The latest census data showing 146,600 people arriving in Victoria in 2016 ("Crammed – Victoria's growing pains",1/7), is yet another alarm bell that our infrastructure is going to be totally overwhelmed. Should this trend continue, Melbourne may have a massive population of 10 million by mid-century. And with various property taxes accounting for 44 per cent of state government revenue, the whole economic wellbeing of the state is totally dependent on excessive immigration.
Given all the dire warnings about our liveability and amenity, which we are starting to see already, a new economic and population vision is needed to avert Melbourne becoming a congested, polluted and less liveable place for us all. The first political party to offer this will find a willing community flocking to it.
Mathew Knight, Malvern East
Tunnel vision can be a good thing
"Crammed" highlights a booming population eroding Melbourne's standard of living. This is evident in the decreasing amount of parkland compared to future population size. Two bold initiatives are recommended.
First, the Botanic Gardens-Kings Domain parkland should be extended continuously to the south bank of the Yarra River by lowering Alexandra Avenue into a tunnel. The parkland should be linked by walking bridges across the Yarra to the north bank parklands by similarly lowering Batman Avenue into a tunnel.
Second, in the west, the railyards should be consolidated creating a West Botanic Garden extending J J Holland Park south to Dynon Road similarly joined by walking bridges across the rail line.
Malcolm Cameron, Camberwell
Hostage to conventional wisdom
Your report ("Traffic chaos revealed", 3/7) shows that not only are Melbourne's roads on track to become more congested and chaotic than Sydney's, but that Melbourne has a leadership problem in the Victorian Parliament.
The Minister for Public Transport, Jacinta Allan, for example, has responded by saying the government was spending more than $20 million to boost capacity on the public transport network in order to "reduce congestion on our roads".
Therein lies the problem: our political leaders are really hostage to the conventional wisdom. Solving traffic congestion requires a significant change in the way we think. More infrastructure and public transport capacity, on its own, can never be enough for a city with a population growth rate of 2.4 per cent.
As Barry Jones states in Knowledge Courage Leadership, we need leaders with the capacity to think heroically and provide a vision rather than more of the mantra that unlimited growth can be sustained simply by more spending on public transport systems.
John Glazebrook, Endeavour Hills
We need free spaces to breathe
The new planning laws that have been forced on shires around Melbourne by the state government will treat large areas of green wedge land the same as metropolitan Melbourne. This will lead to the fast death of the lungs of Melbourne for a quick buck by developers and at the cost of local populations. Developments and commercialisation of the green wedges without much oversight by councils will rip the guts out of the few green spaces left around Melbourne. We are very worried at the Mornington Peninsula, and so should be many other people around the fringe of the metropolis.
Rupert Steiner, Balnarring Beach
FORUM
Cladding crisis
Once again, Victorians in particular are reminded of the high price they are still paying for the passionate privatisation agenda of the Kennett Government.
Lest we forget, it was Premier Kennett's equally passionate (some might say, aggressive) Planning Minister, Rob MacLellan's privatisation agenda for the building inspection function of Local Government, in 1996, that is largely responsible for the mess in Melbourne apartments today ("Victorian Government appoints Ted Baillieu to lead urgent probe into flammable cladding", 3/7).
Minister MacLellan had eyes on the planning process too but thanks to the assertiveness of the Planning Institute – Vic Division, amid the deafening silence among other professional bodies and erstwhile cheerleading by the developers, we at least managed to stop him in his tracks. Not all planners are sycophants to power or "developers friends". Some of us, though, can't help wishing the powerful had listened to us sooner. If so, there might not have been the privatisation domino effect around the country and there would still be some investor and resident confidence in the safety of all those apartments.
Bernadette George, president, Planning Institute of Australia, Vic Division
Gonski funding flaw
I agree with Amanda Vanstone (The Age, 3/7) that Simon Birmingham has performed well in getting Gonski 2 passed through government.
However, there is a major shortcoming remaining, which Tony Walker pinpointed in his excellent article (The Age, 26/6).
The socioeconomic status system (SES) which was introduced during John Howard's education reforms in 2001 is still in place.
This formula is used to allocate funding to schools and results in some of the wealthiest schools being delivered a "cornucopia of overfunding".
For true equity in educational funding the SES needs to be dumped in favour of a more accurate needs-based formula.
Robin Jensen, Castlemaine
Private privilege
Some good points by Amanda Vanstone ("Golden handshake is Catholic gilt", 2/7), but can she or anyone explain why private religious schools should get any government funding at all?
Joanne Dietrich, Oak Park
A way to feed all
It is true that "Population costs" (Letters, 3/7). It's not just Melbourne. The world's population is growing too fast, and people are struggling to feed themselves. Tragically, East Africa is experiencing famine again. The world cannot feed itself and the West's cruel factory farming methods are not the answer. Bill Gates is backing entrepreneurs to develop plant-based alternatives that are better for the planet, our health and the animals. I wish our politicians looked to Gates's "The Future of Food" blog to find inspiration about how Australia can tap into this opportunity instead of squabbling about their petty vanities and who said what to whom.
Jane Kendall, Hawthorn
People before profit
Remember how privatisation was to deliver cheaper, more efficient utilities in a marketplace free of fusty government regulation?
Behold the Dickensian world of poverty and misery where, as Liz Minter writes (The Age, 2/7) people lack not just money but knowledge of how to evade the jaws of "organisations for whom profit is always more important than human wellbeing".
Neoliberalism has delivered unprecedented living costs, hardship and social inequality, with 2.5 million Australians, including one in four children, mired in poverty.
Taxpayers – not the market – pay for the associated physical and mental ill-health, family breakdown, welfare, legal services, homelessness and privatised prisons, with unquantifiable human suffering.
Meanwhile, low-inequality Scandinavian countries provide an alternative, socially functional economic model.
They invest strongly in, and care for, their people, and lead the world in education, prosperity, entrepreneurship, gender equality and happiness surveys, despite inhospitable climates.
Barbara Chapman, Hawthorn
No-brainer, sport
"With a bloodied face, near-closed right eye and badly bruised cheekbone" is description reported in The Age (3/7) of boxer Jeff Horn after his defeat of Manny Pacquiao. It doesn't mention the invisible damage to the brain caused by punches by an opponent. They call this sport?
Chris Rhodes, Gisborne
Honourable Gillard
When Kevin Rudd was ousted by Julia Gillard he quietly stuck the knife into her back. When she lost the challenge she stated she would go to the backbench and retire at the next election. She did this with grace and did nothing to undermine her government. Tony Abbott stated when he lost the prime ministership he would do the same. It's a shame the press didn't support Ms Gillard; she's been the only one who can keep a promise.
Linda Reynolds, Croydon Hills
Just a show pony
It is a great irony that Malcolm Turnbull calls for an end to "personality politics" when it appears that was his main, and as turns out, only justification, for the top job.
Rob Ward, Lake Tyers Beach
Absent health options
As a practising therapist of both adolescents and adults it was concerning to notice the significant absence of therapeutic options taken in Kalei's situation (The Age, 3/7). I often have referrals of both adolescents and adults who have begun a pattern of deliberate self-harm. Frequently they have already had courses of cognitive-behavioural therapy which have not been sufficient and then referred to a psychiatrist like myself for medication approaches.
But this leaves out a key area otherwise known as psychodynamic psychotherapy. It is wrong to suggest medication should be regarded as the last resort if cognitive-behavioural therapy has not helped. Psychodynamic psychotherapy has a strong evidence base and often helps patients make sustained improvements if or when cognitive-behavioural therapy has failed to deliver.
Larry Hermann, South Yarra
Excellent choice
What an appropriate, an excellent choice of chair for beyondblue. Julia Gillard's article (The Age, 3/7) reaffirms my conviction that she will go on to be an intelligent, effective and empathetic leader and spokeswoman for the alarming number of Australians with mental illness.
Kay Arthur, Diamond Creek.
No cheerleading please
Mark Kenny has captured perfectly the need for Malcolm Turnbull to survive until the next election (The Age, 3/7). Another factor is the role played by media commentators.
Julia Gillard suffered at the hands of such commentators, who would have felt vindicated when she was dumped in 2013. Now they are after Turnbull (not that he has been without fault). The manner in which some laud Tony Abbott and rarely critique his destructive behaviour shows their blatant desire to flex political muscle.
While both sides of politics have underperformed over the past decade, some elements of the media need to consider the role that they have played in the fractured confidence in our political system.
Now, more than ever, we need objective and intelligent commentary, not shrill cheerleading.
Peter Farrer, Brighton East
Remember Doncaster
The Grattan Institute's revelation that north-east Melbourne has the worst traffic comes as no surprise (The Age, 3/7). It should also remind planners that the idea for trains to Doncaster Hill springs from a genuine need long recognised by the community.
Of all regions, Melbourne's north-east suffers from the greatest historical imbalance between provision for private cars and public transport. Elsewhere in Melbourne, from the inner city to the fringe, every municipality has at least one train line traversing it. The City of Manningham is the outlier, despite a population equivalent to Ballarat's and a history of urban development going back more than half a century.
The lack of fast, efficient mass transit linking Manningham to inner Melbourne is often excused by suggesting this suburban population has no particular need to travel to the city. The daily clog on the freeway should give the lie to this.
Tony Morton, President, Public Transport Users Association
Coach poaching
The headline in Footy Record said "How to find a coach". That's easy, just poach another assistant coach from Hawthorn!
Carol Hunt, Mt Eliza
AND ANOTHER THING
Intelligence you say
The editorial (The Age, 3/7) about the development of phones with artificial intelligence is interesting although it doesn't mention the artificial stupidity it seems to create in most users.
Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill
Abbott
Is narcissism on the rise? The answer in two words, Tony Abbott.
Ed Veber, Malvern East
I would think Tony is Malcolm's best marketing tool. The more you see of Tony ...
Gary Bryfman, Brighton
The coalition was headed for an unmitigated defeat under Abbott's leadership.
Paul Pearson, Kaniva
Who will rid me of this troublesome Abbott?
Doug Shapiro, Doncaster East
For the ALP, Tony Abbott is the gift that keeps giving.
Thos Puckett, Ashgrove
Other matters
Remember the old slogan "Populate or Perish"? It needs to be updated to "Populate and Perish".
Craig Calvert, Montmorency
Perry Becker (3/7) compares the offer of jobs in Queensland with the value of the Reef. But the offer of jobs is a furphy. How many are there in an autonomous mine?
Beverley McIntyre, Camberwell
We all know that same-sex marriage laws will change. Look at the rest of the world. Why do the Liberals continue their nonsense?
Roger Vincent, Fitzroy, SA
Libs blasted as "lazy self-indulgent". Then, "The murky world of the Greens". Labor have happily gone fishin'.
Peter Johns, Sorrento
Traffic infrastructure must provide for the distant future, not just for the current chaos.
Maurice Morgan, Balwyn