Looking to the past does not lead to the future
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As Angus Taylor unveiled his shadow cabinet the hyperbole from him and his team was free flowing. Chief among the claims was that the government was the worst in our history. The Liberal Party has a short memory, forgetting the performance of the Morrison government which was soundly defeated in 2022, including the loss of blue-ribbon Liberal seats. The ultimate judge, the electorate, reinforced their assessment in 2025 returning the Albanese government with an overwhelming majority.
The Coalition parties appear intent on moving further to the right with populist rhetoric. This is not a substitute for evidence-based policies. A return to an Australia of the 1950s and ’60s is not a panacea for Australia’s challenges. Latest federal and Victorian polling demonstrates the Liberals are not cutting through.
The current government still has much to do. We, the electorate, hope they will not squander the opportunity given them and take our country forward with the necessary ambition and innovation in tax reform, economic sustainability, a continuing response to climate change and ensuring equality of opportunity for all Australians.
Anne Lyon, Camberwell
Liberals need to embrace science
I agree with Angus Taylor: if the Liberals can’t change – they’ll die. For mine, they need to restore science and logic as core functions. Ideology has led them down this dark tunnel away from Australians’ shared reality. Scorning climate science and claiming “Wind farms Bad – Nuclear Good” has wiped their credibility on the core issue of this century. The post-war Liberal Party embraced science to power industry and build prosperity. Can their current politicians and members do that now?
David Mackay, Macleod
The arts have fallen through the cracks
No shadow minister for the arts. The Liberals just don’t care about culture: the experience, values, doings, celebrations, disappointments, entertainments, fears and hopes that bind people into a community, all the precisely indefinable things that make an Australian an Australian. And the arts are the shared expression of all those social elements. Without the arts, a community cannot know itself and chart its boundaries.
Vincent O’Donnell, Ascot Vale
It wasn’t gender, it was incompetence
Columnist Katy Hall (Comment, 18/2) lists Sussan Ley’s many faults as Liberal leader, then blames men for her downfall. It wasn’t Ley’s gender that led to her sacking but her incompetence. The only time gender played a role was when the Liberal Party, under fire for its lack of female representation, elevated her to the leadership in the first place. This despite a 25-year parliamentary career devoid of any substantial achievements. Watching a group of men wheel and deal in the shadows until they got their way – Hall’s words – ignores the fact that Jane Hume and Sarah Henderson, among other Liberal women, also voted to end Ley’s leadership. Blaming men every time a female leader loses her job needs to stop.
Greg Hardy, Upper Ferntree Gully
Three-word slogan misses the mark
Hats off to Tony Wright (″Nation’s worst government? Jane Hume’s hyperbolic historical claim″, 19/2). I too raised my eyebrows at yet another absurd, inaccurate three-word slogan. What an insult to voters and history such reductive, simplistic sniping is. Please, do voters the courtesy of having a proper political agenda of some substance and provide valid, informed debate. These sound bites are not statespersonship, they are insults to the thinking electorate. A healthy opposition is the foundation of any democracy. Sadly, ours currently seems to be composed of back stabbing, ill-informed and advertising campaign directed puppets. Give us arguments not spurious rhetoric.
Julie Gainey, Ocean Grove
THE FORUM
Cruel, unnecessary
The heartlessness of Anthony Albanese and his government was on full display with his mean-spirited quip that ″they made their bed and now they can lie in it″. The children of fighters stranded in Syria never had a choice of beds. The wives probably the same. For Albanese to say they chose their fate and now we as a nation are obliged to abandon Australian citizens, women and children, to appalling conditions and possibly wrecked lives, is both cruel and unnecessary.
Simon Collings, Barwon Heads
PM, please explain
The prime minister’s message to the women and children in Syria is that if you make your own bed then you should lie in it. Therefore, the government will not assist their return to Australia. Does this send a chilling message to all Australians travelling abroad? Imagine an Australian kidnapped in a country where it is known that kidnapping is a risk. Imagine an Australian injured overseas while engaged in a sport known to have risks of injury. Does it mean that they have made their own bed and therefore they should lie in it? Does it follow that the Australian government should not lift a finger to help them?
Undoubtedly the question of how to deal with the women and children in Syria is complex and difficult. Our government has an obligation not only to its own citizens wherever they are but also an obligation to keep Australians at home safe.
What is needed is leadership that acknowledges the political sensitivities involved, that explains to people the difficulty of balancing conflicting interests and that spells out the measures that are in place to maintain community safety should these citizens return.
We need a response that leads Australians with moral courage, which respects our capacity to weigh up reasoned arguments and which gives us more than slogans.
Julian Gardner, Fairfield
Solution available
It is heartwarming to read the six letters in Thursday’s issue of The Age supporting the women and children stranded in Syria.
Have the authorities thought about using the facilities built to quarantine travellers during COVID-19 to house and debrief them before allowing them to join their families? This would provide a kind of neutral territory for the children to relax and begin their long journey back to childhood.
Judith Hudson, Elwood
Establish inquiry
Attacking Geoffrey Watson, SC, for his comments on the cost of corruption on Victoria’s Big Build projects is like “shooting the messenger”.
If Jacinta Allan and her cohorts dispute his findings and cost estimates then surely the way to put this to bed is to conduct an independent inquiry. Re concerns for potential corruption within the building industry then surely introducing legislation to increase the powers of IBAC is a “no-brainer”.
I guess you only support an inquiry when you are reasonably confident of its findings.
David Conolly, Brighton
More powers needed
Reading the Building Bad investigation stories over the past 12 months, it is amazing to me, and an abrogation of responsibility of her role as premier, that Jacinta Allan did not stay in touch with Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) to ensure it had the powers and resources to investigate the serious allegations that had been brought to her attention. Referrals are not enough. Where was/is the leadership of governance? Now we learn that the IBAC chief rejected the referral in 2024 because it was beyond its powers and had written to the Victorian government asking for extra powers. That should have triggered urgent action.
We are entitled to ask questions and expect answers. With the premier stonewalling and even the prime minister backing the Victorian government’s handling of the CFMEU, it is hard not to see it as self-protection, and containment of reputational damage – an unwillingness to expose Labor and CFMEU links and corrosive extent of corruption and waste. As a taxpayer, frequent Labor voter, mother, citizen, I am really appalled. I call on the Victorian government, and all parliamentarians, to support and resource an integrity body with powers to investigate now.
Joy Whitton, Brunswick
Responsibility at a low
The Allan government’s approach to Geoffrey Watson’s report on CFMEU corruption (“Premier’s spin out of control”, 18/2) says it all, and in spades. The electorate receives deflection and a disassembling attempt to avoid this serious issue by reference to an earlier referral to IBAC, which IBAC had no authority to investigate. Where was the follow-up by the premier, the attorney-general or the treasurer? More fundamentally, what government beholden to the electorate, concerned with probity or the parlous circumstances of the state’s finances, would not treat this matter seriously and respond in a robust manner, even if belatedly? We have reached a new low in ministerial and governmental responsibility.
Robert Porter, Kew
Tram nightmare
Melbourne might have the largest tram network in the world, but can we please get rid of the old trams. The 96 tram route is the one I usually use to get to work and to home, but the track is being repaired for a week or longer and the only other option I have to get to work is the 16 tram, which is nearly always an old-style tram.
Going home on this tram on Monday and Tuesday this week was unbearable, with no airconditioning it actually felt a bit cooler when we stepped off into 35 degrees, it was like travelling in an oven. At one stop, parents with twins in two separate pushers had to struggle up those steps and then stand in the heat all way to the city. It would be better to spend money on updating the tram stops so they can be accessible to people with wheelchairs, pushers, walking frames etc than spending it on the suburban underground railway.
Carol Evans, Elwood
Hyperbole at 10
As Tony Wright (″Nation’s worst government? Jane Hume’s hyperbolic historical claim″, 19/2) and Shaun Carney (Comment, 19/2) point out, Jane Hume, in particular, is sticking to the traditional Liberal defence. When caught out by another disastrous policy (or lack of) or mistake, the tried and true strategy is to double down, ignore the criticism and ratchet a hyperbolic attack up to 10. This may provide a front page heading in certain newspapers for a day but rarely fools voters. At some stage politicians might realise that the more they stand in front of the TV camera and with a straight face and tell porkies, wild exaggerations and grandiose promises that were contrived seconds earlier, their stature and trustworthiness in the minds of the viewer sinks another notch.
Peter Thomson, Brunswick
Who is saying worst?
Other than Angus Taylor and Jane Hume, who else is saying the current federal government is the worst in Australia’s history? Both Taylor and Hume were prime movers in the opposition that lost in a landslide only last year, when the government was re-elected.
Peter O’Brien, Newport
Foreign aid poll dismay
It was sad but predictable that respondents to the Resolve political poll (17/2) overwhelmingly chose foreign aid as one of three areas for savings in government expenditure despite it representing only 0.5 per cent of the budget total.
Our foreign aid programs play a vital role in assisting less fortunate people overseas, and demonstrate we are not always thinking of ourselves. Foreign aid is also our most economical and effective form of defence. The personal contacts and relationships established through continuing aid programs have a positive and lasting impact on Australia’s reputation.
Graeme Macmillan, Blackburn
Labor’s climate inaction
How refreshing to read positive news about the fight against the climate crisis. Rod Sims and Rebecca Burdon (Comment, 18/2) give great evidence that the world is acting on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy. What is worrying though, that Australia is trailing behind. Why has the Albanese government recently approved the expansion of the Middlemount coal mine in Queensland until 2044? The government cannot claim to be acting on the climate emergency while allowing the digging up of more fossil fuels.
Kerry Echberg, Princes Hill
Thinking of Hungary
Though still in my early teens when my family “escaped” Russian-ruled Hungary, there was no mistaking the covert desire of fellow Hungarians wishing to taste freedom in any country bar their own. My parents wanted to breathe the air without worrying about a whispered remark construed as being critical of the state. On reading “Orban counts on Trump for victory” (18/2), I surmise that some in the political domain have sold their souls in their endeavours to curry favour with the victors of the 1956 Hungarian revolution.
My hope is that the Hungarian people, despite all the foreign interference, will feel empowered to vote for a government that cares for not only the individual, but humanity at large.
Eva Millane, Box Hill North
I have a dream . . .
I noted this week an employer saying ″things are tough″. As a union activist and official my working life, I have never heard anything other than that from employers or businesses or ″not the time for a wage rise, a wage rise will kill the economy a wage rise now will lead to large job losses″ – despite the level of profits. I have been waiting a long time for an employer to say, ″We have had a great year, come in to discuss a wage increase.″
I suspect it will never occur, except in my dreams, and even then it might cause a heart attack, so safer to remain pessimistic.
Max Ogden, Fitzroy North
AND ANOTHER THING
Politics, federal
Is Pauline Hanson testing hate speech laws?
Hans Paas, Castlemaine
Let me get this right. Tony Burke says that there is nothing that he can do to stop the ISIS brides from returning to Australia. He then asks us to give him credit for taking action to stop one of the ISIS brides from returning to Australia.
Robert Box, Chelsea
Anthony Albanese has said that he would like to build the often promised high-speed rail connecting the major east coast cities. Must be an election soon.
Ross Hudson, Mount Martha
Tony Wright’s ″fairy dust″ to describe political campaigning is perfect, but the hopeful sprinkling of it is not confined to the Liberal Party.
Ruth Farr, Blackburn South
And state
Jacinta Allan can’t see it, but if she is truly committed to the future of the Labor government in Victoria, she must resign. There is too much Big Build mud over her.
Daniel Cole, California Gully
As a lifelong Labor supporter it pains me to say it’s time Jacinta Allan let someone into power who will try to rein in the criminal organisation known as CFMEU.
John Walsh, Watsonia
It is high time to have a royal commission into the CFMEU. Then we will get to the truth.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
Some people say that government spending is too high but never offer suggestions on which programs or welfare should be cut.
Michael Brinkman, Ventnor
MotoGP lost to South Australia due to the Allan government’s all talk and no action. Stuff the fans, local tourism and riders. Best track in the world means nothing when nothing is what this lot does best.
Ross Cropley, North Ringwood
South Australia, now that you have taken the MotoGP, please take the GP and save Victorians $100million a year.
George Djoneff, Mitcham
