Little to admire within big two parties
GAME playing with people’s health and education.
Pretending to act on climate change and housing.
Throwing rocks at each other. Celebrating failure and mistakes by the other team.
Debating an integrity commission, like it could ever be a bad thing for the people you claim to represent.
Debating pork barrelling, like it could ever be a good thing for the overall community.
What an appallingly accurate indictment of Australia this election campaign is proving to be.
There are clear sociopolitical alternatives all over the world; in Scandinavia and parts of South America, in particular. Systems of government which put the whole community and children’s futures, first.
Yet our neoliberal media moguls sweep them under the carpet and simply pretend there is only one way to be and we believe them.
How sad. How greedy. How utterly doomed to failure in the longer term.
Thank goodness we have independent or climate-aware alternatives to the big two parties.
If only we had the brains and courage to vote for them, what a wonderfully inclusive, creative, welcoming and different society we could become. Mike Radburn
Sandy Bay
ICY RECEPTION
WHEN I read about some of the pie-inthe-sky schemes proposed by Anthony Albanese with no details of how they would be implemented or paid for I am reminded of a saying coined by Paul Keating to describe one of his political opponents which is a fitting description of Albanese – all tip and no iceberg.
Stan Forbes Battery Point
NOT QUITE THE SAME
“MR Albanese, can you state the Ten Commandments?”
“Mr Albanese, can you name the 50 state capitals in the US?” “Mr Albanese, can you name all 118 elements on the periodic table?”
Meanwhile …
“Mr Morrison, how good are the Sharkies?” “Mr Morrison, is that a new curry?” “Mr Morrison, what’s your favourite colour?”
Greg Rubock South Hobart
WHISKY QUERIES
WITH reference to the $4m that the Prime Minster announced he (on behalf of us mug punters, of course) would be handing to a whisky producer to build some contraption to do something really important.
Can someone advise whether the
company involved applied for the money, if so under what scheme was any such application processed, and on what basis did the decision makers decide this was an appropriate use of (once again), our money?
Lastly, does the company have any obligation to pay back to us mugs any money as returns from its project come in.
And if not why not?
Martin Betts
Snug
LIBS’ DENIAL WORSE
MUCH has been made of Anthony Albanese’s gaffs – forgetting data that would be at his fingertips when considering policy.
How much worse is the Liberals’ cynical denial and misrepresentation of data regarding climate change?
This is clearly Australia’s greatest security threat. Recently we learned that 4 per cent of Australian homes would be effectively uninsurable by 2030 due to flood or bushfire (2 per cent in Tasmania).
But they are promoting further deforestation, coal and gas mining, while resisting any change to renewables.
With the Great Barrier Reef facing “endangered” listing, they lobbied the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to postpone the decision.
Scott Morrison vilified Labor’s plan to promote electric vehicles at the last election, not only perpetuating transport CO2 emissions but also leaving us utterly dependent on foreign oil. The Liberals tout their Defence credentials yet they leave us defenceless against any naval blockade.
We have only 55-80 days of fuel reserve, conveniently located in the US.
S. Wright
Hobart
WHY PIGS MIGHT FLY
I AM not a great fan of pork barrelling. Recent governments, including ScoMo, have made it an art form.
Albo says he will bring us a government which will make evidence-based decisions on spending, like those school halls, pools etc, around the country which seem to be primarily funded if you are in a marginal seat.
However, when he travels around the marginal seats around Australia he makes promises to “pork barrel” those marginal seats that he criticises ScoMo for spending money in.
We do not want another form of pork barrelling from a new government. Come on, Albo, keep your promise and make evidence-based spending decisions. You can start now by promising money for non-marginal seats. Michael Corrigan
Tranmere