Youth support
Denham Sadler’s article highlights how simplistic One Nation’s policies are with respect to crime and, in particular, youth crime (“Crime and excessive punishment”, October 10-16). Does One Nation or the Liberals ever ask about the root causes of this behaviour? Who are the criminals paying these kids to carry out the arson attacks? Where are the parents of 14-year-olds breaking into houses and stealing cars? We need to think long term. Governments need to properly fund early intervention initiatives – there are plenty achieving great results, so let’s get on with it.
– David Thurley, Lavington, NSW
Husic to my ears
Ed Husic is a loss to the parliamentary front bench. Husic’s comment piece, “How to reject AI colonialism” (October 10-16), addresses what can and must be done to police and live with this powerful and unavoidable force. It may be true that the “broader population thinks AI is a risk and will do them out of a job”; equally many people see AI as an indispensable part of their daily lives and do not comprehend the potential risks far greater than merely losing a role in the workplace. Husic clearly sets out how such risks are in danger of becoming real and suggests practical ways of managing or countering them. The government must take brave decisions for the good of us all.
– Judith Elen, Potts Point, NSW
Prevention better than cure
Hayden Stephens (“How hospitals and unis normalised wage theft”, October 10-16) explains that excessive working hours, paid or unpaid, have not only been putting at risk the psychological health of staff but also, in hospitals, the physical health of patients. Stephens records that class actions – civil law proceedings – achieved repayments to junior doctors. But, he says, “Regulators, governments and governing boards should be identifying these practices before workers are forced into court.” Let me add that OH&S regulators should have been issuing “improvement notices” to hospitals and unis, compelling them to comply with their jurisdiction’s Occupational Health and Safety Act – under which failing to prevent serious risks to the health and safety of “workers” and “other persons” (such as patients) is a heavily penalised criminal law offence.
– Max Costello, North Melbourne, Vic
Don’t forget the people
Chris Wallace’s account of the tensions between Chris Minns and Anthony Albanese (“Pure ratfuckery”, October 10-16) raises a question both leaders should answer: What does this achieve for the people Labor exists to represent? Growing up in Villawood and joining Labor at 15 in 1995, I understood that the party’s purpose was practical: decent jobs, affordable homes and public services people could rely on. Minns is entitled to argue for a fairer funding deal for New South Wales. Albanese should welcome scrutiny from within his own party. Neither factional authority nor fiscal restraint is an achievement if communities are left waiting for essential infrastructure. Labor will counter One Nation by giving working people reason to trust it. Publicly trading blame while privately counting factional numbers will not do that.
– Adrian Boothman, Green Point, NSW
Keep the wheels turning
Australia is not alone in its race to the bottom to reduce its migrant intake. As an island nation, we could try to set a better example. At the moment we run the risk of an over-reduction resulting in an own goal. Numbers will decline beyond a sustainable level that enables the economic wheels to keep turning. As your editorial (“Taylor’s ham charisma”, October 10-16) states, the proposed reductions are not what Angus Taylor describes as an “Australian values policy”; they are its antithesis. It’s time for a reality check before the militant right turns us into the banana republic Paul Keating foresaw.
– Jenifer Nicholls, Windsor, Vic
Essential soils
As a retired soil scientist in Adelaide, I relate to Elizabeth Farrelly’s “Eat dirt!” (October 10-16). When research funding became highly competitive between disciplines, soil scientists always struggled for support. The universe of microbes that flow from soil play a central role in human health. Climate change warrior George Monbiot, an Oxford zoology graduate, described soil as an “endlessly ramifying” catacomb created by bacteria, plants and microbes “working unconsciously together”. Adelaide’s founders established parklands around the city – by removing hundreds of trees and sealing over grass for an annual motorbike race, the South Australian government will deprive many people of the microbes in soil that have helped keep them healthy.
– Jock Churchman, Campbelltown, SA