What’s being commemorated can no longer be celebrated

The headline read “Only 28% support Australia Day move”. But the article reveals that less than 50 per cent opposed the change while one in four neither agreed or disagreed. Why not a headline that read “Over 50% unopposed to Australia Day move”? – Janet Ramsay, Blackheath

Illustration by John ShakespeareCredit:Sydney Morning Herald

Great encouragement exists in the 47 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 who back a change to the date. It seems that young people are better informed, understanding and empathic about Aboriginal disadvantage and intergenerational trauma. – Ross A Butler, Rodd Point

The date we emerge as a republic, with treaty in hand that includes a voice to Parliament, could be a day we can all celebrate without misgivings or recriminations. – Colin Stokes, Camperdown

When I grew up, Australia Day was barely celebrated. It was an excuse for a piss-up and barbie without any talk of patriotism. – Conrad Mill, Parkes

Just as with the republic debate, Australians will be more inclined to support a concrete proposal to change our national day based on reasons that connect with them personally, rather than a vague proposal for change that depicts them as usurpers in their own country. – Philip Cooney, Wentworth Falls

Involve Indigenous Australians 100 per cent in the making of a new Australian constitution. After that, the date issue will disappear. – Klaas Woldring, Pearl Beach

So, Peter Allen of Castle Cove (Letters, January 25), if a patchwork nation was actually the case, would you still call Australia home? – Suzanne Saunders, Mullumbimby

I think they should move Australia Day; I suggest to Queensland. – Bruce Hulbert, Lilyfield

I’ll stand with you, Meriki Onus, in your call to abolish Australia Day. So much education and attitudinal change needs to occur in acknowledging and accepting our violent history and the dispossession of Indigenous people, including shedding the jingoistic cloak, before Australia Day can truly occur. To kick off, can white Australians stop referring to Indigenous people as “our Indigenous”? Just like the land, the people don’t belong to us, either. – Sharon McGuinness, Thirroul

Seeing as a group of people has reacted badly to Invasion Day, I suggest we call it White Australia Day as a compromise. That has a certain historical ring to it. – Rob Williams, Balgowlah

Australia Day, very much like the appendix in the human body, is unnecessary and serves no purpose. We already have a celebration of a landing in a cove at Gallipoli; that didn’t work out very well either. Get rid of both of them — we already have enough public holidays. There are few holidays for the working poor, our Indigenous sisters and brothers and those poor bastards in immigration detention. Wake up, Australians, and have a good look at yourselves — this place is not the greatest country in the world for many of us. – Chris Moe, Bensville

Imagine this. If the Japanese attacks in 1942 had led to the conquering of Australia, how would Australians in 2021 feel about celebrating that day under an invader’s flag? Surely this is what Indigenous Australians are being asked to do on Australia Day. – Sandie Rudman, Woy Woy

Merit, not acclaim, should guide awards

The selfless, generous, humble souls we would love to see honoured in the Australia Day honours list for their contributions to society are not part of professional networks, do not have important referees, or nominators with the literacy skills of professional wordsmiths. If we care about recognising merit appropriately and inclusively, we must change the selection process to allow for nominations which assess the merit of the nominee, not the expertise of the proposer. – Catherine Turner, Cremorne

While not a recipient myself, I have secretly and successfully nominated two people, one of each gender, for an Australian award. Both were of equal merit, in my view, in terms of what they had given to the community. One received a higher award, one a lower award, I suspect, because for the higher one I had garnered referees who were themselves already members at that level. So, who know you does matter, it seems. – Peter Thornton, Killara

Being a volunteer is the great leveller in how altruistic endeavours should be recognised. Those who volunteer for no other reward than to do a job freely given and well done for others, now that’s what deserves an award on the day. – Steve Dillon, Thirroul

Bruce Spence (Letters, January 25) laments that the Australia Day awards are clearly biased in favour of “the privileged, men, bigots and conservative politicians”. This will continue to be the norm as long as we continue to elect the privileged, men, bigots and conservative politicians to Parliament. – John Grinter, Katoomba

Abolishing the Order of Australia awards is not the answer to the bi-annual criticism to which some people hitch their wagon (Letters, January 25). There are many well-deserving Australians who are never nominated and to deny them the nation’s gratitude through a rewards system would represent a failure in our collective appreciation for those who have woven the social fabric of Australia. A review? Yes, well overdue. Hopefully, it will define a principle of “once recognised” with no provision for elevation. I wear my own lapel pin in humble pride, grateful that someone thought well enough of me to nominate. It is indeed an honour. – Allan Gibson OAM, Cherrybrook

Alas, once again – but entirely predictably – my name is conspicuous by its absence in the list. Oh well, to quote Alexander Pope, “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” – Edward Loong, Milsons Point

Tim Wilson believes we can address the inequities and contradictions of our honours system by simply changing the names of the honours (“Let’s remake our honours – with First Peoples’ help”, January 25). He also believes we can address over 200 years of dispossession and disadvantage suffered by Indigenous Australians by using examples of their languages more widely. Better still, he believes we can combine both by using Aboriginal language for the honours’ new names. Simplistic, presumptive and tokenistic? Not at all. The man’s a genius. Perhaps we could solve the problems of climate change, COVID-19 and right-wing extremism simply by substituting Aboriginal words as well. – Peter Outhwaite, Hawks Nest

Rather than try to reform the decrepit architecture of this existing honours system, we could have a system of awards run by the organisations that represent the volunteers that deserve recognition. Public servants, judges, sporting champions and professors need not apply. We should take to heart the aphorism that “It’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice.” It’s about time that the nice people got a look in. – Mike Reddy, Vincentia

If the Australia Day awards are deemed necessary, then why is a person who receives an AM for helping the blind less deserving than a recipient of an AC who performs service to the judiciary? Both are valuable to society, so why are their awards “graded”? – Wendy Crew, Lane Cove North

Given a choice, I would rather have a letter published in the Herald than receive a national gong. – Kersi Meher-Homji, St Ives

Belittling ‘invasion’ an insult to First Peoples

Amanda Vanstone’s assertion that British occupation “wasn’t much of an invasion” (“On Australia Day, focus on achievements”, January 25) ignores many grim events including the massacres of the traditional owners along the banks of the Hawkesbury River during the 1790s, at Risdon Cove, Tasmania in 1804 and the use of the native mounted cavalry to wipe out the Kalkadoons at Cloncurry in 1884. I’m sure the descendants of these people would find Vanstone’s comment insulting in the extreme. – Don Carter, Oyster Bay

Hurrah for public servants

Ross Gittins rightly says that our relative success in handling the virus comes from the PM paying attention to what public servants in the Health Department said. Then advice from the public servants in Treasury meant that the economy didn’t collapse (“PM’s trust, respect for public servants vital for economy” January 23). Now the worst seems to be over, will there be a “snap back” to paying for outside consultants, continuing the war of attrition through ” efficiency dividends” and plunging more people into poverty through the end of support through JobSeeker and JobKeeper? – Judy Sherrington, Kensington

Good neighbours

If Australia can soon produce a million doses of COVID-19 vaccine a week, we should be looking to assist our neighbours in the Pacific to allow their tourism to ramp up as ours does. If that is too hard or too expensive, then I guess we can just leave it to China to take a leading role. – Stein Boddington, St Clair

Scotty’s luck

Scott Morrison probably can’t believe his luck in politics (CBD, January 25). Just when he was starting to lose a bit of support, Labor suddenly throws up the idea of a Shorten rebirth. Morrison wouldn’t even have to hit the campaign trail. – Peter Davies, Kingscliff

Me thinking out loud for the Labor Party: Malcolm Turnbull is preselected by the ALP for the seat of Hunter, where he has a residence. Labor finally get a leader that can communicate clearly, effectively and forcefully. The Australian voters finally get to see authentic Malcolm rather than transactional Malcolm. Joel Fitzgibbon heads off into the coal dust. The Liberals- Nationals contort with rage and self-implode. All Labor pains solved. – Wendy Atkins, Cooks Hill

Without Google

Google may go but, one way or another, I will find The Sydney Morning Herald. I might, however, have to visit the doctor more often (“Treasurer slams big tech’s threats”, January 25). – Denis Goodwin, Dee Why

How do you find alternative search engines? Google them? – Eric Sekula, Turramurra

I grew up many years before Google came on the scene. During that time I had a multiplicity of questions I wanted answers to. That is why my house is full of books. Google may be quicker but, if it goes, I feel I will still be able to find the answers I require. It will just take a little longer. – Anthony Healy, Willoughby East

In counting 17 search engines, Paul Doyle may well feel it would not be a disaster to lose Google (Letters, January 25), but has he considered the alternatives for the majority of Android phone users who store their photos, calendars, contacts and passwords on free Google storage? What of the tens of thousands of students who use Google docs, which is also free, on their Google-run Chromebooks? Yes, there are alternatives for all these, but they come at a cost, so let’s be sure that we understand what we are losing before we say goodbye to Google. – Julian Hare, Penshurst

Security needed now

I was very fortunate to find a job with compulsory super after uni, long before it was compulsory for all, but I was thinking career, not retirement, and gave it very little thought (“Super funds urge $5000 handout”, January 25). At 50, I was paying a bit more attention and, by 55, I was actively pursuing a number of ways to boost my retirement income. The young have time to replace their super withdrawals, so instead of securing their very distant future with a $5000 top-up, the government should be looking to secure their present, with a significant increase in unemployment benefits and continuous, targeted Jobkeeper. – Sue Hoad, Merewether

Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to tempt cash-shy workers to raid their nest eggs during the crisis? Oh wait, it was the same people who gave the well-off a large tax cut. Yes, let the great unwashed bail themselves out and save us a few bob. – Mike Bush, Port Macquarie

Wrong target

I found the article about the luxury hotel in Albury run by Kevin and Ririn Yaxley rather confronting (“Border hotel ‘can’t survive’ amid constant threat of closures”, January 25). They are complaining about the impact of the border closures (with the earlier challenge of the bushfires) on their business. With friends in another regional town running a budget motel almost run off their feet in the past few months, I feel that the problem for the Yaxleys is their business model, not the circumstances. Truly, how many “affluent, luxury-minded guests”, their stated target market, are passing through Albury at any time? It’s a very fine town with much to see and do in the area but many travellers are families or “grey nomads”. They are not looking to spend more than $400 a night. I wish them well, but think they are deluded. – Ruth Barwick, Hornsby

Wasted resources

The only thing CCS is good at capturing is good money after bad. (“What is carbon capture and storage (and does it work)?“, January 25). – Graeme Finn, St Peters

Dingo shame

A few years ago I visited Fraser Island. I was absolutely horrified by the state of the dingoes on the island. I thought it was supposed to be a place where the environment and native animals were protected, but apparently not. The most protected species I saw were Homo sapiens racing up and down the beach in enormous four-wheel drives and landing their small planes on the beach. Feeding dingoes was forbidden and that was obvious by the state of them. The ones we saw were totally emaciated. It’s no wonder they attack humans; it’s for survival. I will never visit Fraser Island again and I don’t recommend it to anyone unless you are a fan of Mad Max. – Gill Graham, Bowral

PM’s ghost ship

Helen Moran, Mr Morrison’s 12th boat would undoubtedly be the one in which Captain Cook sailed around Australia (Letters, January 25). – David Baird, Burradoo

In response to “Mr Morrison, where the bloody hell is the 12th boat?”, the PM’s office advises it is an “on water” matter, so we’ll never know. – Sue Dyer, Downer (ACT)

So very succinct

So. You think that is a short sentence Jeffrey Mellefont (Letters, January 25)? The first sentence of Eyrie by Tim Winton is “So.” – Joy Cooksey, Harrington

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet begins with: “Who’s there?“. What multitudes these two words contain. – Matthew Gibbs, Leichhardt

“Unemployed at last!” is the wonderful first sentence of Such is Life, that great Australian novel by Joseph Furphy. – Bruce Wilson, Merewether Heights

Nothing wrong with it, Barbara Barclay (Letters, January 25), but it could be improved? How about “It was a perfect night for a Dark and Stormy”? – John Christie, Oatley

Opening lines may be interesting, but you can’t beat a good closing line. I finished off all my compositions in primary school with “… and we arrived home, tired but happy”. – George Palagyi, Saratoga

The digital view

Online comment from the story that attracted the most reader feedback yesterday on smh.com.au
“Almost half oppose campaign to change Australia Day: poll”
From bc60: Long ago Australia Day and Anzac Day seemed more like a good reason for a day off. Along came John Howard and the rise of flag-waving patriotism and both days came to be revered and as days of national importance and national (white) achievements. It’s difficult to now put the genie back in the bottle … much more than a simple majority will be needed to make a change.
Conservatives, as usual, are more of a stumbling block. January 26 can be all-encompassing if done properly. Once again we could look to NZ for ideas, they seem to manage a more inclusive February 6 to the satisfaction of the significant majority for both Maori and Pakeha.