REGARDING Peter Dutton, is this bloke for real? The new Liberal leader has told what we Australians are going to get from him and his political party in the next three years, culminating in victory in 2025. Spoken with his unsmiling Easter Island statue look, he appears to believe that's all that's needed to win the next election, even though parliament has not even met yet following this election.
Time to put the brakes on, Mr Dutton.
Maybe you haven't realised yet that your government (and particularly the Liberal Party) were absolutely smashed at the recent election. Believe it or not, you are now in Opposition. Liberals in particular were belted by Labor, Greens and Independents.
You and your party appear to be on the nose with so many sections of society, yet you still personify the Liberal born-to-rule attitude. Allied with the fact that, in my opinion, you appear to lack personality and original ideas, I think it's time someone in what's left of your party needs to pull you in for a chat. Time to face up to reality, mate.
Robert Green, Georgetown
US isn't gunning for change yet
WHILE I agree with some of your correspondent's observations on the gun "culture" that now dominates the United States, (Letters 30/5), I differ with him on a couple of points.
First, the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was not intended to give individual citizens an unfettered right to carry firearms. It was enacted for the states to establish an armed militia in the event of external threat to the state, including by the newly formed federal government.
Like the Australian colonies in the late 19th century, American states were suspicious of the new federal government overreaching.
Unfortunately, as recently as 2010, the US Supreme Court reaffirmed its interpretation of the second amendment; that each individual is entitled to bear arms as a personal right, so your correspondent is correct in asserting that it would require a change of the Constitution to change the status quo - or a reinterpretation by the Supreme Court, which is equally unlikely.
To compound the problem, gun rights have become a partisan political issue, with the Republican Party including the right to gun ownership in its party manifesto.
Although the American culture of gun ownership have probably been influenced to some degree by its Wild West fantasies, I suggest that the culture has more likely derived from the reality that the United States was built on gun violence - the War of Independence and the Civil War.
Americans have largely become inured to gun violence. After all, Australia has a similar Wild West history where for a period in the 19th century bushrangers terrorised our "west". Fortunately Australia did not have a Hollywood to create the alternate reality that has been so prominent in American cinemas.
John Ure, Mount Hutton
Tax cuts won't fix the economy
IT seems likely that our new Prime Minister will be inundated with suggestions on the manifold sins and wickedness of the previous government to be rectified. It's also likely that there will be less advice on exactly how these defects can be overcome given the fragile state of the economy along with a massive government debt.
A Neo-conservative view would include massive cuts to spending and the usual dream of boosting the economy by tax cuts - up to $300 billion of unfunded tax cuts were promised by the last government - as well as increased migration. Previous experience with this approach has shown that it not only doesn't work, but is counter productive because it is this obsession with economic growth that has created all the problems that now plague us. Far better for this government to reverse the previous government's policies and abandon the planned tax cuts, which have been shown to be spent more on imported goods than services. It is also an opportunity for Albanese to bring in a carbon tax, one that directs some or all of the revenue back to the people, a process that would put a brake on emissions, rewarding those with a smaller carbon footprint without increasing cost of living.
Don Owers, Dudley
A federal watchdog is imperative
IT'S good to see that the newly elected federal Labor government is in the process of attempting to restore diplomatic relations and trade with China.
On the domestic front it is also imperative that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese initiate a federal ICAC as soon as possible. Persons found to be culpable must be held accountable and the full force of the law must apply to them.
In the interim, in my opinion we should recall and replace our incumbent Australian Ambassador to the US, Arthur Sinodinos. I think it is necessary to clean the slate.
Dennis Petrovic, Rutherford
Nuclear option isn't a vote winner
YOU really have to hand it to the Nationals. Their capacity to avoid learning anything is becoming almost legendary.
They ditched any pretence at supporting rural livelihoods by blindly propping up the coal and gas industries instead, ignoring all the destruction caused by fracking, spillage, digging up prime land and climate change and then ditched the leader of that charge.
Now they have a bright and shiny new leader whose answer to sorting out new found disaffection with coal-based power is to go nuclear. Outstanding!
Apart from the fact that it's, thankfully, electoral poison, it's entirely economically inefficient and would lead to even further poisoning of the environment.
How much longer do we Australians have to put up with the pretence of these idiots declaring that they love the bush, support the regions, are devoted to rural lifestyles and so on when all they ever seem to do these days is seek to destroy all of the above?
Rick Frost, Mallabula
Overdue for change
LABOR says they are taking climate change seriously.
If that is so, then they need to end fossil fuel extraction in the Hunter.
The region already suffers air quality alerts every day, and towns are enveloped in coal dust and toxic power station smoke.
As the Herald reported on Saturday, Muswellbrook has exceeded World Health Organisation guidelines 18 times and Singleton five times.
Camberwell and Mount Thorley have also breached both WHO and Australian guidelines multiple times this year.
The results are backed up by Australian Conservation Foundation's analysis of national pollutant data, which identifies Muswellbrook as the third most polluted suburb nationally due to the digging and burning of coal.
We need a transition program now that guarantees redundant miners jobs, and a commitment to end all coal mines by 2030. It's a question of survival.
David Marley, Waratah
SHARE YOUR OPINION
Email letters@newcastleherald.com.au or send a text message to 0427 154 176 (include name and suburb). Letters should be fewer than 200 words. Short Takes should be fewer than 50 words. Correspondence may be edited in any form.
SHORT TAKES
THE survivors from the evil of Vince Ryan (''If there is a God, I wonder how he handles that one', Newcastle Herald 31/5) are entitled to feel what the playwright Archibald MacLeish described: "If God is God, he is not good, If God is good, he is not God."
Mark Porter, New Lambton
IF the new Liberal leader, Peter Dutton, keeps up his carping and threats to Labor, the Greens and the Australian people, the Libs will get nowhere fast. He needs to lead, but it seems that a leopard can't change its spots ('I'm not going to change: Dutton', Herald 31/5).
Julie Robinson, Cardiff
I suggest all those contemplating teaching high school, watch To Sir With Love. Take it all in and reflect on your teaching methods or ideas. Yes, it's only a movie, but it was relevant then and sure is now. Every child deserves an education and it is up to you to do it. Don't be afraid to use a different angle of teaching. You may not realise it now, but your students will when it's time to enter the big wide world. Yes, the movie has significance to me and always leaves me in tears. Good luck on your journey.
Amanda Johnstone, Mayfield
YOU'RE a funny man, Adz Carter, (Short Takes, 30/5), getting so excited because your party of choice managed to win with 32 per cent support. When I went to school that represented an abject failure in any test.
Greg Hunt, Newcastle West
RAY Cross, (Short Takes, 31/5), bemoans the state of Australian society. The decay started in 1996 and was predictable. Voting patterns generated the country we are. Isn't guided democracy a wonderful thing?
Marvyn Smith, Heddon Greta
ON the weekend three Melbourne Storm players held onto a Manly player in front the goal post, and once Cameron Munster had a good grip on the football the others drop off, making it a one-on-one tackle. Munster quickly rips the ball away and strolls in to score. This is not rugby league! It's an unfair wrestling tactic and needs to be wiped out.
Neil Meyers, Warners Bay
GREAT article on Phil Gardner, ('Knights plan way forward', Herald 28/5). Great to hear Phil will know when his time is up. He himself stated that he is no Nick Politis; in my opinion you are certainly correct there. Let's leave any future rugby league decisions, including coaching terms, for your successor.
Mick Kembrey, Cessnock
JOHN Cooper claims "anyone with miniscule brain activity would realise that the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow" (Letters 31/5). Well, it's not always raining yet we have reliable water supply to our houses. It's called storage.
John Arnold, Anna Bay
SUPERFOOD? Biofuel perhaps; or even some kind of road base. It might even make for a cure for the common cold. Surely there is something constructive our Newcastle brains trust can do with my bumper crop of backyard bindis.
