Howard misses the point with his ‘teal’ comments

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THE INDEPENDENTS

Howard misses the point with his ‘teal’ comments
Once again, the Liberal Party has enlisted former PM John Howard for their campaign, hoping that he can sprinkle some fairy dust on some of their vulnerabilities, such as national security and rising costs of living (“Anti-Liberal groupies: John Howard blasts ‘teal’ independents”, online, The Age, 23/4).

But it seems Howard has devoted most energy to the “teal” independents, who he called “anti-Liberal groupies”. He characterises them as “not independent” and not genuine because they are only standing in Liberal-held seats. He is missing the point. The stated aims of the teal independents are simple: they want more action on climate change, an anti-corruption integrity commission with real teeth, and genuine leadership on equality and safety for women.

When you understand these three key areas of policy are those in which the Coalition has utterly failed, it makes perfect sense to stand against them.
Fiona Colin, Malvern East

We need these people
I was moved by Rob Baillieu’s manifesto (“Why I’ve given Libs the flick”, The Age, 23/4). He points to the need for good people in politics: highlighting a current lack of moral fibre.

In particular, Baillieu calls for leaders to “champion action on climate change”. The gaping hole between climate science and the Coalition government’s feeble climate policy response is well established (“Zero sum game”, Insight, 23/4). Our planetary home cannot afford three more years of immorality and complacency. Instead, we need leaders who are visionary, resourceful, and who, above all, seek to do the right thing by both local and global citizens.

Like Baillieu, I see this integrity in independent candidates like Monique Ryan, who would forsake established, credible careers, not in pursuit of power or to one day become prime minister, but because they feel compelled to step up and do the right thing. I, too, will “vote for that”.
Amy Hiller, Kew

The major parties have failed dismally …
Attempts by the Liberal Party to denigrate the independent candidates in the forthcoming federal election smack of fear and desperation.

To call them “fake independents” is degrading and misses the point. The rise of independents has in the main been spurred by the dismal performance of the major parties and a fracturing of our two-party convention, and to call for independents to say who they would support in a hung parliament is disingenuous. If they did this they would no longer be independent.

Most independent candidates are passionate and focused on the major issues we face and that are being ignored or treated in cavalier fashion by the incumbent parties. Independent members will support the party they believe will best address their concerns. They will not be able to form government after the election, but in the event of a hung parliament, they could have a major influence on the direction of our country in the coming years.
Bob Malseed, Hawthorn

… but voting for dilettantes will not help
Voting for the dilettante “teal independents”, in my opinion, is unwise. Australia needs a stable national government that has a clear mandate and not a potentially confused dysfunctional, hung parliament.
Dennis Walker, North Melbourne

Liberals’ lurch leaves centre-right ripe for the picking
Your correspondent (“Stooges for the ALP?”, Letters, 22/7) wonders why the independents are “going after the Liberals”. I say it is because there is a place in these seats for people with conservative values who also have moderate views about social issues and climate change.

The Liberals’ lurch to the right over the past 20 years has left many conservatives not represented, leaving the centre-right ripe for the picking. Labor, being closer to the centre, does not fill this vacuum. These teal independents, in the main, do not appear to have Labor values but “old school” Liberal Party values.
Chris Larson, Oakleigh East

THE FORUM

A powerful wake-up call
Reading Rob Baillieu’s “Why I’ve given Libs the flick” (Comment, 23/4), I recalled a tribute by Laura Tingle to Andrew Peacock after he died, where she wrote he was “one of the last liberals in the Liberal Party”.

aillieu would appreciate this. He writes that “the commitment to small-l liberal values has collapsed under the weight of party greed and influence”. The lack of leadership “has caused the Liberal Party to lose its way”.

He was writing in response to a hyperbolic article by his father, Ted (a former Victorian Liberal premier), in which he said the mission of independents was to replace some of Australia’s most “capable” MPs (“Up for a challenge? The next PM will need to be”, Comment, 22/4).

When Robert Menzies created the Liberal Party in 1944, he said, “we took the name ‘Liberal’ because we were determined to be a progressive party”. It was John Howard who broke with this vision and Tony Abbott who took the party further down the conservative road. Malcolm Turnbull tried, but could not bring it back to the centre, and now Scott Morrison has made the brand even more incompatible with small-l liberalism.

Rob Baillieu’s article is a powerful wake-up call to the Liberal Party and its supporters.
Neil Hudson, East Melbourne

Voters notice these things
Rob Baillieu, the volunteer manager for Monique Ryan, the independent candidate for Kooyong writes: “No politician can take their electorates for granted any more” (“Why I’ve given Libs the flick”, Comment, 23/4).

One seat over in Higgins we have the same problem – my correspondence to Katie Allen’s office goes unanswered.

Voters notice these things, and it doesn’t endear us to re-electing such MPs.
Andrew Laird, Malvern

There he is again …
Why do the Liberals persist in wheeling out former Liberal prime minister John Howard? Howard lost not only government but also his own seat in 2007.

Rusted-on Liberals might think he’s great but everyone else sees him as part, or even the start, of our current problems. The last thing I want is another Liberal government, but I can’t help commenting that Howard is not an asset to their cause
Margaret Callinan, Hawthorn

It’s not you, it’s us
In a letter to subscribers (22/4), Age editor Gay Alcorn asks if the paper has become too right wing? If so, it reflects Anglo-liberal democracies, which appear to have forgotten the lessons from 1914 to 1945: best viewed as one disastrous conflict, with the Great Depression as an interregnum.

Those who lived through and fought in the Second World War, elected post-war socially progressive governments – Chifley in Australia, Attlee in the UK, Truman in the US – establishing the liberal democratic order and economic recovery.

People had had a gutful and welcomed socially progressive policies. Conservatives were reduced to boasting that only they could deliver them. Now, we Baby Boomers, our children and grandchildren, have no memories of those dark times.

Neoliberalism has shifted the “centre” so far “right” that even former prime minister Malcolm Fraser in Australia and former president Dwight Eisenhower in the US, are regarded as “pinkos”. Let’s hope that the Russian war in Ukraine is not the harbinger of another evil period to make us have to learn the lessons again.

No, Gay Alcorn, it’s not The Age, it’s us.
Dick Davies, North Warrandyte

I’ll keep mine on
Jon Faine’s sensible commentary (“The politics of a pandemic”, Opinion, The Sunday Age, 24/4) highlights the concerns that many of us have about the increased likelihood of contracting COVID-19 during winter.

I’ll keep wearing a mask even though the state government has advised it’s no longer legally required (with some exceptions). While the media have reported the mask rule has been “scrapped”, how much more productive it would have been to suggest mask wearing is now “optional”?

As Faine writes: “a more precautionary approach seems a safer option.”
Sally Davis, Malvern East

Climate inconsistency
So, Solomon Islands was so concerned about Australia’s lack of action on climate change it threw its hat in with China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases?

It might have a problem with Australia but it can’t be anything to do with climate change.
Murray Horne, Cressy

I’m not optimistic
We have seen self-regulation result in disastrous consequences in many fields, so how is the new “self regulation” of taking personal responsibility to not spread COVID-19 going to work?

Face masks are supposed to be compulsory on public transport, yet on some trains on which I have recently travelled, nearly half of the passengers in my carriage did not have a mask. Will every person with COVID isolate and go through the recommended protocols?

On past performance and the attitudes of some people, I don’t think so, and it only needs a few people to not do the “right thing” and up shoot the COVID numbers again.

Then what happens, do we ignore this outcome and just go on with life or do we return to restrictions and start the process all over again?
Phil Mackenzie, Eaglemont

Hope for the future
My son just graduated with honours in environmental engineering. He is a vegan for ethical and environmental reasons. He wants to save the planet from the ignorance, greed and neglect of his forebears.

He gives me great encouragement that his generation is on the right track. Let’s hope at this coming election, his kind, prevail.
Frank Flynn, Cape Paterson

Over to you
I write further to your correspondent’s eminently sensible observations about where to stage the Formula One grand prix and the merits of it being run with electric or hydrogen-powered cars (“Phillip Island looks good”, Letters, 24/4).

I attended a Monash University “show and tell” where, amid the general raging creativity, it became obvious that many of our students are perfectly equipped to perform an EV conversion to our rear-wheel-drive Ford Territory.

These young folk compete internationally with the EV racing cars they have developed, they understand battery charging/recycling, high voltage/current safety, motors and can design/manufacture the associated electronics.

Letter writers often speak of “electric vehicle manufacturing”. Rather than taxpayers subsidising the grand prix, let’s fund some (say, $10,000) final year engineering conversion projects, with the design(s) free and open source.

If it has legs, our creative automotive after-market industry of “can-do capitalism” will take it from there. The main impediment will be the licensing and insurance bureaucracy of the clEVer country – over to you Premier Andrews.
Ronald Elliott, Sandringham

House the homeless there
The Mickleham quarantine hub appears to be almost redundant before it is utilised (“Flash in the pandemic: Mickleham hub may be set aside in under a year”, The Sunday Age, 24/4).

Could this housing be offered to our homeless people? Careful allocation of, say, 100 to 200 beds with case managers and wraparound services would offer these people a home.

Prior work in the homeless sector leads me to believe it could work. The occupants could be highly targeted and on a list for community housing, so there would be an exit point for them.
Mary Keating, Flemington

An ominous delay
Community groups are protesting about VicForests’ clearing of storm-damaged areas that have been promised for a new national park (“Alarm over logging in state forest”, The Sunday Age, 24/4). Up to one-third of our wildlife is facing extinction, and forest debris is important for some species.

The Andrews government’s delay in implementing its national parks promise is ominous, given the influence of hunting groups which oppose it.

There are disturbing synergies between the government’s forest policy and its hunting policy. Both are controversial and they are lumped together in the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR) under the one “Forestry and Game” banner.

The state’s hunting agency – the Game Management Authority – has a contract with DJPR for “the management of forest protests”. Critics would say it can’t even manage shooters.

When will a major party overhaul the bureaucracy to protect wildlife and wilderness?
Joan Reilly, Surrey Hills

Why do they put up signs?
If there’s no intention to enforce speed limits in roadwork zones, could we please stop displaying speed signs? I’m sick of being abused while trying to comply while it seems every other car is simply ignoring the limits.

Our road workers deserve greater respect. Perhaps any work zones in place for, say, seven days or more should be mandated to include speed cameras in their traffic control?
Andrew Cresswell, Rosanna

Give them a call
Last year, when renewing my car insurance the quote increased substantially on the previous year but the replacement value of the car had reduced. I rang to query this and, with little explanation, the quote immediately was reduced by almost $100.

This year the same thing occurred. The quote was $1032, I rang my insurer, and without too much trouble $88 was knocked off the cost for the same product. This company seems to be fleecing its clients hoping no one will bother to query quotes.

I certainly have lost confidence in the integrity of the company, and would strongly encourage people to make that easy phone call to their insurer.
Jennifer Mansfield, Melbourne

AND ANOTHER THING

The campaign trail
Anthony Albanese, don’t hurry back from sensible recovery time, your replacement spokespeople are very impressive.
Peter Cooke, Warrnambool

Scott Morrison, it is not about who the minister is, it is about what the policy is.
Lou Ferrari, Richmond

Rob Baillieu delivers the ultimate Ted talk.
Paul Custance, Highett

Unfortunately donkey voting cannot be eliminated but it could be randomised by having a circular voting paper with candidates’ names inscribed on the radii.
Les Aisen, Elsternwick

I’m getting tired of the media posting Scott Morrison’s photo ops. How about one of him playing a fiddle while while our climate change aspirations go up in smoke?
Denis Liubinas, Blairgowrie

Jeroen Weimar
Thank you Jeroen Weimar for all your effort in trying to keep Victorians safe during the pandemic. Your press conferences were always delivered with compassion
as well as encouragement.
Elaine Grainger, Lara

The footy
Perhaps things might change if we see ex-AFL players becoming umpires rather than commentators.
Craig Tucker, Newport

Cross words
Sometimes I have trouble filling out the Codewords puzzle, but having the answers printed with the puzzle as done on Saturday (Spectrum, 23/4) is making it a bit too easy.
Ian Malcolm, Scoresby

I have long suspected an endemic dumbing down of the media, but I suggest providing the puzzle key in this Saturday’s Codewords is going a step too far.
Robert Boelen, Waratah Bay

Finally
Peter Hartcher’s article “Libs spin in debts and dragons” (Comment, 23/4) blows the myth about the Coalition being the better economic managers completely out of the water.
John Walsh, Watsonia

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