Pezzullo's actions bring to mind Menzies' take on bureaucrats

For Menzies it was a matter of ethics and integrity. The whole public sector needs a shake up, educated that it is to serve the public, swiftly, efficiently, fairly, without spite and without political bias or personal agendas.

Recently the robodebt royal commission discovered even the Commonwealth Ombudsman's office had compromised itself by collaborating on a report with the department it was reporting on. Later, the APS Commissioner said "toxic and deceptive behaviour" would cease in the public service, yet he was contradicted by the assistant commissioner who wrote, "The Commissioner is not able to commence an inquiry into the conduct of current or former APS employees unless requested by the relevant agency".

Does the public sector understand it is a public servant, and accountable, even now?

Mike Pezzullo's conduct must outrage anyone who cares about the probity and independence of the public service. In 1981, as a Clerk Class 4, I took home a 50-year-old chair declared surplus: not a sackable offence but I would have been reprimanded. What proportionate sanction should a departmental head face for secretly seeking to undermine press freedom and impose a Putin-esque security regime?

This is a more serious matter than pinching post-it notes from the stationery cupboard. Pezzullo must at least be sacked for so grossly violating public trust.

Leaving aside the frankly preposterous likening Jacinta Price's recent address to the National Press Club to Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 (Letters, September 19), I am troubled by Mr Morison's false assertion that the "yes" campaign is about correcting history. Mr Morrison then proceeds to demolish this straw man of his own making.

The "yes" campaign is about recognising (and owning) the past, with its many inconvenient and unpleasant truths, and making a serious and considered attempt to address these wrongs in a positive way into the future.

Failing to face up to the harsh reality of the past will merely serve to perpetuate the lingering pain and sorrow of two centuries of denial, rejection and exclusion. Voting "yes" will be an important step in redressing these egregious wrongs by engaging First Nations in a permanent, positive and continuing dialogue with parliament and government.

GTW Agnew (Letters, September 21) asks about the Voice " If not this, then what?" and " If not now, then when?" Although the Voice concept was well meaning and worthy, its composition and presentation left a lot to be desired.

Prime Minister Albanese would have been well advised to visit the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden and Finland to find out how it should have been done, as they have successfully legislated Indigenous representation into their respective Parliaments several decades ago, which have functioned uninterrupted since inception. This makes a mockery of the government's excuse that legislating would have resulted in instability as incoming governments would have been able to abolish it at will, a scenario not likely to happen as it would be akin to committing political suicide.

The time for introduction would be when the Albanese government comes up with a fair and functional legislated Voice proposal that is acceptable to a majority of voters, not just 39 per cent according to the latest polling figures.

Yes, Ms Anna Howe (Letters, September 21) let us dream of our own peace goddess for our War Memorial as we remember our goings to war in quests for peace. Seated, children could scramble on her lap, but she stands tall.

Gazing towards the lake and the parliamentary flag, her face is ambivalent, suggesting no particular race, not smiling, rather a caring stare. Arms are outstretched with shy finches and bolder rosellas on her shoulders and arms. At her feet are a bumbling wombat, a rock wallaby, a platypus, with shiny patches rubbed by tiny and larger hands.

Our depth of maturity as a conscientious and humane society is saucer deep. Nationally, more than 100 people were killed in road accidents last month, often caused by someone driving fast or recklessly.

From August 18 to September 22, 2023, 128 people died from COVID in New South Wales alone (ABC online reports). We are told nothing about how, where, or why - other than, occasionally, that they were in their 70s, 80s or 90s. Which seems to make it alright, since no one's complaining, no protective measures are in place and, fortunately for the rest of us, "the pandemic is over", so forget about vaccination, and breathe over whoever you like.

Road deaths will continue because slowing down is as much an anathema as wearing a mask. The government's Clayton's inquiry into the pandemic past will not stem the carnage among older Australians from the pandemic still present.

While many are concerned about the future danger of artificial intelligence, it is artificial stupidity, aka "social media", that is the threat right now - a threat that is not adequately being addressed.

The essential problem is that while most can read, speak and vote, probably less than half of us have the time or ability to detect what is misleading - and made worse by algorithms distorting what is provided to us in what is a very complex world.

Unfortunately it is a lot easier to see the problem than it is to identify a solution.

I read with interest Erin Remblance's article (September 24) pointing out that the current societal paradigm of continued growth of the economy is not working, and call to replace it with "degrowth".

It is plain that continued growth in a finite system - our Earth, including Australia is not sensible. As Ms Remblance points out, it is leading to environmental degradation and not benefiting our society.

But this discussion must also include population. Let us start a discussion on how big we want our country to be - because continued population growth means more of us and less of everything else. It is not sane.

Spare a thought for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as he had to address the UN General Assembly over his country's invasion of Ukraine. He didn't mention the war, but instead railed against "the US and its subordinates" who "fuel conflicts" ("Russian minster lambasts West", September 25).

As Foreign Minister Penny Wong suggested to the same body recently, the UN has been founded to prevent conflicts, and it is inappropriate for a member state to initiate a war. Should Russia remain as a UN member, especially one with a Security Council veto, whilst the war in Ukraine continues?

The UN's power is based on inclusion, and so it goes against the grain to expel a member, but the expulsion of Russia need not be permanent, and would send a powerful message to the Russian people that would be hard to counter with fake news.

My heart goes out to Jenny Hayford (Letters, September 22) for her experience at the hands of her real estate agent. I just hope Jenny reports it to the ACT Real Estate Registration Authority.

On the same day, Peter Davies, as a former sales agent provided us with the usual rhetoric we receive from the industry. In response to my assertions, Peter said some people might not want prices displayed, but from my observations, that would only be a handful.

I looked at the published account of Saturday's auction results. There were 55 properties up for auction, 29 were sold; seven withdrawn from sale; 19 passed in; only six of the 29 sold revealed the price. The passed in prices of properties were not disclosed; be they the last bid made by a potential purchaser or by a vendor bid.

The reality is that in Canberra property prices have dropped, the number of registered bidders has dropped, the number of properties on the market have dropped and finance is problematic.

We have agents desperate for listings, allowing avaricious vendors to think their homes are worth the same price as perhaps the house next door which sold two years ago. It is a falling market.

More transparency will improve the lot for vendors, purchasers and ethical agents.

Mr Pezzullo should have been sacked after his "drums of war" comments. Who does he think he is? An elected politician? Too big for his boots.

Mike Pezzullo has never lacked ambition. I recall the CT breaking a story around 1994 of a failed attempt to shoehorn a youthful Mike, then working in foreign minister Gareth Evans' office, into a director (EL2) spot in DFAT. Gareth was said to have been not amused by this rare display of independence by his department.

A departing sycophantic secretary would no doubt leave behind him a strong, like-minded coterie of acquiescent, "in the know" senior executives ("Clare O'Neil refers Mike Pezzullo to APS commissioner over reported texts to Scott Briggs", canberratimes.com.au September 25).

It's a good idea to have an independent inquiry into our response to the pandemic. But the more serious existential threat is climate change - and there's no vaccine for that. So, wouldn't we equally benefit from an inquiry into our governments' woefully inadequate response to climate change to date, and from recommendations for doing better?

Twenty years after Canberra's bushfire wipeout, where communication compounded the disaster, Senator Murray Watt is still bemoaning absence of service interconnectedness. Why might Watt think youngsters should spring into action to "save a world" being destroyed by government subsidised fossil fuel merchants ("We need to be ready, minister urges", September 25)?

Re "Daramalan students recruited to study validating media claims" (September 25), one wonders where the need came from to study whether students could identify fake news.

Everybody already knows that all you need to do is trust the totally independent mainstream media, and listen to what the eternally benevolent government has to say.

I was listening to radio national this morning and Lidia Thorpe was being interviewed. It seems she cannot string a whole sentence together without using the word racist in it. We rarely say things that do not come from the heart, good to see what's in her heart.

So, the Yes campaign advises we are racist if we vote "no", and the No campaign advises we are racist if we vote "yes". At last, a referendum that will unite all Australians, whichever way they vote.

So Rugby Australia, likely the most hopeless sporting administration ever both off and on the field, now wants to take over the highly successful Brumbies. What a joke.

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