Matt GoldingCredit:.
It’s time
Some matters are of such national importance that they transcend politics. The referendum asking Australians to vote on a change to the Constitution is one of them.
It is time for the leader of the opposition and like-minded members to put aside what are seemingly petty arguments, and consider what is best for the future of the country. When one has the likes of Marcia Langton, Noel Pearson, Pat Dodson and many other senior First Nations people advocating for change why is there such resistance? What is the fear? That the government will be become unworkable?
It’s time to test our well-founded generous nature and support what is an historic attempt to correct the wrongs of the past. We may never in our lifetime be given the opportunity again.
Bruce MacKenzie,
South Kingsville
Don’t spin the message
With all due respect to the prime minister, sales technique has no place in a referendum process. His remark ″I say to Australians, don’t miss it. Don’t miss it″ is the sales pitch ″buy now, avoid disappointment″. Good products sell themselves Mr Albanese. Spare us the spin please.
Alun Breward, Malvern East
History awaits, Dutton
Will Peter Dutton ever choose to be on the right side of history?
Marisa Spiller, Harrietville
How simple is it?
It is noted that the referendum question ″to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice″ is relatively simple. The problem confronting voters is the qualifier – is the proposal so simple that it amounts to no more than parliament now having to listen to First Peoples (which it should be doing anyway), or does it mean more than that?
Peter Drum, Coburg
The non-liberal party
Perhaps the Liberal Party should change its name to something akin to what it actually represents.
Phil Alexander, Eltham
Runaway strain
Looks like public servants and, by inference Victorians, will bear the cost of a runaway state budget. It certainly won’t be the army of consultants and political advisers with whom modern governments surround themselves.
Peter Randles,
Pascoe Vale South
Smoke and mirrors
In a week when it has been revealed that spending on private sector consultancies for advice, research and analysis has rocketed 200 per cent since the Andrews government was elected we now read of potential cuts to Victorian public service jobs as the Andrews government struggles to offset the cost of rising interest rates.
It’s pretty much a continuation of a long-standing smoke and mirrors exercise in the public service since the Kennett days – sack public servants to reduce the number of employees on the books and replace them with higher paid consultants. Problem solved.
Garry Meller, Bentleigh
The impossible dream
In last week’s Sunday Age financial advice pages an individual with nearly a million dollars in disposable assets and with children whose earnings put them in the top taxation brackets was concerned about minimising any tax on a transfer of these riches. Most people could only dream of having that much money. Pretty well sums up what is wrong in our society.
Graeme Gardner, Reservoir
Nature’s balm
The article ″How a dose of nature could help you heal″ (25/3) resonates with we nature lovers. A $1.5million research grant to the University of Wollongong aims to elucidate why people feel better after lolling around under towering eucalypts. This randomised controlled trial is the gold standard in research. Results may mean doctors prescribe time in nature as a treatment for chronic illness.
However, thousands of Australians suffering from postviral chronic conditions including ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis) and long COVID are house bound and unable to even smell the roses in our own gardens. I remember the call of the wild from my pre-illness life and would do anything to breathe the icy clean air from atop Mt Bogong again.
A controlled trial of existing pharmaceutical drugs to effectively treat post-viral conditions would allow us to return to the ferny glades and drink nature’s medicine again.
Jenny Meagher, East Malvern
Sorry reflection
That the National Gallery of Australia has been reduced to relying on donations to pay some of its staff is a sad reflection on society.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
Draw a line in the sand
Your correspondent rightly calls for a ″revolt against the status quo″ on climate (Letters, 24/3). She has support. More than 60 community organisations sent an open letter to the Australian government requesting they ″follow the advice of the world’s scientists and prevent any further new coal and gas developments″.
According to the 2022 Climate of the Nation report, 57 per cent of the public back this stance. Burning fossil fuels accounts for more than 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Further, research from Harvard University concludes that air pollution from burning fossil fuels is responsible for about one in five deaths globally. Fossil fuels are killing people and planet.
For Labor to maintain public faith on the vital issue of climate change, a line in the sand on fossil fuel investment must be drawn.
Amy Hiller, Kew
Substitute the recipients
I have no political aspirations, but give me $368 billion and I’d spend it on fire-fighting helicopters and public housing – two issues much more in need of government funding than buy-then-immediately-outdated submarines.
Jae Sconce, Moonee Ponds
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