The time has come to embrace better ways and better days

Might the prime minister recognise it is not his government or his ministers, but ours?

Will it accept it has been elected to office with responsibilities, not merely to power, and that policy is much more than announceables and dollars?

Can we hope the word "I" will be reserved for accepting ministerial accountability rather than personal credit? And that government decisions might genuinely be taken collectively, and presented as such?

Might respect for the Parliament be repaired by using it as the principal forum for policy announcements without stunts and pre-announcements to sycophantic media?

And will the government accept it does not "run the country" but merely develops, funds, supports and maintains the public laws, institutions and frameworks within which the country and its citizens run themselves?

Do those individuals who strung themselves from the Sydney Harbour bridge really believe that if Australia was powered 100 per cent by renewables and with zero carbon emissions it would make a difference to our climate?

If they took their protests to India and China and hung from the Taj Mahal or the great wall, their efforts might be taken more seriously.

The climate change paranoia that is sweeping the country, leading to school children missing classes to protest in the streets, is out of control. What are they taught these days?

I'll be interested to hear how Bill Shorten and his team, as they claim, will change our climate and stop global warming. Let's do our bit by all means, but, for heaven's sake, Australia is responsible for less than 1 per cent of the world's carbon emissions.

Having watched the Prime Minister's address at the National Press Club on Thursday, I know without a doubt Morrison is the only man for the job.

He, at least, was game enough to face the press club at this stage of a very tight election in which the odds are against him.

Nothing's broken, despite the huge debt left by the last Labor government. The interest bill on that debt needed to be met. We also needed to place many more life-saving drugs on the market (under the PBS). All of this has been done despite the continual infighting and changes of leaders.

If it is not broken don't fix it.

I suspect that now 19-year-olds have the vote that Shorten may be successful. If so we will reap what we sow.

It's that time again when we find out how many of the people have been fooled, for how long and by whom.

I refer to the Coalition government's minimum wage case submission which supports the employer groups' view the minimum wage should only increase by 1 per cent.

It shows the government is out of touch with the economy. There have been significant increases in many areas including power prices and medical expenses.

This is just one reason it should be voted out of office. We cannot afford another three years of Coalition wage suppression.

Maybe this is the "climate election" but it is also, more broadly speaking, the "sharing election".

We are challenged to sustain our whole planet so its systems, on which we all depend, can be shared with other species, the hungry, the refugees, the unemployed, the underemployed, the homeless, the differently able, the chronically ill, the young, the mentally ill, and the old and anyone in between.

Some of us might have less, but I suspect we will cope.

You must learn to love political correctness. It is the answer to the likely outcome of the 2019 election.

If the Labor Party and the Greens rule, any act or statement in the interests of anyone will offend a minority of at least one. They will be in breach of their own "political correctness" dogma and should be held to account.

They'll be out of office quicker than Whitlam could say "It's Time".

Abbott does not deserve to be re-elected in the seat of Warringah. He has single-handedly destroyed his own party along with Peter Dutton, Barnaby Joyce, Craig Kelly, Eric Abetz, Kevin Andrews and others of the hard right.

The Coalition is crying out for renewal but this will not happen if these people are re-elected because the same internal divisions and recriminations will continue.

Future ballot papers should be circular. This would eliminate the donkey vote and mean no candidate has a more favourable position than any other.

Chris Young ("Issues resonate in frustrated seat", Forum, May 11, p.28) deserves some sympathy.

He has been sold into an arrangement (dividend imputation and franking credits) with a questionable basis.

I ran a tiny consultancy company for some 20 years. During that time the ATO was happy to allow me tax imputation on office equipment and so forth. But they would never advance me the cash to buy it.

I had to use the equipment to make some money first and prove the principle. That is how imputation works and it seemed fair to me.

Your article "The brutal truth on housing policy", (May 15, p.20) concludes by saying "the really big lever for home ownership is increasing supply".

It is not: the main lever is to decrease the demand caused by immigration. Here demand and supply are not just different ways of looking at the problem. In a country with no population increase, demand is only created by old stock reaching the end of its life. However, in Australia total demand is caused by this and by the need to house an additional 400,000 people each year.

The solution is to cease immigration.

The bizarre two-line letter this week (CT Th 16/5), encouraging us to remember the fate of the Whitlam government, was presumably written by someone forgetful of the event. It ended in a coup d'etat only worthy of a banana monarchy culture such as the radical right in this country nurtures and promotes.

We are heading heading for catastrophe while our politicians plug a "perpetual growth" Ponzi scheme predicated on an endless supply of materials on the one hand and an infinite cesspool to absorb the waste on the other.

The people doing the most to ensure this society won't last long enough for your children or grandchildren to die of old age are politicians.

The climate crisis may have one advantage. It reminds us that we all have to think globally, including during an election.

In Friday's Canberra Times there were four letters all asking why the instructions on the Senate ballot paper are so misleading. I have written a book explaining it all but lack a publisher. The politicians have shown for all to see their dishonesty in this matter.

M Silex (May 17) writes: "In spite of what Mr Shorten says, he will not be able to counter his party's left wing and the Greens and keep our borders secure". Excellent news. I'll certainly vote Labor now.

As the election looms my dreams get worse each night. Bill Shorten and his cabinet are riding climate change unicorns down to the bottom of a garden to link up with the Green fairies to save the world.

Tensions build until Tinkerbell arrives, sprinkles some pixie dust and the problems all melt away. That's when I wake up.

Come Sunday, children and aged care residents will wake safe in the knowledge they will no longer be pestered by politicians.

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