Using freedom of speech to tell Australians how to think

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 4 years ago

Using freedom of speech to tell Australians how to think

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

Illustration: Cathy WilcoxCredit:

No doubt there are nations which seek to dominate others by increasingly sophisticated means ("Challenge to democracy to counter Russia, China", December 10). Australia needs to clean up its own backyard, however, before donning the mantle of victimhood. It was Australia which spied on Timor-Leste in a most underhanded effort to dominate and gain. In doing this we gave the world an object lesson in the use of Andrew Hastie's list of "diplomacy, media, investment flows, infrastructure development, intellectual property theft and espionage".

Illustration: John Shakespeare

Illustration: John ShakespeareCredit:

Alas, this was not "to push back against authoritarian states" but to swindle an impoverished neighbour. We are now subverting our own judicial processes by invoking secrecy and "national security" to cover our misdeeds as we pursue the two Australian patriots who acted with integrity in the affair: "Witness K" and his lawyer Bernard Collaery. I call on Mr Hastie to work towards the discontinuance of the cases against these men. Ignoring Australia's greed, deceit, corruption and revenge in this matter badly weakens the argument for vigilance against others. - Susan Connelly, Lakemba

Since Tony Abbott became Prime Minister, this government has stripped people of numerous rights. Rights to privacy, rights to industrial action, rights to environmental protests and more. Dissent in all forms is being criminalised yet Hastie warns us of authoritarian leanings in other countries. This is a joke, right? - Graeme Finn, St Peters

Great powers behave like great powers irrespective of whether they are autocratic or democratic. Of course China and Russia try to influence other countries by fair means or foul but so does the USA, the UK, Australia and everyone else. We are not as important to China or Russia as we think we are nor are we as easily fooled by Chinese propaganda as Mr Hastie thinks we are. - Cavan Hogue, Haymarket

Hastie's comments about authoritarian regimes in China and Russia are irrefutable. However, unless he also recognises the same dangers in countries like USA, Indonesia, Brazil, Israel and Saudi Arabia his arguments are open to dismissal as hypocrisy. - Peter Mudd, East Lismore

It is a rare event when the powerful – authoritarian or otherwise – adopt other than self-interest in their dealings with other states. Belligerent words from Hastie focusing on the "usual suspects" won't change that situation. - Andrew Thomas, Leichhardt

According to some research, conservatives are more prone to perceive threats and respond to them more viscerally. Something to do with a hyper-active amygdala. Wisdom and prudence will lie somewhere betwixt the Hasties and the Carrs or Rudds. - Jeffrey Mellefont, Coogee

For Hastie to advocate a more bellicose public opposition to authoritarianism runs the risk of our becoming more openly like those we deplore. - Ron Sinclair, Bathurst

Advertisement

I think Hastie should cast his net closer to home to discover why Western democracy is under threat. For instance, if he were to ask people under 30 what Magna Carta and Kim Kardashian represent, would he get blank stares for the former and vacuous responses for the latter? - Pasquale Vartuli, Wahroonga

Hastie's warnings about non-military attacks by authoritarian states deserve to be taken seriously. The trick will be to counter them without undermining the democracy and freedoms we seek to defend. - Andrew Macintosh, Cromer

Cheating on emissions exposes a lack of integrity

Regarding the Prime Minister’s proposed use of “carry-over credits” to enable Australia to meet its climate change commitments made in Paris, recognised economist Ross Garnaut makes the point that there is an ultimate economist cost to this method ("Credits carry a high cost, Garnaut says", December 10). He also declared that it defies the spirit of the Paris agreement. It’s a bit like a football team about to kick off in the opening match of the 2020 season, claiming a start of 10 points over the opposition “because we beat them in the grand final in 2019 by 10 points”. When is the PM going to see that this is, in effect, cheating, and, by definition, unethical? - Peter Robson, Forestville

Those upright and environmentally sensitive global citizens Russia, Brazil and Ukraine are to follow Australia’s lead and claim "carry-over-credits" to offset carbon output. How good is that to be a world leader? - Don Wormald, Turramurra

OK, let us just accept that Australia has "carry-over credits" for emissions reductions. So what? Although Australia, on a global basis, only generates a small amount of emissions this is clearly not the point. Australia needs strong leadership in realising that this is a planet issue not a country-by-country sovereignty issue. - Michael Blissenden, Dural

We pay all manner of taxes, but baulk at the most sensible and important of all: a tax on pollution. - Harry Polley, Dural

Fossil fuels were cheap energy because we sent the bill to the future. And now, it’s here. - Shayne Chester, Potts Point

Angus Taylor is in Madrid trying to convince the global community to let Australia off the hook and approve the government’s dodgy emissions accounting ("Paris pettifogging sets bad example for the world", December 10), while Gladys Berejiklian reduces funding to Fire and Rescue and the RFS; Albanese endorses ongoing coal exports; and Scott Morrison prays. What is it about our politicians that allows them to turn their backs on science, the environment and the Australian people who are fighting catastrophic fires? - Penny Rosier, North Epping

I have decided to follow the example of our national leaders. I believe my household only utilises about 0.001 per cent of water used in the Sydney basin. Being such a low contributor, I don’t see what difference my conforming to water restrictions will make to the water shortage. Further, I have built up a number of credits over the years by hardly washing my car, watering the garden spasmodically and not drinking tap water. I believe the balance will actually allow me to use more water during the restrictions period. I would like to thank Scott and Angus for providing such an excellent model. - David Troughton, Camperdown

Budget cuts are our political plague

I was both somewhat depressed and quite angry as I read the paper this morning. ICAC is being
deprived of proper funding; the ABC is being forced by budget cuts to shed significant staff numbers; the Civil Aviation Safety authority is, as a consequence of budget cuts, understaffed and people are concerned about safety risks. The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is being “reviewed” with the minister’s aim to make it “self-funding” (read development and commercialisation). There are no doubt many other examples of worthy and/or critical organisations being starved of adequate funding. It seems to me that in their search for budget purity our governments have absolutely no understanding of what their priorities should be. A pox on their houses. - David Stewart, Seaforth

Hands off harbour

It is essential that the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is maintained ("Soaring costs imperil entry to harbour's historic gems", December 9). These harbour trust lands are full of Aboriginal, natural, convict and military heritage. Currently they are protected by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust Act and by the (Environmental Preservation and Biodiversity Act (EPBC). They will lose that federal protection if they are returned to the state government or local councils. We are not talking about a Sydney asset here. These harbourside assets belong to all Australians. - Kate Eccles, Mosman Parks and Bushland Association

It was a shock to read the unilateral suggestion from Mr Carrozzi, the chair of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, that the organisation might take over the administration of Callan Park. The trust clearly has enough problems financing its current portfolio without taking on Callan Park – unless it sees Callan Park as a potential commercial milch cow. - Hall Greenland, Friends of Callan Park, Leichhardt

Tunnel closed

I understand the business case for the Northern Beaches Tunnel is in the locked bottom drawer of the Premier's desk, along with the plans for the Metro West rail line and Parramatta Riverside Theatre rebuilds (Letters, December 10). - Peter Mahoney, Oatley

Dig deep, Labor

The ALP should simply stop fence sitting (again) over coal ("Coal comfort for political climate", December 9). It is a shifty look. Scott Morrison has a one-seat majority. They should think strategically and pragmatically. Say goodbye to the seat of Hunter and hello to the seat of Chisholm. Coal miners and evangelical Christians are lost causes to Labor, but smart and hardworking pre-selected candidates doorknocking in every seat from next year could get them valuable information about Australians that no pollster would ever find. - Wendy Atkins, Cooks Hill

Your correspondent suggests that "Albanese is on the right track to reclaim the lost voters from the last election" (Letters, December 10). Maybe so, but does Albo take into account the loss of voters who, in the previous election, had seen a glimmer of hope in the Labor Party’s environmental aspirations? I may as well vote for the Liberal Party, because if I don’t, someone else will. - Marie Del Monte, Ashfield

At a time when we are eager to put a name tag on any new trend, let’s call out Albanese’s justification for continuing to export coal for what it is. He is using the “drug dealers’ defence”. He says that it’s tough about the negative consequences, but let’s ignore them and make use of the pluses – in his case, the political advantage to the Labor Party of getting Queensland and NSW mining voters on side. Arrant cynicism at its worst. The continuing sale of drugs to addicts has terrible consequences for them: the continuing sale of coal has terrible consequences for all of us, worldwide. - Nedra Orme, Neutral Bay

Executive pay outrage

Last month, it was reported that Qantas CEO Alan Joyce earned $23.88 million in the previous financial year, and now we learn that his former colleague and now former A2 Milk chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka received $6 million from the sale of A2 Milk shares gifted to her when she joined the company, which she has left after 18 months service (“Beyond the pail? Former dairy boss gets the cream”, December 10). How can such payments to someone who did not start the company or invent its product be justified? - Maurice Critchley, Kenthurst

Nationalise healthcare

It is becoming clear that the private sector cannot manage health insurance. On the one hand we have consumers abandoning private health insurance because the cost is too high and the coverage is too limited, and on the other, the private companies complain that their profit margins are too small and government restrictions on fee increases are too severe. The obvious solution is to nationalise the sector and bring all health care under the Medicare umbrella. - John Croker, Woonona

Skyscraper shocker

The NSW government's decision to allow future CBD building heights to rise beyond 300 metres is beyond comprehension. ("Tall storeys: Sydney's Skyline set to soar above 300m", December 9).

The over-concentration of towering office blocks and apartments has already turned what could have been an attractive, human-scale harbour city into an ugly, soulless monster of a place, trapping heat, smoke, and milling crowds in its micro-climate, compromising the health of those who work or live there. The CBD is not welcoming to visitors because city perspective has been lost, while the beauty of the harbour, which once set the ambience of Sydney, is fast diminishing under the dominance of skyscrapers. - Corin Fairburn Bass, Turramurra

Shattered illusions

As a parent I feel deeply for his daughter who was allegedly raped and mistreated ("Cloud over Hawke's legacy", December 10). It leaves me with a sadness that a man of Bob Hawke's stature in the public arena behaved like a pygmy in his private life. - Bill McMahon, Lennox Head

Fascist check list

I recently came across an old poster (online) that was for sale in a gift shop at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. Its title was “Early Warning Signs of Fascism”.

As I read the sign, I became concerned at how many of the behaviours on the list mirrored our current political environment: Powerful and continuing nationalism; disdain for human rights; identification of enemies as a unifying cause; rampant sexism; controlled mass media; obsession with national security; religion and government intertwined; corporate power protected; labour power suppressed; obsession with crime and punishment; rampant cronyism and corruption. Sound familiar? - Allan Train, Salamander Bay

Departments doing FA

Speaking, as your correspondent was, of creative names for Commonwealth departments (Letters, December 10), you can not go past the old Department of Finance and Administration. This was abbreviated by certain Canberra cynics (not me, of course) to "Do FA". - David Markham, Flynn (ACT)

Poetic tradies

I'm nominating Said Hanrahan by John O'Brien as the compulsory poetry study for all tradies, given the current climate crisis (Letters, December 10). "If we don't get three inches man, or four to break this drought, we'll all be ruined, said Hanrahan, before the year is out." - Robert Hickey, Green Point

Why only every tradie? - Louise Dolan, Birchgrove

The art of moving

Does Scott Morrison’s announcement that he’s merging the arts department with transport mean that, to him, being sent up in a cartoon is the same as being hit by a train (Wilcox, December 10)? - George Baumann, Balmain

Through streaming eyes

Yesterday morning, when I woke and saw all the smoke, I thought "this is no joke! The fires are raging because the climate is changing!" Does this mean I'm woke? - Rory McCarthy, Pretty Beach

  • To submit a letter to The Sydney Morning Herald, email letters@smh.com.au. Click here for tips on how to submit letters.

Most Viewed in National

Loading