. Ellis, Belconnen

I have never read so much twaddle as in the story "Beg your pardon ... didn't you promise us a rose garden" (February 21, p1) about the once government-owned house in O'Connor being "nominated for heritage listing 19years ago citing its 1940s-era rose garden".

My sons and I have lived next door to this once government house for 50 years, since 1968.

It has never had a rose garden. The backyard like the front had no real garden at all.

In the past 20 years it became extremely neglected. Thank heavens it was sold to lovely owners last year and is undergoing restoration.

A number of houses, including the one in this story, were built just after World War II and were called "austerity homes".

After the war the government was so short of money they built very basic homes with often very small rooms, small kitchens and sometimes no dining room.

Penelope Upward, O'Connor

The article "After 19 years no rose garden" (February 21, p.1) raises more questions than it answers.

Along with the Bowden house it shows it can take decades for the Heritage Council (which is appointed by and answers to whom?) to make up its mind.

This leaves plenty of time for any "national treasure" to disappear or be modified out of existence by the time there is a decision.

Indeed it gives an incentive to "get your extensions done quick" before you get listed, a bit like a farmer on discovering Aboriginal remains getting the bulldozer out.

It is both naive and egotistical to claim nominations for listing prove a keen public interest in heritage.

They could be whims, self aggrandisement on the part of an owner or tenant, or malice against a neighbour to restrict their building options and increase maintenance costs.

John Coochey, Chisholm

Jenna Price, apparently the resident sanctimoniac for The Canberra Times, tells us being able to walk "the sunny streets of Nauru and Manus" is not freedom ("Refugee hope lies in youth", February 22, p22).

All abstractions are relative.

Someone who lives under a despotic regime in constant fear of death or imprisonment and, at great risk, is able to escape with his family to a tropical island where he is given asylum, is housed and maintained by a more tolerant authority and allowed to walk local streets and mingle freely with others, might think otherwise.

He certainly has a damn sight more freedom than his previous circumstances and should be prepared to use it in an effort to reach the gold-plated utopian freedom Ms Price envisages.

Bill Deane, Chapman

Major General de S. Barrow, who was involved in the Arab and British war against Turkey in Syria early last century, believed that fear was the common people's main incentive in war and peace.

Lawrence of Arabia, however, found that fear was a mean, overrated motive, no deterrent, and, though a stimulant, a poisonous stimulant, whose every injection served to consume more of the system to which it was applied.

Lawrence refused to share Barrow's pedantic belief mankind could be scared into heaven.

In re-reading this reflection in T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, I was reminded of Scott Morrison's attempts to generate fear in the Australian electorate with his claims hordes of boat people are likely to seek the services of people smugglers just because Australia has decided to give medical assistance in Australia to a relatively small number of desperately ill refugees who cannot be assisted on Manus Island and Nauru.

I smell the odour of the so-called "Tampa crisis" all over again.

I would hope that, as Lawrence found in 1918, such a poisonous stimulant as fear is seen today as not an effective or appropriate electoral strategy, as it will only consume much of the strategic policy debate that Australia needs as a nation at this time.

Adrian van Leest, Campbell

Manipulation of babies' spines is unnecessary, unproven, a financial scam and potentially dangerous.

Chiropractors who convince mothers that their babies have mythical subluxations and deformities following birth which can be magically manipulated away (for multiple fees) are a danger to society.

Effective regulation of pseudo-treatments for non-existent disorders by non-medical practitioners is almost non-existent.

It is time that alternative therapists stopped targeting children and regulators such as the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency acted.

Emeritus Professor Alastair

Australia dying fast

When US President Barack Obama visited Australia, he said he wanted to bring his children back to visit the Great Barrier Reef.

Since then the Coalition has presided over the near destruction of that reef.

The plan now seems to be to move onto the destruction of the Great Australian Bight.

So much for the impact of Australia's fossil fuel addiction being negligible!

Oh, and there has also been the collapse of large river systems because we insist on having industries, like cotton and rice farming, which are completely unsuited to our climate.

But does Labor understand about the fragility of our environment?

The Queensland Labor Party is going ahead with the Adani coal mine which will probably finish off the Great Barrier Reef and will vacuum up massive amounts of scarce water.

Will federal Labor stop the Adani coal mine or are they too dependent on the same donations as the Coalition?

Our planet is dying and Australia, savaged as we are by natural disasters, seems to be dying faster than the rest of the planet.

Influenced by the shock jocks, we stagger around like the wretched town drunk. We must not give up. There is still a chance.

We must do all we can because we are one of the large mammals which are endangered.

Rosemary Walters, Palmerston

PRIDE IN DRESS CODE

I fully agree with Joseph Italiano (Letters, February 21) about the ACTION uniform. There used to be a dress code. We took pride in how we turned up for work. I still have contact with some drivers and the comments from them about this so-called uniform are laughable. This government seems more interested in spending a billion dollars on a tram than looking after other services.

Colin Thomas, Gordon

OPPORTUNITY LOST

Julie Bishop should have been our next prime minister. Sorry to see her go.

Susan MacDougall, Scullin

SHORT MEMORIES

What short memories we have. Maybe I'm the only one to remember Saint Julie Bishop's embarrassing but mercifully short tenure as shadow treasurer 2008-09.

A good foreign minister, yes; hard done by when overlooked as replacement PM? I think not.

Michael Warrington, Garran

PRESCIENT VIEW

As the curtain falls on a stellar career, David Pope's cartoon of May 18 is "in vogue".

Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook, NSW

TIME FOR MORE TO GO

So Julie Bishop will quit politics at the next election. I hope Abbott, ScoMo, Dutton, Shorten, Albo and Hanson all follow in her footsteps.

Mokhles K Sidden, Strathfield, NSW

NO TEARS FOR BISHOP

Julie Bishop may have been a "trail blazer" for women in Australian politics. But she was also instrumental in the knifing of an elected PM, Tony Abbott. Good riddance.

Owen Reid, Dunlop

HIGH COST OF FREE LOVE

The price of free love is actually very high on families and kids. That's worth thinking seriously about.

Linda Vij, Mascot, NSW

TIME TO TURN TO INDIA

China has reportedly banned imports of Australian thermal coal. No need for the Adani mine. Sell all the thermal coal to India. Oh, and the Chinese will need to apply for special export licences for iron ore, metallurgical coal, and any form of copper, because these will be reserved for export to Japan and Korea.

B. Peterson, Kambah

BRUMBIES NUMBERS DOWN

Maybe the reason attendance is down at Brumbies matches is not the footy but the "game-day experience". It is why I no longer attend.

Peter Foley, Flynn

PRIORITIES TWISTED

It is perverse the $500 million war memorial for Brendan Nelson will go ahead while walking wounded we sent to unjustified and unwon wars fight for support.

Gerry Gillespie, Queanbeyan, NSW

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.

Keep your letter to 250 or fewer words. References to Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).