Credit: Matt Golding
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Wave the GP off
Melbourne has hosted the Formula 1 Grand Prix for 28 years. It’s time to let it go. It’s environmentally unfriendly, expensive and noisy. Besides, the $130 million of government money could be used in schools and hospitals in Victoria.
Linelle Gibson, Williamstown
Liveability in peril
How about Carl of Collingwood, Francis of Fitzroy and/or Peter of Preston? The Karens of Brighton are not the only people to be victims of the ″population growth at any cost″ policies of state and federal governments.
Our inner suburbs have been subjected to ugly, poorly built, oversized developments for the past 20 years, destroying the heritage character and adding little. I feel no schadenfreude at Brighton’s outrage, only sadness that yet another group of suburbs will be degraded.
The economic ennui resulting from over-dependence on migration for growth is the worst of the issue but the liveability of our city is an issue that hits everyone living here. We do not want to be the size of London.
Valerie Johnson, Fitzroy North
Bad economics
So, the RBA prefers that another 75,000 people lose their jobs (″Want a rate cut? 75k jobs must go″, 29/11) and, in some cases, their family home, so they can reach their inflation target.
Has economic theory won over real life?
Ian Wilson, Brighton East
Not quite global effect
Your correspondent states that Lidia Thorpe’s behaviour makes Australia’s parliament the laughing stock of the world (Letters, 30/11). No disrespect intended but I couldn’t help but visualise millions of people in war-torn and hunger-ravaged countries, glued to their televisions and radios guffawing at Thorpe. As if.
Phil Labrum, Trentham
How to focus your vote
The sharpening focus of the two major parties has been to minimise the differences between them to join forces to protect the two-party Westminster system, which serves them so well.
The sharpening focus of voters is their growing awareness from what is playing out in their daily lives, of how anything the two major parties say is unlikely to be quite as it appears.
Probably the most important question for voters to ask candidates standing at the next federal election, who are not representing either of the two major parties, is ″To whom will your preference go should you not win the seat outright?″ and the most important advice for casting a vote is to first ″Make sure you know″.
Ruth Farr, Blackburn South
Independents’ motives
Your correspondent is on the right track (Letters, 30/11). Lidia Thorpe’s behaviour will not only affect public perceptions of women in parliament but also in the wider community, as well as making it harder to attract good candidates to fill these positions. There seems to be something particularly toxic for women in the party system. It’s no surprise that so many of the recently elected women are genuine independents (not just party escapees) who are free to set a better and more responsible example.
Jenifer Nicholls, Windsor
How to tackle graffiti
Hear hear to your correspondent (Letters, 30/11). Graffiti in Melbourne is at epidemic proportions and the best efforts of some individuals and companies to control the problem seem futile in comparison to the efforts of those who seem to think their mindless scribbles are in some way meaningful. But solutions are possible. I recently returned from a few weeks in the US including New York and Chicago. I did not see a single piece of graffiti anywhere, even on the New York subway, absolutely spotless. So it can be done. Melbourne just needs to ask how.
Ross Hudson, Mount Martha
A child’s full education
I have taught in a secondary school for more than 40 years and I can say Dianne Kupsch (Comment, 27/11) explained so well the effect on students when they are given ways to enjoy their classes and extra-curricular time at school. I was proud to often hear a kid say something like ″we did this cool thing in photography class today’!′ and I would know that kid went home feeling like their day had been a good one.
The current push to devote more time to literacy and numeracy at the expense of more ″hands-on″ subjects can leave many students very disengaged and unhappy. Not to mention that in those practical subjects they are still learning new vocabulary, writing in journals, using maths to calculate and measure, presenting their work in front of the class, working in groups, etcetera.
School shouldn’t be just about getting ATAR scores, not just about qualifying for a career or trade. It should give students skills and interests they can use in their life outside their future job, as a well-rounded person. Help them find what they enjoy.
Melinda Dawson, Bairnsdale
Taxi skivers
Columnist Tony Wright laments the deplorable behaviour of taxi drivers (“Scammed and stranded in the city by predatory taxi drivers”, 28/11). I encountered more appalling and dangerous behaviour when trying to get home with my young niece at the Flinders Street taxi rank. More than five taxi drivers blatantly refused to take us “west side”. Several other people were complaining angrily to the drivers as they also repeatedly approached driver after driver who all refused to take people who were not going where they were headed.
We finally managed to stop a taxi driving past who then proceeded to drive dangerously, swerving across lanes, not indicating, cutting the kerbs, leaving my niece and I in fear of our lives. Appalling.
Vee McPavian, Williamstown
Sudoku mania
I blame COVID for developing my obsessive behaviour around Sudoku. During the lockdowns I stared at the completed puzzles and searched for patterns. The most obvious is the numbers in either ascending or descending order in a row or a column, taking eight steps to complete. Assuming you complete one Sudoku a day this should happen about once every four years. However, I haven’t seen it yet. The greatest number of steps going from 1 to 9 (39 steps) is easy to spot occurring on average precisely once every seven weeks.
More recently, I have been considering diagonal steps as well and notice that 1 to 9 in eight steps occurs roughly every other day.
I’m just recovering from having COVID for the second time and coincidently noticed that the Sudoku (30/11) contained five sequences of 1 to 9 starting with the same 1 and ending with five different 9s. What are the odds?
I am hopeful that I will recover fully from COVID again but doubt that I will ever be cured from studying a completed Sudoku.
Greg Baxter, Moonee Ponds
Unwashed dreams
Oh the irony ! That the “great unwashed”, as one correspondent refers to them, truly believe that conservative and hard-right governments will protect and look after them. We can already see a glimpse of that reality in America, and it is appears only the uber rich, the social elite, the tech billionaires , and the big boys of business will be cosseted.
Julie Perry, Highton
Watch and wait on PM
Your editorial (30/11) is critical of the federal Labor government. But you ignore Anthony Albanese’s stated overriding aim for continuing ″to help people″ (″Armed with new slogan, PM embarks on election march″, 30/11).
Yes, let’s be optimistic and stay tuned for the details in 2025.
Barbara Fraser, Burwood
History’s ironies
How ironic that the two bidders for our new frigates are the ancestors of our World War II’s adversary’s industrial complex.
George Stockman, Berwick