Credit: Cathy Wilcox
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Woolworths workers would benefit from a viewing of the Ken Loach film Sorry We Missed You. It describes the working conditions of courier drivers who are monitored every second of their working day. The film will hopefully inspire the Woolworths workers to keep up their action to achieve more humane working conditions.
Rosenna Hossack, Edithvale
Booze supplies hit? Now it’s a disaster
Entering a Woolies supermarket is like travelling back to the COVID era with shelves empty of staples such as toilet paper, cereal, frozen goods, meat and dairy. But now that booze supplies are being seriously affected. It’s really catastrophic.
Deborah Morrison, Malvern East
Every breath you take . . .
Safe Work Australia defines a psychosocial hazard as anything that could cause psychological harm (eg, harm someone’s mental health). In October, the Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazard at Work) Code of Practice 2024 was released. It identifies 17 common workplace psychosocial hazards, one of which is intrusive surveillance. This is described as excessive surveillance methods/tools to monitor and collect information about workers at work.
The code cites unreasonable level of supervision, tracking of when and how much a worker is working, tracking calls made and movements made by the workers (using CCTV and trackable devices), the use of keyboard activity trackers, technology that allows the PCBU (person conducting a business of undertaking) to remote access and take screenshots of a workers’ computer, GPS monitoring of workers’ movement in company vehicles for the purpose of work performance monitoring, as opposed to other reasons such as safety considerations. While following a code of practice is not mandatory, following it will assist employers in achieving compliance with the Work Health and Safety Act. And just because a hazard exists, it does not necessarily mean the worker will be harmed. Risk assessments may be necessary to determine the likelihood of the hazard occurring, and the degree of harm that might result from the hazard.
While Woolworths is not alone in using technology to closely monitor its workers, it has certainly been put under the spotlight. It will be interesting to see how productivity versus the safety and mental health of workers plays out.
Yvonne Bowyer, Surrey Hills
What madness is this, CBA?
Madness has finally struck the banking sector. The Commonwealth Bank had announced, until it paused the decision, to start charging more customers to withdraw their own cash. What insanity is this? Whose money is it? It is time for people to act. I call for every time anyone is lucky to locate and visit a Commonwealth bank branch, to take along a dollar coin. Ask to withdraw $2, and when told the cost is $3, give the teller the coin, and ask for a receipt.
Darren Grindrod, Glenroy
It’s time to set up a picket line
As someone fortunate enough to hold a few Commonwealth Bank shares, I’m absolutely appalled that the CBA intended to charge customers $3 to access their own money. Anyone for a picket line?
Jo Bond, South Melbourne
THE FORUM
Free up debate
The dilemma facing Australian Catholic University in trying to balance competing views on abortion highlights the problem of a university being tied to a particular religion. Universities need to be places where all issues can be openly and freely debated without fear of reprisal. Catholic teaching needs to be able to withstand criticism and if it cannot, then maybe it is time for it to be changed. Protecting it within a university ultimately undermines its integrity.
Susan Glover, South Melbourne
Why a Catholic uni?
Is anyone asking why the taxpayer is funding a non-secular university (ACU) or indeed why we need, in this instance, a Catholic university at all? (″Catholic civil war over ACU abortion speech″, 4/12) In the future will we have a Muslim university, or a Baptist university. In the case of ACU, it potentially means someone can go through their entire formal education from primary school to university graduation without being exposed to secular perspectives that might challenge their beliefs. Surely this isn’t a good thing. Individuals are entitled to their own opinions, but abortion is legal in Victoria, and it is no surprise that Joe de Bruyn’s remarks caused the walkout at the recent graduation ceremony. The only surprise is that this didn’t happen earlier.
Jenny Macmillan, Clifton Hill
Uphold international law
The executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Colin Rubenstein calls Australia’s vote at the UN “simply bizarre” (“Australia to switch stance”, 4/12). Our government works in the national interest by voting to uphold international law in this instance, along with the majority of UN member states. It would be bizarre to do otherwise.
Caroline Graham, Cromer, NSW
Maintaining party lines
Your correspondent (Letters, 3/12) calls for us to respect Lidia Thorpe as she is an elected member of the Senate. Thorpe gained that seat as part of the Greens “above-the-line” vote but then resigned from the party, giving her almost six years as an independent senator under false pretences. People who are elected as a member of a party ticket should have to serve a minimum (three years?) as a member of that party. If they leave before then another member of the party should replace them.
David Parker, Geelong West
Australia at crossroads
Australia’s reputation as an egalitarian society is under threat as poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity worsen. More than 116,000 Australians are homeless each night, with rising numbers of women and young people affected. High rents, stagnant wages, and domestic violence are just a few factors fuelling this crisis, which demands urgent attention from both policymakers and the public.
Nearly one in five people face food insecurity, relying on charities like Foodbank and the Salvation Army. These organisations provide vital services, but their dependence on donations underscores an unsustainable reliance on philanthropy to address systemic failings.
This patchwork approach leaves many vulnerable Australians without the consistent support they need to survive.
Government programs like JobSeeker and social housing fall short of bridging the gap. Payments are often insufficient for basic living costs, particularly in cities where the cost of living is highest, and social housing waitlists stretch for years. Without reforms, such as increasing welfare payments, tackling housing affordability, and implementing fair wage policies, inequality will deepen, fracturing our social cohesion further.
Australia stands at a crossroads. Will we tackle these issues with bold, systemic reforms, or continue to rely on overstretched charities to bear the growing burden?
Terry Malone,
Warburton
AI’s pros and cons
How to harvest the benefits of technological advances while managing their downside is a perennial conundrum for society. Think nuclear medicine versus atomic bombs. AI is simply one of the latest of these dilemmas (″Energy-hungry AI search a threat to climate″, 4/12). Whether grand claims for its potential are realised or not, AI’s gargantuan appetite for both power and water are alarming.
It would be naive to expect the companies that are masters of the tech universe to slow the juggernaut down. Once more the wisdom, courage and initiative of public policy-makers are being put to the test. We need them to tackle this immense challenge for the sake of a liveable planet. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
Tom Knowles, Parkville
The burning questions
Everything we do is a threat to the environment. I just happened to put my hand on my NBN box the other day. I could use it as a foot-warmer in the winter, likewise my modem. And this is just in a home office. How many NBN boxes and modems are burning energy around Australia? Around the globe? If we’re going to get ahead of our emissions outputs, we’re going to have to take a holistic approach to how we live. Burning fossil fuels is just part of the problem. By using power more efficiently, storing carbon naturally in trees and soil, and cutting out superfluous consumption all must be part of how we go about keeping the planet’s environment sustainable for human habitation.
John Mosig, Kew
We need to adapt
The effects of using fossil fuels is considered an existential threat – not only to human life but to animal and plant life as well. The Earth is a combination of living and non-living things and they combine in positive and negative feedback ways.
The feedback systems are causing climate disruption.
There are more extreme weather patterns. Higher than average temperatures and rainfall. It’s how Gaia works. It alters its non-living and living environments to counter these changes.
Our policy makers are bent on trying to alter these changes by policing the use of fossil fuels. Our politicians and lobbyists should spend some of their time investigating and, ultimately, putting a strategy in place to move large swathes of people out of danger from environmental areas that are grossly affected by climate disruption.
Stop cutting down forests and locating people in areas where floods devastate communities. Pakistan is a classic example of this.
Stop building and developing communities on the ocean shores. Increasing ocean levels will devastate these communities.
There are so many practical solutions. Greening our buildings with actual plants. Greening our freeways so we can absorb the heat and gases from fossil fuel cars.
It’s really about adapting to these changing climate conditions that will ensure safety for people and other life in the future.
Graham Haupt, Glen Waverley
Off the rails
Thank you Eric Keys (Comment, 4/12) for answers on the SRL that most will clearly understand. An infrastructure friend told me that by the time the project is finished, trains won’t even be running on rails.
Lindsay Donahoo, Wattle Glen
Listen to the people
In response to the article ″Newport residents fight level crossing″ (1/12) I, like most of the community, wonder why some decisions that are so obviously wrong can’t be changed? Decisions made when, maybe, there were reasons that today have been shown can be overcome and much cheaper. The closure of Champion Road railway crossing, the important part of this busy important arterial road, and the consequences of pressure on areas like Maddix Road already finding it hard to cope, is a recipe for disaster. This can and must be avoided.
Many of us have written, even demonstrated, with little if any response from the relevant minister. The intransigence and stubbornness of the state government at a time when even the possibility of saving money is of paramount importance seems breathtaking in this instance.
Joan Lynn, Williamstown
The rights of Manne
Robert Manne (″Trump’s not a fascist″, 3/12) recognises and calls out racism, whether practised by Jews against Arabs or Arabs against Jews or Australian parliamentarians against refugees. The world continues to pay a disgustingly high price for our propensity to believe we, and those who share our genetic or cultural DNA, should fear and seek to dominate those who don’t.
Manne seems to have found a good path of being proudly Jewish but, even more, proudly humane and humanitarian. Oh, that we could all walk that path.
Michael Langford,
Flinders
I, robot? Not yet
A reliance on data (numbers) to drive all decisions and evaluations is convenient because it eliminates the need for considered thought, reduces costs, and has inbuilt legal protection (the data justified the action). But it is incomplete information, based on points that miss the nuances and connections that lie on the curves in between and which is where true knowledge and insights reside. Hence data and AI should be used as inputs only (among other inputs).
Purely data-driven decisions, management styles and other outputs are flawed but embraced because they eliminate the pesky human factor. In the long game, they seek to lay claim to the human domains of creativity and intellect, and loss of ethics and humanity are likely collateral damage.
But we are not robots, yet.
Emma Borghesi, Rye
Why, it is a good idea
Your correspondent proposes ″Trump-free Tuesdays″ (Letters, 4/12). I suggest this moratorium be extended to all days that end with the letter Y.
Mark Hulls,
Sandringham
Credit: Matt Golding
AND ANOTHER THING
Woolies
At least Woolies workers’ demands for more money show they haven’t been turned into robots yet.
Bernd Rieve, Brighton
As a regular shopper at Woolworths, I certainly won’t be returning until their distribution dispute is solved. It’s bad enough that they constantly move products to new locations to make the shopping experience a hunt, now you just can’t find anything.
Alan Inchley, Frankston
Technology
Teenagers really shouldn’t be too upset by having to wait until they are 16 before they can access social media. I had to wait until I was in my 50s before I could own a smartphone and access any social media.
Tony O’Brien, South Melbourne
The power-hungry, water-guzzling current AI is not sustainable (″Energy-hungry AI search a threat to climate″, 4/12). So let’s ask AI for its wisest options.
Barbara Fraser, Burwood
Obviously executives at CBA wear headsets that deliver AI instructions to make more profit faster.
George Reed, Wheelers Hill
CBA
Which bank made a $2.5bn profit in the first quarter of the financial year? Which bank had intended to charge some customers $3 for using cash? Which bank?
Kevan Porter, Alphington
Commonwealth Bank! You’re having a lend of us.
Pauline Brown, Woodend
Furthermore
Wednesday’s Odd Spot on viewing an exhibition naked got me thinking, “What a great idea”, then I stripped off my 85-year-old body, looked in the mirror, and went “Nah.“
Les Aisen, Elsternwick
Re Chris Poropat’s Comment (3/12), I beg to differ. Maribyrnong is every bit as glamorous as Moonee Ponds if not more so.
Dan Drummond, Leongatha