



Labor should promise transparent plan for all


MAY 18


Illustration: Matt Golding.

Illustration: Matt Golding.

So Premier Napthine is lining up his spending, pre-election, with the Abbott government's ''king of the roads'' policy obsession, while ignoring social welfare needs including education, hospitals and ambulances (''The great divide'', 11/5). State Labor, ahead in the polls, has the chance to take a statesman-like stance on public transport and refuse to match the desperate Coalition, which is behind in the polls, project for project. The ALP should commit to sensible ongoing policies that raise passenger capacity on all lines such as high-capacity signalling and more new suburban trains. But the centrepiece of ALP policy should be a proper, open, comprehensive and consultative public transport development plan for all of Melbourne with emphasis on value for money and meeting the needs of all suburbs, rather than ''grand'' projects paid on the never-never.

John McPherson, Collingwood

A two-card trick?


Somewhat contradictorily they are willing to disrupt and destroy Royal Park, but wish to save us from a similar fate with the unappealing Swanston Street. Is it simply that the Coalition won't follow through on any plan devised by Labor? One that has cost millions in planning by transport academics to the point where it is shovel ready and has proven benefits for people already living in the inner and outer suburbs desperate for higher-capacity public transport. Or are they so full of hubris that they believe the voters will not examine carefully what's proposed and will fall for an exorbitantly expensive and inappropriate two-card trick?

Mike Reece, Balwyn North

Policy on the run

We've had a Coalition government that for three years has sat on its hands on serious infrastructure projects. Ted Baillieu's government was elected on promises to fund public transport (Doncaster rail), but instead voters were lumped with Denis Napthine's East West Link - a project with spurious benefits, significant impacts, a dangerously short time in planning, a secret business case, and a development timeline that has bids submitted before community consultation is concluded, and contracts signed before the public get a chance to vote on it.

Now we get the Melbourne Rail Link - a (less metro) Melbourne Metro. Melbourne has long been crying out for action on public transport - all the more pertinent with the increase to petrol excise - but is this it? Better public transport and east-west connectivity are grand promises to bring to the election, but can these be trusted? Policy procrastination has meant that both projects seem to have been planned on the hop and this short-changes Victorians.

Andrew Bullen, Clifton Hill


At breaking point?

The liberal ideologues are only interested in wealthy business and self-employed people. People in need and workers are just a nuisance. John Howard started the process with Workchoices until the populace drove him out. Tony Abbott and his cigar-chomping partners have picked up the reins and are driving the agenda wagon to create an Australia of poor pooled labour to be called upon for work when required by the well-off and to stand ready until the age 70.

The first of the under-class are the under 30s. Life will be almost impossible as work will not come readily and educational opportunities will be the province of the rich only. It is imperative that this not be allowed to manifest itself upon Australians. If this is not a breaking point, when will it be reached?

Charles Naughton, Princes Hill

What's to celebrate?

Two well-fed, dark-suited men smoking cigars in the parliamentary courtyard give the impression of smug self-satisfaction, not the usual yielding to an unpleasant addiction of most smokers.

These two men have been crafting a budget that greatly benefits the already well-off at the expense of the most vulnerable sectors of the community, consolidating privilege. At the same time the mining tax on super profits and the carbon pollution levy is to be repealed, the diesel rebate for miners maintained, while the fuel excise on everyone else is increased. What on Earth were Joe Hockey and Mathias Cormann celebrating?

Ken Rivett, Ferntree Gully


Look after locals first

The ''earn or learn'' plan assumes jobs are available, but that the young unemployed are undertrained or unwilling to work. Forcing the unemployed to train for longer won't produce more jobs, but will warp unemployment figures and create better trained unemployed.

And it does not make sense to cry about youth unemployment but still bring in record numbers of migrants, through work, holiday or study visas. To make things worse, the government has further relaxed rules on 457 visas, allowing companies to nominate as many workers for sponsorship as they want. Our politicians are severely disadvantaging a whole generation.

Vivienne Ortega, Heidelberg Heights

Illusion of prosperity

The Grattan Institute has reported that our growing health costs are not primarily a result of ageing but of people of all ages seeing doctors more often, having more treatments and operations and taking more prescription drugs. This is exacerbated by rapid population growth. Furthermore, state governments are sending themselves broke with infrastructure spending in a failed attempt to keep up with the growth - why build road tunnels costing $1 billion per kilometre if they're gridlocked within a decade.

Population growth creates an illusion of GDP growing, even though in per-capita terms it remains flat. So why isn't rapid population growth, primarily driven by an immigration program about three times its historical size, in the spotlight? Is it that wealthy capital owners want a flood of cheap and trained imported labour, rather than having to spend money training young Australians? Or it is that developers who donate to political parties want more humans to fill their skyscrapers? And I thought it was the end of the age of entitlement.

William Bourke, Sustainable Population Party, Sydney

Put business in frame

I am concerned at the language being used regarding the home insulation scheme - words like ''bungled'' or ''botched''. Further, there is an assumption that the client (the government) is responsible. Employers have a legal responsibility for the health and safety of their workers. Even if a client is anxious to meet a deadline, isn't it the job of the business owner to ensure the health and safety of their workers? I wonder whether, as well as being aimed at the former government, this inquiry is also a first insertion of the wedge to begin to dismantle employers' health and safety obligations.

Helen Smart, Yarraville

We can see clearly now

Terry Mulder, in February 2012 you pledged in a radio interview to not repeat past abuses in excessive government spending by indulging in self-promoting advertising. You said, ''You won't see us using Victoria's taxpayers' money to promote ourselves.'' But what do we see? Saturation advertising in an election year, especially relating to the sensitive area of transport. I am a taxpayer, and I hold you accountable.

Juliette Borenstein, North Fitzroy

Blind to heritage values

The unearthing of the extraordinary panoptican-shaped 1850s prison block (''Pentridge's secret comes full circle'', 11/5), raises the question of why such a massive housing development is being allowed at all. Already there have been highly damaging encroachments on this heritage site from almost all sides with intrusions into the original compounds. Heritage values have been irreparably damaged in the former Remand Block, where the cathedral-like tiers of cells have been repainted in bright colours, with the bottom level used for a Sunday craft market and wine cellar. More than 150 years of prisoners' scratchings and messages on the walls have been obliterated in a matter of days.

The new development will overshadow the north-west side of Pentridge, disrupting the last uninterrupted views of the old prison. At the very least this last unaffected part of the original prison should be preserved as a heritage park that links up with Coburg Lake park.

Professor Michael Hamel-Green, Coburg

The privileged…

Last Sunday on Mother's Day I reflected on the privileged life my daughter and I enjoy (''The world revolves around him at the moment'', 11/5). I also reflected on the millions of mothers and daughters for whom this is but a dream, both here and many places around the world. I am forever grateful to the women who struggled and took great risks in their lives, thus enabling my daughter and I to enjoy the dignity of a life worth living, the freedom to choose our path. This freedom carries with it a responsibility to work towards a world where all women and girls are free to choose their destiny.

Judith Morrison, Mt Waverley

… and the traumatised

The photos of beaten asylum seekers (''The face of Manus Island anguish'', 11/5) demonstrate the brutality inflicted on traumatised and vulnerable people in our name. That the government resorts to secrecy and refuses to provide information compounds the situation.

Their inhumane treatment in what are virtually concentration camps is criminal and morally indefensible. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has rightly criticised the Australian government for its actions, and deems it as breaking international law.

What has Australia come to? We are not ''at war'' with asylum seekers. Why are we spending $4 billion to create misery and deny human rights? There are alternatives that would benefit both Australia and asylum seekers. I want them explored because I do not want this cruelty and subterfuge continued in my name.

Anne Sgro, Coburg North

Losing sight of reality

I was saddened to read Nicola Cowie's letter (11/5) that all men should be deemed potential paedophiles. Particularly because men are leaving the teaching profession in droves to avoid exactly those assumptions. Children need good, strong role models of both sexes, yet there seems to be an increasing hostility towards men.

Has society become so hopelessly confused and fearful that they have lost of sight of reality?

Bruce McMillan, Grovedale


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