LETTERS

The JobKeeper rorters

Christine Holgate rewarded executives with watches worth $20,000 (this was within her remit) for a job extremely well done. Scott Morrison is not doing anything about all the companies whose profits have gone up but which refuse to give back their JobKeeper money. He did not check his facts before his tirade against Christine Holgate. There is no question about who has to go.

Rita Reid, Port Melbourne

Choose advisers carefully

Scott Morrison’s refusal to apologise to Christine Holgate for his comments in Parliament shows the same lack of judgment in so many of his decisions – for example, not attending the Women’s March 4 Justice. It leaves me wondering who is advising him apart from his wife, Jen. John Wyatt, Armadale

PM’s very flexible rules

The Prime Minister has been very critical of the way taxpayer funds were used by Christine Holgate when she was CEO of Australia Post. However, he vehemently defends, on the basis of ‘‘being within the guidelines’’, any questions relating to what often appears to be the misuse of taxpayer funds by those in government. The most recent example being more than $17 million spent on VIP flights for MPs (The Age, 12/4) who surely could have accessed commercial flights. One rule for some.

Maire Mills, Glen Iris

Evidence of misogyny

I always felt that the four Cartier watches were insufficient reason for Scott Morrison’s over-the-top performance in Parliament. However, Elizabeth Knight (Business, 14/4) points out, in relation to Christine Holgate, that, ‘‘in the course of her evidence to yesterday’s Senate committee inquiry, it became clear she did not agree with plans to privatise Australia Post’’.

Standing in the way of the ideological imperative of this government to privatise government enterprises, especially if they are profitable, is asking for the proverbial steamroller to run right over you; that is exactly what Mr Morrison did to Christine Holgate. In the context of claims that the government is riddled with misogynistic, bullying behaviour, Christine Holgate’s treatment by Morrison could not have provided better evidence.

Maurie Trewhella, Hoppers Crossing

‘We’ are Australian

Imagine you are a Chinese Australian. You may have a heritage of exploitation from the gold rush days when your family was tolerated as long as they were not too successful or too numerous, or you may be a more recent arrival, even a refugee from the oppression of the Chinese Communist Party.

Now it is Australia in 2021 and you are regarded as part of an ethnic warehouse to supply the public service when Chinese speakers are needed (The Age, 12/4) but at the same time you are regarded as a potential security risk. We do not, of course, want to go to the trouble of training our ‘‘own’’ citizens in Chinese language and culture, which is even harder work than panning for gold, so we continue to rely on ready-made Chinese Australians for information about their alien culture while making it plain we distrust ‘‘them’’. Dr Trevor Hay,

Melbourne Graduate School of

Education, University of Melbourne

Please, say that again

Colin Chapman – ‘‘Contemporary concerns’’ (Letters, 14/4) – let us hope maths students have highly developed language skills so that they can benefit from ‘‘a program of educational opportunity that embeds technology-agnostic computation, stochastic and heuristic sensibilities as a platform from which pedagogical renewal in mathematics may emerge’’.

Angela O’Connor, Glen Iris

For me, a risk worth taking

According to the data, the blood clots associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine impact roughly one in 200,000 people. A quarter of those, one in 800,000, may die from the condition. As someone who wants to see a return to relatively normality, and who desperately wants to see family overseas, the potential deaths of around 30 Australians in 25 million from this rare condition is something I am selfishly willing to accept, and risk myself by taking the shot. I will take it as soon as it is offered.

This is far from our greatest threat. We stand to lose so much more by not steamrolling ahead, including another potential outbreak triggering large numbers of deaths in our vulnerable communities; not to mention years of separation from our loved ones outside the country and the billions of dollars in lost revenue from our hermetically sealed international border. James O’Keefe,

East Melbourne

Protect aged care heroes

Re ‘‘Aged care, disability staff scramble for jabs’’ (The Age, 14/4). During the lockdowns, personal care workers stepped up to provide the care and companionship to aged care residents when relatives were unable to visit. In my family’s experience, they are the unsung heroes of the aged care system.

They enable residents to retain a modicum of independence and ensure they feel part of a community. Without them, the wheels would truly fall off our struggling aged care system. My family is fortunate that our mother and all residents at her home have received both doses of the vaccine. However, it is essential that vaccinations for staff are the priority in this botched rollout. Greg Hunt and James Merlino, make it happen.

Felicity Browne, Kooyong

Let’s try diplomacy first

Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie says: ‘‘The ADF’s core business will always be the application of lethal violence in the defence of our values, sovereignty and interests.’’ Indeed. But surely one of our values is to use it as a last resort. In Iraq and Afghanistan, lethal violence was our action of first choice. In East Timor, our show of force was enough. When will we stop deploying our lethal violence in fruitless military engagements when diplomacy and engagement will be more productive of peace and prosperity? Dick Danckert,

Armstrong Creek

Futility and cost of war

NATO, the US and Australia are withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan after the longest war in our history. How many lives have been destroyed, how much money has been wasted? No doubt on what will be proven to be just as futile as the Vietnam War.

Reg Murray, Glen Iris

Protecting workers’ jobs

Branch closures (The Age, 13/4) are just the end stage of banks’ disregard for customer convenience. By providing fewer staff and less service in branches, they can then use the self-fulfilling argument that account holders do not want to bank in person. One branch in my area stations a staff member at the door to inquire why customers want to enter and then ‘‘remind’’ them of functions which may be performed at the ATM outside. I informed him that, having once been retrenched, I am trying to keep him and his colleagues in jobs. I doubt his bosses are listening.

Elizabeth Morris, Elsternwick

Truly a disgusting state. . .

Peter Boone (Letters, 15/4) I am disgusted at the state of all our highways and freeways, not just the Eastern. The Ring Road and Tulla, not to mention the West Gate and Monash freeways – piles of rubbish along the roadsides, long grass and dead weeds, graffiti on everything, broken signs and fences. Clearly VicRoads has cut its maintenance, and Melbourne looks like a disgraceful mess. Recently I met my local MP, Melissa Horne, to talk about this, so I am hoping someone in the Victorian government will do something. We pay enough in taxes, regos etc, and VicRoads needs to maintain our roads.

Scott Young, Yarraville

. . . on roads and highways

I am in total agreement with Peter Boone regarding the Eastern Freeway. It is the same all over Melbourne – weeds growing metres high in median strips, broken branches left for months on the sides of roads. The beginning of Queens Road off St Kilda Road is so ugly. Melbourne is a disgrace. Not so in the country towns, which are well kept. Melburnians should be demanding better

Margery Renwick, Brighton

Phil, just one of the boys

I knew Prince Philip when he was a plain lieutenant during the war at the South East Asia Command where his uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was the Supreme Allied Commander. He was one of us, very down to earth and fun loving. The rest is history. RIP Phil. Fred Menzies,

North Dandenong

Our warped priorities

At least 474 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody since the royal commission findings around deaths in custody was tabled in 1991. That is an average of nearly 16 a year over the 30 years since 1991. No outrage, no outpouring of grief, no apologies and crucially, no end to the deaths. One irrelevant (to me) 99-year-old, privileged Brit dies and that is all you can read, see or hear in the media. It seems to me we have our values all wrong.

Jack Morris, Kennington

Double plane standard?

Why is it that the Morrison government had enough planes to offer an ex-minister, Mathias Cormann, a plane to fly around Europe looking for a job, while it now claims there are no planes available to transport a member of Parliament, Kristina Keneally, to Christmas Island to do her work? It looks like a vindictive action by our Defence Minister, Peter Dutton.

Shaun Lawrence, Richmond

Unfair attack on PM’s wife

How can women expect men to show respect to them if women cannot show respect to other women? I refer to the comment made by Magda Szubanski about the Prime Minister’s wife. Quite deplorable and unnecessary. I have always believed that woman’s worst enemy is women. Remarks like this do nothing to make me change my mind.

Trish Young, Hampton