Today has been my mother's 94th birthday, which will be spent in a locked down nursing home.

Tomorrow I will take my first COVID-19 vaccination, which I willingly do to serve my country and to protect all those who live among us.

Tomorrow, I face taking a needle jab and wearing a Band-Aid, which is a small sacrifice, very much less than what my father and grandfathers faced before me, but who, when their country calls, in good conscience, could offer up any less than to answer the call?

Wishing you well in all things.

No reasonable or meaningful discussion can take place on health policies unless all parties understand the three levels of prevention in public health principles when dealing with epidemics/pandemics - be they, for example, influenza, measles, smallpox, zika virus, cholera, dengue fever, Ebola, COVID-19 etc or drugs. The three levels of prevention are primary, secondary and tertiary.

Primary prevention, by definition, seeks to prevent the initial onset of morbidity at any level and the individual's return to full health. Today's examples of primary prevention include the vaccines, masks, travel and health restrictions and unfortunately lockdowns. The remaining principles involve treatments - again with the aim of return to full health.

Given that the so-called Spanish flu, which started in 1918, and killed an estimated 20-40 million because of the absence of virtually all of the aforementioned primary preventions, especially vaccines, Australians are entitled to contemplate the planet-wide morbidity and mortality horror which would beset us if the same primary preventions, although less than 100 per cent effective, were not applied or enforced. The domino effect of the virus would spread inexorably to wipe out tens of millions. So, all thinking persons can realise the situation is more than individual preservation.

Peter Broelman's cartoon (June 14) of Prime Minister Scott Morrison outside the G7 meeting room with someone barely opening the door to ask "Who the bloody hell are you?" was quite wonderful. Not that I want our national leader to be humiliated, but in the face of his continued funding for fossil fuels, why not?

The G7's communique summed it up "Coal power generation is the single biggest cause of greenhouse gas emissions." It added: "continued global investment in unabated coal power generation is incompatible with keeping 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach." The seven nations vowed to end support for new coal power by the end of this year.

David Attenborough told the G7: "Tackling climate change is now as much a political and communications challenge as it is a scientific or technological one. We have the skills to address it in time, all we need is the global will to do so."

Ah! There's the rub. In Australia, at federal level if not state level, we lack the political will to make the transition from fossil fuels to renewables even though the technology is there. The proposed $600 million gas-fired peaking plant at Kurri Kurri flies in the face of everything the G7 declared about carbon dioxide emissions. Indeed, it also ignores what what the International Energy Agency (IEA) declared in May about its roadmap to net zero emissions by 2050, namely: "There is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply in our net zero pathway".

I recently read a quote from US journalist, author, anthropologist, and researcher, Sarah Kendzior, which perfectly sums up our neoliberal governments: "When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatise those who let people die, not those who struggle to live."

For a Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Darren Chester is severely ill-informed about the purposes of the AWM and the danger of war becoming glorified if, as now, the Memorial becomes politicised. In his article "Expanding the War Memorial is future-proofing a sacred institution" (CT 14 June), Chester virtually equates our responsibility to our war dead with a need to "properly tell the stories of 100,000 contemporary veterans", even though the latter purpose does not appear in the AWM Act 1980.

Chester questions the basis of the concerns raised about the Memorial descending to "theme park" status. Has he been asleep during the outcry over priority being given to the machinery of warfare - the things that elicit a sense of excitement - and has he not seen the AWM's own promotions of such displays? Has he not visited the children's "Discovery Zone" (thankfully, currently closed) where our young are explicitly encouraged to play war games?

As for Chester's "The memorial redevelopment will be guided by the community through a national public consultation program", this is laugh-out-loud territory, especially since the recent NCA decision. Has he no grasp of the extent to which the redevelopment decisions have been manipulated?

Such is the minister's absolute lack of insight - or, more to the point, lack of concern - about the overwhelming public and expert commentary that argued against the redevelopment, that one wonders whether his article was written by the redevelopment's chief proponent and one of its few supporters, former AWM director and former Liberal minister Brendan Nelson.

On January 26, 1976, the Fraser Coalition government announced an amnesty for thousands of unlawful overstayers of visas. Bob Hawke did a similar thing in 1989 allowing thousands of Chinese students to remain in Australia. The sky did not collapse, despite the huge numbers involved.

What would be the worst outcome were the Biloela family to be admitted as permanent residents via ministerial discretion? Imagine if they had been granted such status two years ago rather than sent to Christmas Island detention.

What would have been the worst outcome? And, please, even some Coalition MPs know that the world would not have fallen in.

Angus Taylor, Minister for Emissions Reduction (Morrison's little joke), says "we don't subsidise luxury cars", ie. electric vehicles. Never mind that fossil fuel use is responsible for 75 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions and this government happily and grossly subsidises that. Never mind that emissions from the Transport sector have been trending upwards since 2005, despite government claims we are on track to meet our targets.

What is the main way we can reduce emissions from the transport sector? Electric vehicles. What are the main barriers to their greater uptake? Price and travel range. Unfortunately with greater range come larger battery capacities and very high voltage charging = higher prices. What is the federal government doing to assist this necessary transition? Absolutely nothing.

While our government slithers around making facile glib statements regarding the Biloela family ... a child born in Australia lies in hospital whilst we prevent the child's father from being by her bedside. Disgraceful. And if anyone thought a female cabinet minister would have more humanity about them, well have a listen to the bile emanating from our Attorney-General's mouth. And to have the audacity to try and move this family to another country beggars belief. I'm almost ready to "cross the ditch" and enjoy some humanity and community spirit as it is fast evaporating in Australia.

Instead of Albert White (Letters June 13) complaining about John Howard's anti-terrorist legislation, maybe he should thank Howard and subsequent Liberal leaders, such as Tony Abbott, for installing anti-terrorist laws that has prevented many terrorist attacks in Australia. Has Albert ever wondered why we have had relatively few if any massive terrorist attacks like other countries? Places like Lucas Heights Nuclear Power Plant in Sydney and Federation Square and the MCG in Melbourne have been the targets of terrorists which would have caused massive damage and casualties, luckily for Albert and all Australians the powers to be were able to prevent these terrorist attacks because of tough new laws. What's the alternative Albert? No anti-terrorist legislation?

COMPASSION NOT IDEOLOGY

As a rusted on Coalition supporter, campaign worker and one-time candidate (1998 GST election), I beg the Coalition to allow the Tamil family to stay, and make Australia their home. Good government puts compassion ahead of ideology. It is that simple.

GROUND SHIFTING

Millions of Australians are pleading with the federal government to allow the Biloela family to stay in Australia. But Scott Morrison's government is unmoved and swimming against public opinion.

I would like to remind the Prime Minister that there are many in our workforce who have broken the visa regulation and working illegally. The government cannot stand on high moral ground and say they are doing the right thing by Australia. The ground is slippery and only a miracle can save them.

RIGHTS OF ALL CHILDREN

Please remember that as Australia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in December 1990, the Murugappan girls are as entitled as any other child in Australia to enjoy all of these rights, just like your two girls. Do I need to say more?

ARRIVAL MEANS DOESN'T MATTER

What Roger Dace (Letters 14 June) "doesn't get" is that persons seeking protection are not "illegal immigrants" no matter how they arrive.

BEFITTING A NEW NAME

Should the NCA be renamed National Capitulation Agency (War Memorial's $500m expansion gets green light, CT 8 June) and be required to hand back its pencils and any unticked boxes?

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

It matters not whether world leaders meet face-to-face or by zoom: their prime goal is to get a turn on the international political megaphone.

A SMALL MYSTERY

Mugga Way near Canberra Grammar is a 40km/h zone. Limestone Ave near Campbell High is a 60km/h zone. The latter carries more traffic with its school area in part closer to the road and less fenced. If there is a rational answer to this small mystery of life I would like to hear it.

CONNECTIONS NEEDED

Don Sephton (Letters, June 15) states that if Peta Credlin can get an AO, anyone can. However, but only if they have friends in high places.

A MORNING LOL

Ed Highley, take a bow. Your Nut King Coal epithet (Letters 12 June) drew an explosive LOL from this reader. I had to wipe the cereal and milk spots from my iPad screen afterwards. Though I dare say you coined it some time ago, it's a new one to me, so I thank you for this welcome addition to my lexicon.

COMMON CONNECTION

Scott Morrison comparing Covid and climate change. Stuffing up both is probably the only similarity I can think of.

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