Some recent newspaper letters (none mine).
The Age, 16/12:
Sorry, the eco-tooth fairy is not coming
Climate change is happening. Ask anyone in the bush. It seems as if only idiot politicians insulated from reality think that you can escape it.
I live about 100 kilometres from Melbourne on eight hectares. February taught me that I cannot rely on the CFA to come to my rescue.
I have installed sprinkler systems on my house and on my workshop, which with time, materials, and two petrol fire-fighting pumps cost about $15,000. I built myself a fire tanker from an old four-wheel-drive, with a new pump, $2000. I spent a couple of months clearing trees, undergrowth and ground litter from the fire-zone directions, which meant loss of working time. I installed a photo-voltaic electricity system, which will cost me a further $3000, after the rebate.
I drive to Melbourne, and I see the McMansions on the way. No verandas, not even eaves, relying only on cheap electricity to power their air-conditioners. I think: “I hope the price of power goes through the roof to show these fools that stupidity is not free.”
I see that these people have representatives, on both sides of the parliaments of this country, who believe in the eco-tooth fairy. I despair.
– Wolfgang Rebien, Welshmans Reef
Climate change; forget it. Population of the world in 2000, about 6 billion. 2050, about 9 billion; end of story.
– Stuart Young, Sorrento
Until politicians begin to ask how the environment can accommodate economics, rather than how economics can accommodate the environment, a sustainable future will never be realised.
– Will Hardiker, Thornbury
17/12, on the immigration scam disguised as international students:
Admission on visas
The straight-talking Indian consul-general seems to have settled in well to her life in Melbourne (“The joy of the envoy”, Insight, 12/12). What unsettles me, and I find insulting and undiplomatic, is her open admission that Indian students are here to gain permanent residency, rather than a skill.
No Australian politician seems to want to address this issue or look at the real long-term value to Australia. These trade courses do not come up to our own apprenticeship standards (even if all the colleges were well run). Thus, by definition, we are not producing skilled migrants - one of the factors on which permanent residency is based.
What is in it for Australia, apart from the course fees? Given the number of college collapses, you have to wonder how much of these fees actually remain in the country. Isn’t it about time we ended this hypocrisy?
– Graham Hogarth, Melbourne
H-S, 28/12:
Population growth bad for state
May I add to Brian Rockliff’s dismay (December 24) at the Brumby Government’s performance.
The core of Victoria’s problems comes down to the fact that the Premier is a very strong advocate of a massive population growth in the state (up to 2000 a week), and the serious side-effects this is having in unprecedented urban sprawl, traffic mayhem, water shortages, expensive housing and so on. No minister ever accepts responsibility. The most galling thing about this is that the coterie of Brumby ministers will eventually leave Parliament and be very handsomely rewarded by tax payers for the dreadful mess that this Government has created.
– Tony Davidson, Glen Waverley
