Voters should know who is backing the parties
China’s march
Jim Farley and Andrew Forrest of Ford Motors recognized that China’s manufacturing capacity and engineering skills left the West floundering (″Western executives are shocked and amazed by China’s technical innovations″, 18/10). Donald Trump’s back-to-the-future approach by imposing tariffs on Chinese goods will not stop China’s world domination. Protectionism is not the answer. Picking a fight with China will further strengthen their determination to be the best in the world.
The old rusty industries in the West are gone. The quality of goods from China has increased tenfold. All you have to do is go to Germany and see locally produced, unsold new cars sitting idle. People are voting with their feet and buying higher quality and cheaper Chinese products.
Paul Chivers, Box Hill North
The courage of the Prime Minister?
Recently, Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “You are not in a good place.” You don’t have any cards right now.″
The truth is Australia has the cards in hand at the moment. We now have a great bargaining tool as China called Trump’s bluff on rare earth minerals. China is fighting against US economic blackmail. It has raised tariffs on the United States and is finding new markets, especially for rare earth minerals. Australia should step in and help the US shortfall in these minerals, but Australia should demand a high price in return. It should lead to hard bargaining, but it won’t. Australia will remain undecided and reconnect. I’m not sure Anthony Albanese has the courage to get the deal done.
Greg Tuck, Warragul
Service should not end
It is incredible to think that Cohealth has decided to close the Collingwood community health center, which is not only a nearly 80-year-old Collingwood institution, but also an essential service for thousands of area residents, many of whom will struggle to find alternative health care. They will never find an equivalent. I understand that funding is tight and finding a GP is difficult. So where are the priorities? You close the service and sell the site. So what will we invest the money in?
What could be more important than the service provided for all these years? How short are the memories that cannot remember the invaluable work done during COVID in high-rise towers with some of our most vulnerable people, not to mention the homeless people who use the service. Together the medical board and management should be ashamed, and the state and federal governments should take action.
Jenny Macmillan, Clifton Hill
Reverse this decision
It is saddening beyond words to read of the sudden closure of medical services provided by mutual health in Kensington, Collingwood and Fitzroy.
I spent six months at Kensington as a social work student in 1976, then six months as a social worker from 1980 to 1984. Experience has repeatedly shown that multidisciplinary community-based health services are the most cost-effective and preventative approaches available. More importantly, society loves the compassion and dignity they provide. It strains our credulity that, 50 years later, as we look at ourselves struggling to find a solution for our ever-expanding public hospitals.
This appears to be an impulsive and short-sighted decision driven by short-term budgetary considerations and disregard for the long-term benefits it squanders. It is not too late to show true leadership and reverse course.
David Spokes, Port of Melbourne
press with stand
On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump said in the final days of his first administration: “You have to fight like hell, because if you don’t fight, you won’t have a country anymore.” His stance not to disregard journalists’ professional integrity and the public’s right to know what’s going on at the Pentagon, as Secretary of War Peter Hegseth has demanded, could be the starting point for a broader pushback against Trump’s destruction of American democracy. Who better to manage this than the fourth estate, the press that Trump calls “the enemy of the people”?
Nick Toovey, Beaumaris
Social ban is not enough
It looks like a positive step forward for the upcoming social media changes, with Instagram developing better filters for young people as the government’s ban alone is not enough. Banning popular social media platforms without offering safer but still interesting alternatives is vital for the difficult transition process for our children aged 10-15.
Parents need safety-by-design platforms, as well as significant guidance to support and enforce prohibition at a grassroots level, in the family home. Parent resources need to be more than just a few engaging ads and a website with links to some talking points.
The E-Safety Commissioner needs to significantly increase his resources to deliver this important reform to help parents and young people. They also need a sustained funding commitment to establish a new norm for toddlers to 10-year-olds as they enter the age where online connectivity is an essential part of their social interactions.
David Twitter, East Melbourne
Pauline, Barnaby show
Great, let’s all vote for the increasingly popular One Nation, where Pauline Hanson could be Prime Minister and Barnaby Joyce could be Deputy Prime Minister.
Michael Brinkman, Ventnor
