The Age Letters
MAY 5
The budget: Is it too much to expect some genuine policies?
12:00 AM This is an election budget. Wait for the real hit in 2017 if Mr Turnbull is returned.
MAY 4
Discrimination likely to become more prevalent
Due to pressures to improve performance and compete with other schools, it is hardly surprising that some principals have been engaging in ‘‘social selection’’.
MAY 3
Malcolm Turnbull: Common sense cannot replace tough analysis
I suppose we should be relieved that, in addition to agility and flexibility, Mr Turnbull is applying common sense to the Coalition's decision-making.
MAY 2
Kidman & Co: How can foreigners put our interests first?
Yes, we want investment, but investment shouldn't involve foreign ownership.
APRIL 30
Asylum seekers: Huge savings to be made by closing down camps
Just days before the Coalition delivers its annual litany on the need for spending restraint, it appears hell-bent on ignoring the opportunity the PNG court ruling has given it to demonstrate some nimbleness.
MAY 1
Ricky Muir: Pltcly Incrct plates don't do justice to senator
Pltcly Incrct plates don't do justice to senator
APRIL 29
State budget: The turning point for Victoria's housing crisis
The state budget earns some commendations as well as criticisms.
APRIL 28
Submarines: Was any sleep lost when MPs decided priorities?
Readers are split about what the new sub contract means for Australia.
APRIL 27
Anzac Day: No banners should be excluded from march
My grandfather, Henry Blake, served in the 60th Battalion 1st AIF in France and Belgium. Last year, I proudly took part in the parade of the World War I medals at the rear of the march.
APRIL 26
Negative gearing: Libs keen to concentrate wealth in hands of a few
In 1986, my wife and I bought our home in Blackburn North for $79,500. My annual salary as an engineer with a large Melbourne hospital was about one third of this.
APRIL 25
Anzac Day: Tightly held grief is the invisible wound of war
Although he carried no visible scars, they were there all right, buried right down.
APRIL 24
War: Secrecy over soldiers' whereabouts alarming
Comments by an ADF chief spark concern over the legality of Australian operations overseas.
APRIL 23
Society: Working in aged care is a thankless task
I have recently resigned after working at a high/low-care facility in the "right end" of town. I won't miss the annual pay rises of 40 cents an hour, or watching personal care workers end their shifts exhausted due to the increasing demands.
APRIL 22
Superannuation: Labor must match, or better, Coalition policy
Labor should welcome the opportunity for a degree of bipartisanship on an issue where its "distributive justice instincts" were already demanding a stronger policy.
APRIL 21
Election 2016: The interests of our nation must prevail
Malcolm "Muddle" Turnbull could learn from Senator Ricky Muir.
APRIL 20
The banks: Captains honour bound to go down with the ship
Corporate doyens like Don Argus could make a good case for rejecting a royal commission had even one director resigned as a result of any of the current scandals.
APRIL 19
Federal politics: Personal profit put before needs of people
Wendy Squires' searing account of the suffering of those with post-traumatic stress disorder and the niggardly provision of support services for them (Forum, 16/4) shows exactly why this nation needs a tax and spend budget.
APRIL 18
Child custody: Parents at war leave a legacy of trauma
A reader knows from experience the consequences of child abduction have tragic echoes for generations.
APRIL 17
Malcolm Turnbull: Collective sigh of relief now looking premature
Reader warns the PM he must keep faith with the ordinary folk to retain power.
APRIL 16
Business: Set up trust fund to get taxpayers off the hook
Queensland Nickel and Peabody Coal collapses have readers asking about corporate responsibility.
APRIL 15
Democracy: Where are the coherent voices from the right?
Democracy is an extremely fragile social contract. Constant and careful nurturing is needed to sustain it.
APRIL 14
The $5 banknote: A mishmash of elements that fail to make sense
It looks as if it was put together by a committee, and one in which none had an understanding of what constitutes good design.
APRIL 13
Education: Constant scrutiny and change disheartening
A big "hear, hear" to Ned Manning's article ("Better teachers? Better at what, exactly?", Comment, 12/4). I have just retired from teaching almost 10 years earlier than I had anticipated. The part of teaching I was good at – face to face in the classroom – has become a far smaller component than the bureaucratic part of endless rubrics, assessment tasks and rewriting, as the boffins in charge change the curriculum every two years for no apparent reason.
APRIL 12
Federal politics: Protection of witnesses basic to the rule of law
Governments of all persuasions should at the least be concerned about maintaining the rule of law.
APRIL 11
HECS-HELP: A job would be nice, so we can pay off the debt
I will show Cormann, Porter and Wong how to live in modern Australian society. They might get a shock.
APRIL 10
Duck hunting: Scattergun approach raises risk of wounding
Claims of impartiality in the management of waterbirds shot down as animal activists and rescuers target the pro-shooting lobby.
APRIL 9
Financial services: Tackle the misconduct in 'pillars' of business
Readers alarmed by reports of crooked culture and ugly behaviour in an industry where the pursuit of profit has become the guiding principle.
APRIL 8
Malcolm Turnbull: PM loses his mojo under wave of white-anting
Readers ponder a bad few weeks for the PM and the federal government.
APRIL 7
Innovation and education: Destruction the starting point of CSIRO strategy
CSIRO's Dr Larry Marshall has an enviable track record of entrepreneurship while working in Silicon Valley. Innovation in climate change, though, centres on one product – planet Earth.
APRIL 6
CSIRO must be free to focus on the research
Readers discuss CSIRO's plan to stop ''doing science for science's sake'' and to focus instead on making money to pay for its work.
