Environment can’t wait

I don’t envy Tanya’s Plibersek’s job (“Going on the attack in the name of nature”,October 5). It’s hard to remember a time when the portfolio of the environment minister has been more complex or challenging. Labor’s election commitment to create a national Environmental Protection Agency has stalled and Plibersek’s promise of comprehensive reform to national environment laws has been delayed. The Global Nature Positive Summit hosted by Plibersek in Sydney this week is an opportunity to regain some lost ground in advance of the forthcoming election. But with a PM who recently watered down the EPA to secure votes in WA,and fossil fuel projects being approved,it’s hard to be optimistic. Australia’s 2245 threatened species are running out of time. The Summit is a chance to refocus on their needs.Ray Peck,Hawthorn (Vic)

Tanya Plibersek is right to call out Peter Dutton’s anti-environment agenda. Her criticism of the Greens as extreme,however,is unfounded,as is her portrayal of herself as the sensible centre. According to the report of the same name,the State of Australia’s Environment is “poor and deteriorating”,our threatened species list is ever-growing,and the Great Barrier Reef is suffering. Yet under Labor we continue to log native forests and dig up fossil fuels,as if our nature is flourishing and thriving. In an ecological crisis,such poor environmental stewardship is inexcusable and embarrassing,especially when we are hosting the Global Nature Positive Summit. Unless Plibersek starts choosing the environment over corporate interests,she too will end up in the environmental sin-bin with Dutton’s Coalition.Amy Hiller,Kew (Vic)

How can Tanya Plibersek claim that Labor is taking a “sensible” approach to environmental policies,when the government only recently approved three new coal mine expansions? These projects are set to create over a billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions,with the Narrabri project threatening hundreds of acres of koala habitat. Labor’s approvals of new fossil fuel projects defy logic. No amount of renewables investment can reverse the potential damage to our climate and natural environment. With its weak stance on global emissions reductions,Labor is hardly in a good position to host the upcoming Global Nature Positive Summit.Anne O’Hara,Wanniassa (ACT)

I have one simple question for Tanya Plibersek. How can you justify more coal mines when this will simply add to emissions,both here and overseas?Andrew Macintosh,Cromer

Hail the real women warriors

I’d like the right of reply to my letter about female leaders (Letters,October 4). The few usual suspects are cited in responses to my letter:Thatcher,Meir and so on,proving that there are so few of them they can be easily remembered. Compare that number to the thousands of brutal and megalomaniac male leaders there have been throughout history,far too many to remember or mention. One correspondent says that those “driven by power” invariably “follow the path of violence”. As women are less “driven by power”? Could that explain their scarcity as leaders?Judy Hungerford,Kew (Vic)

You can add my name to the growing list of millions of women who have had enough of the destruction of homes and killing of innocent people,all coldly regarded by political and military men as dispensable collateral damage in a revenge response to warfare. But don’t fathers suffer this too?

There are no longer any words which adequately describe the savage brutality of political and military men who react to enemy attacks with even more force which can eventually get out of hand. Dispute resolution,hideous destruction,conflict,retaliatory retribution,warfare – all weasel words which can never describe the unimaginable suffering and loss of those souls who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Women have turned history around before,and must do it again as their male counterparts obviously don’t have the will to stop.Corin Fairburn Bass,Turramurra

My goodness (Letters,October 5). What on earth have Sussan Ley and Bronwyn Bishop done,or achieved,to mark them as local “women warriors” in the same sphere as New Zealand’s WWII hero Nancy Wake?John Pick,Cremorne

Adrian Bell must have known he would to get a response to citing Sussan Ley and Bronwyn Bishop as strong women. Puhlease! Mum Shirl any day,for instance.Claudia Drevikovsky,Croydon

I’m rather surprised that in his list of strong woman,Adrian Bell did not include our own Julia Gillard and NZ’s Jacinda Ardern. The former had strength in standing up to likes of Tony Abbott and Bronwyn Bishop.Charlie Dodd-Somerton,Ultimo

Good old days

Nick Bryant,you might have a point,but Hawke had a more switched-on media to either love the bloke,or give him a kick if he needed it (“Not even Hawke could escape this incumbency trap”,October 5). There was no “antisocial” media,using algorithms to tell their targets how unhappy they are and why. There was more bipartisanship among politicians,and they were largely focused on improving the country,rather than what was in it for them. There was less of a medium to spread malicious conspiracy theories,and people were generally more outward looking,rather than inward,self-absorbed and switched off to the truth as they often are now. Cometh the hour,cometh the woman or man,to show the way.Geoff Nilon,Mascot

Age of reason

“Younger readers write to us” – yes,please do! (Postscript,October 5). One wonders – is the lack thereof because they are busy on social media,with no time for our belovedHerald? Let us hear from the smart opinionated young readers.Alison Stewart,Waitara

Interpreting “younger reader” in the legacy media context,I presume you mean those of us under 60 – in which case I still qualify,just,and can happily opine youth and its opinions remains wasted on me.Peter Fyfe,Enmore

Aye,a penny for their thoughts. It’d be a breath of fresh air to read younger readers’ views,and to see their style.Edward Loong,Milsons Point

Between the lines

Did anyone else laugh,then think to congratulate cruciverbalist DS,on the cunning insertions of football references into the cryptic crossword on NRL grand final day? Even “grand final” made it into a clue. Others that I picked were “opener”,“build a squad”,“storm”,“out of bounds”,“top stars”. No doubt footy fans will find more. Thanks for the laughs,DS!Barry Laing,Castle Cove

Room for all

Why would Premier Minns even consider changing the successful Northern Beaches Secondary College (NBSC) structure (“‘It would be crazy’:Parents fight co-ed proposal for Sydney’s top-ranked schools”,October 5)? There is already a co-ed high school,a boys’ school and a girls’ school,a co-ed year 11 and 12 school,and a co-ed selective school in the group. All these schools are at full capacity and are achieving great HSC results,with (non-selective) Balgowlah Boys High being one of the best-performing schools in the state. Perhaps the premier should look at this college and try to implement some of their successful strategies in other schools in the state rather than dismantle this fabulous example of public education. Premier Minns,there is already plenty of choice at NBSC.Helen Simpson,Curl Curl

Have a heart

The proposed ousting of low-income people from their homes in Paddington is appalling. It’s The Rocks evictions all over again (Letters,October 4). The NSW and federal Labor governments should immediately step in and compulsorily acquire these houses to enable the battlers to remain in their community. I remember similar purchases by a federal Labor government of homes in the Glebe Estate,which remain affordable housing to this very day. I also remember Tom Uren’s (ALP) Better Cities Program which funded much-needed infrastructure associated with new developments,such as the Ultimo community centre and library. So how about it,Albo and Chris? A Better Public Housing Program has a good ring to it. But you’d better be quick,or 29 men will be sleeping on the streets.

Elizabeth Elenius,Pyrmont

Your correspondents are rightly angry that,in the middle of a housing crisis,dozens of vulnerable people are being made homeless. Demolishing cheap but liveable housing to make way for a smaller number of luxury houses is common in central and eastern Sydney,and is something we need to prevent. The best way to do this is obvious:put a tax on it. If developers were levied $10,000 for every bedroom that was lost,we’d have fewer demolition jobs and the state government would have a pool of funds to build social housing. While we’re at it,we could levy developers for demolishing any habitable building less than,say,40 years old. The newer the building,the higher the levy. Getting builders to focus on building completely new dwellings,rather than replacing old ones,wouldn’t fix the housing crisis overnight,but it would be a start.
Fraser Rew,Ashfield

Generous gift

Oh Edward Loong,regarding those bottles of gin:surely you realise it’s not the principle of the thing,it’s the spirit (Letters,October 5).
Coral Button,North Epping

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