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HEALTH
The action of One Nation, the Coalition and the Greens to defeat the government’s changes to private health insurance rebates for over-65s in the Senate destroys our confidence that they have the nation’s best interest at heart (“Coalition, Greens sink $3 billion aged care plan”, 15/10). The changes in the private health insurance rebates for over-65s was intended to provide $3 billion for aged care services. The action of the three parties is another example of why the community is frustrated, angry and disillusioned at the party politics that appear more important than wellbeing and the social cohesion of our nation.
Ray Cleary, Camberwell
Labor’s aged care plan foolish
Millions of Australians over 65, this writer included, rely on being able to claim a rebate against soaring medical expenses. The government must have realised it was playing with fire to even think of bringing in such legislation. Thankfully, the Coalition, the Greens and One Nation have shut that down. What was the government thinking? One could say it was an obvious case of what the Butler didn’t see.
Chris Burgess, Port Melbourne
Are taxpayers getting value for money?
It appears that any changes to the private health insurance legislation are an attack on the pensioners and the elderly.
Medibank was created by Gough Whitlam, and privatised by the Fraser government. Medicare was introduced by the Hawke government. The Howard government then instituted the Medicare levy surcharge and forced people to contribute to private health insurance whether they wished to or not through the health insurance rebate.
Between 24 and 32 per cent of private health contributions are paid for by the taxpayer, now to the tune of about $6.9 billion, along with about $8 billion to private hospitals. Is this value for money? These amounts are in a large part funded by those who choose not to have private health insurance and believe strongly in a universal healthcare system as planned with Medibank and Medicare.
I wonder how many public medical centres, accessible to pensioners and the elderly, could be funded by $14.9 billion?
David Raymond, Doncaster East
Access denied for rural Australians
Health Minister Mark Butler defends the government’s record in providing rural health (“‘Appalling’: Rural health funding gap blows out to $9.2b”, 15/10) and points to a $617 million training package for doctors and nurses. But last November, the government restricted access to nurse practitioners, requiring patients to have an annual face-to-face visit in order to claim a Medicare rebate. This effectively prevents rural Australians’ access to the highest-qualified nurses who can practise autonomously, and provide prescriptions, pathology and referral to specialists.
The article states that death from diabetes is four-fold in remote areas. Diabetes is one example of healthcare that can be effective via telehealth. Yet, there are geographically isolated Australians who cannot access any nurse practitioners under Medicare due to an easily reversible ruling ... no extra training required.
Eli Kinnersly, diabetes nurse practitioner, Richmond
Warning on medical procedures overseas
I write to warn others about having medical procedures overseas. They may be less expensive than in Australia but may also cost you your life. My beautiful daughter, Jacky, had a severe hypoxic brain injury while undergoing dental implants in a Vietnam dental clinic. Some companies offer insurance for travel to Asia for medical or dental procedures. These practices should be investigated, and I have written to the federal minister for health regarding this matter. However, nothing will mend the hole in our hearts. On October 10, 2026, all life-maintaining procedures were discontinued, and we let our beautiful girl go.
Noel Norris, Casterton
THE FORUM
Brethren control
The Exclusive Brethren possibly once was a mainstream Christian church, but is no longer (“Ex-members claim their church leader directed political push”, 15/10).
When my parents were excommunicated from the Exclusive Brethren (the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church) in 1956, I was six years old. I remember the serious men in black suits; the fear in our home; being cut off from communication with all our relatives who were still “in”; the sense of being adrift from the certainties of childhood. My dad never completely recovered from the way he was treated.
In the 1820s, the Brethren started as a reform movement within the church in England. Under the leadership of John Nelson Darby who held extreme and coercive doctrines, the “Plymouth” group separated from the much more “Open” group in 1848. Since then, the Plymouth Brethren later known as the Exclusive Brethren have become ever more controlling.
My own journey has taken me to the Anglican Church of Australia in which I serve as a bishop. Here, there is – as there should be in religion – freedom to explore faith within a non-coercive Biblical framework, and to live that faith with a grateful love for God, filled with excitement to serve the whole of humanity in the world God loves.
No political involvement happens without Bruce Hales knowing, and the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church defiles both “Christian” and “Church”.
Bishop Ian Palmer, Mt Duneed
Facts of the matter
Ross Gittins’ article (“Immigration is too easy a scapegoat”, 14/10) demonstrates the disconnect between our commentariat and the one-third of Australians intending to vote for One Nation.
It’s not that Gittins gets it wrong – his facts are on the money – it’s that he, and many of our opinion-makers, don’t quite grasp that One Nation’s popularity has nothing to do with these “facts”. These voters are told, as if they are naughty children who won’t eat their veggies, that immigration is good for them. But One Nation supporters have their own “facts”, which are equally real: the decline or lack of infrastructure, services, jobs and opportunities; a political class out of touch with, and dismissive of, a broad swath of the electorate; and a mainstream culture that appears to exalt difference over commonality. For these folk, immigration is the most visible aspect of a system that they believe discriminates against them.
Shouting “facts” at this group is a waste of breath. But one fact borne out by history is not in dispute: a society with ever-widening inequalities will ultimately get a new politics, and it won’t be pretty.
Greg Gardiner Brunswick
Grievance gravy train
Shaun Carney (“We get one letdown after another”, 15/10) is right in noting that many people are angry, and he correctly identifies some of the sources of that anger, but he misses some important points.
Many people are doing just fine. Ironically, the populist grifters, such as Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Pauline Hanson, are wealthier and more powerful than they have ever been. They are driving the grievance gravy train for all it’s worth.
They have no idea where it’s going, but they know that there is money and power to be collected on the way. There is a cost-of-living crisis being felt by many ordinary people, but this is not the crisis identified by the billionaire backers of the grievance grifters.
Their concern is that ordinary people might realise that the solutions to our problems might reduce the wealth and power enjoyed by the billionaires themselves. The strategy employed by the populist agitators is to divide and inflame misplaced anger to distract from what is really going on. It seems that many genuine people are keen to jump onto the grievance express, even though we can see clearly the train wreck that Donald Trump is delivering in the United States.
Graeme Henchel, Yarra Glen
Climate awareness key
Shaun Carney’s opinion piece is a nice read about the confluence of economic and political challenges nationally and globally. However, he makes no mention of the existing and future devastation of climate change. Our beloved country faces floods and fires, and famine is faced in parts of the world where climate is reducing food production.
Surely, these factors are a cause for anger.
We can change this trajectory but personal and political commitment to reduce carbon emissions is increasingly essential.
In coming elections, we have the chance to scrutinise candidates’ climate awareness and policies. For all of our sakes, let’s do this.
Carmel McNaught, Balwyn North
Sustainable can be cheap
Unfortunately, the beautiful property featured in The Age (“Toorak mansion sets standard for sustainable living”, 15/10) sets an unrealistic bar for most of us seeking sustainable living.
Forty-five years ago, my neighbours, with the help of family and friends, built a passive solar house using State Electricity Commission plans for an energy-saving prototype. It was inspirational at the time and still is. Now, back in the city, we have retrofitted our very modest two-bedroom dwelling to save energy and adapt to a warming climate.
Sustainable living can be achieved without spending millions of dollars.
An optimistic but urgent step to achieving sustainable living in the inner city would be for Victoria’s planning minister to adopt an approach of “adapt and re-use” instead of “knock down and rebuild”. Demolition of city buildings is a major contributor to green house gases and therefore totally unsustainable.
Susan Mahar, Fitzroy North
Staggering step backward
The state government’s directive forcing the City of Greater Geelong to remove light-coloured roof requirements from its Creamery Road Precinct Structure Plan is a staggering step backward for climate resilience.
Local councils are trying to innovate and protect their communities from the urban heat island effect, yet they are being actively handcuffed by state planning authorities.
Research shows that widespread dark roofs can increase household cooling bills by up to $700 annually while significantly raising ambient neighbourhood temperatures.
’The state government’s refusal to close the policy gap between federal building codes and state planning policy is incredibly short-sighted. By stripping away local mandates for lighter roofs, the state is effectively locking future generations of suburban residents into decades of higher energy costs and dangerous localised heat.
If the government insists on overriding local planning authorities, it must take responsibility for enforcing climate-ready housing standards.
Jennie Epstein, Little River
Plenty of potholes
In a small lane near us, developers somehow are allowed to build two huge “mansions”, making huge profits and necessitating the use of huge heavy cranes, trucks and tradies’ utes. Potholes galore!
This is true all over Melbourne. Road repair surely should be on those developers.
Kay Moulton, Surrey Hills
Lesson in respect
As a keen teenage photographer, travelling in central Australia in the 1970s, I attempted to photograph a group of Aborigines sitting in the dry Todd River in Alice Springs. I grew up in “white” Melbourne, and it was my first experience seeing Indigenous people. I was immediately howled down and put in my place by these people who felt victimised and exploited. It taught me a lesson, there and then.
As a 15-year-old white male, I had crossed a line I didn’t even know existed. I spent the rest of my life learning to respect and appreciate the incredible history and culture of the First Australians.
Fifty years later when the Voice to parliament did not succeed, I was crushed. The thought that Liberal leader Jess Wilson would remove Victoria’s Treaty really pours salt on that wound.
Frank Flynn, Cape Paterson
Treaty question
Your correspondent (Letters, 15/10) suggests that getting rid of Treaty is essential and claims that “there are better means of addressing Indigenous disadvantage”. Perhaps he could tell us what those “better means” are?
Jo Bond, South Melbourne
Two sides to the story
Re the article, “Firefighters shocked at receiving debt recovery letters from union” (14/10): To be upfront, I’m a firefighter and a rank-and-file United Firefighters Union member. These views are my own.
When someone signs up to join an organisation, they agree to abide by the conditions and pay their dues. Members joining a union are no different. They need to pay dues and levies for the union to fulfil its functions.
I’m sure if my Age subscription was $644 in arrears, I’d be receiving correspondence.
The article fails to highlight the huge amount of litigation brought upon the UFU by the Victorian government, and rather focuses on the Operation Richmond action. That report failed to find corruption but brought to attention the “extraordinary influence” the union secretary had.
Umm, yeah. That’s his job. Like any industrial lobbyist – union, corporate or industry – he seeks to meet with and establish working relationships with government ministers. He does his job well, and rightly so.
Greg Abramovitch, Portarlington
Just don’t do it
I see that the latest proclamation from Dario Amodei’s Anthropic predicts their AI agents are on the verge of being self-replicating, having the ability to embed themselves in everything from fridges to robo-Hoovers, and use the devices’ power to operate independently.
He and other AI company CEOs have been calling for legislation to limit or slow AI development. But they seem to forget they are the ones who, for now, have control of where this technology goes.
If Amodei really thinks it is that dangerous, he and his colleagues should just stop development now.
Mick Cahill, Fitzroy North
AND ANOTHER THING ...
Frydenberg
So Josh Frydenberg may be coming back. Wonderful. I’ll dust off my “Back in Black” mug — the perfect souvenir of that brief period when announcing a surplus was apparently considered an acceptable substitute for having one.
Catherine Ross, Sandringham
If Josh Frydenberg decides to be a candidate at the next election, will the Liberals bring out the “Back in Black” mugs?
Barry Kranz, Mount Clear
If Josh Frydenberg is the answer, what is the question?
Kevin Rugg, Beaumaris
Politics
Will Jess Wilson demand the 9000 businesses repay the $285 million they rorted during the pandemic?
George Reed, Wheelers Hill
About time politicians looked at the happiest people in the world. Yes, I’m referring to Finland and Norway. They pay higher taxes yet their countries are ranked as one of the best places in the world to start and run a business. Go figure.
Ian Anderson, Surrey Hills
America
Donald Trump has made America grate again.
Paul Drakeford, Kew
The saying goes, “God works in mysterious ways”. A perfect example of this is the Pope getting lung cancer and Donald Trump getting richer and richer.
Randall Bradshaw, Fitzroy
Wrestling tigers fits Donald Trump’s preferred image more than shooting a blindfolded man tied down in a wheelchair.
Bernd Rieve, Brighton
Looks like Katie Zacharia could use a few tips from C.J. Cregg.
Sophie Cuttriss, Inverloch
Furthermore
Your correspondent is eggsactly right (Letters, 15/10). As well as the eggsistential worry of eggstra eggspense, we have the perennial problem of precedence: chicken or egg first?
Jenifer Nicholls, Windsor
Finally
Nothing prepares you for old age without buttered toast for breakfast.
Malcolm McDonald, Burwood
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To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.