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She had some help
Jon Faine (“Fiona Patten, I apologise”, Opinion, The Sunday Age, 3/4) commends Fiona Patten for her success in achieving much of her agenda while a lone voice for the Reason Party.
I agree with his sentiment and join in his commending her for her achievements, and for being able to rise above the political noise of the major parties. However, it should be pointed out that many of the achievements would not have been possible without a progressive Labor government in power.
I doubt that a conservative Coalition government would have allowed Patten sufficient air to articulate and drive her agenda in Parliament. Daniel Andrews deserves some credit also for not stifling forward-thinking ideas.
Doug Shaw, Sunbury
Enough on their plate
As a Baby Boomer I have watched members of my generation thumb their nose at climate change, vote in climate change denial politicians and take the easy tax cuts.
Now that we are looking at the aged care system we created and thinking “that’s not for us”, there is no way we should be telling the next generation of taxpayers that they should pay for bringing it up to a respectable standard. They have enough on their plate addressing climate change.
Wealthy retirees should be paying the lion’s share for aged care improvement.
Jeff Moran, Bacchus Marsh
The numbers game
When I opened Sunday’s Age (3/4) I was pleased to see a blue half-page advertisement purporting to explain the Morrison government’s “economic plan”. It featured a steeply rising graph and news of 260,000 more people in work than before COVID.
But graphs can be made to rise sharply by magnifying the vertical scale. And this scale was so stretched that its zero had dropped through the floor and disappeared. In fact, the graph showed a modest increase from 13 million jobs to 13.26 million jobs – a 2 per cent increase across the pandemic period.
But the population also increased during that time – by more than 210,000. So the jobs boost is welcome but unremarkable.
Did this warrant a taxpayer-funded advertisement? What other numerical tricks are being employed to influence votes?
Neil Wilkinson, Mont Albert
They are not governing
Peter Hartcher (“Albanese’s chief aide: Morrison”, Comment, 9/4), puts it succinctly and brutally: “The smartest thing Albanese did was not to get in the way of Morrison’s failure.”
That said, there are still too many nervous Nellies out there who think the Labor leader should be loudly detailing his policies, despite them being on the public record already.
Perhaps, after all, there is this time around, an alternative narrative: that is, the Australian public has stopped listening to Scott Morrison in the way that they famously turned their backs on the dreadful Billy McMahon decades ago. The Coalition is not governing. It has become a horror show of pork barrelling, internecine fighting and bereft of vision on the domestic and foreign policy front.
Anthony Albanese should retain his restraint, and start, as Gough Whitlam did before the seminal 1972 election, talking about what “my government” will do on coming to office. It is indeed “time for a change”.
Jon McMillan, Mount Eliza
Perish the thought
I’m sure your correspondent was writing in jest when he said “it would be a good thing if elections were held every six months” if it leads to refugees being released from the detention hotels (“Out of the blue, refugees are suddenly released”, Letters, 9/4).
A part of me agrees but another part shudders at the thought of politicians being in perpetual campaign mode.
Now what about the Murugappan family? As we approach Easter, wouldn’t it be charitable of the Immigration Minister, Alex Hawke, if he were to enable the family to return to Biloela? Surely he could do with some positive news/spin after all the recent negative publicity concerning NSW Liberal preselections.
Kate McCaig, Surrey Hills
The real ‘disgrace’
Melbourne’s real “disgrace” (Letters, 8/4) is not the graffiti and rubbish on the sides of the freeways but the encouragement of Melbourne’s car culture at the expense of active transport that keeps you healthy and public electrified transport that is far more consistent with zero emissions.
John Merory, Ivanhoe
Hear my prayer
The 19th-century philosopher Hegel said that reading the newspaper had become the morning prayer of realists.
In the past few weeks my daily prayer has been replaced by daily suspense: Is the paper on my veranda? On the pavement? In my neighbours’ front yard? In the middle of the street, under the wheels of passing vehicles? Or nowhere at all? Will any higher authority ever grant me a regular delivery?
Mirna Cicioni, Brunswick East
Here, in the real world …
While politicians play campaign games (“Road to victory”, Insight, 9/4), voters endure the real-life conditions that the outcome of these games determines – the terrifying effects of climate change, the inequality of wealth negatively affecting Australians of all ages, and the inequality of respect negatively affecting women and the elderly.
Ruth Farr, Blackburn South
Fix the date
It is time to stop this nonsense over calling an election. Let’s just set a date every four years and stop the political game playing.
Andrew Lloyd, Clifton Hill
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