Introduce user pays for the Qantas chairman's lounge

If this is the case two ethical questions arise. One relates to who is paying for the lounge.

The second is that invitees may unintentionally be compromising themselves.

The ethical issue is not related to the Qantas Club where members pay an annual fee.

It would seem the travelling public pays for the lounge indirectly through the cost of their airfares.

If the lounge did not exist Qantas airfares should be lower.

Invitees appear to be well-heeled and high-level decision-makers. Some of these people may be compromised should they be required to make decisions affecting Qantas.

Perhaps the Qantas board could consider either closing the lounges or requiring users to pay a fee.

There is a simple solution to the dilemma highlighted by police of decriminalising drug use and driving after using drugs.

Amend the laws to assess driving impairment, not drug presence.

Certain illicit drugs aren't tested for. Nor are prescription drugs which can cause impairment. Prescription cannabis presents another problem.

Recovering from drug use can be impairing, for example lack of sleep after using methamphetamine or cocaine, even if the drugs are gone from the body.

Current "drug driving" laws are arguably poorly targeted and unreasonably harsh on many of those caught in the dragnet.

Leon Arundell (Letters, October 28) believes electric buses would be better than trams. But in peak hours buses pause at each bus stop, disrupting traffic.

Meanwhile, on Northbourne Avenue the tram glides rapidly past other vehicles on its own special track. Each peak hour tram has 30-plus passengers, thus removing about 25 cars from the road.

The tram is convenient and effective. But we still need electric buses for suburban travel.

Michael McCarthy (Letters, November 1) says Israel would not need to defend itself if it had accepted a two-state solution. But it did.

Israel has offered the Palestinian Authority a state on several occasions. It refused each time.

Hamas is not interested in peace in any event. They just want the state of Israel wiped off the face of the Earth.

Under the pretext of eliminating Hamas, Israel will kill as many Palestinians as it can and nothing will happen.

That's what happened when Sri Lanka killed many thousands of Tamils in its final military assault to take out the Tamil Tigers.

What did Australia do subsequently? It laid out the red carpet for the Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa at a Commonwealth meeting in Australia, even though the UN had said he should be investigated for war crimes.

This is the real world we live in. I am not the least surprised Australia has rejected the UN resolution for a humanitarian truce. Australia doesn't have a particularly proud record on that front.

If our Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, looks for perspectives on big events as he reads good books of political commentary ("Celebrating the power of political writing", October 27), one wonders which books he hopes will make sense of his delay in lifting our JobSeeker payments above the poverty level.

For those of us who are among the 3.7 million Australian households whom Ebony Bennett describes as "going hungry" ("Can't afford is a poor argument", October 28), the Treasurer's refusal to cancel the stage 3 tax cuts to facilitate such an increase for job-seekers may be seen not only as a "big event" but, with perspective, it might be seen as a cruel event as well.