Comment

Letters to the Editor

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Circus acts are not all fun and games

Adam St James may well rail against the protests about animal cruelty in circuses ("The circus conundrum", October 9) but his assertion that the circus owners are doing nothing wrong is surely incorrect. The owners may well be doing nothing illegal but that is a long way from doing nothing wrong. Wild animals should not be locked up in cages for most of their lives simply for human entertainment.

Brandis directive threatens to erode democracy

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With conflicting accounts from Attorney-General George Brandis and Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson, the Senate committee will probably have to decide on the balance of probabilities whether Brandis misled the Parliament.

Postscript

SMH Letters

I doubt the word "pussy" has ever been used on the Letters page except in the context of a discussion about pets until now.

What else has Baird got wrong? Plenty

SMH Letters

Premier Baird's recent fall down the stairs didn't just damage a vertebra as was initially reported, it is now apparent he lost his entire backbone.

Pranksters have forgone right to privacy

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Your article quotes the prepared statement delivered on behalf of those young men who returned home through Sydney Airport ("Chastened revellers keep their pants on", October 8-9). The statement concluded: "We'd like to take this opportunity to ask you to please be respectful of our families' privacy at this time." This would be the greatest piece of hypocrisy that one could possibly hope to encounter. By their very position in life and their conduct, they had negated any right that their families and they may have had to privacy. Don Landers Northbridge

Vets set example

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What a wonderful example of human kindness - vets treating the pets of homeless people ("Hope for homeless as vets waive their fees", October 2). What a great pity the state government does not show the same compassion to their owners.

Postscript

SMH Letters

Predictably, the appearance of the bosses of the big four banks before Parliament this week generated a sustained stream of correspondence. Expectations were low and appear to have been met.

Government lets Narev off the hook

SMH Letters

His appearance reminded me somewhat of King Charles I, and his attitude to the English parliament, which did not end well for him.

Spare the horses

SMH Letters

Pauline Hanson promises a balanced debate on same-sex marriage yet in the same breath makes a statement which blows those assurances out of the water ("Fears of same-sex hate speech are oveblown: Hanson", September 25).

Lessons to be learnt in funding debate

SMH Letters

Jessica Irvine ("The truth behind the great schools debate", SMH September 30) omits one very obvious difference between Australia and other countries such as Finland.

POSTSCRIPT

Will the Cronulla Sharks continue to be the never-premiers?

The ghosts of Prime Ministers past - notably Sir Robert Menzies and Harold Holt - haunted our pages this week. Following the final episode of Howard On Menzies: Building Modern Australia, our inbox was piled high with pith. Rosemary O'Brien set the cat amongst the pidgeons with the suggestion that Howard has been our most popular PM "in recent decades". "Quite wrong," said Geoff Ford, Wahroonga. "While Howard may have been more successful in implementing his attitudes, the accolade for public popularity goes to those imperfect men, Rudd and Hawkes.  Both these captains were both brought down by a trusted lieutenant, while Howard's deputy was too intimidated to step up.  He was paramount in introducing von Hayek economics (of Thatcher) to replace Keynes' politics (of Menzies) in Australia, but that did not make him popular. Although he's an ambiguity, an anomaly, his career does bear talking about. Think: fridge magnets "Be Alert but not Alarmed".  Au contraire, the SA storms alarmed many concerned about climate change. Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce angered many when he blamed the state's reliance on renewables as a cause for the blackout. Equally galling for readers, was our continued front page revelations on the amount of public money elite private schools are receiving. But all things football - both AFL and rugby league - provided the most mirth in the week leading up to two major football grand finals starring the Sydney Swans and Cronulla Sharks. It was Jack Gibson who said waiting for never-Premiers Cronulla to win a comp was like leaving the porch light on for Harold Holt. Sharks supporters are hoping Harold Holt will be the Lazarus rising, not John Howard.

Schools with the lot don't need Gonski seconds

SMH Letters

The Independent Schools Council of Australia director Colette Colman ("Private Schools turn on Turnbull", September 28), in saying that funding cuts to well-funded non-government schools could lead to fee increases, has reprised John Howard's justification for the introduction of the failed policy.

Impotence strangling marriage equality

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I continue to be amazed that our impotent government continues to blame others for its inability to get things done. ("Last chance for marriage equality, says Brandis", September 26.)

Good Sisters betrayed by marriage leaflet

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I have spent 85 years forever in the debt of the Sisters at St Patrick's Orphanage Armidale for taking me into their care as a two-year-old, with my older brother and sister.

Sports and women

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On the subject of women's sport, is The Sun-Herald saying, not doing?

Learn student needs, minister

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If a school were to use Gonski money to run a breakfast program so that its students could start to learn on a full stomach, when would the results turn up in NAPLAN? ("NSW 'faces $400m in school funding cuts'", September 23)

POST SCRIPT: Ouch that hurt Australia

A poll this week claimed 49 per cent of a sample group questioned opposed Muslim immigration.

Polls have become a popular vehicle for gauging public sentiment on anything political but especially on hot button issues such as a plebescite on same-sex marriage and what Australians think about immigration. So when a poll came out this week claiming 49 per cent of  a sample group questioned oppose Muslim immigration, no wonder the reaction was "ouch." Not just from the Australian Muslim population. Letter writers were incredulous. Many like Gordana Martinovich of  Leichhardt  pointed out the small sample size  and asked "how representative is that sample? She begged for fewer polls and more informed discussion which certainly took place here this week. Comparing this wave of migration to that of post-war migrants, long-time correspondent Ron Elphick of Buff Point questioned the value of such polls. "Those immigrants were not leaners, they were lifters who would have been more than welcome; actually, while I do not really remember the polls, I am sure they would not have been as incumbent on our lives then as they are now." Polls don't really tell the whole story as Hendry Wan of Alexandria was quick to note. "On this letters page alone there is no consensus on ethical issues. The 'human rights' argument has been advanced for anything from same-sex marriage to the displacement of social housing tenants from the Sirius building at The Rocks. Neither marriage nor a harbour view is a fundamental right. No one is any less human for being denied equal access. Fundamentally, the issue is personal ethics versus social ethics (if there is even such a thing)." We here at the Herald, believe the letters pages tell us more about the population than any pollster could. So forget polls. Write to us instead.

Fundamentalists winning publicity war

Illustration: Alan Moir

It is shocking, disappointing and frightening that 49 per cent of Australians would oppose immigration from any religious or ethnic group.

PM's self-righteous preaching a fail

SMH Letters

The Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull and Immigration and Border Protection Minister Mr Dutton may well have gained the admiration of Pauline Hanson ("PM to UN: get tough on borders", September 20).