Letters to the Editor
Nuclear subs deal sunk
July 21, 2023
If war in the Ukraine has taught us something it is that drones, missiles and intelligence are the future weapons of choice. Submarines, whether conventional or nuclear powered are not in the mix and thinking we might rely on six submarines or Abrams tanks, for that matter, to defend Australia is risable. The nuclear option is surely untenable, surely. That leaves us with drones and missiles based in Australia controlled from Australia as our best hope of surviving. But best we use discussion to bargain our way out of war.
Kevin McCue from Canberra
In response to: Nuclear subs deal sunk
WHOSE FAULT IS IT
July 21, 2023
In his article Mr Austen, makes no reference to where responsibility falls. It is the Minns Labour government who won the May Election? or is it the fault / failure of the former LNP government? I would suggest that it is the former LNP government, who under Gladys B. wrecked the Sydney suburban rail system by wholesale changes to time-tables. The Bankstown / Liverpool/Campbelltown line. Express services on the Bankstown line were significantly reduced. Trains no longer used the Bankstown line to Liverpool and Campbelltown. The LNP governments unsuitable ordering trains from Spain - and more!!
Peter Dowling from RAYMOND TERRACE
In response to: 40,000 infrastructure defects reported in Sydney Trains maintenance backlog
Six hundred years of reform?
July 21, 2023
Catholics are missing the point when talking about the failure of the Catholic Church. If it has failed and is irrelevant - get rid of it.
James Mitchell from IPSWICH
In response to: Fallen potatoes-the failure of the Catholic Church
Confusing the evidence
July 21, 2023
Chris Bonnor argues that It is always important that public debate on schools reflect what we know rather than what wed like to believe. Its a great shame that Bonnor undermined his otherwise excellent article by the use of an example which was not relevant to his thesis. As a former school executive, I have no doubt that Ross Fox gilds the lily when claiming credit for improvements in educational outcomes in Canberra-Goulburn Catholic systemic schools result from the Catalyst program, and exaggerates the contribution of systemic schools in providing for students with behavioural and educational difficulties, perhaps...
Christopher Bounds from Canberra
In response to: Lies, damned lies and school statistics
Julian Cribb and Saul Griffith must be heard
June 28, 2023
Inventor and climate activist, Saul Griffith, in his recent Quarterly Essay The Wires that Bind, describing the urgency of essential action, wrote: Real climate action in Australia and globally, must happen at the level where citizens interact with their local infrastructure and invest in their homes, businesses and communities. We need a new social contract such that every Australian can join the game. Cribbs 2023 book How to Fix a Broken Planet brings together in a short and highly readable volume, his conclusions about the survivability of the human species. It offers the reader a sensible and practical path...
Bob Douglas from Australia
In response to: Our planet is imploding: when will we act to save ourselves?
There is a plan for human survival
June 26, 2023
Recently Professor Cribb asserted that nobody has a Plan for Human Survival. This is not a true statement. PLAN E, introduced in this journal last year, is a concept for an emergency response to the hyperthreat of climate and ecological crisis. Professor Cribb has previously argued that PLAN E does not address his list of 10 mega threats. In fact, PLAN E does account for these and more. The hyperthreat encapsulates all forms of climate and environmental problems (threats 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 on his list). The overall Grand Strategy takes an entangled security...
Elizabeth Boulton from Melbourne
In response to: Our planet is imploding: when will we act to save ourselves?
Retired US Admiral confirms Australian subservience
June 23, 2023
Many thanks to Margaret Reynolds for such a forthright criticism of Australian subservience to the US in matters of foreign policy and defence. That the United States takes this subservience for granted and has the capacity to compel subservience if ever it was questioned has been made clear in the comments of an (unnamed) retired US Admiral to the editor of the Australia Pacific Defence Reporter, Kym Bergmann. Kym quotes the Admiral's words in his most recent 20-minute podcast, which should be listened to in full. It is a chilling account of our subservience, and adds to the thrust of...
Mike Williss from Adelaide
In response to: A subservient defence policy undermines Albaneses successful first year
Ordering women into silence
June 21, 2023
Thank you, Jack Waterford, for publicising your contempt and rejection of the police and justice system in the ACT when it comes to protecting the privacy and dignity of women rape survivors. Of course, it's not just in the ACT that this happens but, in the male-dominated legal system generally. All the right words are used to suggest that everything is being done to help the victim but very little action is taken to prevent the perpetrator from verbally violating his victim over and over again in and outside of the court. In this, he uses his legal accomplices...
Diana Rickard from Tumbling Waters NT
In response to: Our law and order violate women
China Is it Really a Threat
June 20, 2023
But it is important to emphasise that Chinas apparent lead is largely due to its very large population about four times that of the United States. GDP/capita is the measure that determines the stage of development. By this measure the World Bank (there are slight differences between institutions who measure this because of different methodologies) calculates Chinas GDP/capita as $23,382, and the US as $80,035. the United States is ranked No. 8 and China is ranked No. 73 (quoted in Wikipedia). The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (which is really a wolf in sheeps clothing) would have us believe that...
Barry Trembath from Australia
In response to: Why is America so reluctant to acknowledge Chinas economic power?
Wen Wei Po NOT an anti Beijing newspaper
June 19, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Gregory Clark's article and would like to circulate it to my friends. Unfortunately, his assertion that Wen Wei Po was a weak Hong Kong newspaper known at the time for extreme anti-Beijing positions. Everyone in Hong Kong knows that, while it is not exactly a top selling daily, it's always been a diehard pro-Beijing paper. Like all newspapers at the time, without independent verification of the various stories bandied around, the Wen Wei Po just parroted the Tiananmen Massare stories. After all, there were a few fake eyewitness accounts doing the rounds at the time....
Jonathan Leung from Hong Kong
In response to: Psy-ops warriors: Tiananmen Square and the media-pack
Relations with China
June 19, 2023
Kevin Rudd has tackled the issues well in his book The Avoidable War, while fully cognisant of defects on both sides of the US China divide. He proposes the need for agreed guardrails to minimise escalation of incidents, while accepting strategic competition. China talks of its redlines. We need Australian institutions which are involved in collective security discussions which include not just military but economic aspects and representation which includes China. The democratic deficit is clearly on show, after the gross deception of the Australian public, by DFAT and Defence, in September 2021 after the Paris 2+2 meeting, a deception...
Geoff Taylor from Perth
In response to: Australia preparing for war- can it stop the rot?
An Answer to Neoliberalism
June 19, 2023
In answer to Alan Patience's Anticipating a Post-Capitalist World, one of the obvious solutions is to do away with 'workers' and 'bosses' by forming as many work places as possible into cooperatives. In this way workers become the owners and elect the 'bosses' thus forming a truly democratic workplace. Corbyn was going to encourage that in the UK had he got in. It could only be sponsored from a labour-socialist party which unfortunately Australia has no longer got. Maybe the Greens will get powerful enough to subsidise/encourage a big push to cooperatives. Its one of the few hopes we have.
Malthus Anderson from Tarras, New Zealand.
In response to: The End is Nigh! Anticipating a Post-Capitalist World