Dr Bronwyn Harmon of Elizabeth Cowan University says that Pauline Hanson's must have sourced her claim of "blackmail" from the anti-vaccination movement ("Anti-vaxxer network spurs online culture of supporters", Mar 8). I am pro-vaccination, and wouldn't vote for Hanson in a fit, but my thesaurus doesn't turn up a better word to describe "No Jab, No Pay", unless you resort to "coercion", "extortion" or "intimidation".
For better or worse, we can't allow the considered opinion of parents to be overridden by the state when it comes to preventive health measures; it should only be possible in life-or-death decisions. Fifty years ago, it was almost universally agreed by medical authorities that male circumcision was necessary to prevent the infection of partners. No one seems to believe it now. Doctors are fallible, and we stopped worshipping them years ago.
Experts often focus only on the immediate benefits of their proposed solutions. They will ignore a range of secondary and tertiary consequences, some of which may not be medical. I frankly don't believe that a 1 per cent refusal to vaccinate would lead to a medical crisis. Thirty years ago we defeated polio without the need for such coercive measures.
Stewart Fist Lindfield
Little knowledge is a dangerous thing ("Parents remain wary of vaccines", March 8). Being a Virologist, I know that vaccines have greatly contributed to our longevity and quality of life. In the 1910s more lives were lost to influenza epidemic than World War I. Smallpox in the distant past and influenza and poliomyelitis among other pathogens were killers and caused paralysis to many. It was vaccines that saved billion lives.
Kersi Meher-Homji St Ives
Ross sharp's acerbic satire (Letters, March 8) speaks for me, and I am sure for many. My mother, a polio victim died aged 47 after her health was severely undermined. Fortunately, along came Jonas Salk to free humankind of this appalling scourge. It is shameful enough that the ignorant xenophobe Pauline Hanson is stomping the country stirring up racial and religious hatred, but for her to be encouraging the alarming proportion of people who are wary of vaccination is dangerous to national health outcomes.
It is high time the federal government initiated a campaign explaining the importance of vaccination programs.
Ron Sinclair Bathurst
My eldest brother has spent his adult life with a paralysed arm and a weakness in one leg, the result of the polio epidemic in the 1950s (Letters, March 8). He was one of the lucky ones who survived, after months in hospital. I'm sure he'd be happy to speak to any parents wavering about vaccinating their children.
Joan Brown Orange
Australia's anti-vaxxer movement is proof positive of Barry Jones' 2012 thesis that "stupidity is on the rise in our age of enlightenment". There is still a societal belief in the discredited study by Andrew Wakefield, published in The Lancet in 1997 and later retracted by the same medical journal, which linked vaccination to autism.
The historic and scientific validity of the benefits of vaccination is hard to challenge by any reasonable, analytical person. The anti-vaxxers are akin to the moon-landing-was-a-fake movement, but conspiracy theorists such as Pauline Hanson and Donald Trump will continue to give hard currency to Jones' 2012 thesis.
Robert Barnes Wedderburn
While I am totally opposed to denying medical care to children, hospitals could take a simple measure to protect vulnerable children in the various children's hospitals. They should make it a hard and fast rule that any unvaccinated child that needs to be admitted to hospital is automatically admitted to the adult wards of general hospitals. While this may be hard on the child, it may be a salutary lesson to their irresponsible parents.
Terry Goulden Wentworth Falls
If the "No Jab, No Pay" policy is "acceptable" to some, then a pensioner driving under the influence should perhaps, as a
consequence, be threatened with "Pension No Payment".
Parents need to be directed to scientific and objective information on the web, from where they can become fully informed. That is their right but then, choosing to not immunise their children jeopardises
their health and that of the community. That deserves some form of condemnation but blackmailing with "No Pay" is unjust, and if the
disease strikes, that will be punishment enough.
John Feller Randwick
Crikey, I didn't realise pro-vaxxers were so powerful. They managed to shut Pauline Hanson up in just one day. Your "vaxxer heretics" article, though, forgot to mention that actor Robert De Niro recently offered $100,000 to any scientist who could prove vaccines were safe.
While the medical community might argue there should be no debate on the merit of vaccines, science fundamentally should always challenge the status quo, no matter how hot the political potato.
Michael Troy Fairlight
Time we all paid higher regard to role of parenting
Amy Cairns has outed a key issue in asserting that early childhood educators are undervalued because they do what mothers traditionally did for nothing ("Why I'm supporting childcare workers", March 8). At some stage in our nation's recent history the attitude took hold that a person's contribution didn't count unless it could be factored into "the latest economic figures" or GDP. If parenting is not valued in and of itself then neither will its substitute be. The value system and framing of our culture have been so materially financially skewed that society and community are no longer afforded sufficient status. We need to pay much higher regard to parenting and its contribution to the wellbeing, cohesion and stability of society, then rethink the whole issue of alternative childcare.
Meredith Williams Dee Why
On Tuesday I collected my granddaughter from her long day care centre. Whilst there I asked a senior staff member if the staff of about 10 carers would be stopping work on Wednesday to demand improvements to their low hourly pay rates. The carer hastened to reassure me that only two carers were union members and that neither they nor any others would be striking. Rather than feeling reassured I felt alarmed and saddened. As a retired high school and TAFE teacher I know that if you want change you must stand up and demand it.
Jan Boyd Sylvania
NAPLAN essential for the disadvantaged
Michael Anderson's comments that NAPLAN testing is stifling creativity in school students are proof of why NAPLAN has been supported by both Liberal and Labor federal governments ("Forget the 3Rs, we need the 4C", March 8). We have much evidence that children from the most educationally impoverished backgrounds are often failing to learn to read and count in primary school. This failure goes on to have a devastating impact upon these children's ability to experience success in life. This seems to be particularly profound for poor boys. About 90 per cent of our prisoners (90 per cent are male) are illiterate when entering the justice system.
Our federal governments have become increasingly frustrated that state education systems and our teacher training institutions have continued to fail our most disadvantaged children, hence the need for NAPLAN.
A rigorous program to ensure almost all children can read and count does not stifle creativity. Following the nonsense espoused by Michael Anderson, however, can be a death sentence for children who have not been taught the basics before they enter school.
Andrew Humphreys Narrawallee
I must say, as a retired teacher, that I am impressed by Carlingford West Public School's results ("School takes a bow for making significant improvements," March 8). They must all be taking the 4Cs ("Forget the 3Rs, we need the 4Cs," SMH March 8).
Barrie Smillie Duffy ACT
Don't stop please Ross
Thank you Ross Gittins for attempting to out the ludicrous assertion that home affordability is only a supply issue, a moronic mantra that Turnbull, Morrison and Berejiklian repeat ad nauseam ("The cost of keeping prices high", March 8). But please don't stop there. Please keep going with this. If the average Sydney homeowner receives $100,000 per year, tax free, for doing nothing but owning a home, where does that money come from? Ross Gittins, please address this specific accounting question. Does it come from those people who don't own a home, i.e. the poorest in the community? Is the Government's housing "solutions" a deliberate ploy to widen the wealth divide? Mr Gittins, your article is a start. Please keep going.
John Harrison Coogee
The good old days
I am old enough to confirm that life was better in the '70s ("Was it better in the '70s?", March 8). Houses were affordable, my first house cost roughly the same as my annual salary. Universal health care worked well without all the rip-offs and inefficiencies of private health insurance. Education was free to tertiary level, no debts to pay when starting out in life. The rich were taxed and poor were taxed less, the fiction of the trickle-down effect was never mentioned. Then came The Dismissal. It took about five years for our worst ever Treasurer, Little Johnny Howard, to make life miserable for what he so charmingly called "the great unwashed".
John Grinter Katoomba
As a male chauvinist, anti-feminist sexist, I can't comment on what it was like for women in the '70s versus today, but for men, the '70s were the best.
George Fishman Vaucluse
Extend the lockouts
There's no need for cynicism about the Kings Cross lockouts, Julian Hare (Letters, March 8) – developer lobbying had nothing to do with it. It was the desperate cries of a community – and I include wider Sydney in that – begging for some sanity and safety in a precinct that had spiralled out of control. There were five avoidable deaths since 2008, plus inestimable other injuries and hospital admissions, that stemmed directly from the 24-hour booze-culture in the Cross. Today I'm happy to see rows of new apartments, rather than the sad and violent 24-hour sleaze that engulfed the area and made it an ulcerating boil on the backside of our city. Keep Sydney and NSW safe – extend the lockouts.
Patrick McGrath Coogee
Home and Away Land Security?
Hmm ... a more Aussie name for our version of Homeland Security (Letters, March 8)? How about Sunburnt Country Squad? Swagman Special Ops? Bushranger Black Ops? Duttonators? D.R.A.T. Patrol (Dutton Reviles Aussie Terrorists)? When they arrest "enemy combatants" on evidence either real or expedient, off they go to a special tribunal called Kangaroo Kourt and/or shipped off to Goannatanamo Bay.
Thomas Gough Casula
Why does everyone assume that Peter Dutton is the leading candidate to become Minister of Homeland Security? Many of us will remember the excellent work done by Kevin Andrews in bundling Dr Muhamed Haneef into detention in 2007, which should push him to the top of the shortlist. Sure, a few mistakes were made, some compensation paid and a career – and life – almost ruined, but that is a small price to pay for national security. Especially when the victim – oops! suspect – had a foreign-sounding name.
Kevin's talent has been wasted on the backbench for far too long. Come on Malcolm, as a bonus it will earn you brownie points with the Toned Abbs faction. You know it's a good idea.
Ian Morris Strathfield
Ban children from quads
Susan Goodson (Letters, March 8) appeals for the banning of quad bikes. Perhaps a less extreme measure would be limiting use of them to those with a motor vehicle driver's licence and definitely banning children from driving or riding on them.
Stephanie Edwards Wollstonecraft
Thirst for growth has Olympic-sized catch
Surely people living at Olympic Park would be drinking Gatorade ("Olympic Park's housing plans face transport, water challenges", March 8).
Peter Miniutti Ashbury
Back in 1798 Samuel Taylor Coleridge had a prophetic word for the future Sydney Olympic Park and its suburbs along the Parramatta River: "Water, water every where, nor any drop to drink".
Doug Walker Baulkham Hills
One can only hope that the $745,000 in fines handed out to Jetstar and Virgin for drip pricing ("Airlines penalised, March 8) are plus court costs, plus administration charges, plus transaction processing fees, plus …
Gareth Davidson Thornleigh
National Party failing farmers
I see that the National Farmers' Federation has declared its support for a market-based mechanism to reduce carbon emissions ("Climate change impact 'pervasive'", March 8). I recently read that the vast majority of farmers are concerned about climate change, so why is the National Party, which professes to represent them, not listening?
Kate Greenwood Jindabyne
Josh Frydenberg and Malcolm Turnbull have made clear that the government's environmental management plan consists of reducing the reliance on renewables and increasing coal burning. The Treasurer even brought a lump of coal to Parliament to emphasise this.
Tony Walbran Dee Why
Dear Herald,
Remind us again why you exhorted us to vote for the Turnbull government on July 2 last year.
Sheridan Roberts Bemboka
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