Oligarchs cash in as we pay soaring bills

Credit:Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

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Energy costs
We sneer at Putin’s oligarchs, but we seem to have plenty of our own (“Titans clash over strategic gas company Warrego”, The Age, 5/12). Gina Rinehart, Chris Ellison, Kerry Stokes and the other gas bosses in WA fight over who’s going to make the most billions out of exploiting our world-destroying gas resources. They lick their lips at the vast profits they’ll rake in on the current Putin-inspired gas prices of around $60/gigajoule, rather than the recent $30/gigajoule they were very happy to get a year ago.

Why aren’t we firstly restricting prices in Australia to their previous $30/gigajoule, thereby making our own energy costs more bearable (and at the same time making many of our local industries more competitive); and secondly using heavy taxes on international gas sales for the development of our own carbon-neutral energy supplies?

Why is Labor so dilatory in acting? Treasurer Jim Chalmers seems incapable of actually moving on the issue.
Peter Deerson, Mornington

The true impact of fuel investments
Further gas exploration in WA might be viewed with expectation and excitement by some, but the lack of consideration of climate impacts is disappointing.

The International Energy Agency has just declared that gas will peak in 2025 and such investments will become stranded (however this is not soon enough to prevent catastrophic global heating).
Most of us are not billionaires and do not stand to benefit from these investments. Our right to bring our children up in a world that is safe and with hope for the future is being degraded by the vainglorious selfishness of these billionaires.
Jonathan Davies, Doncaster East

Chilling cost
Your article on Switzerland’s bid to cut energy use (World, 5/12) includes the strategy of limiting the heating of public buildings to 20 degrees. Recently, when visiting supermarkets, I have wished I had worn a jumper despite the ambient temperature outside being in the low to mid 20s.

Is it necessary to cool our buildings to the point that people feel cold? Surely 22 or 23 degrees would be comfortable and still keep food fresh.

Open freezer and refrigerated sections are often to blame for the Arctic temperatures in supermarket aisles. Making doors mandatory could save us from frostbite and save massive amounts in energy.
Graeme Lechte, Brunswick West

States must pay their share
There has been universal condemnation of big business pocketing the windfall gains from rising commodity and fossil fuel prices due to extraneous factors (“Budget $70b better through tax windfall”, 5/12). Yet as the federal government seeks options to reduce the crippling cost increases on business and private consumers, state governments reject any consideration of price caps as this would impact their own windfall tax increases.

Surely now is the time for businesses and governments to unite in forgoing the excess revenues and to help reduce the cost of production for businesses and rising living expenses for consumers.
Peter Thomson, Brunswick

Sanctions
As we grapple with high energy prices here and elsewhere it’s important to question the standard mantra that Russia caused the price rises by invading Ukraine. This ignores the crucial intermediate step of Western sanctions on Russian energy. The invasion triggered the sanctions but the sanctions were optional and arguably not just ineffective but counterproductive.

Australia wasn’t sanctioned for joining illegal invasions of Iraq or Afghanistan. I like to hope sanctions could have changed our minds but I doubt it.
Mark Freeman, Macleod

THE FORUM

Simple test for referendum
I must respectfully disagree with the thrust of your editorial (“Debate on Voice should be welcomed”, 5/12). The primary focus of the referendum on the Voice must be to clarify in the Australian Constitution the existence of a long-standing Indigenous culture with prior “ownership” of this country at the time of the British occupation. It should be a metaphorical removal of the British flag erected by James Cook in 1788 and its replacement with an Indigenous flag. It is a matter of essential principle, not a detailed blueprint for change.

Anthony Albanese was surely emphasising this when he said at the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land on July 30, 2022, that the Australian people should be asked a “simple and clear” yes or no referendum question, regarding whether an Indigenous voice to parliament should be enshrined in the Constitution.

To suggest, as your editorial does, that voters need more detail of the preferred model prior to the referendum would engender a destructive debate and consign it to the same fate as the 1999 republic referendum.
Maurie Trewhella, Hoppers Crossing

Voice a distraction
Your editorial advocates respectful debate for the Voice while failing to question the need for any public debate in the first place. Isn’t it possible the Voice is another fake government debate? A distraction from the underlying problem in Australia?

The Voice will do absolutely nothing to improve the quality of life for Indigenous people. Like many white Australians, the wellbeing of Aboriginal people has been compromised by an economic system based on unlimited growth and never-ending consumption. An economic system built on the back of inequality, addiction, type 2 diabetes and environmental pollution.

Instead of wasting millions on a phoney debate, we should be transitioning to a new norm: a circular economy that puts the environment and health before greed.
John Glazebrook, Terang

Details come first
I have been astounded by correspondents to The Age advocating we push through legislation for an Indigenous Voice in parliament and look at the details later. Would you sign up to buy a house and look at the contract of sale later?

How many more of the nation’s landmarks will the general population be excluded from? These processes do not address the gap between Aboriginal health and education with the rest of Australia. The reconciliation process would run a lot smoother if people would listen to Jacinta Price’s level-headed, practical approach to the issue.
Peter Stewart, Sea Lake

Valuable precedent
With the ongoing debate over the appropriateness of a Voice to parliament, it should be remembered that there is a federal precedent to this concept. In 1973, with no women in the Labor caucus, the Whitlam government was the first in the world to appoint a dedicated adviser on women’s affairs to the head of government.

Working close to the centre of power, Elizabeth Reid argued that all submissions to cabinet should be assessed for their impact on women. As with the Voice, her role attracted great media and public attention, positive and hostile, as she organised Australia’s participation in International Women’s Year 1975, and co-ordinated government funding of women’s health services such as health and rape crisis centres, refuges, freer access to oral contraception, no-fault divorce, and paid maternal leave for female public servants.
David Laurie, Riddells Creek

Confident step forward
While some aspects of his piece on Gough Whitlam are balanced, George Brandis underestimates both the achievements of Whitlam and the constant pressure that his government was under because of hostile Coalition and DLP senators (“It’s time to reflect on a PM’s status”, 5/12).
There would never have been a “loans affair” if the Senate had accepted the legitimacy of Whitlam’s government and wasn’t constantly delaying or blocking numerous bills including supply, both in 1974 and again, more infamously, in 1975.

On the question of Vietnam, Brandis is wrong. While John Gorton did display a preparedness to stand up to America, he was replaced by Liberal prime minister Billy McMahon in March 1971 and conscription and Australia’s involvement in Vietnam only ceased when Whitlam came to power almost two years later.

Whitlam changed Australia, taking much-needed action on a plethora of issues including universal health care, education, the arts and international relations. Our country became a more confident, fairer society and many working-class people of my age were given greater opportunity, especially through access to free university education.
James Young, Mount Eliza

Convention trashed
If Gough Whitlam wears a “Martyr’s mantle” as asserted by George Brandis, then it is by courtesy of the Liberal Coalition which trashed parliamentary convention by refusing supply, triggering a constitutional crisis. If it had waited, it is highly likely that Labor would still have been resoundingly defeated at the next election. The long-term consequence has been a steady erosion of parliamentary standards.
Dick Davies, North Warrandyte

Less teal than brown
The Australian Election Study shows that a clear majority of the people who voted for a teal candidate in 2022 were not disillusioned Liberal voters. Just 18 per cent had voted Liberal in 2019 (“Tactical voters dislodged Libs: survey”, 5/12). These findings suggest teal, a mixture of blue and green, does not reflect the typical teal voter.

Of course, mixing red and green produces a sort of brown, which would not be an attractive campaign colour.
Rod Wise, Surrey Hills

Drug benefits diminished
Your article “Drug access a weighty issue” (4/12) gives the impression that Ozempic (and the other GLP-1 agonists) should be reserved for diabetics – and that they should be given preference over obese people who don’t have diabetes (as yet). This is completely misguided. Ozempic is the drug of choice for obesity – it is not the drug of choice for diabetes. It has no place in the treatment of diabetics who are of normal weight or are underweight.

Ozempic is also more effective – and much safer – than any form of weight loss surgery. Ozempic will also reduce operations for total knee joint replacement by at least 75 per cent in the next 10 years. These GLP-1 agonists Ozempic, Trulicity, Byetta etc can also rescue patients from heart failure where it is due to severe obesity.

These drugs are the most dramatic advance in the treatment of obesity that has occurred in my 49 years of medical practice. By limiting access, the TGA and many pharmacists haven’t been thinking clearly about this current situation.
Dr Michael O’Ryan, Frankston

Home care degraded
Dyson’s classic cartoon on home care (5/12) remains precise. For me, home care when administered by the local council (Latrobe City) was an efficient, trouble-free service. The service of my current provider (Benetas) would be comical if it was not so useless. Instead of the original once a week service by the council, three times in five months someone has turned up, once unannounced.

Queries bring – there is no way to say it gently – lies, such as my home is too far away to provide a service, even though the council never had a problem with this. Another is that there can be no fixed times – again no problem previously. Communication is almost non-existent and workers for the organisation tell me they also have little or no communication with and from their administration.

The federal government is paying for this service with heavy subsidies – a serious waste and misuse of taxpayers’ money when the service is simply not happening.
Name withheld on request

Volunteer shortfall
I can attest to the serious decline in volunteering in the community sector as a whole (“Help wanted in a land of opportunity”, 5/12). Our 54 member agencies help people in need and distress every day, but they are heavily reliant on volunteers. In fact, nearly a third of the agencies are entirely volunteer-run.

As the problems people present with become increasingly complex, including issues like homelessness, family violence, mental health, and just not having enough money to cover food and bills, it has become clear that we can no longer rely on the diminishing number of volunteers to carry this load.

We need funding for paid co-ordinators to provide training, mentoring, support and debriefing. And we need paid co-ordinators to ensure that agency doors can stay open for the increasing number of community members in crisis.
Leanne Petrides, president, CISVic, peak body for the Community Information and Support sector

Dirty water
Never before have we seen so many people joining us to pick up rubbish and plastic fragments as they wander Bayside beaches (“Just when you thought it was warm enough to go back in the water”, 4/12). It has been impossible to “look the other way” given what the creeks and stormwater drains have emptied into a truly disgusting Port Putrid Bay over recent months.

Our foreshore now has a mobile message board decreeing: “Avoid Swimming Today – Poor Water Quality” or “Check with EPA first”. Even the Labradors venture no further than a shallow paddle.
I offer two garden stakes stretching chicken wire across our local storm water outfall, followed by a shade mesh barrier a metre distant. We can then collect all the butts, polystyrene fragments, builders’ fixers and fasteners, bottles, syringes etc in one place.
Ronald Elliott, Sandringham

And another thing

Voting age
Be assured that the major political parties will not endorse a reduction in the voting age to 16 or 17 (“Greens to move bill to allow voting at age 16”, 5/12). This age group worries too much about their future.
Gary Bryfman, Brighton

Credit:Illustration: Matt Golding

Politics
If George Brandis can so savagely excoriate the legacy of Gough Whitlam, maybe he could write a piece about Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison.
David Seal, Balwyn North

Albanese and Dutton set an important example by privately getting “along quite well” (“After 20 years in parliament, meet the real member for Dickson”, 4/12).
Barbara Fraser, Burwood

Resources
“Budget $70 billion better off” due to a tax windfall. Ukraine’s wartime pain is Australia’s financial gain.
Elizabeth Meredith, Surrey Hills

The happiest people right now are Australian mineral exporters and the Australian federal Treasury. Merry Christmas, not!
David Cayzer, Clifton Hill

Billionaires battling for gas riches? Whatever happened to the term “war profiteering”?
Bernd Rieve, Brighton

Furthermore
White House spokesman Andrew Bates says “The American Constitution is a sacrosanct document” (“Donald Trump rebuked by both parties after calling to suspend US Constitution”, 5/12). I guess he means except for the 27 amendments they’ve made to it.
Angus McLeod, Cremorne

If that was our summer on Sunday, I hope it is over. Too darn hot!
Susan Munday, Bentleigh East

Freedom Christmas? Retail boom before bust? These are not headlines to instil confidence especially since we don’t know how high Lowe will go!
Myra Fisher, Brighton East

The world is in turmoil, thank goodness we have the ridiculous Harry and Meghan show to keep us entertained.
Mary Cole, Richmond

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