![Illustration: Andrew Dyson](/web/20170429222942im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/s/z/h/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvsk8e.png/1493254696857.jpg)
I'm wondering which of our current values Andrew Laming thinks we should sing about ("MP calls for new national anthem verse to reflect values", April 26). It might be hard to wax lyrical about our treatment of asylum seekers, the reduction in foreign aid or the growing divide between rich and poor, for example.
We could sing the praises of patients forgoing good healthcare so as to fund tax cuts to big business and the massive increase in defence spending. The last line could be one of hope for a future, where all politicians are actually honourable and trustworthy; although that might be getting into the realm of flying pigs.
![Anzac Day March in Brisbane.](/web/20170429222942im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/r/x/7/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvsk8e.png/1493216970656.jpg)
Graham Lum North Rocks
I wondered when politicians would want to get rid of that pesky verse in our national anthem encouraging people to come over to share our bountiful lands. Looking at the values displayed by our politicians, CEOs and other role models, I have a few suggestions.
![Andrew Laming.](/web/20170429222942im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/s/b/a/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvsk8e.png/1493216970656.jpg)
Australians all let us rejoice
For we are rich and free
With politicians in my pocket
It's now all about me
Now with the poor and vulnerable
Downtrodden it's all right
For tax breaks, family trusts and such
We'll not give up the fight
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair
We've coal mines in abundance now
We're friends with miners all
Our reefs and water catchments
Will be fine, the risks are small
Those climate change believers willÂ
Be silenced once we're through
If regions find they're flooding more
We'll sell them a canoe
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair
We've stopped the boats so we are safe
Our land is girt by sea
Those fake news Manus Island tales
Will not get through to me
My mansion and investment homes
Give me a nice tax break
With all the real estate I buy
The more that I will make.
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair
Margaret Grove AbbotsfordÂ
Did Andrew Laming have something like this in mind?Â
We dig our soil to export coal
We also sell our beef,
We're fearsome foes and loyal bros
And once we had a reef.
For those who've come across the seas,
We've no room here for you,
We've closed the gates
To all but mates
To Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.
Alan Marel North Curl Curl
We tell those blokes who want to make their future in Australia:
"You must not beat your women here, or change their genitalia,
Our sheilas all have equal rights, don't treat them with disdain,
and by the way, don't deal in ice or traffic in cocaine."Â
Remember our First Peoples and Advance Australia Fair!
Some women wear bikinis here while others wear the burqa,
But find employment, quit the dole, or you'll be called a shirker.
Be gay or straight, just be a mate, or LGBTQ –
We once were male or female, now we haven't got a clue.Â
Remember now, you have to vote. Advance Australia Fair!
Doug Walker Baulkham Hills
Andrew Laming has suggested a new verse in our national anthem be penned, reflecting "Australians' larrikinism, resilience and sense of reward for effort". An unbeatable contender for such a stanza would be the words penned by the late sainted and deeply mourned satirist John Clarke in his masterwork: "We don't know how lucky we are"(Worth a view on YouTube). Although this was written to be sung by Fred Dagg, the New Zealand fictional character created by Clarke, I hope our Anzac siblings would be happy for it to be deployed on both sides of the ditch.
Sid Williams Strathfield
With perhaps the exception of the Internationale and the Marseilles I find national anthems dull, jingoistic and cliched. Given that the vast majority of Australians don't know the second verse of Advance Australia Fair, rather than add a third verse to reflect Australian values it would be far more representative if, like the Spanish, we adopted an anthem that has no words at all.
John Bailey Canterbury
I agree with Andrew Laming. How can a line such as "For those who've come across the seas, we've boundless plains to share" possibly reflect contemporary Australian values? As to a sense of reward for effort, might I suggest including the phrase "wealth for toil"?Perhaps Mr Laming can spend his many long parliamentary recesses learning the words of the current anthem before he contemplates writing another.
Philip Cooney Wentworth Falls
Never mind a new verse, how about a new song? Just google Peter Dawson singing "Song of Australia" to know what our anthem should really be.
Don Firth Wooli
WestConnex plans for busy area reveal epic stupidity
Wednesday morning I joined local residents at another protest against the WestConnex, this one at Euston Road Alexandria where an entrance and exit road for the tollway is being constructed that will spew tens of thousands of vehicles into the narrow already congested streets of the inner city.
One wonders not only at the epic stupidity of forcing that many cars into an already over-trafficked area, but how it is that public money can be used to build a major road less than two metres from bedrooms containing children? To add insult to injury the morning's removal of trees, way before the time the space will be needed for the road, appears to demonstrate the wilful contempt the publicly owned Sydney Motorway Corporation has for residents. Yes, there were tears.
If this road is such a good idea, Premier [Gladys] Berejiklian must at the least order the resumption [by the government] of the residential buildings along Euston Road, and for the residents to be paid fair market value for their homes. A better alternative of course would be to simply stop this mess and build rail lines and take jobs to greater western Sydney. Now that would be building a better city.
Colin Hesse Marrickville
PM's sabre-rattling bodes ill for nation
Malcolm Turnbull chose Anzac Day, a day of remembrance of sacrifice, to flag to the US administration his willingness to "consider" requests for further military involvements by Australia ("PM warns of 'long-term' deployment", April 26). This follows his recent proclamations regarding Syria and North Korea with similar intent. The mindset is disturbing.
The PM's sabre-rattling is a well-worn path of a desperate leader seeking the cloak of nationalism to boost his support. Nothing could be considered more worrying than a leader walking us into wars.
Rod Milliken Greenwell Point
If the Parliament decides to send forces overseas again, the first batch to go should be the politicians themselves. Then we could wait and see how they get on before deciding whether to send more troops away. I don't think we'd become too involved with many scraps overseas.
Ron Field Bermagui
What's with this "hand on heart" stunt that Turnbull is doing!? It comes out of the same bag of phoney gestures as George W. Bush's, now mandatory, lapel-badge flags – and his shameful invention of the "moment" of silence to replace the minute of silence which had historically been our (small enough) sacrifice to victims.
And what's with all the flags festooning everything?
If you are interested in maintaining Australian values then surely reticence was among the most attractive.
John Weiley Camperdown
Moaning about Mona Vale traffic
![An artist's impression of the suburb, where up to 3400 houses would be built.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170429222942im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/2/s/t/l/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1493121369694.png)
An artist's impression of the suburb, where up to 3400 houses would be built. Photo: Supplied
Rob Stokes, member for Pittwater and NSW Planning Minister, must live in a parallel universe if he thinks 9000 more people can be housed "sustainably" in Ingleside anytime soon ("Housing plan gets red light from transport department", April 26). Either that, or he never commutes during peak hour.
My husband regularly takes over an hour driving 30 kilometres to the city from Mona Vale leaving at 6.15am and that's on a good day without any traffic. Despite catching a bus at 7.10am for a 22-kilometre journey, my children are often late for school at 8.15am. Even if Mona Vale Road is upgraded to two lanes, planning history has shown that it will not take long for increased traffic to again cause congestion and lengthy delays.
Rob Stokes has forgotten that his first responsibility is to his existing constituents in Pittwater – to improve their lives rather than compound their problems. Yes, there is a lot of land around Ingleside that could be developed for housing one day but certainly not until we have better road, public transport, local jobs and schools. Thankfully someone from Transport for NSW is aware of the problems and has applied the brakes to this ill-conceived plan. Perhaps they should be the member for Pittwater.
Rebecca Clarke Mona Vale
True Australian values
What a wonderful piece regarding Captain Feng. ("From Shanghai to Baghdad: Captain Feng's Anzac Journey", April 26). Not only was it a wonderful story because of his ethnicity but even more pertinent to all of us is that he put aside an obviously high-flying career where he could earn big money to join the Defence forces to protect the way of life that we all enjoy. Captain Feng clearly had instilled in him a culture of duty and selflessness which we honour in our veterans but which aren't always evident in our modern society. Thank you Captain Feng for your service to your country and for demonstrating what true Australian values are.
Bill Higgins Cammeray
Most Australians would also be unaware that we were not fighting for Australian values in 1914. We were fighting for the British Empire because Queen Victoria's offspring had been married off to various European royalty, and two minor royals had been assassinated in Sarajevo – a place most Australians had never heard of.
Jan Carroll Potts Point
Sugar's demonisation fair
Christopher Woodley (Letters, April 26) is right that the evidence demonising saturated fat, when nutritional science was in its infancy, was thin on the ground because there were apparent exceptions such as the "French paradox", the Maasai diet and the Eskimo diet . However , there are no exceptions to the rule that communities that increase their consumption of sugary drinks experience an epidemic of obesity. One reason is that sugar is not simply another form of calories. It is an appetite stimulant for all calories.
Patrick Bradley Wollongong
Value of Leunig's view
Since the days of opposition to the war in Vietnam, and even before that, Australia has been blessed with brilliant cartoonists, whose drawings really are worth 1000 words. They can say in one cartoon what doesn't seem politically permissible to publish in words.I want to personally thank Petty, Leunig, Le Lievre, Letch, Moir and Wilcox for maintaining my sanity in these times when half-truths, false facts, known unknowns or statements out of Canberra clutter up large sections of the print media.
Roseanne Bonney Leichhardt
We all know what Leunig's getting at; however Prime Minister Turnbull has a treacherous path to tread in dealing with the Trump administration to ensure Australia's best interests are served. Added to which, in demonising the USA, we should perhaps temper our criticism by recalling that American men and women died in their hundreds of thousands saving us from Japanese fascism. On this occasion Leunig's very considerable talent could have been put to better use.
Peter Thomas Rose Bay
Marks on the scale of irreverence
David Andrew (Letters, April 26), is being wished "Happy Anzac Day" any more irreverent than being wished a "Merry Christmas"?
Peter Procopis Burradoo
Falling foul of the bullies
The very same conservatives who bemoan "political correctness" and the supposed death of free speech are bullying Yassmin Abdel-Magied and the ABC for her rhetorical flourish on Anzac Day ("Yassmin Abdel-Magied courts controversy with Anzac Day Facebook post", smh.com.au April 26). The most worrying political correctness in this country is the myth that Anzac Day is apolitical, and the taboo around calling out Australia's dark past and its dark present.
Stephen Wilson Five Dock
It seems that if a white Anglo-Saxon Newscorp cartoonist mocks Indigenous parents, it is just part of free speech. However, if a Muslim part-time ABC journalist asks us to also remember the poor wretches languishing on Manus and Nauru on Anzac Day, she deserves to be severely castigated and even deported.The hypocrisy is mind-boggling.
Jerry Stiel Lilyfield
Merger sees Cory First
The obvious name for the newly merged party is Cory First ("Cory Bernardi's Australian Conservatives to merge with Family First", smh.com.au, April 26).
Laurence Pearson Castlecrag
Trump mark II?
Are we being warmed up to the idea that Ivanka Trump will be the next candidate for the US Republican party?
Gail Broadbent Queens Park
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