Hanson protest vote a risk too great for nation
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ONE NATION
Disenchanted voters, be they Liberal, National or Labor, should reflect seriously about how they express their discontent. (“If Hanson fades, this four-week stretch will be remembered for the mistakes that bought her down”, 13/7).
We should remember the credentials and ideas with which Pauline Hanson came to what was notoriety and what the vast majority of Australians thought of her views and ″election platform″.
A leopard doesn’t change its spots, and there is nothing Hanson has done or achieved which should cause voters to believe that she and the rabble of candidates that she has previously marshalled, have any serious credentials or policy initiatives which would lead to better outcomes for the nation.
A protest vote could result in serious unwanted consequences.
Charles Griss, Balwyn
Move Barnaby to the back pocket
Pauline’s team are not playing well. She has failed to give a good coach’s fire-up. Barnaby thinks he’s a full forward and tries to kick goals, but he should be (deep) in the back pocket.
The rovers keep dropping out and playing with other teams. No one knows the team song. Pauline’s tried getting good draft picks but no one is sure what their tenure will be.
All in all, after a good start, they will soon be outside the eight.
Jan Marshall, Brighton
Surely, we’re not this shallow
Humans are strange creatures. We judge on outward appearances, on language spoken, on religion and even on sporting team followed. We swipe left automatically without considering the person behind all those essentially cosmetic features.
Pauline Hanson and her ilk feed on that stereotyping and are waging a war against non-white, non-Anglo-Saxon, non-English speaking people who follow non-Christian religions. The issue is whether we will succumb to their unsubstantiated claims and fall in line and believe and repeat their rhetoric. Hopefully, we aren’t that shallow.
Greg Tuck, Warragul
One Nation abandons young voters
Pauline Hanson is acting more like a grandmother than a politician. She has said that young Australians need to work harder, by this she means increase their productivity. This applies to all One Nation’s younger staff too.
Under her vision of Australia, even if they work harder, they won’t get into the home ownership market for many years until more supply is available. Until this occurs, rents will continue to rise.
Labor has stepped in and provided a quicker way for home buyers to get into the market by stopping negative gearers purchasing existing housing. Hanson will have none of that.
I don’t care about granny Pauline; I feel sorry for her younger staff and all younger Australians.
John Rome, Mount Lawley, WA
Monoculture views flourish
A recent Resolve Political Monitor poll indicated that 33 per cent of respondents agreed with Pauline Hanson’s promotion of monoculturism over multiculturalism (while 39 per cent opposed that idea). It’s a worry that so many Australians indicate bigoted tendencies.
Tony Delaney, Warrnambool
Who pays for Hanson’s UK tour?
Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce have been swanning around the UK attending the CPAC Great Britain conservative conference. Joyce has met with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and Hanson has toured the streets of Luton with far right activist Tommy Robinson. Given both have a history of billing taxpayers to attend fundraising and donor events, Hanson must ″please explain″ if this trip passes the “pub test”.
Doug Perry, Mount Martha
THE FORUM
Make AUKUS redundant
I welcome the Albanese government’s agreements with the Pacific Island nations as a good step forward. What I would welcome even more, is for those signatories one by one, to invite Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, India, and China, to sign an Asia/Pacific Pact for Peace and Security, which would make AUKUS redundant, for the best reasons.
Max Ogden, Fitzroy North
Words and deeds
Pianist Jayson Gillham’s dedication of one item in his concert to journalists killed while covering the Middle East conflict included the words that over 100 Palestinian journalists had been killed by Israel and that targeting of journalists in conflict is a war crime.
Your correspondent (Letters, 13/7) knowledgeably advises of the removal by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) of the names of some journalists because other groups later identified them as combatants. This was the sensible and responsible thing for the CPJ to do.
Gillham obviously could not have been aware of this at the time of the dedication, and indeed, only some names were removed. Gillham did not actually mention the CPJ list, and as not all journalists’ names were later removed, knowing how many would be helpful.
For your correspondent to write ″I wonder if Gillham and his supporters are aware of this, or if they even care″ is to effectively infer unkind and hurtful motivations on a large number of people.
What is the definition of combatant in the context of this war? Can one be classified as a combatant for a cause using words, not lethal arms? If so, is it legitimate to kill them? I hate to think where this could lead.
Jenny Callaghan, Hawthorn
Senator’s sellout
It’s somewhat disingenuous to describe the late senator Lindsey Graham as a “staunch ally of US President Donald Trump”.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Graham said: “I want to talk to the Trump supporters for a minute. I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know why you like this guy. He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn’t represent my party. He doesn’t represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for … I think Donald Trump is a political car wreck.”
Unfortunately, like many, Graham sold out. And here we are.
David Legat, South Morang
My choice alone
The voluntary assisted dying debate continues. My husband died in 2022 using VAD. It was a beautiful death after living well with metastatic prostate cancer. We moved to Victoria in 2020 to enable him to use VAD.
The debate ranges around restrictions and solutions. Governments and the influence of religions have imposed these restrictions. Somehow, they think they know what is right for my life. Life has meaning for me because we all die. That stars fill the sky brings me great joy.
I should have the right to end my life whenever I choose, without any restrictions or fear of illegalities. I would never choose to end my life without much thought and reflection, but if I make that decision, I would hope that I can do exactly that, in a pain-free, peaceful environment of support, love and respect.
Gryff Jamieson-Ballard, Castlemaine
Cave the master
The piece by Garry Maddox about film scores made me sit up and take notice for what it didn’t say (″Why great film scores terrify, thrill″, 13/7). I’m not a fan of Nick Cave. Live, I found him disappointing. I find his style mordant and self-referential. But he and Warren Ellis may be the finest composers for film in modern times.
I appreciate the catchy tunes and sweeping orchestras give blustering oomph to blockbusters, but to be emotionally transported, Cave’s film work is masterful. The Proposition, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and La Panthère des Neiges were all the more significant because of the perfect marriage of sound and image.
Ian Muldoon, St Kilda
More parks for Box Hill
The entire Box Hill Brickworks site should become parkland. Don’t be misled by the map of Box Hill published in ″Brickworks site is dividing a community and developers″ (12/7).
Surrey Park adjacent to the Box Hill Brickworks is not a ″park″. It is two sports fields and the Aqualink sports centre. Both vital community assets, but not parks.
Parks are hugely valuable public assets. They are spaces for walking, meeting friends, dancing, music, picnics or just a place to escape claustrophobia of apartments. Box Hill has enough towers. It doesn’t have enough parks.
An alternative? Box Hill and neighbouring suburbs, Mont Albert, Surrey Hills, Blackburn contain hundreds of run-down, standalone house built mid-last century.
These properties often occupy land in excess of 800 square metres, plenty of space for three or four individual houses. Perhaps the big developers might complain that their profit margin isn’t as good on this type of development as a looming tower, but lower-density living is good for everyone, both current residents and new residents.
Owen Wells, Mont Albert North
Suburb’s rare chance
I am sure Box Hill residents are aware of the need for housing.
That need is being addressed with the approval in 2024 of seven more skyscraper buildings, from 19 to 50 storeys, in central Box Hill. These are to be added to the several skyscraper residences already built.
All these towers will house thousands more people in a very compact area. The ratio of open space for people in Box Hill has diminished from 49 square metres per person in 2001, to 29 square metres in 2024, and will be only 16 square metres per person by 2041. By contrast, the City of Melbourne had 24 square metres per resident in 2024.
Is there anyone in the Victorian government who understands that the many thousands of new residents in central Box Hill need a wonderful park as well?
In the mid-1800s, every substantial town in Victoria had people of foresight who planned and provided public gardens: think of Benalla, Bendigo, Ballarat and Buninyong. Why not Box Hill in 2026? This chance will never come again.
Elaine Hopper, Blackburn
YIMBYs not so smart
Yet another call for more densification in the inner and middle suburbs by the YIMBY movement (″Push to intensify inner-east housing″, 13/7), shows how narrow and uninformed this small but loud group is.
After 25 years of greater densification being pushed by state governments, starting with the Melbourne 2030 planning scheme, how much more available and affordable has housing become?
No mention is made of these suburbs’ infrastructures’ ability to cope with the proposed massive influx. No mention of the massive immigration rates that are driving the demand. No mention of the lack of qualified tradies coming in, under the current immigration prioritisation scheme that sees tradies come third in skills priorities.
No mention of a regionalisation strategy, to take pressure off an increasingly crowded and congested Melbourne. And no mention of democracy in suburban planning.
Mathew Knight, Malvern East
Specialist schools work
Congratulations to all involved in the expansion of Niddrie Autistic School (13/7).
The academic quoted argues that this is a counter-intuitive move. I strongly disagree. The risein demand for specialised settings can easily be explained. Parents choose what is right for their child.
It is incorrect to label specialist schools as isolated settings. They are welcoming communities, embracing and working with difference. They are staffed with exceptional people. The students are supported to reach their potential and safe. They are embedded in a broader educational community. To dismiss them as segregation is disrespectful to all.
Rosslyn Jennings, North Melbourne
Praise the Karens
″I guess″ this is the level to which humour surrounding our environment has degenerated? (Letters, 13/7). That somehow, Pam the Bird and her graffiti, tagging and other desecrations scrawled amid the litter, filth, grunge and decay of Melbourne – wait for it: reflects ″coolness″.
″Unlike the Karens″ (let’s say of Brighton) tending gardens that provide habitat for birds, possums, bees, worms and other wildlife. The ″Save Our Suburbs Karens″ who, with other 3186 beach patrol volunteers, clean up our beachfront litter and rubbish in the aftermath of ″Pam the Bird″.
That groan we hear comes from Robin Boyd’s grave as he writes a sequel for The Australian Ugliness. An ugliness perfectly suited to the heat island we are creating.
Respite from the heat? (see Europe). Try Karens’ really ″cool″ and green gardens.
Ronald Elliott, Sandringham
Vale Jim Lamborn
A marvellous contributor to your Letters page has typed his final comment.
Regular readers will recall Jim Lamborn (Doncaster), offering analysis of public affairs, both national and international, over the past decade. Failing health prompted his silence since early this year.
A thoughtful and erudite man, Jim spent his final months in the best of aged care, with wife Clare. He would have dearly wanted to see the sunset of the Trump term of office, but passed away peacefully on Saturday, aged 97. Vale Jim Lamborn.
Alan McLean, Queenscliff
AND ANOTHER THING
Potholes
Whilst the workers are out patching up the 1 million potholes, could they also pick up the massive amount of rubbish that now lines all our roads and highways?
Fiona White, Alfredton
Five billion bucks for a million potholes? Isn’t that like five grand per pothole? Pot(hole) of gold right there!
Barry Greer, Balnarring
Furthermore
What a heartwarming tale of two ″senior citizens″ travelling 170 kilometres to be together after escaping aged care accommodation (13/7). Love conquers all!
Teresa Martin-Lim, Brighton
Trump kidnaps Maduro. That’s OK. Trump and Netanyahu eliminate Iran’s leader. That’s OK, too. However, when Iran talks of retaliation, the usual threats follow. Has Trump had his wires crossed?
Helena Kilingerova, Vermont
Why would Iran assassinate Trump? He keeps making it stronger with his every stupid bungle.
Paula O’Brien, St Kilda
Pam the Bird
The value of creative street art is in the eye of the beholder – but tagging gets up everyone’s nose!
Greg Curtin, Blackburn South
Bill Posters prosecuted!? But he’s innocent!
Peter Rooke, Hawthorn
In the late 1960s, the Bill Posters Prosecuted sign on a wall of the MCG was enhanced by a graffiti writer with the words “Bill Posters was innocent”. A disgruntled Richmond supporter wrote underneath, “So was Neville Crowe”.
John Williams, Golden Square
Pam: Public Art Maybe.
Pam Saunders, Clifton
Finally
I have nothing against the Swiss, but it was wonderful to see them reduced to 10 men in their game against Argentina, when one of their players was ejected for simulation after flopping in an attempt to have his opponent sent off. Blatant cheating. It would be a better sport if they had more decisions like this.
David Olive, Kensington
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