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The article ″High tide mark for carbon dioxide″ (5/6) uses current data and scientific consensus that long-term global warming will ″really change climate″ and that carbon concentrations would be higher than pre-industrial levels for thousands of years, even with elimination of CO2 emissions. Plans need to be started now by global bodies for the consequences of fire storms, floods, food shortages, sea level rise and associated water wars and mass environmental migration.
In Australia, our commitment to our Pacific ″family″ should include offers of dual citizenship and education programs that would enable Pacific islanders to seamlessly emigrate here in the event of their future homeland loss. It’s hard to believe our future will come to this.
Andrew Smith, Leongatha
Military hardware or the planet?
The article ″High tide mark″ reminds us that ″there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than at any time in at least 4 million years″, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A staggering fact given that we’ve only been seriously burning fossil fuels for about 300 years. Sadly, CO2 levels and global average temperature continue to rise in tandem, despite code red warnings from science. Humanity is standing on a cliff top. Hopefully, James Lovelock, founder of the Gaia hypothesis, was wrong when he said humans were too stupid to save themselves. Given that last year world military expenditure surpassed $US2trillion for the first time, while countries failed to honour the $US100 billion climate pledge, it appears Lovelock may be right.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
On your bike everyone, it’s worth it
Our family recently bought an electric cargo bike at a total cost of $4000. Both my wife and I use it to take our seven-year-old to school, ride it 10 kilometres to work, do the shopping and other social activities. It’s usually quicker than the car to get places under 10 kilometres. We did 4000 kilometres in the first year. At .12¢ per charge it cost $9.60 in running cost a year, insurance is $50 a year, service is $200 a year. Our car cost us $40,000 to buy, 4000 kilometres would cost us $800 in fuel, insurance is $1000 a year, rego $800 a year, service $700 a year. If your school and work are around 10 kilometres, why would you not save your money and the planet while you’re at it?
Sam Evans, Thornbury
There are ways to help
Dual energy and climate reckonings are upon us. A perfect storm of factors have indeed sent a wake-up call regarding the “urgent need for a bilateral, nationwide plan to exit coal and reduce our reliance on gas” (“Days of endless cheap energy are gone”, 5/6). Clean, cheaper energy solutions are available. Electrification is indeed the key to ensuring a healthier, cost-effective, stable, long-term renewable future.
In the meantime, Victorian households would likely benefit from adopting a mindful approach to energy consumption. By ensuring good insulation, tweaking the thermostat down a degree, wearing an extra layer, and turning off heating when not in use, my family cut our energy usage in half last winter.
Amy Hiller, Kew
In an emergency, you don’t stand still
If the new ALP government is looking for a way out, in response to the pressure for more climate change action, they should declare that their 2030 target is a minimum, and then fund projects and put into place policy frameworks to significantly overreach their commitment. We are in a climate emergency, let’s get this going.
Tim Hoffmann, Brunswick
FORUM
The doctor’s load
My son is a young doctor. I hadn’t seen him in a few months.
He finally responded to a text sent. ″Dad, I’m sorry. I’ve just been working 80-plus-hour weeks. I’m exhausted. There’s just two junior doctors on each ward and many of the 30 patients in each ward have complex illnesses needing a lot of work.″ As we were talking, he told me he had to take another call. ″Sorry dad, that was a nurse ringing me about a patient.″ He gets calls at home as well.
This is a major Melbourne hospital. That is just one story behind the headlines we are reading about our struggling hospital system. Normally a good letter writer would make a call to action. To offer a solution to the problem identified. All I can say is, I worry for my son. Next time I see him, I will tell him to find himself another job and that this is not sustainable. And that he is the finest of young men and I am so proud of him.
Name withheld
The real sacrifice
Recent correspondents have drawn attention to the injustice of the National Service Act of 1964 but not to the principal cause of grievance – the means of conscription of young men for military service. Unlike the 1951-59 National Service scheme, which involved all 18-year-olds in six months recruit training, the 1965-72 scheme was conducted by means of a ballot, a lottery for 20-year-olds (too young to vote), in which your ticket number was your date of birth.
The only alternative to two years’ full-time military service, with the prospect of service in a war zone, was, if eligible, six years part-time in the Citizen’s Military Forces, application to a magistrate for registration as a conscientious objector and/or being sentenced to the hell-hole of a military prison.
We’ve had a lot of talk recently of ″preparation for war″ and the ″sacrifices″ necessary to preserve our freedoms, but it is never the talkers who do the sacrificing. That is why, as Geoff Parkes has said, (Letters, 4/6), many of his ″Nasho Fair Go″ members are angry; not for serving their country but for carrying a very unequal, and forgotten, burden.
Trevor Hay, ex-Nasho, 1968-70, Montmorency
Reforms must proceed
It will be inexcusable of the state government if it does not introduce legislation for youth justice reforms so as to reduce youth offending and protect Indigenous children. The present law where children at the age of 10 are criminally responsible is unacceptable and must be changed to 14. This decision is too important to be put into the too-hard basket and deferred because of a fear it could have an impact on the coming state election. Too much harm has been done already to these children. Action must be taken now.
Glenise Michaelson, Montmorency
Monarchist inclined
The republic v monarchy debate is complicated, and full of subtleties, and I am inclined to rely on the experts when I feel I am out of my depth. The fact that the ABC, Malcolm Turnbull and Peter FitzSimons are as one on the side of the republic confirms my monarchist inclination.
Pete Smith, Edgecliff, NSW
The field is a workplace
Let’s look at on-field violence from another angle: the sports field is a workplace. If I were to headbutt a co-worker in my place of employment I’d expect more than a two-week paid holiday. I’d rightly be summarily dismissed. If the sporting codes are serious about sending the right message that violence is unacceptable then more serious penalties should apply. Why are sporting codes seemingly outside the auspices of acceptable workplace behaviour?
Angus McLeod, Cremorne
Crypto messaging
The recent 4 Corners program on crypto mania investigated the hype of crypto currency, which was attractive to many and understood by few. The program concluded that it was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme. Early investors made their money on the losses of the latecomers. The crypto industry needs new gullible investors. What better way than to get into bed with the AFL. Footy games promote crypto around the stadiums and competitions give away crypto accounts. Just like with the gambling industry, young sports fans are being sidetracked into a ″rich quick″ illusion.
Dave Barter, Hawthorn
No thanks to the Queen
Don’t assume we are all thankful for the years of service of the Queen.
Many of us remember what was done in her name by the conspiring governor-general of Australia to dismiss the Whitlam government. This was the most anti-democratic action that a monarch’s representative could take. The institution of monarchy allowed this to happen. It should not have happened. I give the Queen no thanks for her service as part of an autocratic regime.
Fred Tropp-Asher, Mooroolbark
More to a republic
The editorial (4/6) rightly concluded with a call for strong leadership on the republic issue. The obvious irrelevance of her majesty’s Platinum Jubilee and the fact that ″a slim majority″ for, is still a majority, may excite some interest, but a republic is not just choosing a president, it’s also a reformation of governance, so how could that be considered without First Nations involvement? First a treaty on just terms, inclusion in the Constitution and in parliament. Without these prior steps, any republic would be fatally flawed.
John Laurie, Riddells Creek
Royal entertainment
Was the ABC’s sparse coverage of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations a budget issue, an oversight or a statement? Whatever the reason, the ABC should have recognised its significance.
The republic will happen: until then, would the broadcaster please consider that many people, including republicans, enjoy the ceremony and style of a royal event.
Mary Cole, Richmond
Welcome intervention
I despair after 30 years of fighting for appropriate services and funding for people living with a disability, and then discovering the rorts by some, receiving lucrative funding of those services. I welcome the ongoing interest and awareness of Bill Shorten in his move to investigate the situation, and improve the lives of many.
Suzette Gallagher,
Port Melbourne
Menzies’ era not great …
Tony Wright (4/6) comprehensively demonstrates how the Morrison government prosecuted its own version of a class war by neglecting safe Labor seats in its grants program. In so doing, Morrison’s party is said to have set its face against Robert Menzies’ dictum that the class war “was a false war” in Australia.
We have heard repeated calls recently for the Liberals to return to the values espoused by Menzies. But was Menzies such a sage of the sensible centre? His rhetoric may have rejected the notion of a class war, but in practice his government and that of his successors pursued uncompromisingly right-wing policies.
Those with left of centre political views, especially Labor politicians, were routinely labelled “commies”, strenuous efforts were made to ban the Communist Party, and anything that smacked of a welfare state was vilified. Menzies’ Liberals opposed any suggestion of a universal health system, the White Australia Policy was maintained, foreign policy was joined at the hip to American military initiatives, and oppressive regimes such as the apartheid system in South Africa were strongly endorsed. Under Menzies, Australia was a backward-looking country.
If a return to these values is adopted by the Liberals, they will be out of power for a long time.
Mike Smith, Croydon
… Don’t lean on him
Roshena Campbell (30/5) is right, Menzies did mention “professional women” in his 1942 speech – three times. It was men who were front and centre. Most women were politically invisible in 1942, hidden behind the four walls of the great Australian home.
As Menzies points out, the first value of the middle-class Australian is of the home: “The home is the foundation of sanity and sobriety … its health determines the health of society as a whole.” What he doesn’t mention is that women kept these homes ″healthy″. As he lets his male-centric view slip, “my home is where my wife and children are … the instinct to be with them is the great instinct of civilised man.” He asks: ″How can I qualify my son to help society?” Yet what of his daughter? How could she develop her own career if she was expected to tend to the home?
While the Liberal Party scratches its head, wondering why contemporary women don’t feel represented by its views, it should stop and think how dwelling on the anachronistic words of a man who knew nothing of gender equality is not a good idea.
Yana Barton, Balwyn North
It’s not ‘us’ and ‘them’
Peter Dutton’s claim that people in the suburbs buy electric cars because they want to save on petrol, but people in the inner city buy them to make a statement shows that he hasn’t learnt anything from the Coalition’s loss. He’s still pursuing the politics of “us” versus “them”. A politics of “we” would recognise that we are all trying to do something about the connected problems of climate disruption and energy security.
Matt Holden, Coburg
A good start
I was captivated by the photo of the new federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, surrounded by smiling, engaged children at his old school, Cabramatta Public (4/6).
As a former teacher, I am pleased that he pledged to be a strong defender of teachers and to not engage in the divisive ″culture wars″ of his predecessors. I hope that our public schools finally get a fair go in the next state-federal funding deals that have, for too long, favoured private schools.
Anne Sgro, Coburg North
AND ANOTHER THING
Albanese
Anthony Albanese moving into the Lodge might reflect a return of a PM for Australia rather than just NSW.
Joan Segrave, Healesville
Anthony Albanese: a leader of integrity, humbleness, pro-women, pro-climate change, pro-welfare.
Donna Fotiou, Blackburn South
Anthony Albanese wants to ″engage with Timor-Leste″. As a first step he could scrap the disgraceful prosecution of Bernard Collaery and pardon witness K.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
Saint Anthony, the patron saint for the recovery of lost things. Any hope for nine years of lost opportunities?
Brian Rock, Beechworth
Furthermore
Good to see the government backs a rise in the minimum wage. I hope that they don’t forget those on JobSeeker who are suffering with cost of living increases.
Dean Virgin, Strathmore
RIP Robert Gordon Menzies 1894-1978. RIP The Liberal Party of Australia 1944-2022.
Stephen Baldwin, Frankston
It’s to be hoped the obscene amount of gas being exported is rewarding Australians, not increasing household prices.
Bill Burns, Bendigo
I must have missed the announcement that masks aren’t compulsory on public transport.
Barry Lamb, Heidelberg West
In the land of the free, 19 sets of parents have been freed from having to make their kids’ school lunches every day.
John Rawson, Mernda
If Peter Dutton is serious about reforming himself, he should first visit and chat with refugees and the African community in Melbourne.
Peng Ee, Castle Cove, NSW
Finally
Will Crown casino be paying its fine in cash?
Susan Scalise, Ascot Vale
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