I PLAYED football until my 30s and have watched male and female football for 60 years. Female competitors at A-League and international level are equally as talented and entertaining; if anything watching female games is more enjoyable to me.
For one thing, the amount of time lost to free kicks is much less in the women's game. The female athletes just get on with it, they definitely do not roll around and grimace as if both their legs are broken with an innocuous tackle to try and milk a free kick. Also, there is much less push and shove, in-your-face stuff. Most women's games they play hard, fairly and get on with the sport and not try and win an Oscar.
Overall, there is true sportsmanship at the end of a tight contest. During this World Cup, there are a lot of the victors consoling the defeated. I find this is not matched in the men's game. Sportsmanship!
The support for this women's World Cup, for all teams, shows that a large number of people in Australia believe that female football at national level is worth supporting and paying for given the high ticket sales. The standard of women's football at the national level is as good as the men's, plus I think it is actually more enjoyable to watch with much less theatrics and broken play.
Female football players at international games deserve the same pay as men without question.
Christopher Marley, Adamstown
'Scare campaign' called out
I WOULD like to correct the record on false claims circulating about the regional seniors travel card ("Discount for pensioners falls short", Letters, 8/8).
United Petroleum's decision to apply a 4 cent per litre discount for NSW Seniors Card and Seniors Saver Card holders does not represent the replacement of the Regional Seniors Travel Card.
To be clear, more than 320,000 regional senior travel cards have been issued this year and they all remain valid. It's true that the NSW government has paused new applications for the regional seniors travel card to give us time to review the program.
This was a necessary decision because the previous government designed the program poorly. For example, it was revealed that the card was being used by some to purchase cigarettes and scratchie cards.
The Minns government believes taxpayers' money should be treated with respect, especially given we inherited a debt on track to reach a record $185 billion.
I would call on Opposition MPs who have launched a dishonest scare campaign on this issue to stick to the facts when communicating with seniors in our communities.
Jodie Harrison, Minister for Seniors and Charlestown MP
Similar men facing same problems
I'M seeing Scott Morrison sprawled out on the Oppositions' back bench, his face portraying alternating expressions of mixture of self -pity and petulance as his horrific parliamentary record is being debated. The similarities between him and Donald Trump seem obvious.
It was Morrison's words of support for Trump when on the podium in Ohio during the US presidential campaign with Trump which first raised such a possibility, noting they "share similar views". In my opinion their views on probity and arrogant self-righteousness are a match. As is their propensity to blame shift with no apparent concern for the damages caused.
I believe both have a record of riding roughshod over the convention and principle of democratic governance. Scott Morrison, in secretly having the Governor-General give him control over several portfolios; Donald Trump, by refusing to accept the presidential election result and setting the scene for the Trumpist ratbags' attempted insurrection.
Barry Swan OAM, Balgownie
Voice won't transform governance
JOHN Cooper claims the Voice will give Indigenous Australians additional rights and privileges that aren't available to the rest of us but once again fails to disclose what he thinks those rights and privileges may be, or how precisely they will make his life any different.
Let me assure you, Mr Cooper, that privileged white fellas like us are well represented in parliament and there is no way our representatives - on behalf of their wealthy corporate donors - would ever allow the Voice to interfere with the hedonistic, planet-destroying lifestyle we benefit from.
The Voice has even been designed so that parliament doesn't need to heed any advice at all.
Greed and self-interest will always be well protected.
John Arnold, Anna Bay
Short Takes
THE real pain about how the Voice is being promoted, is the insistence on power play. This is really evident when you know, as an alternative, the horizontally-structured win-win agreement framework outlined in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey. When you lay out the proposal as desired result, guidelines, resources, accountability and consequences, we can work out what we are disagreeing on, and it's a no-brainer 'yes'. If you leave it as a vertically structured, patriarchal, trust us with the power ... we are struggling to sell it.
Andrew Spannenberg, Mayfield
What will referendum cost us?
IN response to John Cooper ("Accusations don't end arguments", Letters 7/8), I agree with the headline of his letter. But I would like to ask Mr Cooper what he feels deficient in that the Indigenous would enjoy if the recognition and voice to Parliament referendum was to succeed.
Fred McInerney, Karuah
Knights losing too many local guns
AFTER watching the Knights and Souths over the last couple of weeks I've noticed Jed Cartwright gives away penalties offside a lot and misses tackles. Brodie Jones, a local junior, looks like getting the flick to bring in another fringe first grader. I say stick with what we know; let's not lose another kid to come back and bite us. It happens too often.
Tony Phillip, Kurri Kurri
Dog rehoming claims contested
A RECENT article ("More greyhounds rehomed than ever before", Herald 30/7) reported rehoming claims made by Greyhound Racing NSW. They claimed 2014 dogs were rehomed in 2021-22, but actually only 1227 greyhounds in total were retired in the same period according to the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission's annual report. I believe the NSW dog racing industry's wild claims underline once again why regulation of this industry is needed.
