Genuine action needed to achieve affordable housing
Where is the evidence that new terrace housing in Sydney's middle ring suburbs will be more affordable?
Letters to the Editor
Mongolia too good for Brandis
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Philanthropy wrong way to fair schooling
The public school system runs the risk of opening up back-door privatisation.
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.
Rip-roaring time for Abbott
There's never been a more exciting time to be Tony Abbott.
Brandis directive threatens to erode democracy
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
I doubt the word "pussy" has ever been used on the Letters page except in the context of a discussion about pets until now.
Let's spend plebiscite cash where it counts
Since the marriage plebiscite will not proceed the savings could be used to restore the funding cuts to science research.
What else has Baird got wrong? Plenty
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.
Trump's locker-room defence an insult to men
Just locker-room banter. Is this how some men speak about women when their wives and girlfriends are absent?
Pranksters have forgone right to privacy
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
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.
Turnbull dances to the tune of the banks
Malcolm Turnbull truly jumped the shark by announcing he would establish a new tribunal before the bank inquiry even had a chance to report.
Postscript
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.
Greyhound racing ban not a class issue
The banning of commercial greyhound racing is about animal welfare.
Money men have lost their moral compass
The behaviour on show at the parliamentary inquiry into banking indicates a sick corporate world.
Government lets Narev off the hook
His appearance reminded me somewhat of King Charles I, and his attitude to the English parliament, which did not end well for him.
Refugee and immigration issues deserve clear reading
Jessica Irvine's column is not a fair analysis of either of the issues she raises: immigration and refugees.
Dismantle Gillard's flawed schools legacy
By ruling out that any school would be "worse off" under new Gonski funding measures Julia Gillard entrenched John Howard's system skewed to the elite schools.
Spare the horses
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
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
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.
The 'perfect storm' on the renewables debate
The real question, is to what extent our infrastructure is ready for the extreme events we should expect as climate change bites?
Schools with the lot don't need Gonski seconds
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.
Duty clear on same sex marriage question
Anni Browning (Letters, September 27) has joined thousands of others in calling for a "free vote" or a "conscience vote" on marriage equality.
Impotence strangling marriage equality
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
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
On the subject of women's sport, is The Sun-Herald saying, not doing?
Learn student needs, minister
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
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.