The ALP working hard to lose the next election
Credit:Illustration: Jim Pavlidis
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number.FEDERAL LABORThe ALP, working hard to lose the next electionIt is imperative that the Coalition, deeply mired as it is in the financial grip of the mining industry, particularly coal, and unable to formulate an effective climate policy, is not elected. A swing to the climate policies of the parties to the left is essential. However, since it is unlikely the Greens could attract sufficient votes, a coalition of Labor and the Greens seems the most constructive outcome.
It is therefore unfathomable that in every progressive policy area, Labor continues to score own goals. While the inability to state a decisive climate policy is the biggest problem, the unwillingness to call out the Coalition over the blatant misuse of public funds rates a close second in electoral bungles.
As if the withdrawal of policies to curtail negative gearing, franking credits and capital depreciation, and the unwillingness or inability to articulate the corrupt behaviour associated with the “sports rortsâ€, “carpark rorts†and the especially egregious “community development grants rortsâ€, were not enough, the announcement that Labor will not pursue JobKeeper overpayments from small business (The Age, 7/10), surely puts the nail in the coffin.
Coupled with the doubtful electability of Anthony Albanese, it seems Labor is working assiduously to guarantee an electoral loss.
Maurie Trewhella, Hoppers Crossing
I am loath to say it but it seems that Labor is stumbling to yet another defeat in the next (winnable) election unless it takes dramatic action now. I, a Labor voter, have no problem with the likeable Anthony Albanese (Albo) but does he have the necessary presence and charisma to lead the party to an electoral win? I have grave doubts.
On the other hand there is the capable Tanya Plibersek. She is very well known, smart and has shown she can stand up to the Liberals’ bully boys. Furthermore she is a popular figure and would be certain to attract the vote of a great many women as well as men.
So the party should stop messing about and put Tanya front and centre as leader because she can make the party electable and more dynamic. This next election is a real opportunity for Labor and for Australia. As an elder citizen who cares about the future, I would love the electorate to topple the current woeful government and to see a change of colour, style and substance.
Kenneth Coghill, Bentleigh
As a formerly rusted on Labor voter, I will be voting for an independent at the federal election. Unlike the two major parties, many independents are putting forward constructive ideas for combatting global warming.
Judith McNaughtan, Mont Albert
Labor seems to have forgotten a basic premise of politics â€" to be elected you need to offer a credible alternative. The $13billion JobKeeper excesses it has rightly criticised are, apart from with rusted-on Liberal voters, deeply unpopular. Why Labor would now say it will not expect the money to be repaid is a mystery. I doubt that it will say the same for welfare recipients.
Any voter who may have been considering swapping their vote to Labor on the basis of the JobKeeper rorts will now have no reason to do so. I know the small target policy has a lot of adherents in Labor but if it wants to win the next election, it needs to grow a spine and offer an alternative that is not just Liberal-lite.
Ross Hudson, Mount Martha
The Liberals are claiming that a Labor government would force small businesses to repay JobKeeper, which Labor deputy leader Richard Marles denies. The appeal to voters’ hip pockets has already started in preparation for the next election.
Marie Nash, Balwyn
My daughter has finally left a large supermarket after two years because she had had enough of the verbal abuse from angry customers. While customers should treat these workers with the respect they deserve, I am dismayed at the lack of support offered by her employer over many months of reporting these incidents. Nothing I have seen or heard from the supermarket has reassured me it is providing a safe workplace for its employees. Also, where is the union in all this? How is it protecting the safety and wellbeing of its members. It is nowhere to be seen.
John Mullane, Ivanhoe
Gina Rinehart, we teach our students to think analytically and when they evaluate your ideas on climate change (The Age, 7/10), some may dismiss them as the propaganda of a self-serving, greedy, mining magnate. These young people are determined to assert themselves into the climate change landscape, and they will brush your selfish ideology away with the scant understanding that it deserves. There is no room for dinosaurs in their futures.
Andrew Dowling, Torquay
Caterina Giorgi (Opinion, 7/10) makes key points on the online sale and delivery of alcohol that need to be addressed. Delivery of alcohol at all hours (compared with buying it in person during stores’ opening hours) provides excessive access to products that create a domino effect of negative issues.
Enjoying a drink is one thing but roadblocks need to be put in place. Restricting alcohol delivery to between 10am and 10pm, as called for by community advocates, is the least we can do.
Stephanie Ashworth, Pascoe Vale South
It is becoming harder to find beds in our hospitals as COVID-19 cases surge (The Age, 6/10). However, our hospitals were already under stress, so it is hardly surprising to learn they are struggling to cope now. The government has had a very long time to prepare our hospitals for this COVID wave which it knew would arrive. It would be very unfair if we were kept in extended lockdown because it did not do its job.
Guy Ward, Nunawading
I wonder if hairdressers in Victoria will impose a levy on “first after lockdown†haircuts, as we are all getting masses of ugly growth on our locked-down crowns.
Brian Cullum, Cremorne
Memo, Prime Minister. We in Victoria do not need press conferences advising us to feel “hopeful†because of what may or may not be happening elsewhere in Australia. Now we have (at last) been provided with adequate vaccine supplies in Victoria, we are quite capable of creating our own “hope†without your gratuitous commentary.
Janet Mould, Safety Beach
As we move out of the worst of COVID-19’s privations and devastation, at least in the vaccinated world, let us learn from the awful two years endured internationally. As travel resumes, a new pandemic is no less likely today than it was in October 2019.
How are we placed logistically and economically to deal with it? We need to develop public health measures including proper supplies, staffing and training, and quarantine facilities so that we are ready to crush a pandemic, as a nation and in partnership with the world.
Michael Langford, Ivanhoe
Your correspondent (Letters, 7/10) is concerned that her son’s condition, being finely balanced between his epilepsy and the medication controlling it, may be lost due to administration of the COVID-19 vaccine, so he should not be compelled to be vaccinated. But she should also be very worried about his health should he contract COVID-19. Rebalancing his condition with modified medication may be more desirable than suffering and recovering from the virus.
John Groom, Bentleigh
Like your correspondent’s son, I, along with a considerable number of other Australian residents, have epilepsy. Mine is controlled by a drug and I was advised by my GP that the COVID-19 vaccine would have no impact on its control.
Laurens Meyer, Richmond
If there is a danger of the COVID-19 vaccination to your correspondent’s son because of an existing health condition, an exemption from it will most likely be granted upon submission of supporting evidence from the treating physician and he will not lose his job.
My wife has two life-threatening health conditions, both requiring a very careful balance of medications to manage. When the second condition was diagnosed, that physician consulted with the practitioner dealing with the other matter to ensure there would be no interference with the respective drug treatments for either condition. Following some minor intake tweaking, both conditions continue to be well-managed.
When COVID-19 vaccination became available, my wife’s GP consulted with both physicians to confirm vaccination could/should be administered. The collective answer was a resounding “yes†and she has been fully vaccinated since July without there being any effect on the efficacy of her other treatments. Consultation with these medical specialists is what we called “doing our researchâ€.
Bruce Crowe, Sunbury
Well said, Shaun Carney â€" “It’s too early to be sending Berejiklian tributes†(Opinion, 6/10). The narrative on Gladys Berejiklian and Dan Andrews is too believable, sadly, and all the points obvious and well made. In the hyper-partisan, post-modern era, it is not what you do but who you are backed by. Is this what we now call an advanced democratic society?
Stephen Best, Box Hill South
I was surprised to read of your correspondent’s inability to join a library as she was living in a motel (Letters 7/10). I worked in public libraries most of my working life and always thought anyone could join if they showed proof of address. At the last library where I was employed, it was common for backpackers to join, mainly to use the free internet. Indeed, one travel guide mentioned the library for the availability of free internet.
Susan Munday, Bentleigh East
Does the Coalition government understand the Independent Commission Against Corruption? It is there to keep people honest and stop corruption. If you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear. Not even the government or bureaucrats are above this law.
Patricia Norden, Middle Park
Barnaby Joyce complains that NSW’s Independent Commission Against Corruption is “out of controlâ€. Precisely. It is out of the control of him, political parties, vested interests and influential “donors†and that is exactly how it should be. In fact, establishing a federal ICAC is not something that politicians should even be consulted on, never mind be party to. That would be tantamount to them writing their own rules on what constitutes integrity, and we can already see how badly they struggle with that concept.
Stephen Farrelly, Donvale
Regarding Michael Gawenda’s comments (Opinion, 6/10) on the role of foreign correspondents in Israel in his critique of John Lyons’ booklet, Dateline Jerusalem: Journalism’s Toughest Assignment, could I make the following points.
As Cairo-based Middle East correspondent for Fairfax newspapers and the Financial Times between 1984-1993, my responsibilities extended to Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Mr Gawenda’s claim that compared with places like Syria and Afghanistan, Israel is a “comfortable†assignment misses the point. An Israel assignment brings with it a whole range of challenges not present in the reporting of other conflicts. This includes both political pressures and physical danger. Any assignment in Israel and the Occupied Territories involves risk. Correspondents find themselves frequently in proximity to live gunfire, the firing of rubber bullets, and the use of tear gas against Palestinian demonstrators.
Too often, they bear witness to the casualties of conflict in the emergency wards of Palestinian hospitals in which stone-throwing youths fight for their lives in cases in which bodies are torn apart by weapons of war. Likewise, correspondents are witnesses to the aftermath of acts of terror against Israeli civilians, men, women and children in which innocent lives are broken.
Finally, in support of John Lyons’ central proposition, it is disappointing that reasonable discussion of the Israel-Palestine issue is media-constrained in Australia. Sadly, the words anti-Semitism have been weaponised to stifle such discussion. In one important respect Lyons is correct. In Israel there is much freer debate of the Palestine issue in all its aspects than is possible in a timid media environment that exists in Australia.
Tony Walker, South Yarra
Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram had a six-hour outage. The world did not end and life went on. Get your heads out of your phones, engage with the world around you and live in the moment.
Mick Hussey, Beaconsfield
Only 4 per cent of Africa’s population is fully vaccinated. What a First World problem, and embarrassment, to complain about not having enough supply of vaccines.
William Cook, Ascot Vale
I drove past two construction sites on the first day of the reopening of the industry. Not a mask in sight. No social distancing. These guys really are slow learners.
Anne O’Keefe, Collingwood
Credit:Illustration: Matt Golding
WatchdogsIf our current federal MPs don’t back an ICAC, we obviously need a new bunch of federal MPs.
Joan Peverell, Malvern
Andrews: “l behave appropriately at all times†(7/10). For a politician, that is.
David Cayzer, Clifton Hill
We need a watchdog with teeth, but who will be left to run the country after it’s done its job?
Doug Springall, Yarragon
Never has the term “artful dodger†been more appropriate than when applied to our federal government.
Jerry Koliha, South Melbourne
I dread the thought that Tony Abbott is positioning himself for a return to politics with his recent sashays into the limelight.
Loucille McGinley, Brighton East
Is there nothing Taiwan Tony can’t do?
Paul Custance, Highett
Is Dr No in Taiwan to stop a war or start one?
Heather D’Cruz, Geelong West
I like this new Turnbull Rudd-Keating opposition leader. Much better than the old one. What’s his name again?
Don Nicholson, Thornbury
The Greens and independents hope Labor, and the LNP, continue to stand for nothing in the lead up to the election.
Bill Burns, Bendigo
Is Albanese getting his election strategy advice from Steven Bradbury?
Huw Dann, Blackburn
If Andrews’ plaque read “It’s not my problem†(7/10), Morrison’s would read “It’s never been my problemâ€.
Peter O’Brien, Newport
If Perrottet was a woman, she’d be asked how she could juggle being Premier with six young children.
Anne Maki, Alphington
I have invented a collective noun for anti-vaxxers: a clot.
Rob Willis, Wheelers Hill
Could authorities please extend lockdown so we can avoid Halloween.
Roger Farrer, Hampton
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