Australia War Memorial should recognise the role of native police in the frontier wars

It occurred to me that the Australian War Memorial has for years claimed that no armed forces formed in Australia conducted war against Aboriginal resistance, a transparently false justification for its neglect of frontier conflict.

But why aren't the Native Mounted Police regarded as a para-military force? They were equipped and used as cavalry. Is it because they were called "police"?

This is anomalous because the AWM now includes the AFP in its peacekeeping displays. Why are police today mentioned, but not police 150 years ago?

I notice that Jonathan Richards's book on the Queensland Mounted Police - the longest-serving and most murderous force on the frontier - is not even in the AWM's collection. But ignorance is no excuse.

Will the AWM answer this awkward question, or will it ignore it as it has so many others?

I was amused to hear the "Minister for Icebergs" on morning radio saying he couldn't provide budget estimates for stage 2A of the tram because he was in a "poker game" with Canberra Metro.

When you've already contracted to spend over $180 million on buying new trams, battery conversions and depot expansions and you've admitted Canberra Metro is the sole supplier and is committed to laying track next year, not only aren't you holding any cards, Mr Steel, you're not even playing poker, despite what the touts are whispering in your ear.

You're being played, not playing. We're being taken for a long, slow ride whose cost will make Steel's IT debacle seem like a rounding error.

Am I the only one who gets annoyed by ABC 666 news readers constantly telling us what the temperature "feels like" at the end of their bulletins?

At 4pm on Tuesday, July 11, it was a clear sunny day with no clouds up above, no wind and barely a breeze. Humidity was 58 per cent. At the end of the news bulletin the news reader said "the current temperature is 15 degrees but it feels like 9 degrees".

How am I supposed to know it "feels" like 9 degrees when there is sun above, no wind and barely a breeze? All I needed to know was that the current temperature was 15 degrees, full stop.

I'm looking forward to the day the ABC stops telling us what the weather "feels like".

July 19 will be the 10th anniversary of then PM Rudd's declaration that no one seeking asylum and arriving by boat would ever live here in Australia.

What was the reason? Deaths at sea, such as the SIEV X tragedy, brought public opinion into agreement. This policy was intended to stop the boats.

Ten years on, the boats are being turned back, but the asylum seekers of 2013 still wait for asylum. Some are in Papua New Guinea, some on the mainland, in detention or in the community, waiting to be resettled.

Young men have become middle aged, children too old for school. Untreated mental illness is common, and suicides too. Public opinion is turning. These people need permanent visas and family reunions now.

Letters by Janet Hunt and by Katy Skinner (Letters, July 12) reveal more political bias than logic. What do they think the 1300 people in the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) have been doing? Sitting there waiting for an Indigenous group like the Voice to tell them what to do? I hope not.

That said, the Voice, to be enshrined in the constitution, is all about entrenching permanent political power for 3.8 per cent of the population. If the referendum is successful, logically the NIAA would be a ready vehicle (under Minister Linda Burney).

It would be restocked with true Voice believers at great cost but, in reality, unable to achieve more than it does now.

Minister Burney needs to explain why the Voice is needed in the constitution when the NIAA exists under her portfolio. She also needs to explain what the NIAA has been doing for the past 14 months under her watch.

She and the NIAA should do their job now.

The cost to Australian taxpayers to date for providing legal assistance to members of the former LNP government when fronting up to the robodebt inquiry is obscene.

Approximately $2.5 million taxpayer dollars has already been consumed.

With the lawyer for victims of robodebt announcing his intention to launch an action seeking further damages for his clients due to malfeasance while in public office further massive legal bills loom on the horizon for taxpayers.

Clearly malfeasance occurred and lives were lost as a consequence.

Surely it is time those who created robodebt are removed from the taxpayer-funded teat and made personally responsible for the harm their cruel experiment caused.

Most of the victims of robodebt were forced to rely upon legal aid. Those named in the findings of the robodebt inquiry could do the same.

When does defence become offence? NATO's aggressive expansion in the last 30 years has put the world on the brink of a nuclear war.

As our Prime Minister heads to NATO's annual summit we must ask ourselves why we insist on joining in with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation when we are far away in the Pacific. Paul Keating and Emmanuel Macron are spot on for discouraging NATO's expansion into this region. It's the antithesis of establishing peace in the region.

If you're China, the US and its allies military bases already have you surrounded in the Pacific from Japan in the north to Philippines to Australia in the south.

Of course they have every right to get aggressive, what would we do if China set up a military base in Papua New Guinea?

Anne Willemborg (Letters, July 4) and Rex Simmons (Letters, July 5) write in favour of filling in Lake Burley Griffin to make way for various development projects and facilitate light rail.

I wonder if they could explain how they would deal with the regular Molonglo River floods that used to sweep through and fill the basin and much of the Dairy Flat area prior to the lake's creation?

After reading the article "No recession, says RBA" (canberratimes.com.au, July 5, p1, 6) and Peter Martin's commentary "A recession is looking more likely" (p19), I am a little confused: is a recession likely or not?

Given the comments made repeatedly by Reserve Bank of Australia governor, Philip Lowe, late in 2020 and through 2021, that interest rates would not rise until 2024, I am more inclined to heed the opinion of Peter Martin.

Prime Minister Albanese once tweeted about the National Anti-Corruption Commission which came into existence on July 1 (with a rush of referrals) that "we need [it] to restore faith to politics". Good luck, Albo.

I think we have already heard about enough questionable behaviour for this decade. Besides, integrity commissions are a sign of a problem, not a cure.

Older generations have a sense that the lucky country is falling apart. We knew a time when a pluralism based on biblical theism provided a cultural cement, moral consensus, and conformity to the law. Everyone parked with the left side to the kerb.

Younger generations have a personal individualism that still relies on government to guarantee economic well-being and civil order. They are immersed in social media which promotes name calling and unsubstantiated statements without proper debate.

I wonder whether they realise how tenuous our freedom could become?

Won't reducing the number of RBA meetings from 11 a year to eight make it harder to bring interest rates down quickly?

After all we are currently being told the RBA should begin cutting rates by this time next year.

Various countries, including the UK, Canada and Spain, but not Australia, have criticised the USA for sending cluster bombs to Ukraine. Surely it is well past the time we cease our sycophantic attitude towards the USA.

You report the robodebt policy proposal agreed by cabinet did not include the use of income averaging. What then was the plan considered and agreed by cabinet? Are your reporters able to clarify this or do we need to wait for the cabinet papers 20 years hence?

Why are people offended about the Voice introducing race into the constitution when it is already there (section 51 xxvi)? The Voice should be seen as inclusive, not divisive.

What would one expect from a departmental head when their very employment is at the whim and fancy of the government of the day?

I have shares in Wesfarmers. The shares have been good investment and the company owns businesses such as Bunnings and Officeworks on which many rely. I did not, however, invest for Wesfarmers to use my capital tell me how to vote.

The robodebt misadventure was a joint effort by IT specialists, high-ranking public servants wanting to cut costs, and ministers with limited knowledge of the subject matter. They all forgot that they were dealing with human beings.

With interest rates now back to historically normal levels we are hearing that many borrowers face severe mortgage stress. Rates will always fluctuate around the average. Surely lenders should have the responsibility to ensure borrowers can pay loans at "normal" interest rates.

I always thought that OTAN meant NATO in French. How very silly of me. Following NATO's indefensible mission creep in expanding its forward protection of American interests from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with the burden mostly on the auxiliaries, I realised it stood for "Organising Trans American Nations".

Australia needs a new flag. We currently have three official flags. Over the centuries we have had many so changing is no big deal. I suggest the rainbow flag. "Rainbowism" has permeated all walks of life. It stands for our multicultural society.

After reading Crispin Hull's column "NATO shouldn't fear escalation" (canberratimes.com.au, July 11) I'm wondering if he might have been the person who threw the controversial dead possum over the Russian embassy fence.