Only an inquiry can restore our confidence in the Attorney-General

THE FORUM

Royal servants
The constant references to “service” by royals, incumbent and ex (“Before Harry and Meghan interview, Queen speaks of ‘selfless dedication to duty’,” The Age, 8/3) call for a bit of examination. If it is your well-rewarded job to lend your support, and occasionally your presence, to charities whose staff and volunteers do the real hard work, that looks more like a privilege than service.
Tony Haydon, Springvale

Seen it all before
We should not be surprised that the Queen will reportedly not watch the Harry/Meghan interview. She’s seen it all before, when her uncle (who was king, not just a mere prince) married American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Ultimately that couple was exiled to the Riviera. Los Angeles makes a 21st century glitzy replacement, without the glamour. This whole story just emphasises how irrelevant is this monarchy today, save as food for the gossip columns.
Lee Palmer, Albert Park

Drama without dignity
“Commoners” do not air their family’s dirty washing in public. The firm and its ex-members are hell-bent on a royal blue to be aired around the world. Why we continuously tug our forelocks to this privileged lot is beyond the dignity of ordinary people. Subjects, we should never be.
Margaret Skeen, Point Lonsdale

Room for optimism
Unfortunately, China is continuing to mine and use coal as well as developing renewables (“China adds coal plants amid climate pledges,” The Age, 8/3). That is just like Australia, but China as well as America are superpowers, and it’s imperative they agree on climate action when it comes to leading and influencing the world. Without them, we would all suffer catastrophe. Thank goodness we can feel some optimism that China’s envoy Xie Zhenhua and his US equivalent John Kerry are likely to be able to negotiate the essential climate agreement; and that the world, including Australia, will follow their historic leadership. As Christiana Figueres famously said, “let’s stay stubbornly optimistic”.
Barbara Fraser, Burwood

Vaccine blockade
To those who criticise the actions of Italy, be mindful this is a country that suffered a lot more than Australia, and had many more cases. Wouldn’t you think it has a right to ensure its population is immunised first to avoid further crises before it is in a position to supply other countries with the vaccine?
Doug Springall, Yarragon

Money for men
Support for women who have lost jobs during the COVID-19 crisis has been minimal (“Call to boost equality in economic recovery,” The Age, 8/3). The big announcements have been building and construction works. Obviously these are male dominated. Why am I not surprised? Men are making these decisions and they dominate governments and they don’t seem to care.
Pauline Ashton, Maribyrnong

Real equality
It doesn’t surprise me that members of Julie Szego’s generation needed to be told that up until 1966, women could not join the Commonwealth public service if they were married (“We’ve come far, but not enough”, The Age, 8/3). Especially considering that, at the time, many men and some women did not realise it either. It was bad enough to fight discrimination to get a job, without having to choose between the job and marriage, and being further victimised if you made a fuss. Let’s hope our grandchildren’s generation will look back with the same wonder at the barriers to real equality that still underlie the current moves for reform.
Jenifer Nicholls, Armadale

Selective data
Data about the impact of the coronavirus on female jobs is very selective. Female-dominated occupations such as teaching, nursing and other healthcare workers, together with those in the aged care sectors had a stimulus. The state education department is employing hundreds of catch-up tutors who will be predominantly female. The public service is predominantly female and the pandemic did not cause them to lose their job. Hospitality, retail and tourism was adversely affected and these industries are predominantly female. But huge job losses in construction and manufacturing occurred and these are predominantly male. The effect of the coronavirus had a detrimental effect on many workers, female, male, young, and old.
Ian Bennett, Jan Juc

Privatisation
Your correspondent states that the stuff Jeff Kennett sold off while premier was surplus to requirements (Letters, 8/3). Really? Trains, trams, water, gas, power generation and transmission, the land beneath valuable schools (that are sorely needed now); then there’s prisons, roads, ambulance services and hospitals. The list of these “surplus to requirements” assets goes on. I’m not in favour of any asset sell-off, but let’s not rewrite history.
Matt McRobbie, Mont Albert

Political sale
Privatisation is the theft and conversion of public assets, with the proceeds usually used for political gain and the resultant profits being taken by private enterprise. And, as all thefts, the loser is the rightful owner.
Gary Sayer, Warrnambool

Hotel quarantine
The main problem regarding hotel quarantine contracts with private security companies isn’t about probity in how they were let (“Hotel security contracts in new spotlight”, The Age, 8/3). It’s the fact the contracts exist at all. It was irresponsible of the Victorian government to outsource such a critical function, leading to COVID-19 infection and death rates many times higher than the rest of Australia. Quarantine security should have been handled by Victoria Police from the outset.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills

Christian takeover
Your article on the Christian Right Conference (“Inside the Christian Right conference plotting a political takeover,” The Age, 7/3) highlights everything that’s wrong and bad about religion. Holding beliefs, no matter how illogical, is not good enough; those beliefs need to be thrust upon everyone else in sight. The Christian Right should understand that more than 50 per cent (and increasing) of Australians do not identify with any religion. A good start would be for the people in the electorates of Craig Kelly and George Christensen to show them the door.
Paul Kertes, Park Orchards

Charitable exclusions
Your correspondent (Letters, 8/3) cites Jesus’ comments about only coming to the lost sheep of Israel and not giving the children’s food to dogs, in the Gospel of Matthew, to suggest that Christian charity excludes outsiders. If he had kept reading, he would have seen that Jesus healed this outsider woman’s child as she asked, and went on, out of compassion, to heal and feed the thousands from everywhere who had come to hear him. He never refused anyone. That is Christian charity.
Caroline Miley, Heidelberg

Tax loopholes
I’m sure I don’t speak for everyone Catherine Gerardson (Letters, 8/3) but I feel people would like everyone to pay their fair share of tax, instead of some paying more. Close the loopholes, get the noses out of the franking credits trough, ensure big earners are not able to pay less tax than those on low wages. Perhaps we will then have enough to look after all, even if the odd luxury car or third investment property will have to wait for some.
Wendy Hinson, Wantirna

Losing interest in saving
I thought it would be best to give my 13-year-old grandson cash for his birthday. I asked him what he was going to do with it and he said he might save it. In the old days I would open a bank account for him. His $100 would increase by $6 a year and get him into a savings habit. Now it increases by 10¢ a year due to government policy via the Reserve Bank. Now it’s best I buy him a wallet to keep it in a safe place; ″⁣under the mattress″⁣ perhaps. That also avoids an explanation if the RBA interest rate goes negative. But it does not teach him any concept of investing.
Malcolm Cameron, Camberwell

Think outside
Our state government appears ignorant of the basic arithmetic inherent in successful decentralisation policies. Billions of dollars are being dedicated to Melbourne while rural employment opportunities and infrastructure waste away. A change of heart would see people descend on these areas in droves. Small country towns would spring to life fed by the rural hubs of larger towns. Rural cities would grow and prosper as they became self-sufficient in the delivery and production of goods and services. In doing so, Melbourne-centric ideas around fast rail and airport links would give way to inter-regional transport connections.
Jaroslaw Kotiw, Strathfieldsaye

Confidence in government
In 2018, Barnaby Joyce announced his resignation as Nationals leader and deputy prime minister over his affair with a former staffer and a sexual harassment complaint. Ahead of the 2019 federal election, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton cut millions of dollars of funding from recommended projects and diverted the money to projects of his choosing – most in marginal and government-held electorates. In 2020, Bridget McKenzie resigned as deputy leader of the Nationals and from her portfolio after it was found she had breached ministerial standards in the “sports rorts” affair. In February this year, backbencher Craig Kelly quit the Liberal Party to sit on the crossbench, and in March, two ministers embroiled in scandals have taken stress leave.
The work facing the government is huge. It’s questionable whether it has the capacity to govern. While there is not a case for the Governor-General to “do a John Kerr”, there is certainly a case for a vote of no confidence, and an early election to hand over the reins.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn

AND ANOTHER THING…

Politics
Not even the Prime Minister’s over-worked “Scott-Free” rubber stamp of ministerial accountability can resurrect the two missing ministers.
Ken Machin, Grovedale