The Prime Minister has warned against creating a divided nation ("Two Australias': PM warns regional divide could spark US-style fractures)", canberratimes.com.au, April, 28).
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While he was talking on a divide between regional and metropolitan areas, his government has significantly contributed to growing inequality.
There is the huge divide between home owners and non-home owners.
The divide is exacerbated by the underfunding of Medicare, the NDIS, aged care, inadequate JobSeeker payments, low wages growth and the greater impact of climate change on the less well-off.
The Coalition's inadequacy is also demonstrated by its grants rorts, support for infrastructure projects on political grounds rather than need, its mishandling of the pandemic including the failure to recover pandemic overpayments from businesses, its deceptive climate change policies and its overstated claim to be able to create jobs.
All of this while, at the same time, taking no responsibility for rising prices and years of stagnant wages.
Despite unmet and growing welfare, defence and infrastructure needs the government maintains an anti-taxation rhetoric that seems counter-intuitive at the very least.
What responsible governments should do is to focus on identifying areas of need, taxing accordingly, setting objective priorities and then effectively using the available funds to maximise community benefit.
What does the Coalition stand for?
From its actions over almost a decade in office it is the entrenchment of an unequal society and to do as little as possible to address climate change.
The Australian people deserve far better from their government than this.
Mike Quirk, Garran
Unusual election territory
Developing housing land is hardly the stuff of electioneering ("Libs pledge 2000 new blocks", April 27, p21).
The timetable for the conversion of raw land, here semi-agricultural land, to housing blocks ready for sale will still be about 10 years and the costs are the same regardless of the political preferences of the developer.
Planning of block layout, roads and bridges all takes time.
Protests will take time. Drainage including stormwater and sewerage, and power supply has to be planned for integration with the existing infrastructure.
The alternative is that the Commonwealth becomes a developer and township authority for the forecast 2000 blocks, providing new sewerage and stormwater systems, and then town management as residents occupy houses.
That is highly unlikely regardless of political connections of the proponents.
The result is that by the time blocks can be sold the costs are much the same for any developer and sale values will be similar to the land programs we are accustomed to.
It is might be more productive to plan to slow our population growth and improve our education systems so the community has more engineers and tradespeople who are needed for these processes.
Warwick Davis, Isaacs
PM a pile-on expert
PM Morrison strongly criticised a perceived "pile-on" against his captain's pick for the seat of Warringah, Katherine Deves. Former Australia Post head Christine Holgate felt the full media "pile-on" for giving a legitimate and relatively modest gift to work colleagues. On that occasion the "pile-on" was led by Mr Morrison under parliamentary privilege in his "she can go" speech.
For those who can't understand how Mr Morrison can be accused of bullying by so many who know him well, perhaps they should watch again his shocking public humiliation of Ms Holgate.
Harry Samios, O'Connor
Weird, not wonderful
Again I scratch my head with the bureaucracy of this territory government. Members of the public and their families are encouraged to attend events in Canberra, namely the Giants football team who played here on Friday, April 22, at Manuka Oval.
Well in their wisdom many side streets were blocked off, heaven forbid if people could possibly find a park there and every available grassed area had "no parking" signs all over them.
If we are encouraged to support the many activities in Canberra, please let common sense rule and look how you can assist rather than how you can resist helping the public.
Nancy Ganter, Forrest
Christian charity?
I find it both disappointing and distasteful that Christian organisations such as the Australian Christian Lobby actively seek to further marginalise minority groups.
The stance taken by self-declared Christians against transgender people lacks compassion and flies against one of the basic tenets of Christian faith: "Love thy neighbour."
Instead these so-called Christians are behaving like a modern day inquisition. What happened to compassion, understanding and tolerance?
Acceptance and respect are due to those with different and diverse opinions and beliefs, including on the matter of gender.
Vee Saunders, Weetangera
A pedant for PM?
My fellow Australians, it's time. It's time for the Progressive Pedantry Party: a party determined to arrest the declining economy of our expression, already suffering crippling verbosity rates.
A party whose key policy is to ban all inflationary adjectives and wasteful expenditure of uncontrolled clichés; a move we know will be welcomed with open apps by all thinking Australians.
Moreover, we will achieve a more literate democracy through removing misplaced solecisms and reinstating more efficient but neglected relatives.
For example, the autocratic "regime" will go, with its almost abandoned, organised management cousin, "regimen", to take its proper place on the grammatical front bench.
We also pledge that actionless announceables will have no place in our platform (although carefully arranged alliterations may be considered on occasions of national interest).
Finally, as a gesture of literary bipartisanship, we acknowledge the Nationals' massive inter-generational contribution to the stability of Australian idioms.
Furthermore, we can reveal our expertise in syntax is soon to be enhanced through Mr B. Joyce's proposed Compendium of Australian Idiomania which, despite a low interest rate, will include the gold medal winner that so brilliantly reflects the innovative spirit behind our three-star rated Aussie values.
It is, of course: "No worries mate; she'll be right on the night."
Thank you. Happy to take questions (provided they don't end in prepositions).
Eric Hunter, Cook
How tough are they?
The Morrison government crows loudly about being tough on national security but it hasn't been very smart about it has it.
While the alpha males have been beating their chests about AUKUS and nuclear powered submarines and security in our time (well a couple of decades hence perhaps), the Chinese government has snuck around the back and signed a security deal with Solomon Islands.
This is unanimously agreed to be a major threat to Australia's national security at all levels, and a gross failure.
Mr Morrison, though, is now acting tough after the event by declaring a red line, which can't be crossed or else, though on what piece of greasy chip-wrapping paper such a line would be drawn or what the "else" means are, typically, not stated.
Is this the government we want to entrust with our national security going forward?
Keith Simpson, Hackett
Carbon capture a failure
The Coalition government has recently announced, at a cost of $280 million, four northern Australian "clean hydrogen" hubs using fossil fuels. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is to be used in all these projects. This is mystifying behaviour.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
For over 50 years fossil fuel companies have tried to make CCS an effective limiter of carbon dioxide emissions, with no real success.
The largest trial has been Chevron's attempt at the Gorgon LNG facility in WA to store carbon dioxide. Since 2019 it has achieved only a fraction of its projected target, with a shortfall of over 5 million tonnes.
Chevron and its partners were thus liable to pay the WA government $184 million in offsets but the federal government came to the rescue and effectively halved the cost of greenhouse gas offsets.
What this amounts to is yet more Coalition government subsidies for fossil fuels.
Given the existential threat posed by climate change, this destructive behaviour is very puzzling. Or is it more evidence of the current government being willing to bend over backwards to serve as the handmaiden of the fossil fuel industry?
John Ryan, Griffith
To the point
STEADY ON, JIM
I was a bit surprised to hear Jim Chalmers (outside of the coward's castle) call the PM a "pathological liar" on Thursday. Not very nice, and potentially slanderous, I think.
P McCracken, Bungendore, NSW
NOT NICE, SCOMO
How uncharitable of Scott Morrison to state that he worked harder than Anthony Albanese did when he, Morrison, had COVID-19.
COVID affects people in many different ways and rest is important to reduce the risk of long COVID.
Felicity Chivas, Ainslie
MINING PAYS
The huge revenue Australia receives from mining is used to pay for government spending on our roads, pensions, unemployment, defence and so on.
It also pays down debt. Labor, the Greens and the teal independents want to stop mining. Question: where will the money come from then?
Bruce Hambour, North Haven, SA
CAUSE AND EFFECT?
Could it be that the inflammatory provocation by our Defence Minister has been the catalyst for China's interest in the Solomon Islands?
Tony May, Pearce
THE WINTER WAR
NATO countries are now mindlessly pouring weapons into Ukraine, precisely why Vladimir Putin invaded in the first place. The war is taking on a life of its own with the US Defence Secretary making a telling slip of the tongue, saying "we can win". God help us all.
Rod Matthews, Melbourne, Vic
TAKING A PUNT
I was thinking of making a book on independent David Pocock eventually becoming a Green, but I couldn't find anyone to bet against me.
Greg Cornwell, Yarralumla
A LESSER OFFENCE?
It was considered necessary for the Raiders' Corey Horsburgh to apologise for chewing gum during the pre-game Anzac ceremony on Sunday.
When the PM was pinged for using his phone while at the Anzac service in Darwin last Monday it was brushed aside with no apology considered necessary.
Double standards. I think the PM's offence was by far the greater.
Don Sephton, Greenway
INCOMPETENT GOVERNMENT
It's all well and good for The Canberra Times to call for bipartisanship over the Solomon Islands in its editorial on Wednesday but this debacle is part of a wider pattern of consistent failure by our government: climate change, fires, pandemic response, vaccine rollout, floods and now national security. We can't allow bipartisanship to become a cover for incompetence.
Laurie Dunn, Ainslie
PUTIN STUFFS UP
If Vladimir Putin hasn't got a red face by now he should have as his "special military operation" has become a "special military stuff-up".
Mario Stivala, Belconnen
CHUCK HIM A PROMOTION
If Penny Wong's reference to Zed Seselja as a "junior woodchuck" went a bit too far then perhaps he could be promoted to "senior wood duck"?