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Illustration: Michael Leunig Illustration: Michael Leuing
More than 35 per cent of public hospitals required a "letter of support" to continue to operate (The Age, 13/11). Perinatal services have already been cut and hospitals are relying on charity fundraising for basic equipment purchases. This will result in poorer health and even deaths. Jobs have already been lost and more hospital staff are in fear of losing theirs.
I am a doctor in the state system. Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley asks public health services to "deliver a more efficient system". But we have been doing more with less since the Kennett era and there is no more "fat" to cut. There are too few staff and they are working unsustainable hours. Unpaid overtime to cover elective surgical overruns is a daily occurrence as administrators try to achieve targets by getting work done for free. Safety is compromised when people are forced to cut corners – placing patients and the registration of every health practitioner at risk.
Name and address withheld
Strength in numbers in aged care
As a Certificate III student in aged care I have also witnessed rough, insensitive and ignorant care in a residential service (Letters, 14/11). Staff qualifications need to be standardised, the student intake more highly regulated and all courses be of a universally high standard. Each residential service should also have an independent "Friends of ... " – a group comprised of friends and family who support each other around care issues and advocate where necessary. There is strength in numbers; a group cannot easily be dismissed as isolated "troublemakers".
Name and address withheld
Mr Magoo's grandchildren the biggest risk
Wendy Squires' argument about licensing seniors furthers the wedge being driven by economists between the old and the young ("Get Mr Magoo off our roads", Forum, 14/11). Nobody gains from this rhetoric. Squires claims that seniors' cars should be fitted with "black boxes" to record their driving habits before relicensing them. These devices are widely used in the US and we no doubt will follow suit in Australia. QBE is offering them to drivers aged 18-25 to monitor their driving with a view to lowering their insurance premiums if their driving record warrants it. That group is the most at risk on the roads. Young drivers (17-25 years) represent one-quarter of all Australian road deaths and a 17-year-old with a P1 licence is four times more likely to be involved in a fatal car crash than a driver over 26. Perhaps the device should be standard on all cars but the record for drivers aged 49-75 and over makes this group the safest on our roads.
Patricia Edgar, Fitzroy
Modern life harmful to the young
Everything nowadays seems to be designed to make our children obese – food and drink ads targeted to children; kids driven to school for fear of what might happen to them if they walk or because schools are too far away; once local school sites turned into housing; new housing with no playing space in a garden; traffic that prevents children playing in the street; and children have been enticed on to the internet and video games and away from playing outside. Surely we could think of less harmful ways to rear children.
Valerie Yule, Mount Waverley
With choice comes liability
If it is time to consider reinstating individual responsibility in place of the compulsory wearing of bike helmets, should the failure to wear a helmet be deemed acceptance of full personal liability for any costs resulting from that choice?
Wendy Knight, Little River
There is no reasoning with religious zealots
Some letter writers view the Paris attacks as a symptom of a wider confrontation with the West or something that Western nations have brought upon themselves. Such narrow perspectives ignore the fact that attacks by Islamic fundamentalists have occurred across the globe. Nigeria, Kenya, Chad, Sudan and Somalia have all suffered attacks by such offshoots as Boko Haram and al-Shabaab. What provocations have those largely poor nations offered?
Similarly, Islamist fundamentalists have attacked in India and Pakistan (slaughtering more than 100 schoolchildren). We must also recall the disdainful destruction of historical monuments in non-Western countries, including the Buddhas in Afghanistan and now Palmyra. These seemingly nihilist attitudes are fed by a particular literalist interpretation of the Koran coupled with political ambitions to restore the caliphate of the late Middle Ages. It does not seem possible to reason with such religious zealots.
Thomas Hogg, East Melbourne
Ignore violent tactics
Terrorism is the adult form of an obnoxious child saying "Look at me!" and trying to manipulate a parent in a power play. The 9/11 attacks in New York and now the Paris attacks are defining moments: humankind has a choice. What do you do with a child throwing a tantrum? If you ignore them, the child soon finds that tactic doesn't work. If you respond with violence, not only have you lost but you have institutionalised violence, and ensured the behaviour will pass from generation to generation.
Greg Tuck, Warragul
Uneasy bedfellows
How do free trade agreements apply to fighting terrorism? The uneasy bedfellows of economics and ethics lend a new dimension to the need for a "coalition of the willing". If we are serious about tackling Daesh, we should relentlessly chase countries and organisations supplying arms and materiel to Daesh. If Saudi or Yemeni oil financed the attacks in Paris and Beirut, will we buy oil from elsewhere? How far will we go? We know the major arms suppliers are Western allies.
And perhaps our superannuation companies should publish risk assessments of investments and their exposure to companies exposed even inadvertently to the facilitation of terrorist supply lines. Imagine being sued under the Trans Pacific Partnership for supporting sanctions.
Pierre Nunns, Hoppers Crossing
Rise of Islamic State
Bruce Hearn Mackinnon (Comment, 16/11) has a point in insisting "lefties" call Islamo-Fascism what it is. Unfortunately, the rest of his analysis shows the muddled thinking he attributes to those "lefties". Islamic State arose in Iraq due to the Shiite Maliki government, under Iranian domination, discriminating against and brutalising Sunnis. It then established itself in Syria when the Assad regime, supported by Iran and Hezbollah, continually massacred Syrian, mostly Sunni, civilians. Mackinnon's silence on Iran's role in driving Sunnis to support IS is telling.
Jamie Hyams, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council
Anthem's relevant text
Anthea Nicholls (Letters, 16/11) is disturbed by the reference in France's national anthem to blood-drenched furrows in its closing lines. Yet much of its text seems to me strikingly relevant just now. What more apt term for IS's hateful flag than "the bloody standard of tyranny"? The words of La Marseillaise are not for the squeamish. But they express admirably the sense of solidarity felt by the French, and their supporters, in this crisis.
Anthea Hyslop, Eltham
Who gets to decide?
Diaa Mohamed, founder of the Australian Muslim Party, says he would "never condone the killing of innocents" ("First Islamic party plans Senate push", 17/11). Why the qualification of killing with the word "innocents"? And what is the definition of "innocent" and who gets to decide who is innocent or not? The media should challenge such statements.
Frank Muscroft, Briar Hill
We need low-skilled jobs
Halting radicalisation is today's watchword. A key tool could be more job opportunities for the unskilled and the poorly educated. Regrettably, the minds in Treasury, conservative think tanks and government extend no further than Classical Free Market Economics 101, and have driven the shutdown of nearly all our manufacturing industry. With that shutdown, opportunities for meaningful work for thousands also went out the door. The government now needs to start looking at the bigger picture. We can't all work for Google or IBM. The "knowledge economy" needs to be bolstered with more jobs for those with limited skills and education. Labour-intensive manufacturing industry must be revived; and quickly.
Colin Simmons, Woodend
The case for research
Statoil's profits from Norway's oil, and Germany's manufacturing profits, were not used to cut tax, benefit foreign companies or directed to tax havens, as in Australia, but invested in infrastructure, including universities and research and alliances between industry and research institutions ("Push to end culture of 'publish or perish"', 16/11).
This investment is a two-way process; of course university researchers need to make a case for their projects, but equally businesses have to understand what philosophers of science have long told us – successful hypotheses are regularly preceded by those that fail, valuably informing us of what, in the end, won't work. Would the present crop of billionaire business people have funded evolution, relativity or the Higgs-Boson research? Pessimism must prevail. The publish or perish mentality in social science has produced tacky work. But if, as Ross Gittins suggest, Thomas Friedman and his successor-economists don't have a clue about socio-economic analysis, the conclusion is surely that scholars like Keynes, Butler, Beveridge and others should be supported – and where else but in universities?
Ian Duncanson, research associate, University of Melbourne
Public good at risk
Corporate agendas are not always synonymous with the public good. Under proposed changes for research funding, universities will no longer be able to fund broader social critiques without being captured by the narrow interests of business or the state. Nor will there be space for the pure sciences or science that challenges particular business interests.
In-depth journalism is similarly threatened by commercial pressures. Both the media and university sectors are essential institutions for democracy, and commercial imperatives are endangering them both.
Kerry Wardlaw, Tecoma
Show off your schtick
Meg Paul (Letters, 12/11) highlights the difficulties, due to cost, of individuals wanting to attend conferences. But I think she misunderstands the nature of conferences.
They don't exist to benefit the subject. They exist so professionals and academics in the field can show off their shtick, get paid well and advance their careers. Their employer pays the fees, attendance goes on the CV and if you say something at one of the sessions you can feel good about yourself, and if your point gets in the executive summary, well, you're on your way up.
John Laurie, Newport
Our distorted values
That the proposed Great Forest National Park is in question because VicForests has made long-term logging contracts tells us nothing about the industry's viability or even the need for its existence (The Age, 17/11). It simply tells us our value system is so distorted we would rather release ever more carbon into the atmosphere and watch species go extinct than break a contract and pay a fee. Chopping down trees simply because we said we would is madness.
Kath Angus, Thornbury
Look out for us Labor
Tim Pallas' threat to bypass Parliament on the sale of the Port of Melbourne lease if the opposition doesn't cave in shows Labor has learnt nothing from its past financial recklessness. Labor made promises worth billions that it didn't have but that doesn't justify the blackmail of those who want a better deal for the state. Mr Pallas needs to do what is best for Victoria's future, not what is best for Labor.
Douglas Potter, Surrey Hills
Grateful for our trams
I largely concur with John Fisher's praise for Sydney's spotlessness compared to Melbourne's grime (Letters, 13/11). It remains a mystery given our enforcement regime on trains and buses. But Melbourne is superior in one aspect: Sydney's public transport is dominated by diesel buses, which emit foul fumes that in high concentrations are potentially carcinogenic. Stroll down George Street midweek, and experience the thick reek. Melbourne's air is comparatively clean thanks to its trams.
Jack Hibberd, Kew
AND ANOTHER THING ...
Paris attacks
The first rule to combating terrorism is to stop participating in it.
Kim van den Berghe, Highton
We must break the "act - react - act - react" cycle.
Tony Lenten, Glen Waverley
The words of John Lennon's song Imagine are more poignant than ever.
Rod Oaten, North Carlton
The only thing that is obvious in the Middle East mess is that the Kurds deserve their own country.
Peter Ramadge, Newport
For a quick end to the War on Terror we could bring back George W. Bush to declare victory.
Ian Taylor, South Yarra
It's great the PM rang the Aussie survivor of the Bataclan attack, Emma Grace Parkinson to offer support. But why call her "a brave girl"? She's 19. She's a brave young woman.
Maxine Black, Preston
Politics
Today: self-funded retiree; tomorrow: GST increase; the day after: pensioner.
Wendy Auchincloss, Lindisfarne, Tasmania
Shorten: reduce, diminish, decline, plummet, wane, languish. The party's over, it's time to call it a day.
Myra Fisher, Brighton East
Malcolm Turnbull portrays himself as a progressive politician with a commitment to social justice. Both are anathema to the party he leads.
Phil Alexander, Eltham
The state
There must be a less barbaric form of competition in which strong, super-fit young women can excel. UFC is no sport.
Vikki O'Neill, Ashburton
I wonder how many of those horrified by the UFC bloodlust voted for Labor at the state election? It was well known that Labor's policy included lifting the ban on this awful activity.
John Capel, Black Rock
Greengrocers are selling bags of small oranges labelled as "navels", but they are valencias. Who monitors this?
Joan Peverell, Malvern
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