Scare tactics
The constant scare tactics used by the Federal Coalition Government in this 2016 election campaign are designed to distract voters from their unpopular policies and their lack of direction on important issues. I am bemused that the Federal Coalition would launch a relentless scare campaign against the Federal Opposition, the Greens and Independents whose election platforms pledge to restore funding to Australia’s critical public services as health and education. Thousands upon thousands of community support agencies across Australia have seen their funding removed or significantly reduced since this Federal Coalition has taken office. If we don’t have a cohesive society and community, what do we have? Can we afford it? If we don’t we will pay a massive national price! If you believe that the Coalition’s “Jobs and Growth” program will eventually trickle down and fund our community and social needs, think again! The Federal Coalition’s plan for “Jobs and Growth” started when they stopped supporting our car industry. Its policies to ensure that investment in our alternative energy systems is unattractive have reduced the prospect of a thriving “Green” industry. The rest of the world is leading the way and we have already been left behind. In a multitude of ways, this Federal Coalition Government has shown that it has no social conscious. The Coalition is deliberately redirecting wealth from the lower and middle classes to those who support their cause. This ideology will generate greater social dysfunction, reducing our standard of living. That’s scary!
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ray Sillett, Tuross Head
Council jury?
What is the guarantee that the present council will pay any more attention to a $100,000 jury of randomly selected citizens than it has to strong community representations in the past, and why the haste to add this extra financial burden when the next local election is only a few months away? The present guidelines for community engagement are perfectly clear.They only need to be followed! We need to elect a new council that after stating its objectives, will from the outset truly represent, respect and respond to the wishes and well-being of the community, rather than the interests of a powerful lobby group!
Susan Cruttenden, Dalmeny
Mike Kelly attitude
A couple of weeks ago, Labor candidate for Eden-Monaro Mike Kelly resigned from the Army Reserve rather than change a poster showing him in uniform, which Army said was against its rules. This apparently values his political image over community service. And this week on ABC radio he was pretty relaxed about the Labor candidate who withdrew from the campaign after his links with Hizb ut-Tahrir were revealed. Mr Kelly said this sort thing of happened every election, and compared it to the Liberal candidate who withdrew because he did not declare part-ownership of a brothel. Fair enough, but one was involved in a legal (if distasteful to some) small business; the other a man who associates (and presumably sympathises with to some degree at least) an organisation banned in many countries and dedicated to overthrowing our democracy. In both cases, you have to wonder if political ambition has got the better of Mike Kelly's judgement.
David Kelly, Akolele
Federal dyslexia
I just had a thought. On election day, I can vote for Malcolm SHORTEN or Bill TURNBULL. I suffer from dyslexia! I know who I will vote for…
Bill Turnbull, North Narooma
Air-conditioner tip
I have had my air-conditioner stop recently and others I know have said the same thing after the big rain event. A tip I got from a retailer is to go to the main electricity power box, look for a fuse switch usually marked A/C and switch it off for about one minute, then turn it back on. It is because the air-conditioners are controlled by a small computer and by switching it off at the mains allows the a/c to re-boot itself. Easy for a homeowner to do at no cost (although some would rather get an electrician to do it). Much better to try this tip instead of calling your insurance company to pay for a new one.
Clive Cavey, Dalmeny
History’s judgement
What will history say of us and our leaders? The second most shameful practice in their history, after their treatment of the original inhabitants of the land, is off the voting agenda this election. The courage, creativity and morality of their leaders must have been under immense pressure. Their disconnection from their hearts and souls so great that their fear, pride and fixation with ‘stopping the boats’ (under the guise of stopping the ‘people smugglers) was so strong that they managed to brainwash their whole nation into allowing them to keep thousands of refugees - desperate men, women and children as prisoners in horrific detention centres on small islands for years. Some of the people ‘woke up’ reclaimed their sense of justice and compassion and began speaking out, challenging their leaders, marching in the streets…. speaking strongly about the injustice, the immorality and inhumanity. However the media collaborated with the leaders and ‘silenced’ or ‘distorted' their outcries. Silenced too (under pain of job loss) the doctors and workers in these terrible detention centres. So effective was this SILENCING coupled with the collaboration of the two major parties -- that the people allowed the elections to go ahead without any mention of this most shameful, unjust and inhumane policy. Is there nothing we want to do to alter this historic record?
P. Delaney, Narooma
