Having done the Cradle Mountain walk I support the planned Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing. However, the commercial accommodation in Tasmania was discreet, with the lodges placed so they never impeded the enjoyment of us peasants undertaking the traditional 6 to 8-day trek. We all shared the prime vantage points, but nobody much cared who was staying where. So enforce the same policy in our high country. Giving the prime heritage sites exclusively to vested interests borders on criminal. And it will not enhance the number of hikers or the experiences for anyone.
John Patrick, Wangaratta
Get set for a crowded picnic in the bush
The Crossing's business case is based on dubious figures. It claims there are currently 17,000 "walker nights" on the track. Based on a seven-month season (November to May) this translates to 80 people on the track each night. I have never seen that many. It also claims a threefold growth in numbers to 52,000 over 10 years, or 250 people per night! So much for a wilderness experience. With all the resulting helicopters and walkers, you'll be lucky to see any wildlife. All these people will get is a crowded picnic in the bush.
Another concern is servicing this area in an emergency. Responses are drawn-out operations. Often, due to the fickle weather, helicopters cannot respond so rescues are done by four wheel drives and on foot. It can take many hours or even a day to retrieve patients; witness the three-day operation to retrieve an injured skier from Mt Bogong two winters ago. Further, one can expect snow even in summer. On Mt Bogong's summit I was once caught out by a summer thunderstorm – both an awe-inspiring experience and one that "concentrates the mind". It is no place to be with lightning and high winds about.
Daryl Glover, Mansfield
Mt Buffalo chalet a salutary reminder
The Mt Buffalo chalet (pictured above in 2002) once enabled the well heeled to enjoy the alpine environment in comfort. Now derelict, it stands as an ugly, neglected and unsafe folly. No enterprise sees the opportunity in it to make money out of "high yield" tourists, even though it has good road access and is not far from towns that could also be enjoyed. Parks Victoria is dreaming.
Anne Fitzgerald, Brighton East
Parks crying out for management
The government currently spends less than 1 per cent of the budget on managing public land and parks, which cover 30 per cent of the state. Such a level of funding appears negligent. Moreover, the Parks Victoria board has yet to develop management plans for most parks. How can parks and our biodiversity be sustainably managed without a clear idea of the costs? Maintenance budgets and schedules are essential for assets such as highways and buildings so why are parks' assets disregarded? To turn an example of high end tourism on its head, instead of the government paying $50 million to subsidise the Grand Prix, the organisers should be charged $50 million for the use of public land in the city centre. It is time the government stepped up to its responsibilities to fund, plan and manage our parks estate.
Bruce McGregor, Brunswick
THE FORUM
Give work to locals
Engineers are being imported at a time when local engineers cannot find work (News, 1/1). Engineers Australia, the organisation that purports to represent the profession, encourages the government to continue such a policy. As a former fellow of EA, I find that inexplicable.
EA is living in the past. It fails to recognise that Australia has lost its manufacturing sector. Ford, Holden and Toyota are going home. The extractive industries have few new projects. Corporations no longer wish to retain their former levels of engineering expertise. A number of my former colleagues, good graduates with excellent experience, struggle to find even casual work now that the minerals boom is over. Bringing in more engineers, when the Department of Employment itself says there is no shortage, does a disservice to both the local and the imported workers.
Colin Simmons, Woodend
No bounds to cruelty
The determination to intensify the suffering of asylum seekers at the Broadmeadows detention centre has no bounds. Access to the outside sports area, a small patch of synthetic grass, has now been limited to one hour a day. And that hour coincides with visiting times and the church service. Although all activities are valuable for despairing people they are forced to choose.
One man said to me: "I cannot tell you all of my story. It would make you cry. All I can say is my eight closest family members were slaughtered. I am the last. When I am outside my nightmares ease a little."
Another told of how the hell caused by the memory of taking plastic bags to go through the rubble and collect the pieces of his loved ones sometimes fades when he is in the open air.
It is diabolically evil to persecute these wretched men. We all know the things being done in our name. We all are complicit.
Kate Kennedy, Coburg
No way out
When I think of Manus, I am reminded of Andrzej Wajda's film Kanal: the long struggle waist-deep in sewage through Warsaw's underground system, as members of the failed uprising tried to escape the Nazis. Some fell, and one went mad, but after endless-seeming darkness, a faint light appeared at the end of a tunnel. When they reached it, the egress was barred.
Penelope Buckley, Kew East
Power minus morality
I fear we are reaching the ultimate expression of 20-plus years of economic rationalism – political rationalism. First we adopt the theory that economic decisions should be made without morality intruding; it then flows on to political decisions being made without any form of morality. The era when a person entered politics to make the world a better place is slipping away, and we are entering an era where politics is being used to make the world better for a chosen few, where power is concentrated in the hands of the rich, where differences are used to divide rather then be celebrated, and where hatred is used as a weapon. I weep for the future we are leaving the next generations.
Philip Nicholls, Hadfield
Boost for rule of law
I found the article "US on course for war with UN" partisan and misleading (1/1). Only far-right Republican Congressional members' rhetoric was quoted. UN Security Council Resolution 2334, passed on December 23, was co-sponsored by Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela and supported by all members of the council other than the US, which abstained. That means that the other permanent members – China, France, Russia and the UK – and the 10 elected members, which currently include Egypt, Italy, Japan and Sweden, all voted for the resolution. Is a Trump-led US going to go to war with all of them?
To have opposed the motion would have been to undermine the international consensus supporting a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and to be complicit in the continuing illegal theft of land that belongs to Palestinian families. Every step that enhances the international rule of law should be welcomed.
John Langmore, professorial fellow, the University of Melbourne
Stint in 'big house'
If the "children" who destroyed the Parkville Juvenile Justice facility are not housed in Barwon Prison, where are they to be detained (Opinion, 1/1)? These detainees were in a facility that provided opportunities for education and work skills development, in a less restrictive environment than Barwon prison, and they rendered it uninhabitable.
This is one of those fortunately rare situations in society where a temporary solution to a difficult problem is necessary because nothing else is workable. And just maybe, these young "victims" (of a self-inflicted injury) might be more discouraged from re-offending by a stint in the "big House" than by their time in Parkville.
Danny Cole, Sunbury
Redirect NYE funds
Instead of spending $3 million on fireworks for New Year's Eve why not organise buskers or, better still, pay street artists to perform along our city streets and parks? This would provide the multiple benefits of a variety of entertainment, a chance for our talented artists to make some money, provide entertainment lasting hours instead of minutes, give a purpose to the crowds wandering the city streets and ensure our dollars were spent more beneficially.
Fleur Rubens, Carlton
City's heritage at risk
The government is proceeding with a plan to destroy the Ballarat Railway precinct, a site listed by the National Trust and Heritage Victoria. The plan is to insert an entertainment facility into a 3000 square metre bluestone goods shed, build a multi-storey car park, remove much of the historical railway infrastructure, construct 40-plus self-contained units and install a bus interchange along beautiful residential Lydiard Street, which borders the railway precinct. Our council has no say; the matter is in the hands of Spring Street. Ballarat is full of heritage. Its prominent and important historical sites need to be preserved for the nation. If this plan goes ahead, another important link with our past will be defiled and ultimately destroyed.
Dinah McCance, Ballarat
Digging for answers
Port Augusta and Latrobe Valley have much in common: power station closures, high unemployment and health problems resulting from fly ash exposure. The Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry and other reports could provide some of answers that Nick Xenophon is looking for.
Lorraine Bull, Morwell
Sweet, but not cuddly
I've lost 25 kilograms this past year by going to the gym daily, changing my diet and cutting back on sugar (Opinion, 1/1). I am still as sweet but not as cuddly.
Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill
Language lost on men
Denby Weller ("Time to ban 'mansplain' from the feminist vocabulary", 1/1) suggests that "If you want people to change, you have to speak a language they can bear to listen to". As a feminist from an earlier era I agree. However, the "vocab" she uses, such as "you went real low to get there", "this ... form of communication ain't working", "the world kinda depends on it", "Go get 'em sister", and "Feminism ain't over yet" is hardly one that would get her feminist message across to a present-day chief executive or board chairman who might have the power to effect change.
Elaine Roberts, Elwood
Service subtraction
After having difficulties ordering tickets online for the Australian Ballet, I emailed the company information and details of dates, querying why I was unable to place my order. It replied by saying that if I needed help for my order I had to pay $7. Good customer service? The company has lost our support and custom.
Anastasia Spathis, Skenes Creek
Dob in a driver
I have a solution to the issue of dangerous drivers. It is "DOB" – the driver observation bureau. I know this suggestion will cause an outcry from civil libertarians, but pause and consider.
Drivers with good records be would "authorised" to report dangerous driver behaviour. The reports would be recorded on a computer but no action taken until a second report is received from a different reporter. A warning notice would then be sent to the dangerous driver. If further reports are received the driver would be required to take counselling. All drivers will soon realise their behaviour is being noted and improvements will follow.
Logically the system should be operated by VicRoads, with police co-operation. A trial would have minimal costs.
Michael Hipkins, Richmond