Dale Hughes (Opinion, 15/1) makes a case for re-interpreting Australia Day as one that repudiates the "terra nullius" mind-set of pre-1788 Australia. To be authentic, Australia Day should embrace the burgeoning treaty movement. A formal acknowledgement of Indigenous tribal groups' sophisticated cultural and land management connections to their "country" would allow Australia to join New Zealand, Canada and the United States as historic British coloniser nations that have made peace with their aboriginal peoples. In time, such a re-configured Australia Day would set the challenges of the First Fleet fledgling white settlement alongside the remarkable phenomenon of the earliest inhabitants' inter-tribal cultural and trade connections across a vast continent for tens of thousands of years. Truly something to celebrate.
Jon McMillan, Mount Eliza
![Illustration: Matt Golding](http://web.archive.org./web/20170917131342im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/w/3/w/n/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtvxpw.png/1485151223398.jpg)
Celebrating dispossession
Australia Day is significant as the day the British took possession of and dispossessed a gentler people through greed. My parents came here after World War II from a war-torn Europe, worked hard and loved the land, but were underwhelmed at being treated as ignorant (they were not) refugees and similarly disgusted at the treatment of Aborigines. I am grateful for having been allowed to live in and love Australia. Maybe we should choose January 25 as Australia Day. That would celebrate the uniqueness of this wonderful land that has allowed all who lived here to prosper. We can remember Cook's landing and its consequences along with all other historical events, good and bad. Let's just not celebrate that specific date – it's not positive for all Australians.
Joanna Fairman, Kallista
Billboards confrontational, not inclusive
One of the outstanding attractions of our culture is its embrace of multiculturalism. Nevertheless, I fail to see how young girls in hijabs are a commemoration of Australia Day. In fact the intent of the billboards seems to be more confrontational than inclusive. I don't recall prior Australia Day celebrations using photos of Sikhs wearing turbans, Mexicans wearing sombreros or Hawaiians wearing grass skirts. And of course there is the fact that the first Australians, the Indigenous Aborigines, were resident here centuries before European settlement.
Rosie Elsass, East Brighton
Courageous leadership will light the way
We are one human family on a tiny planet in a vast universe. Is it not our destiny to be a sign of hope to the rest of the human family that it is possible for diversity to flourish on Earth? We have all we need to fulfil this destiny: relative political and social stability; a strong economy; media and religious freedom; a separation of powers; a flourishing artistic community and so much more. Of course there are issues. Like the Church's need for renewal in the light of the royal commission; Islam's struggle with a minority of extremists; and the unfinished matter of reconciliation which always aches in our national soul on Australia Day. But all these issues are manageable with leadership marked by courage, imagination and compassion.
Bishop Philip Huggins, Richmond
THE FORUM
Lock away the violent
I wasn't surprised the man arrested for killing and maiming people in the Bourke Street mall had "an extensive history of family violence", and yet he was free. This is similar to the man who killed people in Sydney's Lindt cafe.
Why does it take members of the public to be hurt before family violence perpetrators are locked up? Locking them up when they are violent towards their partners and breaching intervention orders would not just save the women who are routinely killed every single week by such men, it would also save innocent members of the public from such carnage.
Let's start viewing these people as what they are, domestic terrorists, and treat them the same way we treat other terrorists, by arresting and incarcerating them before they kill.
Kelly Muldoon, St Kilda
The looming doom?
Donald Trump's inauguration speech highlights that it is going to be a case of either his way or the highway. Maybe the "take no prisoners" strategy achieves results in his corporate activities, but it is hardly a way to administer the free world. Let's hope that George Soros, who has worked for a more open and integrated Europe post-World War II was right when he recently deemed Trump's presidency was doomed.
Damien Peters, Brighton
Shooting from the lip
In his inauguration speech, President Trump promised that the "American carnage" of "the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealised potential" would stop "right here and right now". Funny (not!) how he forgot to mention the carnage and the tens of thousands of lives lost annually due to firearm-related violence. I guess we can't expect any changes to "the right to keep and bear arms".
Bronwen Bryant, St Kilda West
Now that's payback
What a clever "shoe on the other foot" letter to a member of Federal Parliament (Editorial, 15/1). A template Centrelink debt recovery letter transposed to the attention of the profligate minister of the day. And let's face it, almost every day, there is a new story about politicians' latest spending transgressions, courtesy of the public purse. Bravo. A public interest job well done.
John Fitzsimmons, Mornington
Rattle of a tin ear
If anything screams out that politicians have a tin ear, it is the announcement that the government is to extend the Centrelink funds recovery program to pensioners and people with disabilities. Despite the data matching system being patently flawed, the minister is adamant no changes will be implemented to the scheme. One can only hope that this lemming-like determination from the Coalition presages a single term.
Ramesh Rajan, Camberwell
Debt of a salesman
Mr Turnbull has not been up to the task of tackling the "distrust of traditional politics and pessimism" and "widespread resentment of the rich and powerful" revealed by the recent Ipsos survey. And the Coalition's purge to recoup alleged overpayments from welfare recipients and pensioners will not reduce this distrust or resentment. Like the "robo-debt" campaign, the PM might find himself the target of a performance-debt campaign.
Brendan O'Farrell, Brunswick
Who's the Boss here?
What is the financial connection Julie Bishop has with the Hugo Boss organisation? In particular, when she wears its outfits does she buy them, wear them on a like-or-return basis, model them at exclusive sporting events and buy them more cheaply – or are they a gift? And surely, as Foreign Minister, she received sufficient notification of the visit by Japan's Prime Minister to allow her to cancel a pre-arranged polo appearance with more than 24 hours' notice.
Margaret Harrison, Clifton Hill
A familial gripe
Politicians complain about not spending time with their families. Surely becoming an MP is a "lifestyle choice" – and one that comes with a very high salary.
Nola Price, Mornington
By what authority?
In 1997, at the age of 33, Catch the Fire Ministries pastor and Sri Lankan-born and bred Danny Nalliah moved to Australia with his wife and children. He now leads the call of the Rise Up Australia party to "keep Australia Australian". By what logic, and with what authority, does he feel entitled to make such a call? Who is he to say who can and cannot be an Australian? He must be grateful the party he leads did not exist when he migrated.
Pauline Hopkins, Beaconsfield
Suckling sickening
I am indebted to your Traveller feature ("Slick pig spit on a stick", 15/1) for explaining that the term "suckling pig" or "sucking pig" refers to the age of the baby pig – taken from its mother at age two to six weeks to provide roast meat. While that "wee piggy" was in Tonga, a similar "delicacy" is served here. I can't think of anything more tasteless than a little piglet being wrested from its mother, simply to titillate the taste buds of well-fed Australians.
Joan Reilly, Surrey Hills
Precious talk
On a train recently sat two boys, about nine years old, engrossed in conversation. They were alive and animated; acknowledging the other and enjoying life.
Across the aisle were boys of about 12. They were also having a good time, but with a difference. Their eyes were focused on their mobiles. There was conversation, but the interaction revolved around the phones and whatever held their attention. There was almost a competitive edge to their conversation.
The younger boys were talking about themselves and their experiences; the older ones were talking about other people's experiences. It is sobering that in a few years the two younger boys are going to cross the aisle, as will the nature of their conversations. They may get caught up in "nomophobia" (Comment, 15/1).
Interacting through technology means people become players rather than participants. It will be a great pity if the quality of their childhood conversations is lost by the time they reach 12.
Peter Brown, Briar Hill
Don't hang up
The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association does not "reject claims" of health effects; it relies on expert advice regarding mobile phone safety. The WHO currently says: "A large number of studies have been performed over the last two decades to assess whether mobile phones pose a potential health risk. To date, no adverse health effects have been established."
Industry partially funded the Interphone project through the International Union against Cancer. Researchers received funds under agreements that guaranteed complete independence.
In Australia, the mobile telecommunications industry supports research on health and safety through a hypothecated levy, amounting to about $1 million a year, on annual licence fees. The National Health and Medical Research Council allocates the funds; industry has no input into the funding allocation or the research. About $15 million has been contributed to research since the levy began in 1996.
AMTA agrees with authorities who recommend that people can easily reduce their exposure to mobile phone radio signals by limiting call length or using "hands-free" devices.
Chris Althaus, CEO, AMTA
Space cowboys
It is disappointing the Education Department is allowing early learning centres to be built with no outdoor play spaces ("In praise of nature's way", 15/1). How are future generations going to protect our natural environment when they have no experience of it?
Children learn to love and care for the environment when they are in it. They need to climb trees and splash in puddles, not look at murals of trees and clouds painted on a wall. When children are dressed appropriately, outdoor play is rarely disrupted by Melbourne's "extreme weather conditions".
"Light and airy" fake outdoor areas can never replace the feeling of finding a ladybug in the vegie patch or the feeling of wind in your face as you run through the grass. Children need these experiences every day.
Allison Prasser, Elwood
Quality counts most
While outdoor space is an important factor, I don't think it's the most important question the families I know face in choosing appropriate childcare. I encourage them to ask "is this childcare setting the best available for this child in this family at this time?" Quality and stability of relationships (involving child, peers, parents and staff) is the key, as it is for all environments in which very young children live.
Dr Matthew Roberts, Heidelberg