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Opposition Leader Peter Dutton contradicts himself when he asks why wind-farm proponents would “seek to destroy the natural environment to try and save the planet” (Comment, 28/10). It is this very environment that is being threatened by global warming. Rising ocean temperatures pose a real risk to our marine environments. Of course, all energy projects including coal, gas or renewables, should be done with proper community consultation. The same goes for nuclear energy. Unfortunately, nuclear reactors are more expensive than renewables and take the best part of a decade to build. We need to drastically cut carbon emissions now. Dutton and his cohorts have no real renewables policy that can be implemented in time.
Anne O’Hara, Wanniassa, ACT

Seeking a political advantage
Columnist Peter Hartcher’s analysis of Peter Dutton’s intentions on climate change outlines a possible worrying future for Australia. Having successfully used negativity and fear to scuttle the referendum, Dutton sees an opportunity for political advantage by tapping into community concerns about wind turbines, high voltage power lines and the use of farm land for large scale solar power generation. A new campaign creating doubt, spreading misinformation and appealing to self-interest may lead to victory at the next election, especially if the opposition can convince enough voters that there is an alternative in small modular nuclear reactors. I believe that Australians will eventually look to nuclear power. However, that option is very expensive and will take many years; time that we do not have. Having wasted a decade of climate denialism by the last Coalition government, Australia needs action now to achieve true progress on emissions reductions.
James Young, Mt Eliza

Labor needs to act now
Peter Hartcher has a grim warning that Peter Dutton is further employing the same scare tactics that helped him defeat the referendum. He believes that Dutton is harnessing voters’ self-interests and stoking this with, for example, claiming wind turbines in the ocean are a threat to marine life. Anthony Albanese apparently says he “will do a better job of listening” and indeed Chris Bowen, the climate change and energy minister, has made some alternations, Hartcher tells us, in relation to the marine wind turbines. The government however cannot play catch-up. They must be pre-emptive in not only listening to the electorate, but evidencing some actions. Jan Marshall, Brighton

Environment minister, fix this Act
Anyone who reads Tony Wright’s description of the wealth of sea creatures inhabiting the waters and upwelling off Victoria’s southwest coast (28/10) will be in disbelief that exploration for gas and oil involving seismic blasting with “high-powered air guns every 10 seconds for months at a time”, each blast 250 decibels, is even being considered. When is enough enough? Surely now given 2023 is shaping up as the hottest year on record and any gas extracted will only add to global heating. Australia and the world do not even have a gas shortage. The International Energy Agency recently predicted an unprecedented surge in LNG from 2025. And as the Australia Institute’s Mark Ogge put it last year, “Australia does not have a gas supply problem; it has a gas export problem. Eighty per cent of Australia’s gas is exported.” Furthermore, Professor Graeme Samuel found in his 2020 review of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, the laws are “ineffective” and “not fit to address current or future environmental challenges.” He made 38 recommendations. Sadly, three years later, these are still to be enacted. The urgency is evident. The Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, must fix the broken Act, stop the seismic testing, and protect the natural wonders off our southern coast. Otherwise, an upwelling at the ballot box is likely.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn

FORUM

Bewildering comment
I’m now old enough to be regularly amazed at what I see is a gap between offences and penalties. The neo-Nazis in court for assault who received best wishes from the judge ensures my continued bewilderment (“Judge wishes neo-Nazis luck as they walk”, 28/10).
The defence barrister said his client’s far-right, supremacist beliefs were likely to be held in the future. With that statement before the court, I am not sure how the judge reached her view the pair had good prospects of rehabilitation. Their Heil Hitler to waiting media makes rehabilitation look like wishful thinking.
Geoffrey Conaghan,
St Kilda

Not the real world
What was Judge Kellie Blair thinking when she wished neo-Nazis ″⁣good luck″⁣ as she left the court? Good luck in their vile rants and violent interactions?
Do our judges live in the real world?
Heidi Zajd, Elsternwick

Life’s bush lessons
When I started my teaching career in the early 1980s, it was in a small dairy farming community on the Murray River. In those days there was a good range of government-owned, teacher housing available in the town. Rent was cheap for both flats and houses and it served me well for the years I spent there. I doubt that housing even exists any more, let alone it being cheap and affordable. Even with the monetary incentives being offered these days, I doubt there is much to draw new recruits to the bush. And what a tragedy that is. Those were some of the best years in a long, long career.
Frank Flynn, Cape Paterson

Ban the stone
It is an outrage that once more workers’ health and, indeed, lives are being put at risk. (″⁣Fury as deadly stone ban deferred″⁣, 28/10). We have been aware for a considerable time that working with engineered stone causes silicosis, which can cause “slow painful deaths”. Yet even after the latest investigation by Safe Work, presented in August, which recommended a blanket ban; government ministers continue to dither, with more discussion scheduled.
After the years of delay on acting on the dangers of asbestos and tobacco, why are we continuing to allow big business to put profit before workers’ health and safety?
A ban on this product should be legislated immediately.
Rita Thorpe, Coburg

Greed the destroyer
Your correspondent (Letters, 29/10) is right to say that the only thing in humanity that has advanced is our weaponry. But that’s just a consequence of human evolution’s requirement of survival by territorial fortification and tribal unity; as in, nationalism and superstition. Contrary to this, however, is our greed which at the end will destroy us.
Henry Herzog,
St Kilda East

Is this self-defence?
As Foreign Minister Penny Wong and others have said on several occasions, it matters how Israel responds to Hamas’ horrific atrocities of October 7. Israel needs to explain how killing Gazans amounts to self-defence. It must explain how denying supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine to 2.2 million Gazans amounts to self-defence. It must explain how blacking out all internet and mobile phone communications into Gaza amounts to self defence.
Nick Toovey, Beaumaris

Side with the insects
Your correspondents write of an absence of bees, and bees that can’t fly (27/10 and 28/10). Sue Nicholson, Professor of Zoology at the University of Pretoria, has written about the serious negative effects on bees caused by glyphosate, a common herbicide used in agriculture and horticulture.
Bees’ pollinating activities are hugely important to biodiversity and human food security. Writing on the shocking decline in insect numbers, biologist Dave Goulson points out that insects are essential to life as we know it, pollinating native plants as well as crops, recycling waste, and providing food for many other species. Goulson’s book Silent Earth calls for change at all levels, from governments and companies down to individuals in our own homes and gardens, in our use of pesticides and herbicides, as well as changes in agricultural monocultures, and land clearing.
Freya Headlam, Glen Waverley

Heavy road users
The heading ″⁣Weighing the costs of SUVs on the roads and lives″⁣ (Letters, 28/10) could not have been more appropriate. Beyond the issue of fuel excise, the main reason Treasurer Tim Pallas gave for the implementation of the now defunct EV road user tax was that electric vehicles supposedly weighed more than other vehicles, so they caused more damage to roads.
Australia’s most popular internal combustion engine (″⁣ice″⁣) vehicles are the Toyota Hilux and the Ford Ranger. The Ranger weighs around 2.4 tonnes and the Hilux up to 3.1 tonnes. By comparison, Australia’s most popular EV last year, the Tesla Model Y weighs between 1.909 tonnes and 1.997 tonnes. The second-most popular EV, the Tesla Model 3 weighs between 1.76 and 1.884 tonnes, depending upon specifications.
The competition of the heavyweights has been won convincingly by ″⁣ice″⁣ vehicles, to the detriment of our roads, car parks and other road users.
Helen Moss, Croydon

This should suit
Depending on the shopping precinct, we already have reserved parking spots for seniors, pram pushers, the disabled and grocery pickups. How about a number of huge parking spots for obese utes, but put them in a distant corner?
Wendy Knight, Little River

Smokes alarm
The government is up in arms about the illicit tobacco wars. What did it expect when it is charging an excise of over $1500 per kilogram tax on a product that is legal to consume ? Of course the trade will head underground. Yes, we need to try to stop the young generation from picking up the habit.
Apply the licence to open a tobacco store and lock up those that sell to the underaged but stop the blatant revenue raising. The only reason the government wants to stop the import of the cheap tobacco is it is hurting its bottom line.
David Kovacs, Skye

Keep population stable
Melbourne is a wonderful city, and the Age editorial (28/10) contemplates how it can remain so. It asks how “our children and our grandchildren can enjoy the standards of liveability that Melburnians experience today?“.
The latest report by Infrastructure Victoria looks at different scenarios for a denser or sprawling city in order to house a growing population. The report projects changes in traffic congestion, and the need to clear land and build infrastructure. It seems to be a devil’s choice between more high-rise, more crowding, more emissions and further loss of nature.
There is a better scenario, a steady-state city, with a stable population that doesn’t need to grow up or out. That will ensure a liveable and sustainable city for generations.
Ian Penrose, Kew

Misplaced confidence
During his recent visit to the US, Mr Albanese said he was confident the US Congress would pass AUKUS-related legislation. Be careful prime minister, it’s not that long ago you were quoted as saying, more than once, “I am confident that a majority of Australians will vote yes.″⁣
Peter Price, Southbank

Flawed JobKeeper
There is no doubt that JobKeeper saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, but the mere fact that 10 per cent of the total amount distributed ($8.9 billion of $89 billion) went to businesses that had an increase in turnover, with no legal requirement to repay the money, shows how the whole scheme was flawed and hastily put together. As someone once said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.“
Neale Meagher, Malvern

What did they know?
The referendum is over and Australia clearly said No. But to what? Since the results, I’ve heard that Australia has said No to the Aboriginal flag, to acknowledgments of country, to Linda Burney being governor-general, to states continuing to respond to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, to any visibility of any Aboriginal culture at all.
The actual referendum question was about changing the Constitution. During the debate, I heard from many No voters who said they cared about Aboriginal peoples, and want reconciliation, they just didn’t agree with the model. I wonder if those No voters realise what is now being claimed in their name?
Elisa Resce, Williamstown, SA

America’s real war
Amid all the discussions about AUKUS, one thought occurs to me. When will US lawmakers wake up. Again, liberal access to powerful firearms has caused multiple unnecessary deaths of innocent people. The US has the most powerful military force in the world. Yet the real war is taking place in the streets, schools and shopping centres of Main Street, USA.
Matthew Hamilton, Kew

Archer’s model
Bridget Archer seems to be representing all that is, and was, good about the Liberal Party. Sadly, her ethics and morals will see her most likely being expelled or dumped before the next election. I hope she then seeks to be an independent candidate.
Greg Tuck, Warragul

Other side of coin
On the question, ″⁣Should we force boys to read women authors″⁣, why not ″⁣Should we force girls to read male authors?″⁣
Georgina Simmons, Mornington

AND ANOTHER THING

War
I’m disgusted with our government abstaining from voting for a ceasefire in the Middle East. A shameful and cowardly decision.
Mary Fenelon, Doncaster East

By abstaining in a UN resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce, Australia exposes itself as lacking in spine to do what’s right for humanity’s sake.
Rajend Naidu, Glenfield, NSW

If the world had more atheists there would be fewer religious wars.
Ralph Frank, Malvern East

Don’t expect that 1 million innocent children in Gaza, who are less than 18 years of age, will forgive or forget what’s happening to them.
Malcolm McDonald, Burwood

Is there still a war on in Ukraine ?
Mark de Roy, Montrose

Furthermore
Liberal MP Bridget Archer should consider either becoming an independent or joining Labor as her so-called Liberal Party lurches further and further to the right.
Marie Nash, Balwyn

Peter Dutton’s concern about wind farms damaging the environment is as thin as a solar cell.
Greg Curtin, Nunawading

I don’t have to read any books (Home to Biloela, Letters, 28/10 ) to feel ashamed as an Australian. I just have to look at the outcome of the referendum and the plight of refugees in this country.
Ruth Davis, Carrum

Australia, inconceivably, gets better results from China, Egypt and Iran than the US when it comes to holding Australians unnecessarily imprisoned.
Patrick Alilovic, Pascoe Vale South

Finally
Congratulations to me as I completed, for the first time, The Sunday Age Giant Crossword. The answers flowed as if they were already in front of me. I was in the zone!
Phil Mackenzie, Eaglemont

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