What value the area?
I imagine ex-premier John Cain jnr could be delivering his grave if he might see the cankerous sprawling growth that Melbourne Park has develop into (“Energy play”, 13/1).
Whereas present tenants, promoters, directors, main sporting golf equipment and different potential beneficiaries combat for division of the taxpayer-generated spoils, extra elementary points with this so-called “public area” stay.
The relentless non-public and company appropriation of the priceless public land which was as soon as Flinders and Olympic Parks has been fairly disgraceful. And the continued failure of successive governments to supply alternative metropolis parkland, as Cain as soon as promised, is just indefensible.
Peter Barrett, Brighton
Taking a serve
Whereas I admire that the tennis is at the moment a giant factor in Melbourne, please keep in mind that there’s extra to life and information than the tennis. Not everybody needs to eat, breathe, sleep and dream the tennis.
Australian Open chief Craig Tiley might need to make the tennis into ″the most important sporting occasion on this planet″ (The Age, 12/1) however you don’t have to assist him by obliterating any hint of anything out of your newspaper.
Making the Good Weekend quiz solely on the subject of the tennis was a step too far in taking up the world; the quiz is sacred. What subsequent, DA’s crossword options to be tennis phrases? Please, no. (DA, that was not a suggestion.)
Susan Bradley, Eltham
Now not my ABC
I’ve been a life-long loyal devotee and staunch defender of the ABC, however I discover myself dropping off it on the similar price as it’s retreating from critical program content material in favour of lightweight leisure (Inexperienced Information, 11/1). I nonetheless miss Lateline and see the demise of The Drum as the ultimate straw.
Thank goodness for SBS and Al Jazeera.
Sue Currie, Northcote
Silence is golden
The best way to start conferences respectfully in a culturally and religiously various group, whether or not in parliaments or native council settings, appears to be an ongoing difficulty.
A short while of silence could possibly be preceded by phrases equivalent to: Allow us to for a number of moments contemplate our duty to all these we serve and people upon whose foundations we construct.
And if you happen to assume silence is impotent or pointless, attempt standing in the course of 50,000 individuals at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance through the two-minute silence on Anzac Day.
Shared silence could be a genuinely unifying act, devoid of bias, and to which every particular person contributes their very own that means.
Jim Pilmer, Camberwell
Democracy’s beacon
The autocratic states should pressure individuals to hitch them – China threatens Taiwan with invasion and remakes Hong Kong in its picture. Russia invades Ukraine. But Western Liberal democracies don’t have any downside attracting individuals, hordes of migrants and refugees flock to the US and Europe. I don’t see any refugees or migrants hankering to get into China or Russia, and the Arab world doesn’t take any refugees. I assume the democracies should be doing one thing proper?
Wayne Alexander, Eltham
Andrews owed apology
The article ″Hundreds of lives saved by COVID curbs″ (14/1) reported that, as a result of our aggressive strategy, on the peak of the pandemic Australia’s loss of life price was 33 occasions decrease than the UK’s and 46 occasions decrease than the US’s. Maybe everybody who sought to undermine Daniel Andrews will apologise.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
Figures inform the story
Daniel Andrews’ haters ought to really be grateful to the previous premier as a result of although Victoria endured the debilitating results of the world’s hardest lockdown legal guidelines, Australia’s loss of life price within the essential first two years of the pandemic was 33 occasions decrease than the UK’s and 46 occasions decrease than the US’s. Because the Burnet Institute’s evaluation signifies, Australia misplaced its relative international benefit throughout 2022 and 2023 when the Victorian and federal governments yielded to relentless public strain by shifting to ″residing with COVID″ with out clear transmission-reduction methods.
Kevin Burke, Sandringham
In your debit
To your correspondent (Letters, 14/1) who says it’s troublesome for a retiree to get a bank card, get a debit card as a substitute. They work the identical as a bank card however solely draw on funds you’ve.
Alan Inchley, Frankston
Medication are well being difficulty
Telling younger individuals to not use medication is a bit wealthy when alcohol is freely obtainable and sometimes inspired. Alcohol can be a drug that may hurt or kill an individual and put different individuals in peril. Public drunkenness is not a criminal offense in lots of states and is now being handled as a well being difficulty. The usage of different medication could possibly be put in the identical class to cut back hurt, enhance outcomes and cut back medical and criminality prices. Drug testing could possibly be an necessary a part of this program.
Jennie Epstein, Little River
Insurance coverage resolution
There was a lot correspondence concerning the hovering prices of insurance coverage. Since now we have moved into the period of ″international boiling″, as UN chief Antonio Guterres has termed it, the as soon as uncommon occurrences of property harm attributable to fireplace and water at the moment are commonplace. The previous mannequin of member-based organisations funding the disasters impacting the few, by the modest premiums of the numerous, are lengthy gone. The price of premiums for the numerous is changing into unaffordable whereas the comparatively few, residing in high-risk areas, at the moment are uninsurable.
A brand new resolution should be discovered. One is for large enterprise polluters to lastly contribute meaningfully to an insurance coverage fund with this expense included of their prices of manufacturing. In the end, the buyer can pay, however demand could be influenced by real looking product costs that fund the prices of constructing good.
Peter Thomson, Brunswick
Training goals
How unhappy, and the way proscribing too, for youngsters to attend these non-public faculties from prep to 12 months 12, and miss out on a extra various scholar background and experiences (″Faculty charges or purchase a home″, 14/1). And maybe if all these attorneys, docs and financiers despatched their youngsters to public faculties we’d get the obscene degree of taxpayer funding going to personal faculties reversed and our schooling system improved. One can however dream.
Peta Colebatch, Hawthorn
Questionable hyperlinks
Your correspondent makes an attempt to hyperlink the ridicule being directed at Peter Dutton’s name for a boycott on Woolworths to disappointment concerning the referendum outcome, suggesting this may derail his election plans (Letters, 14/1). That is questionable on two fronts. First, the ridicule shouldn’t be complete: a fantastic many individuals imagine that makes an attempt to fiddle with Australia Day, by governments or massive enterprise, have gone far sufficient, and whereas the Murdoch media proceed to push this line it can at all times resonate with a majority locally. Second, an enormous 60 per cent voted No to the Voice, underscoring the truth that the overwhelming majority of individuals supported Dutton’s place. That outcome solely enhanced his standing within the voters, as polls have proven.
Greg Hardy, Higher Ferntree Gully
In defence of the shag
I at all times delight within the articles by columnist Tony Wright. I’m not as delighted, nevertheless, together with his ornithology (″We’ll be caught like shags on a rock″, 13/1). Cormorants, usually referred to as shags, should not struggling ″the indignity of getting been lumbered with feathers that aren’t as waterproof as different seabirds″. They’ve the blissful circumstance of feathers that don’t entice air, permitting them to remain underwater and chase their prey of fish and yabbies. The consequence is that their feathers do get moist. They will fly with moist feathers but it surely simply takes extra vitality, so it is smart that they hold them out to dry.
Greg Hunt, Oak Park
Collective motion wanted
It’s a optimistic to notice that a number of correspondents are analyzing their very own actions to cut back their ″footprint″ on the planet, however it is usually worrying. The idea of the person ″carbon footprint″ was initially espoused by BP, which spent $100 million between 2004 and 2006 on promoting the concept of particular person duty to influence you and me that our decisions should change to cut back greenhouse fuel emissions and save the planet.
People can, and will, look at their very own life and cut back their influence on the planet, but when all of us need to way more successfully cut back greenhouse fuel emissions, we have to inundate our flesh pressers with calls for that they cease subsidising the fossil gas trade, cease approving extra fossil gas exploration and extraction, legislate a fast phase-out of fossil gas use in Australia and its export and instantly speed up our transition to renewable vitality superpower standing. It’s collective motion to drown out and overwhelm the self-serving clamour from fossil gas pursuits that may make the actual distinction.
Helen Moss, Croydon
Nature is the boss
The Age headline ″Let nature take its course″ (13/1) reveals the vanity of humankind. We don’t ″let″ nature do something. We might attempt to handle, ignore, divert or delay, however finally nature will at all times take its personal course. If we don’t perceive, respect and work with the basic legal guidelines of nature we won’t survive as a nation or as a species.
April Baragwanath, Geelong
AND ANOTHER THING
Historical past
The annual angst related to Australia Day reminds us why its nomenclature and date don’t work. Let’s have a good time Federation Day as a substitute.
James Sarros, Black Rock
Earlier than we label issues un-Australian, simply who defines and/or decides what being ″dinky-di Australian itself‴ actually is?
Tris Raouf, Hadfield
How about Might 11 for Australia Day? Nothing overly necessary occurred in Australia (nicely, my beginning), which suggests only some individuals shall be offended by the date.
James Lane, Hampton East
The date that ought to develop into the brand new Australia Day is the one on which we develop into a republic and lose the colonial trappings of the day now we have now.
Tony Haydon, Springvale
Peter Dutton captures the true spirit of Australia Day: draped in denial bliss, and clad in imported, low cost, low-quality and tasteless Australiana merchandise, sounds about proper to me.
Henry Herzog, St Kilda East
Moreover
Absolute seaside entrance might develop into absolute in water.
Doug Springall, Yarragon
Earlier than 1988, Flinders Park was public open area accessible to all. Now it’s referred to as Melbourne Park sports activities precinct, accessible at a value.
Barbara Lynch, South Yarra
If a city organises a pageant to lift cash to cowl prices of flood harm, is that an “occasion occasion”?
John Cameron, Bellbrae
Tax cuts for the rich, with a lot financial hardship, is an obscenity.
Malcolm McDonald, Burwood
Australia tagging alongside hanging onto America’s coat tails once more.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
Lastly
Tennis grunting: I’ve lived with the sound of the Albert Park GP automobiles in my Clifton Hill flat for 20 years.
David Cayzer, Clifton Hill
