This long-term mismanaged, and now COVID-19 battered, economy needs stimulus from the purchasing power of wage-earning consumers.

Crushing the bargaining power and job security of workers, and facilitating actual reductions in earnings, was tried by John Howard with the hated WorkChoices, and ultimately defeated at the ballot box. Howard deservedly lost his seat.

Scott Morrison's "Work Choices 2.0" is nasty ideological madness. Now, all these years later in retirement, I must make common cause with the younger generations to campaign for an industrial relations system that secures a just and equitable Australia.

Your editorial "Jobs are driving government's IR agenda" (canberratimes.com.au, December 9) reads like the government's PING program is already bearing fruit.

Not only is it a naive regurgitation of the government's talking points, it slanders the Opposition in the process: "at a time when tens of thousands of people were lining up outside Centrelink offices, ALP politicians seemed pre-occupied with defending the old world order".

My recollection is that, to the extent the Opposition got any coverage, they highlighted that the old order of casualisation and wage suppression had to end, not that it be entrenched.

You don't have to be an ideologue to know suppressing wages and salaries will reduce future economic activity, particularly when external demand will remain subdued. Yes, the unemployed are the worst off overall but further reductions in JobSeeker will only worsen their plight. Moreover, the government has failed to spell out the criteria it will apply when determining the future level of JobSeeker. In the absence of any analytical basis for the final decision we can expect the usual demonisation of the unemployed.

I'm starting to think that Scott Morrison, Linda Reynolds, Paul Brereton and the various generals involved live on another planet.

Allegations (that's all they are) against 25 current and former SAS members and commandos regarding the deaths of 39 Afghan civilians are being presented as facts. The soldiers have effectively been tried, judged and convicted already on the basis of unproven allegations.

Whatever happened to a fair trial? Innocent until proven guilty? Why did Morrison immediately ring the Afghan president and apologise, and offer compensation to the alleged victims families?

Where is the evidence? Given that any trial will be in Australia under Australian legal processes how will any evidence from Afghan citizens be treated?

Will they be brought to Australia, and subjected to a totally foreign justice system than one they are used to? How valid will any evidence be when there are reports that they were compensated for that evidence with travel expenses, food and accommodation.

The legal process will last for years, including the inevitable appeals. Expect more suicides.

And for what? The government sent troops into an unwinnable war with no real strategy, and overused our highly trained special forces to perform standard infantry roles. They were fighting people who didn't abide by the rules of war and wore no uniforms. How do you recognise the enemy ? Australians were murdered by Afghan soldiers, the very people we were there supposedly to help and protect.

Given the news COVID-19 vaccines are on the way, the world community must be looking forward to 2021 with excitement.

But then I listened to a medical commentator who described the vaccine development as similar to designing and building an aircraft while it is racing down the runway to take off.

I suddenly had this traumatic vision of being given a parachute to hold with one arm while a nurse jabbed me with a needle in the other.

I should not be surprised so many write about their hatred for fellow Australians. Usually, this hatred is based around a political party, a cultural background or a religion. It is always stupid people who do not realise that they turn their readers against what they want.

More than 50 years ago I was a "greenie" before the term was even invented. I was very concerned about the destruction of trees. Then along came a very nasty union which made saving the trees their catch-cry. I lost interest for the next 40 years.

What a shame those who spit hatred haven't learnt anything in 2000 years. Demosthenes described Philip II, Alexander the Great's father, as: "...not a Greek, not even a relative of the Greeks. Even as a barbarian he does not come from any place that can be described as distinguished. He is a poxy scumbag from Macedonia, a place where one cannot even buy a decent slave". What has changed?

The Canberra Times readers were recently invited to donate to the Canberra Hospital Foundation via the appeal envelopes inserted in the paper. The intention is to help children in hospital over Christmas.

Let's look forward to the day when some of our overblown military projects also have to do their own appeal envelopes, crowdfunding, cake stalls or sausage sizzles.

The submarine project alone shot from $80 billion to nearly $90 billion over the past year. Barely an eyelid was batted. What's an extra $10 billion when no government or shadow minister has the courage to say "no" to anything labelled "defence and security" and accountability is virtually non-existent?

The messages in "Deep cuts to ANU science" (canberratimes.com.auCT, December 8) are truly Orwellian. Said a university spokesman: "As a university we now have to narrow the focus of our scientific, teaching and public engagement".

The documentation of the cut-backs states: "The proposed changes are business-driven and are designed to support ongoing sustainability of the college, to ensure that the college is meeting the future needs of our students, and to ensure that the college continues to contribute strongly to the university's international standing".

It's heartening to learn that the new strictures will seemingly have so little effect, and enlightening to at last have an admission from the ANU it might be more of a business than an institution of research and higher learning. This is supported in The Canberra Times report by Education Minister Dan Tehan, the man who wants more science than arts students. He opined: "The COVID-19 recession is impacting all Australian businesses and universities are not immune".

They are, on the other hand, fully immune from government employment support during the pandemic.

There is another aspect to the ACT government's failure to meet its legislated greenhouse emissions target (Leon Arundell, Letters, December 8).

Arundell's statement "for each kilowatt hour of non-renewable electricity that we use, we pay for other Australians to use an equal amount of renewable electricity" is only true if there is adequacy of supply.

During the eight days from June 4-11 the average energy production across all wind farms monitored by the Australian Energy Market Operator was 12.8 per cent of capacity. This compared with an annual average of about 33 per cent.

The total shortfall in energy generation (compared to average) was nearly 320 gigawatt hours. The much touted "biggest battery in the world" at Hornsdale, South Australia can only store 125 megawatt hours or 0.04 per cent of that shortfall.

There are plenty of investors ready to make a killing by building renewable energy farms, but none prepared to address the hard and costly problems of adequacy of supply. The Morrison government is at least addressing the real problems, even if some of its solutions are debatable.

Strident criticisms by The Global Times of Australia's human rights record echo what Australians and the Australian media do every day of the week. Can Chinese citizens and the Chinese media do that in China? In Hong Kong any person or media organisation audacious enough to criticise the state is hounded by the authorities. China should not point accusing fingers at any other country's human rights record. China should do something about its own diabolical record of abuses first.

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, would be well advised to listen to what one of China's best-known countryman, Confucius, had to say about payback: "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves".

Thank you to both Megan Doherty and Karen Hardy for great articles all year around, and especially for Megan's recent piece on merging into traffic.

It's simples when you do it right.

I also loved Karen's piece on Christmas as it was. Memories flooded back of the good old days.

One year on and people still eat bats and live baby rats and wildlife protection laws did not change. I'm worried about COVID-20 and COVID-21.

Much has been made by a succession of Liberal National Party politicians that Australians aren't that keen to head bush to pick fruit and vegetables.

Have they stopped to think that the many reports of unscrupulous farmers and labour-hire contractors ripping off workers might be a significant disincentive?

A working holiday is one thing; voluntary slave labour is another matter entirely.

Why are people suggesting Steve Smith could come back as captain? Tim Paine has been doing a very good job. Smith, while captain, was involved in a cheating incident either through intention or omission by not knowing about it or stopping it if he did. Cheating should never be allowed. No captain should ever be involved in any manner.

We haven't heard a great deal of anything much from the present occupant of the White House in recent days. That is quite uncharacteristic of the Trumpster. I hope, given recent reports re: Mr Giuliani and other members of his team, that he hasn't suffered a relapse. I also hope that when he eventually does open his mouth next that it is to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on his well deserved victory.

Once Joe Biden is inaugurated Scott Morrison will need to deal with a "real" leader.

This will create turmoil in the Morrison camp as it has had plain sailing when it came to dealing with the US until now.

Sanity may return to the planet when Trump departs for one of his golf clubs.

If you believe Christian Porter is genuinely committed to defending the institution of marriage then you might also believe that he has the interests of Australian workers at heart.

In light of a government that seems less than appreciative of the workforce, I give you this quotation from the well known Oxford radical J M Fraser (1950): "Capitalists need to be educated to look after the interests of their workers". Australians knew him best as Malcolm.

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