I only met John Clarke face-to-face once, and it was in a corner store at Phillip Island. A customer requested a jar of tartare sauce that, not surprisingly, the small store did not have. John immediately stepped in and pointed out that there was a jar of mayonnaise and a jar of gherkins on the shelf, which would make an excellent tartare sauce. Not only was he being his usual helpful and friendly self, but the humour involved was unforgettable.
Roy Farthing, Mitcham
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Taking the Mickey out of the pompous
In a world of fake news and lies, bad news and bad management, there was always something to smile at once a week. We will miss John Clarke taking the Mickey out of the pompous, the parliamentarians and the plain silly people for a very long time.
Kath Brown, Ferntree Gully
John's art will never be forgotten. RIP.
John Clarke, you provided us all with decades of sublime humour, creative wit, exquisitely precise language and enormous heart. We are deeply saddened by your premature death and deeply grateful for what you gave us. Thank you, and rest in peace. You and your art will never be forgotten.
Gregory Donoghue, Parkville
Thursday nights will never be the same again
John Clarke's death is a great loss. How will we survive current political shenanigans without Clarke and Dawe? I have very fond memories of meeting John in 1994 during the battle to save Fitzroy Pool. Using his unique style of satire, he suggested that developers would soon be getting planning permits to build on public footpaths. We all laughed, not knowing how close to the truth was his prediction. Vale John Clarke. You brought your intelligence and humour to make the world brighter. Thursday nights on the ABC will never be the same again.
Sarah Russell, Fitzroy North
John and friends: I'll miss you all so much
Fred Dagg, farnarkling with Dave Sorenson, The Games, Clarke and Dawe. I never met him, but I am really going to miss him.
Bill Proctor, Launching Place
A simple telegram, and the rest is history
By chance I was seated next to Robin Williams (Science Show, ABC Radio National) at a community education conference in the late 1970s and I asked him, "How did you get John Clarke to be on your program?" Robin told me he had heard him on New Zealand radio and sent him a telegram that said, "I want you to come to Australia. There's $100 if you reply today". They got together and later co-wrote a fictitious paper for an ANZUS conference on the psychology of sheep. It was 30minutes before the audience realised they were being had.
Bob Greaves, Mount Eliza
Turnbull's genuine tribute to a great satirist
Our Prime Minister's words of tribute to John Clarke were uplifting, graceful and humble. To live in a democracy where the elected leader recognises the worth of the art of satire is a privilege we should not take for granted.
Bernadette Florence, Allans Flat
Our newest street: John Clarke Lane
Every Thursday evening, we greeted Clarke and Dawe (inexplicably with tubas) in Higson Lane off Flinders Lane. It would be a wonderful tribute to one of our greatest comedians to rename the lane in his honour.
Pete Nurse, Alphington
THE FORUM
We miss out, twice
I write as a person with lived experience of mental illness and recovery cycles. Many of my friends are accessing their share of the National Disability Insurance Scheme ("Don't buy the disability lie", Comment, 10/4). However, they have disabilities that can be assisted with physical aids and services. For those of us with a mental illness diagnosis, there are no such blessings.
The NDIS has effectively disabled us. We cannot buy a chair, cane, device, aid or person to reduce our suffering. Our suffering is in loneliness and humane love. Relief comes in the form of safe and knowledgeable gathering spaces, art studios, nature, spiritual comfort. The NDIS does not provide these spaces. In fact, its rollout killed them.
I do not advocate for the reintroduction of archaic, institutionalised rehab services. But removing the concept, and replacing it with the NDIS ethos of buying tools or a counsellor, has increased the lonely experience of mental illness. Many symptoms of mental illness are a result of isolation and disconnection. Those of us with a life of feeling this way need healing that the NDIS cannot provide. So we miss out twice.
Heidi Everett, Heidelberg
Workers without rights
I am glad that exploitation of employees in the hospitality industry is receiving media coverage; it has been suppressed for too long. One of my grandsons completed an apprenticeship some years ago but, until now, I had not understood when he told me about under-payment and working unpaid hours.
I queried why he did not accept offers of a "staff position"; to my old-fashioned mind, the suggestion had merit. Now I appreciate what this would mean: outrageous shift hours and no payment for the overtime he would be expected to work.
I felt cynical when I read Daniel Humm's comments about "passion" and "suffering" ("World's best chef reveals his secrets", BusinessDay, 10/4), particularly in light of the scandal involving the under-payment of staff at George Calombaris' restaurants. It really is a challenge for the union movement to flex some muscle and not bargain away workers' rights.
Ros Collins, Elwood
Let the kids be kids
How true that because today's society is in such a rush, the littlies are often swept up in the chaos when they are far too young ('Start young to make girls strong", 11/4). Steve Biddulph's article brought a tear to my eye, and was a timely reminder to not rush our children into growing up too fast. There is plenty of time to be an adult, not so much for being a child.
Stephanie Ashworth, Pascoe Vale South
The privileged few
Scott Morrison, in defending negative gearing tax breaks, could only note that just over 1.3million taxpayers negatively gear investment properties (The Age, 10/4). He is implicitly admitting that Coalition policy favours those individuals ahead of the rest of the country, not because of any true economic rationale or public interest, but merely to avoid pain at the ballot box. The overwhelming evidence suggests the main outcome of the policy is to push up house prices at the cost of the taxpayer, with little impact on housing stock.
Oliver Lloyd, Surrey Hills
Show us the proof
Scott Morrison, you claim that the majority of negatively geared investors have a taxable income below $80,000. Can you please provide the gross income figure that two-thirds of investors fall below. Their gross household income would be useful too. These are the pertinent figures – the ones that would support or sink your assertion that most users of negative gearing are your "average" mums and dads.
Gaye Boswell, Wantirna South
Prepare for the crash
Where has Scott Morrison been in the last 15 or so years? Has he not seen the impact of negative gearing? We sell assets that actually make money to overseas investors, while we invest in loss-making properties on the assumption that there will be a discounted capital gain when we sell it. But when property prices get to a point when even investors cannot justify these prices being paid and the negative cash flow that results, there will be a crash. History has a tendency to repeat itself.
Michael Macleod, Prahran
An investor's story
I am a housing investor. Over 40years, I and my family have lived in a two-bedroom, fibro cement shack that we enjoyed doing up, a mud brick house that we hand-built on a bush block, and our current home that we continue to improve, largely by our own labours. Our luck in buying when we did, and our efforts, have enabled us to purchase each successive property.
When we move from here, we hope to sell, for a fair price, to a family that will bring new life to our house, make enough to fund the next stage in our life, and provide some funds for our family. That, to me, is housing investment, not the cold acquisition of properties with the sole motive being personal profit.
David Johnston, Healesville
Yadda, yadda, yadda
Taxation and housing policies that have fuelled runaway prices are unfair and a significant threat to our national social and economic wellbeing. Sadly, Treasurer Scott Morrison's response to this crisis is – more of the same, served with a side dish of window dressing.
Linda Brownstein, Tyntynder South
Backbone crumbling
Scott Morrison might be right to assert that "mum and dad investors" are the backbone of the rental property market. They include Mr and Mrs Turnbull, and about 100 federal members and senators who own investment properties. A handful of these mums and dads own more than 10 properties. Many of their tenants are current, or aspiring mums and dads, who will never own their own home.
Norman Huon, Port Melbourne
Contradictory aims
When the Treasurer talks about the housing crisis makes, it makes one ask whether this government has any idea about how to solve it. On the one hand, it suggests that older owners should downsize their existing homes. However, this might jeopardise their chance of receiving the age pension due to their new found cash reserves.
On the other hand, it wants younger people to draw on their superannuation, which is intended to provide a nest egg on retirement. If they use it when they are young, they might be forced onto welfare when they are older – welfare which the government currently claims is causing an enormous burden on expenditure. It seems the government's position changes each day.
John Tingiri, Mornington
System geared to rich
As trusts (The Age, 11/4) are set up to reduce an individual's tax, what would be fairer than to allow couples to split their income before paying tax, as has been suggested in the past? This would help the average bloke to fight back against the advantages enjoyed by those who indulge in negative gearing, capital gains tax discounts and trusts.
Alex Brown, Ashburton
Forget about modesty
Matt Holden ("It's a toilet. Please stop waving it (your phone) around", Comment, 10/4), it is all a matter of degree. I went to a public toilet in a zoo in an Asian country, where there were minimalist cubicles with no doors. Everyone squatted, doing "the business" while also looking at their phones, in full view of the queue waiting for their turn. It puts things in perspective.
Julie Smith, Greta West
School of hard knocks
As a doctor who, many years ago, worked in hospitals for four years, I have great sympathy for the young doctors who are working in hospitals today. Their hours are probably slightly less than the crazy shifts we used to do (for example, 9am Saturday to midday on Monday).
However, in most other ways, I suspect the work has become much more difficult – and it was difficult enough back then. More is constantly expected from less, and the competition for training positions and employment appears to be constantly growing. The medical profession strives to achieve high standards of care for the general community but, as a rule, we treat each other appallingly.
Dr Stephen Whiteside, Northcote
Come on, pay up
Is there any chance that Public Transport Victoria could organise for a ticket inspector to come aboard the 679 (Ringwood to Chirnside) bus? I am staggered by the number of commuters (mainly young) who brazenly board without using a myki. They are not poor, judging by the latest smartphones they carry.
The drivers I have spoken to are frustrated and disempowered, and some cannot help but take these actions personally. They do not seem to challenge offenders because of fear for their own safety.What are we teaching our young people if we turn a blind eye to this thieving behaviour? Our buses cost Victorian taxpayers $600million a year and, according to the government, are the least popular form of public transport. I would hate to lose them because they are not financially viable.
Roger Fernando, Montrose
AND ANOTHER THING
![Tandberg](http://web.archive.org./web/20170414213331im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/i/f/y/4/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x0.png/1491890425173.png)
John Clarke
What will we do without his intelligent satire? Who can take his place? I am devastated.
Jan Taylor, Balnarring
In life and in death, John Clarke did it without fuss or flummery. Vale.
Razmi Wahab, Lower Plenty
Commiserations to Fred Dagg's six sons, all named Trevor. Your father is remembered with love.
Nina Wellington-Iser, Hawthorn East
Vale John Clarke. Peerless in his craft.
Jim McLeod, Sale
Another death mourned in Brunswick and across Australasia.
Peter McCarthy, Mentone
John Clarke has called his last warble. Farnarkling will never be the same without him.
Jim Picot, Altona
What a pity he didn't write his own obit. What great fun it would have been to read it.
Bill Pell, Emerald
The sane world has come to an end. Vale John Clarke.
Andy Indrans, Taradale
John Clarke was more of a guardian of democracy, free expression and speech than any politician.
Scott Ramsay, Strathdale
Furthermore
Bashar in name. Basher in nature.
John Kirk, Canterbury
President Trump, please remember that tit for tat doesn't work and two wrongs don't make a right.
Margaret Collings, Anglesea
George Calombaris' goose is well and truly cooked.
Catherine Boal, Waldara
Collective schadenfreude for Hawthorn's predicament has brought us all closer together
Jonathan Lipshut, Elwood
Garcia and Rose, you were magnificent. Both masters of sportsmanship when the heat was on. Such class.
David Price, Camberwell