Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The Mad Hatter’s Tea Partywww.alamy.com
My former parliamentary colleague George Brandis extols the virtues of compulsory voting in Australia. Compulsory voting is,in fact,a massive blight on our democracy. We are one of very few democracies that makes it an offence not to vote and denies Australians the legal right to choose not to vote. Of course,Australians should vote – but it is thoroughly objectionable and frankly undemocratic that we cannot legally choose not to vote. And Brandis does not seem to even understand the law when he says the obligation is “merely to take a ballot paper”. Thousands of Australians who choose not to vote are penalised after every election after being hunted down by the Electoral Commission. We should join our sister democracies like Great Britain,Canada and New Zealand and give Australians back the legal right to decide for themselves whether or not to vote.
Nick Minchin,Noosa Heads
George Brandis rightly points out that we should value our electoral system with its trifecta of compulsory voting,secret ballot and preferential voting which makes our democracy a “wonderland”. He notes the origin of preferential voting with the Oxford mathematician otherwise known as Lewis Carroll who wroteAlice in Wonderland. Of course,fairy stories don’t always end happily. InThe Emperor’s New Clothes the people couldn’t see that the emperor was naked until a child pointed it out. It’s to be hoped that the analogy doesn’t stretch to our upcoming election where the Australian Electoral Commissioner has already expressed fears for its fairness because of the increased dangers of AI disinformation.Gary Barnes,Mosman
In extolling the virtues of the Australian electoral system,Ferdo Mathews omits another downside to the UK’s. Brits vote on a Thursday. It used to be said that the day was chosen so that the result could be declared on a Friday,the incoming PM would go to Buckingham Palace upon his appointment,leaving the king free to go off to one of his country estates to shoot things. The effect of Thursday voting for party activists meant we had to catch people on their way to work or on their return. No wonder that turnouts average 60 per cent. Yes,ours is the very best system on offer.
Philip Thorniley,Broughton Vale
George Brandis points to the success of Australian democracy,citing the 1924 Commonwealth Electoral Act. However,he omits to mention that the compulsory voting he celebrates was limited to white Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people had to wait another 60 years until the 1984Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Actmade enrolling to vote at federal elections compulsory for Indigenous Australians. Surely including black history is required for a balanced view of democracy and truth-telling in Australia.Patricia Short,Glebe
How appropriate that Australia’s democratic voting system should have been dreamed up by a children’s author whose fertile brain conceived a slew of weird characters. Some of the members of the Australian parliament would not be out of place in Dodgson’s creations,and many of them behave like children!Derrick Mason,Boorowa
Will wonders never cease? George Brandis has actually brightened my day and left a smile on my face with his enlightening telling of how preferential voting came into being. I don’t think I’ll ever go to the ballot box again without thinking of the White Rabbit,the Cheshire Cat,the Mad Hatter or Tweedledum and Tweedledee. May preferential voting in this country prevail.Donna Wiemann,Balmain
Good grief,I think I may have imbibed a thimble full of Julia’s Baird’s grace. When reading George Brandis’ piece on the wonders of our democracy,I found myself nodding,agreeing and then muttering “go George”! So thank you for this item,and likewise thanks to our innovative forebears for enacting “the Australian ballot”.Barbara McKellar,Dulwich Hill
Real deal
I note with interest the Liberals’ latest attempt to salvage something from the party’s embarrassing Council nominations fiasco (“”,August 26). I can well understand Deputy Mayor Ryburn’s devastation over her non-nomination,but the Liberal party needs a reality check in aspiring to use a victim of this debacle as their best chance to unseat the independent MP Dr Sophie Scamps,elected in 2022. I am a local resident and can attest that Dr Sophie is the real teal deal. Community expectations of her have been amply rewarded;look no further than her awesome work rate with over 11,000 constituents’ cases resolved since she took office. And what’s not to love about your federal MP participating in the local charity fun run as she did in the Beach2Beach fundraiser yesterday.Joy Nason,Mona Vale
Sophie Scamps is the independent member for Mackellar.Nick Moir
Behaving irresponsibly
So we are prepared to ruin our magnificent reef,and the economy and jobs of 200,000 people,by continuing to approve fossil fuel extraction (“”,August 26). The Northern Territory is about to approve massive gas fracking projects,that earn the government less than car registration. NSW,Queensland and WA are all approving massive gas and coal projects,with virtually all this fossil fuel going offshore,along with the profits. Australia has the ability to be a huge player in reducing emissions worldwide by limiting fossil fuel extraction. Neither of the major parties is even looking like doing the right thing. When will we become a responsible world player?Peggy Fisher,Manly
Getting Trumped
I must agree with Warren Marks regarding the lack of Trump election paraphernalia (,August 26). We have been travelling extensively in Alaska for the last two weeks and during that time,surprisingly there has only been one house and one car with the red Trump/MAGA election signs. However,perhaps not so surprising is the absence of the Democrat blue.Llewellyn Dickeson,Culburra Beach
Kamala Harris may be able to save the US,but I hope she can also save my marriage. I promised my wife no more CNN after Biden’s debate performance but now that Kamala is roaring back,it is back on as I get more excited about her candidacy. Maybe she can do a special shout-out to us once she is elected.Michael Lamb,Manly
The coming US election should go off with a real bang whichever party prevails. The election is being held on November 5,after all.Tony Everett,Wareemba
Shots fired
The remarkable election result in the Northern Territory was a salient reminder that when a populace feels that their first-order concerns are being ignored or trivialised,they will take out their frustrations at the ballot box,which is the ultimate social leveller (“”,August 25). When crime is rampant,as it has been in Alice Springs,incumbent MPs will be on the losing pathway when they simply regurgitate statistics or vacuous aspirations without being willing to make the hard decisions such as not raising the age of criminal liability or restricting bail.
The task of state and territory governments is to ultimately serve the people;those who live and work in a region and who ultimately pay the salaries of the politicians who are supposed to represent those same people.
However,over time,due to either complacency or indifference too many MPs fail to remember their ministerial oaths and instead take on a born-to-rule mindset,which leads to dropping the ball regarding the imminent civil needs at hand and instead becoming committed to progressive causes which please the elites but utterly fail the society. The people of the NT have well and truly spoken and the people of Queensland are likely to do so next. Canberra is on notice.Peter Waterhouse,Craigieburn (Vic)
Picture this:the mess we could be in
All leaders have different personalities and behaviours (“”,August 26). Both their DNA and the context of the times will affect this. Albo got caught with 10 years of nothingness and ineptitude from a Coalition government,rising and unchecked inequality,post-COVID woes,wars,a fickle interest rate cycle,Asian and Pacific relationships in a mess and so on. How does he fix this mess in one term,retain office to continue working on it and not allow,based on performance,an off-key and laissez-faire alternative back to derail the better direction now gradually taking shape? Yet we have to read about personality comparisons based on “imagination” from statements concocted by a speechwriter and later repudiated by the visionary. Please.Brian Jones,Leura
PM Anthony AlbaneseJim Pavlidis
How long can the illusion that the party that introduced neo-liberalism into Australia is “centre-left” be perpetuated? Our two main parties have differing cultural tropes to accommodate,as well as different but overlapping funding sources,but both agree with neo-liberalism. Within that,the room for reform is marginal,and arguments about it are little more than colour and movement. Little wonder the vote for other parties and independents continues to grow.Colin Hesse,Nowra
Sean Kelly writes that Australia lacks an official financial definition of poverty,ensuring it is not measured and remains invisible. So,despite the number of poor kids rising dramatically,does “out of sight,out of mind” really explain the government’s limited response? Perhaps,as Kelly wonders,if voters are not aware and excited by such injustice,then the government won’t act. It’s up to us;for all our sakes,let’s get excited.Jennifer Fergus,Croydon
If it is now impossible to promise that no child shall live in poverty until whenever,can we at least work towards a fairer start in life for children living in poverty by bipartisan agreement for realistic ways to ensure that those children can also have a decent education and healthcare? Charities such as the Smith Family,carrying some of that burden at present,should be able to advise on how to achieve those goals.Anne Ring,Coogee
Intergenerational and macro-economic issues created by big housing prices will remain as long as the federal government fails to totally abolish negative gearing and the concessional capital gains tax now granted to property investors. It has always been contentious to attribute Labor’s loss of the 2016 election to its then support for this policy. As long as Labor allows a false apprehension of political retribution to dictate its failure to act to change the current concessions for the relatively small percentage of the population investing in housing,both the cost and supply of housing in Australia remain adversely affected.Mary Cawood,Berrima
Tax cuts for middle and low-paid workers (instead of just the top end),two budget surpluses,wage rises for low-paid and aged-care workers,China trade mess fixed,economy steady,anti-corruption body started. That’s more than the last lot did in three terms. I ain’t going back!Doug Jarvis,Malua Bay
The acceptance of smaller political canvases and covert co-operation between the parties,despite their public posturing,has its own slogan:“What do we want? Incremental change! When do we want it? In due course!” Well,Albo is about to find out that that due course eventually expires and that essential change is not brought about by the timid.John Burman,Port Macquarie
Race to catch up
One correspondent attacks the federal government for an “epic and expensive fail on the Voice” and for allowing voters to be “smeared as racists” because of this,as well as a “reckless and improvident immigration flood” (,August 26). The Voice referendum was a clear election promise,which was kept. The opposition opposed it and the voters defeated it. I cannot recall the PM or government members calling the voters “racists”. The immigration numbers since 2022 have been high,but we might remember that this followed an artificially low immigration period due to COVID-19 and that without immigration we’d be very short of health and care workers. Criticism is important,but so is recognising context.Al Svirskis,Mount Druitt
Stephen Saunders refers to two things that voters must have noticed even if they “were living under a rock”. As I read further,I wondered which world Stephen lived in. Yes,alas the Voice referendum did fail,in large part due to deliberate misinformation and scare tactics. But,no one in the Labor government blamed the voters or smeared them as racists. Quite the contrary,the government graciously accepted the decision of the people.
As for the “immigration flood”,first:the numbers were a catch-up following the almost total cessation of immigration during COVID-19. And,as many commentators have pointed out,immigration is not to blame for the rental and housing affordability crisis. Rather,that is the result of decades of failure to invest in housing supply coupled with the unfortunate swing towards seeing housing as an investment rather than a necessity.Gerald Smith,Adelaide (SA)
Of critters and criticisms
No longer a resident of perilous Balgowlah,I recall skirmishes with stump funnel webs,the largest of the species,pink and blue wasps that attacked passing children in formation,a crowned viper,kamikaze magpies and one dog that thought my Adam’s apple would be a tasty morsel (,August 26). Having fled over the Spit and Harbour Bridges,this refugee has only to be wary of non-lethal parking restrictions.Andrew Cohen,Glebe
No,Pamela Shepherd,middle Australia in my experience is not feeling unsafe unless we are somehow swayed by Dutton’s fearmongering hysteria. The same Dutton who alleged no one in Melbourne went to dinner as we were terrified of African gangs … how we giggled about that one while enjoying tasty food and wine.Victoria Watts,Mango Hill (Qld)
Baker at the Treasury
In the early 1970s I worked with a young Glenn A. Baker at the NSW Treasury. Without his trademark hat and minus the A in the middle of his name,he was indistinguishable from the rest of us. He did,however,possess a spontaneous quick wit. When a colleague visiting from India started singing the then current hitChirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep – “Last night I heard my mother singing a song” – Glenn quipped,“you’ve got good ears”.Gerardine Grace,Leura
Thank you,Helen Pitt
Contributors to the Letters page owe the publication of their missives to the skill and decision-making of the Letters editors who,over decades,have overseen the mail bag and now the inbox. They know our names,where we are domiciled,and are more placed than others in understanding the hates and passions that drive us. This week will see the departure from theHerald of Helen Pitt,award-winning journalist and,for a time,custodian of the mail bag. Thank you,Helen,for your outstanding contribution to journalism and,importantly,giving us a platform.Allan Gibson,Cherrybrook
Reporter Helen Pitt atop the Opera House.Helen Pitt
Letters,it seems,should be like sermons as suggested by George Burns:having a good beginning,a good ending and the two as close together as possible.Eric Scott,Bondi Junction
Yes,the letters are getting seriously longer. But not my attention span. Like heaps of innocuous articles in worthy newspapers,I tend not to read them;I scan them and move on. Got a worthy message? Keep it brief (with respect). Please.Joe Whitcombe,Bronte
Brevity may be the soul of wit,but even short letters need some pith and moment!John Christie,Oatley
I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to improve on my 2014,five-word letter. Failed again!Suzanne Wicks,Potts Point
John Bailey,the decision to choose betweenBlonde on BlondeandSlade Aliveis simple. It’s the former by a long mile.John Lees,Castlecrag