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What a disgrace. The National Native Title Tribunal grants Santos mining rights to 850 gas seams, against the voice of the Gomeroi people in their 11-year struggle for land rights. The tribunal’s ruling refers to 17 acts of legislation and 49 test cases, all stacked against the wishes of Gomeroi. The mining giants push hard to get what they want and they have been winning for a long time – raising their profits and global temperatures at the expense of our environment and Indigenous sovereignty. The rule book needs to change if we are to take global warming and land rights seriously. If public interests matter, our constitutional voices need to be heard.
Leon Zembekis, Reservoir
Stop the vandalism now
Logging of old-growth forests is due to end in 2030. Meanwhile, vast swathes of ancient and noble trees will be mindlessly destroyed. If it makes sense to stop this environmental vandalism in eight years, it makes even more sense to do so now. The money the Victorian governments will spend in coming years supporting this destructive industry could be used to enable a rapid and just transition for workers to the many other jobs now available. On review of the successful abandoning of coal mining in the Ruhr valley in Germany, the main regret was starting too late and proceeding too slowly.
Peter Barry, Marysville
A simply unbelievable decision
Unbelievable that the National Native Title Tribunal has ruled in favour of the $3 billion gas development in northern NSW.
Susan Munday, Bentleigh East
Is government a lame duck?
If the government is serious about its commitment to save what’s left of our environment, it has to stop logging native forests. This activity is the blatant destruction of species and is a major contributor to climate change. Australia has an appalling record of extinctions, including the loss of 100 mammalian species since European occupancy. In Victoria, VicForests reported a $52.4 million loss in 2021, excluding government grants, so logging is not even profitable. In Tasmania, the ceasing of native forest logging has an estimated equivalent emissions saving of removing more than 1million cars from the road every year. Yet the national secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union is expecting the government to give it exemptions from environmental laws that would protect our forests.
Despite the plethora of rhetorical statements such as the one from Tanya Plibersek at the recent United Nations environment summit – “a big step towards achieving a nature-positive planet” – if the government cannot stand up to the logging industry then it can only be seen as a lame duck.
Leigh Ackland, Deepdene
This madness must end
As Mike Foley’s article highlights (21/12) ending native logging is essential if Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s commitment to the recent UN agreement at the Montreal environmental summit is to be upheld.
For years Regional Forest Agreements have been exempt from the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, meaning valuable habitat and biodiversity have been destroyed through the logging of our most precious native forests.
In a timely reminder of this logging madness, VicForests has just announced a $52.4 million loss, meaning taxpayers are subsidising this environment-ruining industry.
Let’s hope the Greens and Senator David Pocock are successful in ending the exemption of logging from the EPBC Act so this damaging practice ceases and Australia can hold its head high knowing it is doing everything possible to protect our land, air and sea from environmental damage.
Graeme Lechte, Brunswick West
FORUM
Not so progressive
Premier Daniel Andrews claims Victoria is Australia’s most progressive state (21/12). While arguably, we may be the most socially progressive state – putting aside the government’s record on public housing over two decades – Victoria is certainly not the most environmentally progressive state.
In fact, our record in nature conservation and environmental protection would put us at the other end of the scale. Continued native forest harvesting on public land, including in areas approved for, but yet to be declared, national parks (no national parks have been declared in the past four years), duck shooting, warehouses scattered across the north and western suburbs full of undescribed toxic chemicals or “recyclable″ plastics just waiting for a fire and neighbourhood evacuations are a few matters hardly qualifying us as even vaguely ″progressive″.
And that is without even examining the underfunding of
key agencies such as Parks Victoria and Trust for Nature, and the ignoring of recommendations from such bodies as the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council.
Geoff Wescott, Northcote
Keep it classic
As well as nurturing talent (21/12), could Jo Davies, the new artistic director of Opera Australia, make it her business to present classic opera as it was written. In recent years, I have seen Tosca set in Nazi-occupied Italy; The Elixir of Love set near Alice Springs (complete with corrugated iron and Coke);
The Mikado with scarcely any reference to Japan, and so on, as one producer after another tries to outdo the others with ″new interpretations″.
When I pay good money to see classic opera, that is what I expect. Opera Australia is advertising one thing and providing another, and it is time the practice was stopped.
Geoff Schmidt, Richmond
Sentient creatures
The article, ″The most humane way to kill a lobster this Christmas” (18/12), is positive in that it recognises humane approaches, but misses the boat in its inherent assumption that lobsters are ours to kill.
At least an appreciation that animals feel pain and distress is emerging into public interest. Animal Welfare Victoria have recently acknowledged that animals are sentient – that is, they have feelings.
As a psychologist, I would also argue that animals have a mental state (a lasting psychological impact from these feelings) that can be triggered by physical discomfort, the witnessing of fellow animals’ slaughter, and being prevented from accessing the behaviours they are biologically primed to enact.
Ducks, also widely consumed at Christmas, need our attention and protection. A farmed duck on a consumer’s table was likely unable to fly or to swim for their entire life in a caged environment. Ducks need water to support their body weight– the absence of water places strain on their spindly legs.
As consumers, we have a right to know that the sentience of animals was taken into account when they were farmed.
While there may be a confronting truth behind the meat consumed on Christmas Day, you can still, this Christmas, enact your care for animals in a very authentic and powerful manner.
Annalisa Cranby, address withheld
More needs to be done
The wonderful news that all those on temporary visas will be eligible for permanent visas and a life of hope is overshadowed by the fact that those who arrived from 2013 onwards seem not to be included.
In a desperate attempt to win the 2014 election, Labor leader Kevin Rudd declared that any refugee arriving in Australia by boat would never live in Australia and would instead be resettled in a third country.
I would like to think that had Rudd won that election, he would not have intended that people would still be detained illegally in offshore detention 10 years later, that impregnable secrecy would be used to hide systematic cruelty, that women would be raped, that children would be denied education, that children’s youth and childhood would be taken stolen from them and that people would be killed or die from medical neglect or despair.
I would like to think that the government would want to do everything in its power to demonstrate that what has happened was not its intention.
A good start would be to immediately grant permanent visas to those who have suffered so much on Nauru and Manus.
Sue Cranage,
Malvern East
The forgotten
The news that 19,000 asylum seekers in Australia will be granted citizenship has brought great joy and relief to those of my friends who have been in limbo on temporary visas for many years. Their first response was that, at last, they would be able to see their parents again and that their children will now be eligible for HECS and affordable tertiary education.
Not so for one family of my friends who remain in community detention, having been in a detention centre for years and then released into the community with a huge restriction to their movements, no work rights, still unable to see their parents and no hope for further education for their children. This family of refugees, arrived in the same way and at the same time as those who are now being offered citizenship. They are deeply depressed and feel that they have no hope to build a future here. The thought of resettling in another country, if they are ever granted this, is daunting. They have worked hard to establish a life for their children here. Not only is this an issue of social justice but also a health issue. They say they are drowning in despair and helplessness and that they are the forgotten ones.
Helen Stagoll, Alphington
Don’t ignore aged care
Aged and Community Care Providers Association head Tom Symondson said the community needed to recognise that “nurses, personal care workers and
allied health professionals don’t grow on trees”. Of course, the aged care workforce doesn’t grow on trees. However, it will grow with better working conditions, including better pay.
Over the past 10 years, there have been numerous inquiries, reviews, consultations, think tanks and taskforces into the aged care workforce. They have resulted in a large number of recommendations, most of which have been ignored by successive governments.
Dr Sarah Russell, Director,
Aged Care Matters
Truth in gambling
Gambling is such a health risk, it is clear that the advertising of it should be banned (like cigarette advertising). If this is not politically possible, the government should insist on truth in gambling ads. It could so by enacting the following, which must appear prominently in every gambling promotion:
At the top: “Gambling: Most people lose most of the time.“
After any invitation to bet: “The probability is you will lose.“
At the end: “This gambling advertisement is paid for with your gambling losses.″
Ian Robinson, Cowes
The power of one
As an individual, I can choose how I vote or spend and invest.
So: Santos shares – sold. Twitter account closed, and I’m not buying a Tesla car, nor buying petrol from Shell service stations. Travel to Russia is out, and I’m trying very hard to not buy anything made you know where.
If each of us can exercise our individual power, perhaps we can implement real pressure and
real change.
Anthony Palmer, Southbank
Weak sanctions
Greg Baum (20/12) writes that Australian soccer authorities were weak in applying “sanctions with a feather duster” after fans had abused gay Adelaide player Josh Cavallo.
I agree, but tell me what sanctions were applied to the AFL clubs whose fans racially booed Adam Goodes?
Steve Higginbottom, Northcote
Minister to make it right
Penny Wong will be the first Australian foreign minister to visit Beijing in four years. Hopefully, she will repair some of the damage wreaked on Australia’s relations with China by the Coalition government over those four years.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
Irony abounds
Am I the only one to see the irony in federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus disbanding the Administrative Appeals Tribunal due to cronyism and Anthony Albanese appointing Kevin Rudd to be US ambassador?
Douglas Shirrefs, Yea
Duty of care
Your correspondent (“Defend victims of crime”, 21/12) contends that “a 10-year-old is well able to make a moral decision to commit a crime” in reference to raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years old.
If you were to ask a random sample of 10-year-olds if they could see themselves committing a crime, I think most could not.
If they could, surely it’s a sign of being led astray by bad companions, suffering abuse or trauma of some description or being disadvantaged in some way.
Rather than focusing on the moral values and cognitive abilities of a 10-year-old, perhaps we should consider our duty to children to protect and care for them.
They are entitled to have basic needs met, such as a home, an education and caring parents.
If society does not care for them, they are highly likely to turn against society.
We need more resources for children and more diversion programs from prison and to raise the age of criminal responsibility.
Jan Marshall, Brighton
Cast a weather I
I find it irritating that some weather presenters have been instructed by their producer to say things like: ″Now for a check of your weather.″
It’s not my weather.
If anything, it’s Earth’s weather, or if you are religious, God’s weather, but not ″your weather″.
Geoff Phillips,
Wonga Park
AND ANOTHER THING
The envoy
Now that such weight appears to be placed on former PMs being appointed as ambassadors, perhaps Scott Morrison could be considered as the next ambassador to France.
Chris Hudnott, Canterbury
Cricket
My wife and I have decided to go to day two of the Melbourne Test. Just in case it finishes early.
Craig Tucker, Newport
Josh Hazlewood or Scott Boland? That seems to be the question ahead of the Boxing Day Test. One answer would be to pick both bowlers and only five batters. Sorry David Warner, but your time is up.
Lindsay Zoch, Mildura
Furthermore
How does Football Australia enforce spectator life bans?
Les Aisen, Elsternwick
Ten- to 14-year-olds were taken out of coal mines and chimneys many years ago. Isn’t it time they were taken out of the criminal justice system as well?
Phil Alexander, Eltham
Native forest logging ongoing, and 850 coal seam gas wells approved? I’m with John McEnroe: “You cannot be serious!“
John Hughes, Mentone
Perhaps the difference, Barbara Trauer (Letters, 20/12), is not racism but narcissism and a severe case of relishing a perceived victimisation. Harry and Meghan have plenty of company.
Robin Nettleton, Richmond
Anthony Albanese has been accused of a socialist decision over gas supply. Let’s go the whole hog and nationalise Australia’s gas for the benefit of Australians rather than overseas investors.
Geoff Champion, Mount Dandenong
If the Coalition had done anything at all to improve the abysmal wage rates of aged care workers, Labor would not have had cause to make the promise it has now broken. A pox on both their houses.
Margaret Callinan, Hawthorn
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