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The Age
18 hours ago
- Politics
- The Age
Be careful in changing rules on voting
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@ Please include your home address and telephone number. No attachments, please include your letter in the body of the email. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published. The question of extending Australian voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds has recently been mooted. As has been noted, there are some politically informed and interested young people and there are also many who have little interest in politics at this busy stage of their lives. It has also been suggested that voting for this age group may not be compulsory. There may be people in other age groups or categories who would view the special exemption from compulsory voting for 16- and 17-year-olds as discriminatory and seek exemptions. Where do we draw the line? Australia has one of the most stable democracies in the world. Changes of government happen smoothly and without bloodshed. Many of the most important elements of our democracy derive from the political reform movements in 19th-century Britain. Hard-won policies such as compulsory voting and the secret ballot means that people cannot be prevented from voting by bribes or threats from powerful people and we have the freedom to vote in private for the candidate or party we choose. We also have the great advantage of elections being run by a respected independent body, the Australian Electoral Commission, which manages the electoral process including the vote count. Political parties or candidates also have the option of providing volunteer scrutineers to monitor vote counting. Changing the rules for some groups of people is a dangerous precedent that may have many unintended consequences. April Baragwanath, Geelong Little currency in cash condition Your correspondent's suggestion (Letters, 22/7) that 16-year-olds are allowed to vote 'when they have a taxable dollar in their pockets' raises some interesting issues. Would pensioners and others who don't pay tax lose their vote? Then, of course, there's the pesky part-pensioners? Perhaps they could get a part-vote, voting for the House of Representatives but not for the Senate, or should it be the other way round? It all sounds a bit too complicated to me. Jo Bond, South Melbourne What about a more nuanced approach? At 20, I was required to register for National Service with the possibility of conscription to Vietnam but not allowed to vote as I turned 21 two months after the election. So I can understand the frustration of young people who take an interest in politics but are not allowed to vote. However, I suspect that many 16- and 17-year-olds aren't all that interested in voting and shouldn't be forced to do so. What about a 'nuanced' position? Allow discretionary voting for 16- to 24-year-olds and bring compulsory voting from 25 years on. But then I am not sure that we do 'nuance' too well in Australia. Graeme Head, Newport The more votes the merrier If we are to allow 16-year-olds to vote, perhaps we should amend the voting system so that voters can become eligible for extra votes as they contribute more to the successful running of our society. People could perhaps earn extra votes when they obtain full-time jobs, do charitable work, get married, have children, buy a house or reach certain levels of education. On the other hand they might lose votes if convicted of crimes. Why does it have to be one vote one person? Tony O'Brien, South Melbourne The young need to be encouraged The Liberal Party, as well as encouraging more female representation, could also pay close attention to encouraging more young voters to contribute to changing the mindset of party politics and enter politics to make a difference and mentor them to do so. Thinking outside the box on issues that will make a difference for their future and our present concerns, can provide vitality and ideas in discussing opportunities for change. Unless change happens, nothing changes. We will all benefit. Christine Baker, Rosanna THE FORUM
The Age
2 days ago
- Automotive
- The Age
Gadget-filled cars are driving up distractions on the road
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@ Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published. ROAD SAFETY On the debate about making driving safer, I wholeheartedly agree with your correspondent (' Take a leaf from my book ', Letters, 17/7) about the inattention of many drivers of 'smart modern cars'. I too have observed drivers of these new cars, which appear to be equipped with so many gadgets that one would need an IT licence also. I have also observed the continual fiddling on screen, which distracts from observing the traffic, while they try to 'optimise their driving experience'. I have an ageing, well-kept and serviced, 15-year-old (automatic) Corolla, which has none of the beeps, squarks and an inclination to decelerate for no reason as in many modern cars. The quality and safety of the journey lies more in the competence of the driver, and maintenance of the vehicle, irrespective of age. The new obsession with so many gadgets in cars, are a distraction in many instances. Petrushka Owen, Hawthorn One foot at a time Your correspondent (Letters, 18/7) suggests that in an automatic, the left foot should be used for brake and the right for accelerator. This ignores an important aspect of driving – driver stability. An advanced driving course I attended emphasised the need to use the left foot on the footrest to help stabilise the driver, particularly when braking. Without this, heavy braking can cause additional body weight to be inadvertently transferred to the brake. Another consequence is the driver's feet hovering over both pedals and playing them like an organ – very confusing for the following car. Bill Clifford, Caulfield North Slower but steady I'm perplexed by the argument calling for an increase in national maximum speed limits, particularly on freeways (' Will the maximum speed limit in Australia ever be raised? ', Drive, 19/7). The author claims that Sydney and Melbourne are 'going backwards' due to reducing speed limits to 40km/h across large parts of their central municipalities. However, lower speed limits are crucial to making walking and bicycling safe for people of different ages, abilities, and capacities. I hardly call this going backwards. There are very real safety implications – in Sweden and France, after speed limits on country roads were reduced by 10km/h, crash fatalities decreased by 8 to 14 per cent. Nathan Pittman, Flemington Dangerous riding The report by Cara Waters (' Injury fears as food delivery riders turn to e-bikes ', 21/7), relating to e-bike injuries is timely. I have watched in horror as these delivery riders weave in and out of traffic, run red lights, speed, and just do all manner of dangerous things. It is time these bikes be registered, and the riders licensed. Kevin Drinan, Bentleigh Overpowered e-bikes As a legal e-bike rider since 2017 with over 20,000 kilometres clocked up, it is obvious to me that there are an increasing number of e-bikes on our suburban streets, foot paths and shared use trails that are too fast to be legal. That is particularly obvious when they are going up steeper hills, or perhaps the riders assisting with peddling are Tour de France athletes! These bikes may have been ordered to comply with the rules, while the motor's label may well confirm that they do, but who knows if the motor is really only 250 watts? Graeme Daniels, Balwyn North Manage compliance The suggestion to classify e-bikes as motor bikes and require their registration is onerous and unworkable. To my knowledge no jurisdiction anywhere in the world has taken such a draconian step. Surely a simpler solution would be the fitting of small compliance plates or tags to e-bikes that state they comply with Australian design rules. This would allow law enforcement officers to quickly identify and deal with non-compliant bikes. Guy Ward, Nunawading
The Age
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
The reach of climate change encircles the world
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@ Please include your home address and telephone number. No attachments, please include your letter in the body of the email. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published. Reach of climate change Having grown up in London, I read with interest David Crowe's description of life there under climate change (' The heat is on in London and it's turned deadly ', 19/7). They have many problems with out-of-date infrastructure like buses and housing. It is encouraging that much is being done overthere, like conserving water and using more appropriate species of plants. My former home city is a case study in climate action and inaction. More could have been done sooner, but short-term political and financial interests often got priority. Now London has sweaty buses and hundreds of extra deaths in worsening heatwaves. There is also inadequate action in Australia and elsewhere. The Age on Saturday carries other relevant stories, including of Victorian farmers helping each other after a severe drought, withextra farm costs pushing up prices of lamb and beef in our supermarkets. Another article describes how the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is threatened by rising seas and coastal erosion. Many Tuvaluans want to migrate to Australia. Impacts of the climate crisis will be relevant more and more in our news, and in our lives. John Hughes, Mentone Out-of-touch Liberals The charmless and contrarian attitude of the Liberal Party is on full display with its claim that Anthony Albanese's trip to China is 'indulgent' (at least they didn't go so far as to call it a junket). It must really gall them that in a little over three years the relationship with China – our biggest trading partner by far and one with which we have a significant trade surplus – has so dramatically improved. But then it was Peter Dutton who said we must prepare for war, and although he didn't say it out loud, it seemed pretty obvious which country he was referring to. So I guess for them nothing has really changed, except that they have proven to be even more out of touch with what Australians want from their government. Brandon Mack, Deepdene Left behind Columnist Jake Niall has only scratched the surface (″ A fix to AFL's flawed fixture ″, 18/7). For a ″fair″ competition to exist there is only one way this can happen. Like virtually all other national team sport competitions, each team plays each other team twice, once at home and once away. In this respect the AFL is a national disaster, and the AFL should have been working towards something like this when it first formed decades ago. Increasingly it is moving further and further away. This dimension of unfairness within the competition (there are many others eg, variations in the interpretation of rules between and within umpires) is why I have no interest in the game now. It is so unfair. Ian Anderson, Maldon Not wild about this AFL Wildcard rounds exist in US professional sports as part of, or entry to, the competition's final series. Many of these competitions are split into conferences, and then divisions, with division winners typically gaining automatic entry to the finals. However, you can have the situation where the runner-up in one division has a superior record to the winner of another division. Wildcard games give well-performed teams who did not win their division a chance to play in the finals. The AFL sports media has been constantly raising a proposed extension of the current finals system by a week, with 7th playing 10th, and 8th playing 9th, prior to the regular finals and persist in calling this a ″wildcard″ round. There is nothing wild about it, it's just another week of finals in a competition without conferences. Pedantry aside, extending the AFL finals series to 10th would reward inferior teams. In the past 10 years, only two teams finishing 10th have won more than 50 per cent of their games – Fremantle last year (12 wins and a draw) and Geelong in 2015 (12 wins). In the same period, four teams finished 10th winning fewer than half of their games. Do we really want teams with a losing record to be playing finals? Mark Southby, Oakleigh
The Age
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
More work needed on how money is spent on defence
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@ Please include your home address and telephone number. No attachments, please include your letter in the body of the email. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published. Bravo Ross Gittins (Comment, 16/7). The question of defence spending is not a stand-alone one. As Gittins points out, the money spent on defence could alternatively be spent on something else ... health, education and climate change for instance, all of which we are told are in need of funding, or it could reduce our national debt, agreed to be another worthy goal. Also, who do we rely on, and more particularly who do we trust, to advise on the amount to be spent on defence? And on what items the money is to be spent? Have Defence Department experts advised? Has the Foreign Affairs Department? What input from academic defence experts? Has the general public been told the alternative ways that this money could be spent? That a politician, with no specific expertise, clearly being pressured by a foreign government and with a forward view of three years, makes these decisions that shape a 40-year national future, seems unlikely to produce a sound result. More work needed. Peter Moore, Clifton Hill There will always be a use for the sword Not to make light of Ross Gittins' excellent suggestion that we shouldn't spend too much on useless military hardware when there are more pressing needs at home, has there ever been a time when a more powerful neighbour, human nature being what it is, has decided not to plunder its neighbour's undefended assets when they seem there for the taking? One might offer educational opportunities or trade deals or bribes in exchange for ″protection″, but sooner or later hard reality dawns and just like at the end of the Bronze Age when the hill fort on the other side of the valley acquires cutting edge technology, there comes a time when you need to upgrade to your own iron swords and spear tips if you don't want to become a footnote of history. Claude Miller, Castlemaine Happy to pay more tax for peace of mind Spending whatever is necessary to make us feel safe in our own backyard can never be a waste of money. The thought of being a sitting duck to an attack and not having the America fully engaged in our defence is something that should not sit well with all Australians. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should be taking orders from Donald Trump on our defence spending and I am happy to pay higher taxes to ensure my grandchildren don't have to look over their shoulders in years to come. You can't put a price on peace of mind. Steve Naumovski, Southbank Relationship with China is important to us Thank you Ross Gittins for a balanced and much needed article regarding the constant warmongering, sabre-rattling and the calls from the United States for NATO countries and Australia to dramatically increase their defence spending. Australia needs to continue to forge a strong relationship with China. It is our most important trading partner, with the health of their economy being intrinsically linked to ours. Gittins is right to point out the ″glee with which our defenceniks″ those with vested interests, accept calls of increased spending. Continuing a Cold War mentality approach, sold through the virtues of misplaced nationalism and irrational fear, certainly lines the coffers of many. As for looking to recent history as a guide for war and aggression, it is interesting to note, that since the end of the Vietnam war, the United States have conducted conventional bombing campaigns of more than 20 countries including, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Bosnia and Sudan to name a few, while China has conducted none. Craig Jory, Albury, NSW THE FORUM Trade and money for us Columnist Shaun Carney, writing of our national values, suggests change can be hard to accept in assessing our relationship with the United States under Donald Trump (″ Trump or Xi for Albo? Maybe both ″, 17/7). With our lax defence spending it is clear we are happy to be a nation of freeloaders on security and one that values trade and the economy ahead of traditional democratic freedoms that evades a billion or so Chinese. We expect our AUKUS security partners to do most of the heavy defence lifting while we pursue national wealth and prosperity through better economic relations with a communist dictatorship that has an abysmal human rights record and an open policy of eventually taking its neighbour by force. Sadly, if Anthony Albanese's assessment of ″public sentiment″ is correct, we now stand for a combination of trade, money and not much else. Good luck, Taiwan. Brian O'Neil, Heidelberg Heights Reality check on care Thank you Dr Jacqueline Wilson (' I survived care, my brother didn't ', 16/7) for describing such a heart-wrenchingly sad journey you and your brother faced in the child welfare system from such a young age. For those of us who haven't experienced such difficult childhoods it's a disturbing reality check on how life can be so hard and unsatisfactory for all too many young children and adolescents caught up so powerlessly in the care of the state. It's good to know that some former wards of state have also kept this issue in the public eye and had some compensation, albeit small, but it seems little has changed despite many reports and recommendations for future improvements in the child welfare and protection systems. I was a social worker in the 1970s and am ashamed to say I didn't want to work in that area as even then, it was woefully under-resourced. It seems little has changed. Let's hope things do change for the better so that all your grit and determination ending up working in a similar field and as well, so that a life like your brother's hasn't been lost in vain. Kerin Tulloch, Hawthorn Grateful commuter Carriage comes off the rails at Clifton Hill on Sunday evening, two train lines are suspended and major delays ensue for north-east commuters. On Wednesday morning I braced for the worst, radio news telling me bus trips would be long, uncomfortable and trips delayed. Walking to Heidelberg Station I hoped there would be information and that my wait for a bus would not be long. I was greeted by PTV staff who were friendly, guiding commuters to the bus services. I quickly joined the queue for the express bus to Parliament and five minutes later a bus arrived to take me into the city. The journey was quick, free and pleasant. My trip home took a little longer due to peak-hour traffic, however it was just as pleasant as my morning commute. Plenty of PTV staff were in place to guide and assist passengers and I thanked them all as I began my short walk home. It's not all doom and gloom, leave a little earlier, know it will take a little longer but know that when things don't always go to plan, there are people doing their best to get us all to where we need to go as quickly as possible. I, for one, am grateful. Franca Mosca, Ivanhoe
The Age
16-07-2025
- Business
- The Age
Banks can afford a free service to customers
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@ Please include your home address and telephone number. No attachments, please include your letter in the body of the email. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published. Businesses would not need to apply surcharges to credit and debit card transactions if the banks did not charge traders commissions as a percentage of card trade (″ Ban on card surcharges risks job cuts, price hikes ″, 16/7). Banks (recipients of enormous profits) can well afford to offer cards as a free service to traders and shoppers given the very high interest rates charged to the many customers who use cards as a form of borrowing. Kevan Porter, Alphington Financial growth must align with wellbeing The government's economic roundtable will look at proposals to grow our economy and lift living standards (″ Tax reform must protect bottom line: Treasurer ″, 15/7), but the two are not necessarily correlated. Growth is a flawed indicator of overall wellbeing, and is detrimental when pursued at the expense of environmental sustainability and social equity. It certainly doesn't relate to personal happiness. We have had a huge amount of growth since 2000, but housing affordability has rapidly deteriorated, along with environmental capital on which our economy and health ultimately depends. The wellbeing of people and the planet must be integral to any economic decisions if we are to have a viable future. Jennie Epstein, Little River Bring on the cash revolution I refer to your correspondent's letter (16/7) regarding a bank or banks charging for teller assistance. How dare we ask for face-to-face service? But if we try to not be a pest and instead use our cards to buy goods, a surcharge is applied at the point of sale. That surcharge is also a percentage, as if data for a $200 transaction costs more to process than for a $20 one? Using cash again might be the fight back? The cost to banks of those micro-bits of data running between EFTPOS machines and the banks, is nothing compared to the end cost to them of people paying cash instead. Think of the cost of extra branches to handle the number of traders banking that cash and the extra staff required to handle it. It would be a great public relations exercise if the banks were just grateful for the costs they are saving by our card use. Gerry Lonergan, Reservoir Treasurer, how do we do better? Treasurer Jim Chalmers promised that the Labor government could build 1,200,000 homes by 2029. The number of homes constructed is already tens of thousands under the builds required to meet the target after a year. Considering that it estimated that there will be just under a million immigrants by the end of 2029 the housing crisis is not going to ease. Chalmers' response is that we would need to 'do better' – blind Freddie could see that. Where are the plans detailing how we do better? There are not enough skilled tradespeople to build, there is not enough developed land to build, there are not enough building materials to construct homes. Forty seven per cent of the building cost is in government taxes and statutory costs – immediately think of 10 per cent GST and superannuation on wages of 12 per cent. At the same time, Chalmers is under extreme pressure to increase taxes to balance the expenditures being made. Australia is following the economic mayhem that we have in Victoria. Ross Kroger, Barwon Heads It's deja vu all over again So the treasurer is going to have a powwow with invited guests to talk about tax. It is all very nice until someone suggests that some people might have to pay more. Then the tears and the fireworks start and it all becomes too hard. We need only go back to the Henry Report of 2010 with its many recommendations of which only a few were implemented. Treasurer, deja vu is writ in the skies. John Rome, Mt Lawley THE FORUM Putting youth to use Ross Gittins (Comment, 16/7) asked the question, 'Defence against who?' but the question should be widened to 'against what?' Recent emergencies have included bushfires, flooding and pandemics. We expect a lot from our army of volunteers. How about showing our young Australians that not only are they are needed but how they can help. Yes, the topic is National Service. In the past this has always been military service but why not have our young people trained and able to respond to other emergencies. Also, let's ensure this would be a period of paid employment and a chance to see and experience the more remote parts of this country. And it would be 'defence spending' for those concerned about increasing the amount spent on 'defence″. Albert Bland, Boronia Boots on the ground In the absence of a land border between Australia and another country it is all too easy to think that, as your correspondent (Letters, 15/7) indicates, future conflicts will be fought with all kinds of satellites, drones and AI-derived weaponry. In case it has escaped anyone's attention, the war being fought in Ukraine is very much being fought on land by humans. Defence by cyber attack and distant weapons of destruction is inevitable, but so ultimately is defence by foot and by army. Finland, like many other countries (eg, Israel) has conscription to have an armed force on the cheap. Given Australia's history, the very idea of reintroducing conscription here as a purely defence measure may well be a step too far for any government in the foreseeable future. In the meantime, our vastly understaffed land army is all the deterrent we have regarding boots on the ground. It is not necessary to have a particular threat in view to boost defence readiness, but it is necessary to be prepared for any eventuality, even if we can only afford 2.3 per cent of gross domestic product. John Whelen, Box Hill Sth
