Jew World Order

LETTERS

If Nick Greiner bullies or cajoles Premier O’Farrell into privatising electricity it will be the beginning of the end of the O’Farrell government (“Sell assets and add levies to fix transport woes, says Greiner”, September 16).

The majority of NSW citizens have made it clear, through polls and the repudiation of a privatising Labor government, that they do not accept the privatisation of public assets for the financial benefit of a few from the business class. They know that if electricity is privatised they will be screwed into the ground till kingdom come, in the same manner that Macquarie Bank has used its monopoly position at Kingsford Smith to screw air travellers into the ground.

Geoff Mullen McMahons Point

Nick Greiner’s idea to sell power stations seems a good way to fund transport. However, such a sale will inevitably cause the same long-term problems that Victoria now suffers: polluting power stations long past their environmental use-by date continuing to operate.

Hazelwood’s new owners naturally demanded guarantees of no restrictions before buying the most polluting power station in the nation. While the coal in NSW is cleaner, with climate change it’s hardly the time to be extending the life of our plants. The NSW government will of course be wanting to sell for that very reason: O’Farrell has already cut solar rebates and threatened wind power restrictions to keep the market for coal power buoyant.

Andrew Lamond Annandale

I wasn’t surprised to read that Nick Greiner continues to follow the discredited economic rationalists of the 1980s.

Not everyone can drive, wants to drive or, in the foreseeable future, will have the money to buy the petrol to run the car or freight hauler. Tomorrow runs on rail.

In the Blue Mountains, we are witnessing increased numbers of fatal accidents on new, widened sections of the Great Western Highway and heavy freight drivers are the victims in these accidents. Their schedules are unsustainable.

Convoys of trucks are required to move the equivalent tonnes of freight that a single train can move. That means trains contribute less to pollution than trucks.

NSW Infrastructure, if it is genuinely interested in NSW having good transport that makes it easier for citizens to move from home to hospitals, to work and to education – and which supports vitally important freight logistics – will build new light and heavy rail, not toll roads that need constant repair from overuse.

Carolyn van Langenberg deputy convener, Blackheath Transport Action Group

Mr Greiner says he wants to expand motorways and find more efficient ways of running the railways. Note that running railways has nothing to do with building new lines or finishing existing ones.

He is also sceptical about light rail, and maybe he has a point. Wasn’t he the one who sold off critical tramway alignments in the Randwick area in one of his previous fire sales, making it difficult to put down new lines?

Of course, where a new motorway is required, the government will just obliterate any structures in its path, and our transport problems will be solved, 1960s style.

Donald Hawes Blayney

Don’t ignore the facts of the financial crisis

A country the size of Greece cannot be blamed for bringing down the whole of the European Union. Brussels-based bureaucrats need to investigate their own policies in uniting vastly different countries. Oranges and olives cannot compete against technology and mechanisation.

Some of what Paul Sheehan writes is true (“Throw out cheating Greece before the rot cripples rest of the world”, September 15). Yes, to the culture of tax evasion, the bloated public service, the bribery. But “the rich are the biggest tax cheats”? Is this not worldwide? His words gloss over the history of a small country promised financial help to join the EU because of its strategic position, with waterways to what was then communist USSR and connections to the Middle East. Greece only emerged from more than 400 years of foreign oppression and dictatorships in 1974. Bribery and evasion were how the oppressed survived.

Sheehan writes of match-fixing and drug cheats in sport in Greece – forgetting the ongoing scandals of our sports, of inside betting, of FIFA.

The austerity measures in Greece are severe. Wages have been slashed by up to 30 per cent. My daughter-in-law has not been paid for six months of teaching. There are minimal welfare payments, no dole, no age pension.

Let Europe own up to its mismanagement. The banks have over-lent. The so-called PIGS countries cannot repay. The system needs to be overhauled.

And others need to understand.

Kristin Tsalapatani Balmain

Catholic Church’s delay is inexcusable

I applaud Senator Xenophon’s confrontational approach to the Catholic Church for its inaction, obfuscation and general denial of allegations of abuse by members of its church (“Xenophon’s haste”, September 16).

Perhaps, more than any other country, Ireland has handled this issue most comprehensively and most forcefully, yet, it still required the Prime Minister to drag the Vatican kicking and screaming to the table to acknowledge the problem and to respond appropriately.

The Catholic Church has handled this issue appallingly, everywhere. And, despite repeated demands for it to confront the issue, it has comprehensively failed to wash clean the putrid remains of those that soiled the innocent.

Ted Keating Tallai

If Liam O’Neill (Letters, September 16) reads the full text of Philip Wilson’s statement of September 14, he will find that it was not until February 2011 that John Hepworth agreed to commencement of a formal investigation into his claims.

Without this agreement it would have been unwise of the Adelaide diocese to initiate an examination of the case (though, doubtless, informal inquiries would have been made). Moreover, John Hepworth reportedly asked Nick Xenophon not to make his parliamentary disclosure.

Though I deplore this sordid event, it appears the allegation that the church delayed the investigation for four years is incorrect.

Gary Conroy Sawtell

Four years to investigate serious rape allegations? Where exactly is the Catholic Church sourcing its investigators – the Department of Immigration?

Sandra Eckersley Marrickville

Labor drips

I can only assume Julia Gillard’s desire to water the party’s grassroots will mean more leaking (“Gillard waters the party’s grassroots”, September 16).

Bill Carpenter Bowral

Just relax, dears

With the planned media inquiry, will frequent letter writers to the media also be investigated?

Andrew Partos Seaforth

Banana enders

The price of bananas has started to fall and now consumer confidence is growing. As soon as the price of bananas rose above $10 in Australia, consumer spending slowed. Viva, the Banana Republic!

Philip Smith Surry Hills

Byron by Byron

To those hankering after a genuine Byron letter: I’m more than happy to pen eponymous letters upon request for a small fee.

Byron Kelly Canberra City ACT

If only half of what Kate McClymont has written about the Health Services Union is true the Australian Council of Trade Unions should intervene and demand on behalf of all union members that the HSU clean up its act (“Union boss’s son used HSU building to run his own business”, September 16).

Similarly, Labor should immediately stop taking money from the union until it can demonstrate it’s clean.

Colin Hesse Marrickville

When HSU president Michael Williamson resigns, as he must, I’m sure his reason for such resignation will be that it will allow him to spend more time with his money.

Janet Abraham Coal Point

Will the media inquiry also cover the in-house media departments of trade unions? There may be some questions to be answered in this area.

William Lloyd Denistone

Australia feeling like the Soviet Union

This inept, shambolic government is overseeing the annihilation of our country with every policy they have introduced, including the “right thing to do” carbon tax, forging ahead without a mandate from the people, led by a Prime Minister who lies repeatedly and refuses to answer questions – either in media interviews or throughout question time in Parliament.

It is now inflicting an inquiry into print and online media at the behest of the Greens (“Senator Conroy’s inquiry too far”, September 16).

Why do I feel we are living under the oppression of Soviet Russia, circa 1969? I visited Moscow at that time and it somehow feels familiar. Did someone mention “redheads under the beds”?

The unmitigated bastardry of the “poison pills” included in the carbon tax legislation to prevent any desirable changes by a future government is not only vindictive but also detrimental to Australia’s future economic security.

Lesley Kendall Bathurst

The beauty of the Abbott competitive grants scheme is that it can be dismantled very quickly with minimum cost to the taxpayer and without tying an incoming government up in red tape (Letters, September 16).

Doug Wormald Armidale

Casinos gamble with life and debt

In the midst of bright lights and celebrity endorsement (“Star basks in new light”, September 16) spare a thought for the role of gambling in the lives of many ordinary Australians.

Problem gambling is on the rise, with impacts on individuals, families and employers. An estimated 5 million Australians are affected directly and indirectly each year.

Dressing it up with celebrity-chef restaurants and retail outlets only masks its purpose – to increase the $12 billion a year spent on gambling, whatever the cost.

Wendy Machin Enfield

With a whopping $11 million earmarked on top of the $1.8 million already squandered to fight pokie reform, not to mention regional MPs shaking in their gumboots (“Labor MPs revolt over pokies deal”, September 16), it doubtless means one thing: clubs are too big to fail. If “the hostility from their electorates is far greater than that caused by the carbon tax”, perhaps the electorates can be playing the pokies while rising sea levels wash over sunburnt plains.

Terry Simpson Point Clare

Before spending millions on a massive “it’s un-Australian” campaign against gambling pre-commitment, maybe Clubs Australia could clarify that mandatory precommitment is only proposed for “high-intensity” loss machines where a gambler can lose up to $1500 per hour.

Machines with losses of up to $120 per hour are not included.

I suggest it’s un-Australian to plunder the pockets of thousands of addicted club members and un-Australian to be less than upfront about reasonable proposals to limit high-intensity gambling addiction which “has resulted in children going hungry, family breakdowns, homes and businesses lost, relationships damaged and, most tragically, suicide”, to quote from the parliamentary joint select committee on gambling reform.

Kevin Armstrong Tumbi Umbi

Murdoch empire from another stance

Like so many local apologists for Rupert Murdoch (“Murdoch’s vision rewarded many”, September 16), Trevor Kennedy reminds us of the creation of The Australian back in the 1960s as if this somehow exculpates News Corporation from its numerous and manifest transgressions since.

What Mr Kennedy fails to mention are the scores of newspapers and other media enterprises Murdoch has closed down around the world to protect or enhance his market dominance. For every journalist employed at The Australian, at least 10 have lost their jobs elsewhere.

David Salter Hunters Hill

Journalist Trevor Kennedy seems to be a bit too sentimental about that defunct trashy tabloid the Daily Mirror but he does have a point in one respect. Its absence has contributed over the years to the decline in the quality of the analysis and debate about current affairs in board rooms and lunch rooms now that the statistics of the bikini-clad beauty on page three can no longer be daily compared.

Peter Yorke Glenbrook

No conspiracy theory

Your newspaper claims I have “described climate change as a left-wing conspiracy to de-industrialise the western world” (“The sceptic and the campaigner”, September 16).

I have never referred to a “conspiracy”. What I have said is that the extreme left has exploited the theory of anthropogenic global warming to pursue its agenda by spreading alarm about the consequences of using fossil fuels to provide us with energy.

Nick Minchin Tusmore (SA)

Try being original

Elizabeth Farrelly’s searing thesis on the world’s relentless pursuit of popular approval (“Deafened by roar of the crowd”, September 15) should be mandatory reading for all Australians. Our current obsession with the cult of celebrity is anaesthetising future generations to what it is to be different, to be eccentric, to be truly original. What we’re left with is a pallid and narcissistic pastiche of what life should be. Just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s good. Or right.

Clare Caldwell Randwick

Something’s fishy on Hacking River

In her defence yesterday of her decision to close the Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre, Katrina Hodgkinson (Letters, September 16) fails to answer the question asked the previous day by Jeff Murphy. That was, what will happen to the facilities when they close?

The Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre is on a waterfront peninsula on the Hacking River. Surrounding waterfront properties sell upwards of $2 million, with many fetching above $3 million. The land on which the centre stands, if subdivided into deep waterfront lots, would fetch more than $25 million.

Could the value tied up in that land have been a bigger factor in the decision to close than any “benefits” in decentralisation? Developers must be smiling.

Leanne Jarvis Gymea Bay

In defending the NSW government’s decision to close the Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre, Katrina Hodgkinson declares that “our decision will . . . see fishery managers and researchers closer to where the vast majority of their work is – right along the NSW coastline”. How much closer can Cronulla be to the coastline?

Dave Hunt Gerringong

Didn’t the experience and ignominious demise of the former state Labor government teach the incoming Liberal government and its selected bureaucrats anything? (“Bureaucrats altered briefing on pollution tax”, September 15).

The public wants honesty from its elected and unelected representatives, not spin for political purpose. When will politicians of all persuasions, state and federal, realise government and opposition is not a political game? It’s the country’s best interests that should be uppermost, not point scoring.

John Pick Pymble

You can bank on it

A 31-year-old UBS “rogue trader” was arrested on “suspicion of fraud by abuse of position” after losing $US2 billion gambling in the market (“UK rogue trader held over $2b loss”, September 16). When the financial alumni lose trillions, owing to a business model underpinned by fraud and deceit, they get rewarded by the taxpayer with bailouts and bonuses. Rogue traders all.

Philip Moffat Allawah

While Swiss bank UBS publicly laments its unauthorised trading losses of $US2 billion, banks on the other side of the transactions are quietly popping the champagne corks.

David Crommelin Strathfield

Palestine: it’s time

Your report on the Palestinian push for UN membership and recognition as a state mentions that President Obama has described such a move as “counterproductive” and that the Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has said that the move is a violation of the Oslo Accords (“Threats fly as Palestinians dig in over statehood” September 16). My point is, how long do the Palestinians have to wait?

The Oslo Accords were signed in 1993 and not much has happened since other than Israel has created new “facts on the ground” by building more settlements on Palestinian land. All the time the Israeli government is in hock to right-wing religious parties nothing is going to happen. My idealistic scenario would be a 21st century, rainbow-nation, one-state solution but the situation needs a Nelson Mandela and an F.W. de Klerk to break the impasse. Sadly, I see no such figure on either side.

Martin Pooley Marrickville

Clean bill of health

I am not convinced by Barrington Salter (Letters, September 16) that paying a decent wage to cleaners, probably among the lowest-paid workers in hospitals, is a significant factor in the affordability of health care.

Moreover, I suggest that a clean and sterile environment in hospitals is even more important than cleanliness in the average public building and may provide a better investment in preventing risks than, for example, the vast amount spent on airport security.

Al Svirskis Mount Druitt