![Illustration: Cathy Wilcox](/web/20161218205912im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/c/z/j/3/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtcksp.png/1481953250978.jpg)
With all the evil and suffering in the world today it is easy to lose hope in the power of prayer ("Praying for a political messiah, won't get us out of the mire", December 16). It is also understandable why there are so many atheists, since millions of prayers seem to go unanswered.
We should not expect God to perform miracles to fix problems of our making, and in our power to solve. Our treatment of asylum seekers, is a prime example. Peter Dutton had the hypocrisy to criticise those who leave Christ out of Christmas, while censuring "Teachers for Refugees".
!["I think we need to rise up against it. People need to speak against it": Peter Dutton calls for a fight against ...](/web/20161218205912im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/9/r/2/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtcksp.png/1481953250978.jpg)
He would have some credibility had he first freed the captives on Nauru and Manus Island. Christ taught us to reach out to the poor and the downtrodden. I suggest we look into our own hearts, rather than blame God for not listening. There is no better time to do this than Advent, as we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Saviour.
Graham Lum North Rocks
![Here's one I'd like to hear Peter Dutton perform.](/web/20161218205912im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/c/k/t/r/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gtcksp.png/1481953250978.jpg)
Did Peter Dutton really say "the vast majority of Australian people ... don't want to be lectured to by do-gooders who frankly don't practise what they preach"? Is he so deluded that he doesn't realise that describes him to a tee?
Richard Cobden Woolloomooloo
Peter Dutton should "put it through his skull" to borrow a phrase, that Australia is a secular society. So could he and his other government mates stop insisting that Australia is a "Christian society" and people want to hear Christmas carols? Has he realised that some may have had a "gutful" of people with ideas like his?
Dimitris Langadinos Concord West
It's not often I would agree with Peter Dutton, but I do this time. Although a rusted-on old agnostic, I think religious festivals should remain exactly that – Christmas, Buddha's birthday, Eid, whichever – none of them offend me. However, I tend to be rather disturbed by the predominance of the fat bloke (who belongs to December 6, anyway) and all his hangers-on of reindeer and elves, and still more troubled by supermarket advertising which would have you believe Christmas is all about buying their stuff.
Mona Finley Darlington Point
The story of Christmas is in part about a family of refugees escaping persecution. How sickeningly ironic that Immigration Minister Dutton is calling on other Australians to "defend Christmas". As so often is the case, those who loudly proclaim themselves "Christian" are anything but.
Thomas Ryan Ashfield
Here's one I'd like to hear Peter Dutton perform.
John Bye Elwood (Vic)
Power of veto in UN needs to go for world's sake
For what it's worth: in my view, never has a truer sentence been written than that of Alan Marel (Letters, December 15): "Unless the power of veto is removed from the five permanent member nations (of the UN Security Council), nothing meaningful will ever be achieved". There are 15 members of the council, five of which are "permanent member nations" and therefore have this "power of veto". Should a vote be taken within the council on any particular matter and the vote is, let's say, 14 to one for the vote, and should the "one" be that of a "permanent member nation", the vote will be irretrievably lost. This would be OK, up to a point, were each of the five "permanent member nations" to have a stable domestic political regime at least and a genuine desire for world peace, but in my assessment, only one of the five satisfies these criteria: France is swinging wildly to the extreme right, when extreme right or extreme left or extreme anything else is abhorrent; China is flexing its economic and military muscle in a way that has nothing whatsoever to do with world peace; as for the Russian Federation, well, ditto; US = Donald Trump (for now anyway) = Say No More; which leaves UK, as stable and as settled as it has been for a very long time. So, why on earth would we leave the future of the world's peace – and hence its very existence – in the hands of any one of the four extremely powerful but globally naive (I'm trying to be nice) nations which cannot manage even their own affairs?
Brian Pymont Frenchs Forest
Do you live to work, or work to live?
Thank you, Jeff Apter, you've restored my faith in families (Letters, December 16).
Kasey Edwards' article was one of the saddest things I have ever read. I thought parents, both mothers and fathers, would want to have a relationship with their children, not just see them as a burden to be entertained that gets in the way of their career trajectory and impacts on their earning capacity.
If you love somebody you usually attempt to maximise rather than minimise the time you spend together. Do we live to work, or work to live? Maybe that's a question all those dreading school holidays should be asking themselves.
Elisabeth Goodsall Wahroonga
Bernardi takes flight
George Manojlovic (Letters, December 13) pointed out that 2017 is the Year of the Rooster and, as such, discontented senator Cory Bernardi is already "crowing" regarding his promised verbal outbreak in the new year.
May I therefore be so bold as to reintroduce a Herald letters topic from a few months ago (GetDown!, GetOut!, WindUp!) as to what the name of the good senator's breakaway party and right-wing version of GetUp! may be called.
In light of Manojlovic's fowl observation, I now suggest CockUp! 2017, the year of free-range politicians with credibility as rare hens' teeth.
Ross Pulbrook Wyong
Best schools are those that can lift the under-achievers – rate them
John Collier, head of St Andrew's Cathedral School (Letters, December 15), has nailed the school "tables" problem. I care not a hoot which independent, Catholic or public high school has the most students in the top 100 or the best Band 6 results or whatever. As John says, these results are a function of student quality, not school quality.
What I am interested in is how schools perform in improving student performance over the years. I would like to see tables that show how schools compare in moving incoming students from underperforming and average categories to average and above-average categories. In my experience, the high-performing incoming students tend to go on to successful careers. While they need to be managed, these students will generally look after themselves.
What this country needs to do is to close the gap, to ensure that the underperformers do not continue to underperform and instead, through effective high school years, go on to lead successful and fulfilling careers and lives. Do Scots, Kings, Knox, Loreto, Newington etc achieve any improvement in student performance over their years at these schools; or do these schools just provide an expensive opportunity for archery lessons?
Paul Ettema Riverview
I am sure one major reason better-off parents choose private education is the fact it is better funded than public education. Put the money into public education run by public educators. Keep profit-making organisations out of testing systems and programs. Trust public educators and give them the ability to teach the students of Australia with the support, resources and infrastructure to do so.
Baird has a huge budget surplus – why is he not spending where there is the greatest need and investing in public education ("Baird's $4b should go to schools", December 16).
He keeps expanding roads, urban development and encouraging population growth but puts minimal amounts into public education. In South Dural there is a large urban development planned but no money for public schools which are already overflowing well beyond the numbers for which they were built.
The public educationalists are fed up with constantly being neglected and funds being poured into sports ground or given to private providers who rip off the system, and spent on unwanted transport systems with massive blowouts in costs. Just imagine what the benefit could have been to education.
Education is a public good. It is an investment in the future. Invest in it properly or suffer the consequences of poverty, crime and falling economic standards.
Augusta Monro Dural
Congratulations to the students at James Ruse on their fantastic results ("School at No.1 for 21 years in a row", December 16). Ruse has been able to maintain its number one ranking simply because it is able to choose the best of the best – it would be like an NRL club which had an endless cash supply and no salary-cap restrictions. Just as much attention, if not more, should be paid to schools that provide the most value-adding to their students.
Peter Miniutti Ashbury
I'm comfortable with the Macquarie University system of choosing students based on objective criteria beyond the ATAR ("ATAR alone will not find future leaders," December 16). That's as long as we don't go too far down the American road of a competition based on who can best sell themselves – something many promising but uncoached young people have yet to master.
Mark James Turramurra
Land Titles disaster
It appears that the only people who think that the sale of the NSW Land Titles Office has any merit are the financial groups who are interested in buying it.
All the professional experts who are involved in the land title's process, be they lawyers, surveyors, valuers or real estate agents, believe that it would be a disaster for just about everybody else if such a critically important government asset were to be privatised (Letters, December 16).
So one has to wonder whose interests the Baird government has in mind given that it appears to be unmoved by the protests against the sale.
One thing you can be sure of, it is not the public interest that is motivating them.
Harvey Sanders Paddington
Love trauma victims
Trauma is defined as "a deeply distressing experience leading to emotional shock". Some fortunate people are able to pick up the pieces and continue after just such an event and others find it significantly more difficult. ("We can't all play happy families", December 16). The very last thing traumatised people need is pressure to forgive, to reconcile, to move on. It is not so much that forgiveness and reconciliation are not admirable goals but that pressure to achieve those goals exacerbates the distress felt. Often, the very best thing to do is just a gentle presence with no pressure. It can work wonders. Or not. But the person affected is still the same invaluable being.
Pam Connor Mollymook Beach
ABC doing its job
Another complaint (Letters, December 16) that the ABC gave inadequate coverage to the deaths of Anne Deveson and Georgia Blain. I think your correspondents must have been listening to 2GB. On the morning of the announcement Radio National ran the issue on the morning news, on AM and then at length on Fran Kelly's Breakfast. At 9am Life Matters ran a long and moving segment. At 10am Books And Arts again ran a lengthy memorial to these great women. Honestly, how much more do these people want?
Peter Cockcroft Corrimal
Perhaps Richo can enlighten us on Obeid
It's well known that Obeid got into Parliament courtesy of Graham Richardson's patronage (Letters, December 16). Isn't it time he told us why he thought Eddie Obeid was a superior candidate to the highly respected Graham Freudenberg for ALP upper house preselection back in 1991? And will he tell us which of Obeid's personal qualities and life record led him to back him? Ones Richardson associated with traditional Labor values and principles? Anything at all? And did (then) Senator Stephen Loosley ask Freudenberg to write Obeid's maiden speech? Oh, the irony!
Keith Parsons Newcastle
No wonder Eddie Obeid's wife left the court in tears after his sentencing. Wasn't it reported some time ago that she was paid $1000 per week for "housekeeping" at the Circular Quay premises that the family leased? I'd be crying too.
William Franken Rose Bay
Thank you, Kate McClymont, on behalf of the people of NSW. As Eddie Obeid left to spend his first night at his new Silverwater address I kept a promise made long ago. The bottle of champagne was opened and I toasted your determination to see this through. I congratulate you on your exemplary investigative journalism.
Jan Twomey Lilyfield
Postscript
When Eddie Obeid was sent to jail on Thursday for a maximum of five years over his family's business dealings at Circular Quay it was a big moment for many of us here at the Herald.
Most particularly journalist Kate McClymont, whom some of you suggested should be nominated for Australian of the Year for her work which led to her nemesis being put behind bars.
This is a victory not just for journalism but also letter writers, who seemed to feel vindicated – after all, you are the ones who have supported us in this 17-year-long journey to justice.
Readers like Bert Candy, formerly of the gloriously named Lemon Tree Passage, were quick off the mark to quip.
So too were letter writers in noting his address change to Queensland and the less mellifluous Glenvale, nearer his family.
Regular Allan Gibson, of Cherrybrook, reminded us of a 2014 letter in response to a Good Weekend article on Obeid:"The quote of the decade from Eddie Obeid was not the headline on your article, but his declaring, "We've done nothing wrong ... we're a good Christian family, we have all top values in life and that's how we've brought our children up."
We must mention our long-suffering company lawyer Richard Coleman, who at times must have wished he were back writing his TV column instead of vetting every story and letter that mentioned the Obeids.
As the year comes to a close we'd like to call on you all for your nominations for favourite letter of the year. We'll announce the winner in the last PS for 2016.
Helen Pitt Letters Co-editor