Comment

Letters to the Editor

Illustration: Alan Moir

Centrelink echoes past threats

Peter Martin suggests that we follow the journalists' adage "it's a stuff-up, not a conspiracy" to explain the Centrelink debt debacle ("Centrelink's litany of inhuman errors", January 5). While this adage is usually reliable, I have to wonder whether it applies in this case.

Must be time to do a Pat Cash

SMH Letters

It can't be much longer before we see a celebrating century-maker do a Pat Cash and clamber into the stands to hug friends and family ("High Noon: 100 before Lunch", January 4).

Best Letters of the Year 2016

SMH Letters

Nostalgia kicked in as I saw the Herald photo of the five-storey units built plumb against the little semi-detached cottage in William Street, Lewisham ("Tower springs up next to semi in Lewisham", October 25).

The Best of Bert Candy: 2016 Letter Writer of the Year

SMH Letters

Bert Candy's first Sydney Morning Herald letter to the editor appeared on June 1, 2013. He has been published regularly since then. Readers nominated him as Letter Writer of the Year 2016. Here is a selection of some of his 2016 contributions.

Ethical Kiwis unbowed by Israel's urgings

Illustration: Alan Moir

It is no surprise that New Zealand stood up to Israel's cowardly threats when New Zealand sponsored the United Nations resolution critical of Israel building further settlements in occupied Palestine

Apartments crowd out Palestinian hopes

SMH Letters

Peter Wertheim and Alex Ryvchin you have absolutely nothing to worry about – history has shown that successive Israeli governments, which say they want peace, will continue to build all over occupied land and give little heed to what the world may think.

Why doctors are quitting ahead of peak holiday period

SMH Letters

I am a doctor in training at a public hospital and worked a horrific roster last summer due to understaffing ("Doctor exodus hits summer holiday peak at hospitals", December 27). But I didn't blame my colleagues for needing time off from such a stressful and relentless job, and the patients we saw were well cared for, as always. The core issue is not doctors quitting, but why they quit.

Christmas message? Reach out to refugees

SMH Letters

Malcolm Turnbull has asked us to "reach out to those less fortunate" ("Peace and goodwill as Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten release Christmas messages", December 25).

Housing crisis is a budget time bomb

SMH Letters

No amount of building will ease the housing crisis in Sydney because negative gearing will always give investors the edge over owner-occupiers.

Fuel efficiency standards won't make the sky fall

SMH Letters

Over 60 years, just how many good ideas, many of them emanating from costly government enquiries have I seen ditched because some "group", usually a noisy minority protests over the impact to the hip pocket nerve?

Agencies have zero credibility rating

SMH Letters

Moody's, S&P; and their ilk truly are the cockroaches of the economic world. Having survived the fallout of their contribution to the nuclear holocaust of the GFC, they continue to thrive.

Misguided dream

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Daily the surrogate's heart beat is what a gestating child hears, until that connection is ruptured.

Leniency for Obeid, not so Joe Blow

SMH Letters

Two stories in yesterday's Herald struck me as a stark reflection of why Australian justice, as it is mandated by our political representatives today, is so confusing to the general public.

Following the climate change deniers

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

It would seem that the interests of Australia would be far better served if the federal government accepted the dire warnings of climate science.

Turnbull needs help – but not Bernardi's

SMH Letters

Malcolm Turnbull is the leader of the Liberal Party ("You'll hear more from me in 2017, Bernardi promises", December 12). From this I can only assume that he has majority support within his party. But the media reports only on what is said by a minority in the party who oppose his views and that of what I must assume are the "silent majority" of the party. Where is this majority of members of the Liberal party who voted for a Turnbull leadership and presumably support his views? It's time we heard from this silent majority of liberal Liberal members of Parliament. Come on, Turnbull needs your help. Esther Scholem Macquarie Park

Sydney's architecture already laid Baird

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Sincere thanks to Sir David Chipperfield for warning us about the danger posed by turning Sydney's CBD into a monoculture of office tower-- but it is already too late! 

Wildlife woes

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I notice Jean-Claude van Damme was in Broken Hill to consider areas suitable for African wildlife rescues sites ("Saving species a Damme fine idea", December 4).