'Let the dust settle'
Barnaby Joyce wants to "let the dust settle" after the referendum but stirs it up with his comments. ('Let the dust settle,' Barnaby Joyce on what comes after 'divisive' referendum, NDL 16/10).
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While for many, constitutional recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were our first people is true and respectful, Joyce dismisses it because today's people are merely descendants of their first inhabitant "forebears". That is, they are not the actual first people. A silly argument overlooking the notion of living culture.
Mr Joyce also disliked the referendum because "it made life so awkward". This is classic 'first world' thinking and trivialises the lives of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for whom closing the gap is far more than "awkward".
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
'One Tin Soldier'
With recent events from the conflict in Russia and the Ukraine to the horrors of what happened in Israel I put a call out for every radio station and all citizens of Australia to play and listen to a song called One Tin Soldier and just think about it.
Phillip Tilley, Tamworth
Today's problems are thanks to yesterday's politicians
Barnaby again outlines a litany of problems Australians are facing, without acknowledging his government's role in creating or exacerbating them.
We all know that the power bill fiasco is as a result of your governments privatisation policies, where you paid the states to sell our power generation and distribution assets. No one else is responsible for the profiteering of the new owners.
As for fuel prices, which government oversaw the closure of the majority of our oil refineries? You know full well that it was under Coalition PM's that we lost most of our ability to make our own fuel and became beholden to global forces.
Likewise, who can forget how your mob spent $100 million on our mandatory 90-day "domestic" fuel supply by building storage tanks in the USA, half a world away.
Complaining about our grocery bills is laughable when you consider that successive coalition governments have simply kowtowed to the supermarket duopoly as they announced record profits year after year.
Now we find out that, over the past ten years, literally millions of migrants have arrived on planes and gamed the system by overstaying their visas, all while your government was spending billions of dollars on stopping a few boats and crowing about it.
Now tell us, Barnaby, how rent has increased and Australian families are struggling to afford to keep a roof over their children's heads?
Still laying blame while taking no responsibility, Barnaby?
Andrew Brown, Nundle
Environmental law reform required
It's deeply concerning that Australia's federal court has given the green light to our environment minister approving new coal projects without considering the climate impacts ('Court dismisses climate case against Plibersek', NDL, 12/10). Climate change, driven largely by burning fossil fuels like coal, is a significant threat to nature and wildlife. If ever we needed a reminder that our environmental laws are ineffective, this is it.
For perspective, a staggering 740 fossil fuel projects have been approved by successive governments under the 1999 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Australia now also has 1918 threatened species. Recognising the dire state of our natural ecosystems, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek pledged environmental law reform over a year ago, why are we still waiting?
Amy Hiller, Kew
Ambitious renewables target
Energy Minister Chris Bowen deserves credit for sticking to his guns in the push for an 80 per cent clean energy target. Settling for an unambitious target is short-sighted. The disastrous economic and social costs of global warming are already being felt worldwide. This coupled with the increasing unreliability of our coal-fired power stations, means we need to focus on the clean energy transition now.
While upgrading the grid system is challenging, there are some positives. Capital is available for renewables investment. The uptake of solar and battery storage by householders is also encouraging. In the ACT, plans are already underway to provide a battery storage system and help reduce our reliance on coal and gas. Zoe Whitton, chief executive of sustainability advisors Pollination, points out that the challenge to reach net zero will really start to hit home in the next seven years. An unambitious target becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We won't know until we try.
Anne O'Hara, Wanniassa
Crystal ball needed
In many years to come, if creatures then inhabiting the earth, being the equivalent of today's archaeologists, are attempting to discover why humans disappeared from planet Earth, the suggestion could well be then made that perhaps humans followed their God named money, who they appear to have worshipped, to their ultimate destruction, during an unusually hot dry and unstable climatic period of time with high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Looking at the world today the future guess, if made, may well prove to be an accurate one.
Brian Measday, Kingswood, SA
