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MELBOURNE
Our desperate desire to ‘tear things down’
Re “That’s brutal: Residents split on car park heritage listing” (The Age, 3/2). It is true that we need to preserve examples of buildings that show the “development of architectural language”, as David Wagner, president of the Victorian chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects, says. It is thus fitting that this brutalist car park in Carlton has been heritage-listed. Too often the mantra of urban density acts as a rationalisation for tearing things down. Where are our values that we let economic rationalisation override our appreciation of significant heritage?
Tastes can change. Some people hated Victorian architecture at a critical point in Melbourne’s development and look at what has been lost there. Like Jackson Pollock’s painting Blue poles, I am sure we will come to applaud the vision of securing and preserving something that is made with the aesthetic of design, truth to materials and everlasting beauty.
Ian Hill, Blackburn South
Melbourne, the city of graffiti on any clean space
We have just returned from a trip to New Zealand and one item attracted our attention. There were many examples of attractive street art in every city that we visited but there was an almost complete absence of any graffiti. The contrast with Melbourne on the Box Hill line was staggering. Apart from the large wall painting above the crossover at Camberwell Station and the people scenes on the walls below Canterbury Station, the appalling graffiti from Richmond Station to Box Hill Station is horrible to see.
We even noticed graffiti painted on the concrete walls on the Churchill Street section of the new Surrey Hills Station which is currently being built. As soon a new concrete surface appears, graffiti is painted immediately. New Zealanders take a pride in their cities as compared with Melbourne residents.
We should not just allow people to vandalise any prominent space with spray paint. This will involve government and local councils. Any “artists” caught painting graffiti should be made to spend a week cleaning it off. It will not be an easy task but we need to tackle the problem and not put it in the “too hard” basket.
Carole and George Nicholls, Surrey Hills
The pointlessness of concrete panelling in creeks
Good riddance to the concrete on Moonee Ponds Creek – “Residents hail fall of ’Berlin Wall of waterways‴ (The Age, 4/2). The concreting of streams served no good purpose whatsoever. It has been an environmental disaster for our aquatic ecosystems, has increased the size and frequency of flash floods, and has been an aesthetic eyesore.
Bill O’Connor, former freshwater fish biologist, Beechworth
Planting more trees and limiting over-development
According to data from the state Environment Department, there was a 10per cent decline in tree canopy cover from 2014 to only 18 per cent in 2018 in the City of Whitehorse. The main cause was over-development as single homes are being replaced with multi-unit buildings. I suspect the situation is similar in many municipalities The loss of tree cover results in increased heat levels, decreased air quality and reduced habitat for wildlife.
Councils must preserve green spaces, regulate over-development, prioritise the preservation of existing trees, and encourage initiatives like community planting days. Understorey planting should also be promoted – ie, native shrubs, bushes and ground cover – to enhance the habitat for native wildlife.
Existing trees should be protected from removal or harm through enforcing regulations and landscape overlays. Councils should also encourage the use of drought-tolerant indigenous trees in new developments and parks to conserve water.
By taking these steps, it is to be hoped that Whitehorse can progress towards its target of tree canopy cover of 27 per cent by 2031 and 30 per cent by 2050. Those in the community can also play a role by planting trees in their gardens and supporting the city’s initiatives.
Chris Trueman, Blackburn
THE FORUM
Relax, it’s only a balloon
What a load of rubbish is being written over the so called “Chinese spy balloons” flying over the United States. Balloons as such are uncontrollable aircraft, and can only go where the wind takes them. It is quite possible that one could be launched into an high altitude jet stream that would take it over a special target, but these streams cannot always be relied on.
Also, a balloon can only hover in still air. If the Chinese have worked out a way to get the balloon into a suitable air stream that will take it over the target, and if they can also work out a way to make it hover over this target, then we really should be worried.
William Pearce, Mornington
Case of keeping us safe
Re “Case of racial profiling?” (Letters, 4/2). On arriving at Melbourne Airport in October last year, after a long flight from Edinburgh, we too were asked to “follow the green lane to a brightly lit room”. We stood in a line with fellow “white Australians” while a sniffer dog circled us. It was not racial profiling, just airport security doing its job.
Judith Hollywood, Mount Waverley
The need for safety nets
Your reports on the robo-debt royal commission emphasise that the scheme was “unlawful”. But there has been little comment on the ethical indifference displayed by former Coalition ministers to the rights and dignity of social security recipients.
Most groups of people who are reliant, long-term, on social security payments are vulnerable due to their challenging life experiences, and the economic system has failed to provide them with the opportunity for ongoing full employment on a living wage. Yet the royal commission has exposed a deliberate agenda of harassment, intimidation and bullying aimed at this population.
Malcolm Fraser famously said in 1975 that “the concept of a safety net below which no individual should fall through circumstances beyond his control, is basic to Liberal thinking”. If he were alive today, I suspect he would be ashamed of the callous attitudes expressed by Scott Morrison, Allan Tudge etc towards those citizens who are experiencing material disadvantage.
Professor Philip Mendes, department of social work, Monash University
Tormenting the helpless
On my birthday in December 2016 – at the end of a day of construction labouring work making the then award wage of $18 an hour – I received a call from a debt collection agency chasing a $5500 robo-debt. This was later dropped.
Robo-debt put the onus of proof on welfare recipients to prove their debts were false. That being the case, I believe the default assumption of the royal commission should be that the Coalition government deliberately implemented an illegal debt scam for the purpose of tormenting welfare recipients – and the onus of proof should be on the former government to prove otherwise.
People are more likely to accept and/or stay in low-paying jobs when they know the alternative is to risk being harassed for the “crime” of having accessed a meagre welfare payment. I believe the robo-debt was part of a long-term political agenda of suppressing wages.
Zane Alcorn, Meadow Heights
Clarifying the debate
Thanks to Dani Valent for a really practical and simply presented analysis of gas versus induction cooktops (The Age, 4/2). So many questions were answered by a simple but instructive approach comparing the everyday use that we all wonder about.
Kate Norton, Hawthorn
Honest and accurate
Re “Wong’s message got lost in clumsy swipe” (Opinion, 4/2). Rob Harris, it is about time the British heard a few home truths about…everything. They are happy to tell their European neighbours to jump in the lake/channel. They are not terribly motivated to engage with, nor develop new ties with, trade partners to replace their lost European connections, it would seem.
How long exactly has it been since they suffered their self-inflicted foot wound? Just cruising along and hoping for the best, it appears. Just like Australia had been doing the last few years.
Phil Morris, Yarraville
A fair go for state schools
Your correspondent says that all schools “are entitled to a fair share of government funding” (Sunday Age, 5/2). Some years ago, I worked a few days at an elite Catholic secondary school. There was a performing arts centre, a pool, acres of playing fields, a massive library, IT laboratories and more. There were numerous specialist programs and small class sizes. After lunch, a gardener picked up the kids’ litter from the velvet lawns.
And I thought about my son’s shabby, under-resourced, under-staffed, under-funded country state school. Even though he had marvellous, caring teachers, the contrast was cruel. The taxpayer contributes millions to already wealthy and superbly resourced institutions. Why? So they can escalate the facilities “arms race”?
Fair funding would result in similar facilities for all students. Instead of a pony club for some, and a dust bowl of an oval and broken toilets for others.
Susan Green, Castlemaine
The more things change…
Thirty years ago I was obliged, through ill-health, to retire from teaching, work that I loved. Apart from the requirement to apply for a new contract every year, nothing that Rohan Wightman and Georgina Manger (Letters, 4/2) describe has changed. Their problems were my problems too, word for word. What a loss to the profession. It is impossible to create new teachers on the spot, but surely the next step must be to offer permanent positions at once to attract and keep competent teachers.
Irene Scott, Carnegie
Wrong location for SEC
I was crestfallen to read that the proposed headquarters of the new SEC is the Latrobe Valley (The Age, 4/2) because that will not be the geographical centre of the renewable fuels it will be harvesting. It is good news for the former employees of the brown-coal industry, but it will present logistical problems akin to those experienced by the old Grain Elevator Board of the 1980s.
It managed Victoria’s grain handling infrastructure from a headquarters in Melbourne’s CBD, when its geographical centre was the Western Districts. We, the engineering staff, considered Bendigo a better location, as it would be for the new SEC.
David Marshall, West Brunswick
Voters’s right to service
Re “Unreasonable hours centre of the Ryan, Rugg dispute” (The Age, 1/2). Last year the Albanese government reduced the number of staff for independent MPs compared with those for MPs of parties. This is undemocratic and very unfair to voters in these electorates who are thereby not receiving as comprehensive a service from their member. Where is the evenhandedness in that?
Judy Trinham, Surrey Hills
Need for special training
A high-achieving colleague of mine has slipped into dementia. He is now in a high-care nursing home. As a consequence of his medical condition, he can be verbally abusive to staff – but with no understanding of, or control over, his behaviour. Some staff have complained to management, which has threatened to toss him out of the facility.
I understand that his behaviour could be frightening for staff. However, one would have thought that all staff dealing with such patients would have been given special training to enable them to cope with such situations. It is called professionalism.
Michael Gamble, Belmont
Maybe over sensitive…
I know older people, especially older women, are fair game for verbal abuse but I thought Jane Caro’s claim, that “young man” addressed to her 68-year-old husband was offensive (Sunday Life, 5/2), was a tad over-sensitive. Being addressed as “love”, “lovey” or “deary” is far worse because it seems to have the tone of “um”. The butcher’s cheeky “young lady” has humour attached.
Sue Anson, Mount Macedon
…to a joking comment?
Jane Caro’s whinge about alleged ageism is a classic case of over-thinking amid our current pandemic of anxiety. Too ready to take offence, jump at shadows and intolerantly rage against intolerance. I recently had a young (40ish) man call me “son” and I am nearly twice his age. I laughed and said “thanks, dad” when he’d told me where the tap washers were. He got the joke. Lighten up. Smell the roses.
John Laurie, Riddells Creek
No, it’s patronising
I wholeheartedly agree with Jane Caro and it is not only strangers but family as well who patronise those of us who are “seenagers”. Age is just a number and how we appear on the outside should not define us. “Respect” is no longer practised in today’s society.
Barbara Cohen, Brighton East
Let’s shake up footy
Here’s an idea for the AFL to consider. Dump the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney teams from the AFL, and give $25million each year to each of two new Tasmanian teams: one based in Hobart and the other based in Launceston.
Graham Bridge, Morwell
San Remo’s starring role
We have arrived. The answer to one of the clues in the general knowledge crossword (Spectrum, 4/2) was San Remo. Thanks to the march called progress, we are no longer “the Victorian fishing village” mentioned in the clue, but a tourist town.
Jane Ross, San Remo
In support of our poetry
The position of poet laureate is set to be revived under the federal government’s new national cultural policy. What a great thought and long overdue. Here are some possible candidates to add to the conversation – Robert Gray, Kate Llewelyn, Geoff Page, Jennifer Strauss and John Foulcher. Keep it moving.
Neil Falconer, Castlemaine
AND ANOTHER THING
World
That Chinese balloon might just be a runaway from the lunar new year celebrations.
John Rawson, Mernda
Hopefully the Chinese government will not take the shooting down of its balloon by the Americans as an act of aggression…
Mary Fenelon, Doncaster East
If China can only manage a balloon to carry out surveillance, perhaps we shouldn’t worry too much about its military capabilities.
Greg Hardy, Upper Ferntree Gully
How dare China spy on the United States as it would never do the same thing.
Ed Veber, Malvern East
Politics
We need a new licence plate logo. Given our teacher shortage (4/2), “Victoria, the Education State” doesn’t seem to fit.
Ralph Lewis, Canterbury
Kennett said: “Daniel will probably not be around in four years to accept responsibility” (4/2). He knows what he’s talking about.
George Fernandez, Eltham North
Albo, the party is over. The voters’ smiles will become frowns.
Tom Pagonis, Hawthorn
Re the Voice. I will be guided by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Lidia Thorpe, two strong passionate women.
Veronica Dingle, Brighton
It appears that the robo-debt scheme operated on the basis of “don’t ask, don’t tell”.
Michael Cowan, Wheelers Hill
Depending on your values, “honourable member” (Letter, 4/2) can be seen as an honorific title or a horrific title.
Peter Thomas, Pascoe Vale
Furthermore
ABC staff may take strike action (4/2). If they do, nobody will notice as any relevancy in Australian society is well and truly over.
Rosemary Beange, Traralgon
Re “SEC could sell power directly to consumers” (4/2). Is that what we call power to the people?
Kevin Burke, Sandringham
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