“How about some real-life stories from people from different walks of life who did not get vaccinated but wish that they did,” asks letter writer KARINA MORRIS, of Weetangera.
I agree with columnist Michael Moore that the evidence overwhelmingly supports the benefits of vaccinations to avoid serious cases of preventative illnesses (CN May 8).
Despite this evidence, I continue to experience first-hand the power of illogic, low health literacy and pure stubbornness when it comes to vaccine refusal by members of my own family.
Could Dr Moore please use his position as chair of the International Immunization Policy Taskforce of the World Federation of Public Health Associations to advocate for targeted campaigns designed to reach vaccine-hesitant groups?
In Australia, many office workplaces, including public service departments, offer flu shots as a workplace health and wellness initiative.
It is rare, however, for such initiatives to be found in male-dominated industries such as the construction sector. As a result, many blue-collar workers have no peer context or relevant role models for vaccinations and nothing to challenge the belief that “people like me” do not get vaccinated.
Prevention is a hard sell at the best of times because it is hard to convey the value of a disease that you did not get. Given what we know about the effectiveness of narratives in communicating health information, how about some real-life stories from people from different walks of life who did not get vaccinated but wish that they did?
Karina Morris, Weetangera
The media learns it’s not the message
Much as I abhor gloating, I cannot help but indulge myself after the Coalition wipeout in the recent Federal Election and particularly about the media outlets who thought they had the power to influence the outcome.
We had presenters on Sydney’s 2GB, consistently backstabbing Albo, live on air, throughout the election campaign, calling out the PM as a “liar”, a biased opinion that was repeated by other right-leaning cohorts on Sky News and here in Canberra, on 2CC.
It was clear to “visually challenged” Freddie that Dutton hadn’t even a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the election. From the offset, Dutton came across as indecisive and lacking any real initiatives. His “sacking 40,000+ public servants, but only in Canberra”, was the ultimate sign of desperation.
No doubt these media news presenters will justify themselves by saying it is just “opinion”, but the vitriol and character assassination they undertook of the PM, suggests that it was much more than this.
Naively, I always understood the role of the media was to present the facts and let us, listeners/readers/watchers, come to our own conclusions – clearly this is not the case.
In America, we have seen this take on a more sinister visage, where Trump chooses only media who agree with his pronouncements to be part of his press pack.
Declan Mcgrath, via email
Starting or retaliating with violence solves nothing
I fully understand Australians of Jewish background being so concerned about their security (letters, CN May 8).
They shouldn’t have to be fearful, nor should Australians of Islamic heritage (or any other culture) feel under threat in this country.
It’s irrelevant who started the present middle east war; we ought to realise by now that starting or retaliating with violence won’t solve a single problem.
Here in Australia, we should all unite and vigorously condemn the current waves of extremism from both Hamas and the ultra-religious Jewish minority who control Netanyahu and the Israeli government.
The latter won’t be satisfied until all Gaza is destroyed and its population either killed, starved or dispersed to God knows where. And the Israeli actions will only incite following generations of young Islamists to be just as determined to destroy Israel and its people. It will just go on as before in a deadly Catch-22.
All the while, the major powers will stoke coming generations of extremists into more and more retaliation and counter-retaliation in support of their own religious and cultural prejudices and economic imperatives.
Frankly, I can’t see any end to the inhumane slaughter of innocents until the world’s leaders stop being complicit and take the giant step of ceasing to supply all combatants with the machinery of mutual slaughter.
And it’s not just the Israelis against the Palestinians and vice versa; the Russia- Ukraine conflict has roots in the long-running religious disputes between the two nations – while the most recent flare up between India and Pakistan goes back at least to the 1947 partition which was carved-up on mainly religious grounds.
It’s undoubtedly depressing and sometimes fearful for some Australians, but for those directly and constantly under attack it must be unimaginable horror.
It was encouraging that the newly elected Pope’s first words included, “Peace be with you”. Trouble is, I’ve heard it thousands of times before – and with just as much sincerity by those who actually had the earthly power to do something to achieve it but didn’t.
Eric Hunter, Cook
Energy folly driven by ideology not technology
Now that Labor has been voted back in, Chris Bowen remains as energy minister intent on accelerating this suicidal rush to “net zero” using wind and solar farms.
Without a reliable coal/gas/nuclear base load, we can look forward to soaring power prices, frequent power cuts/blackouts, and the complete ruination of what little manufacturing industry we have left.
For what, when Australia contributes a minuscule amount to climate change compared to other countries such as China, India etcetera?
This whole folly is driven by ideology rather than technology. Many in the Labor ministry and the prime minister have only ever worked in parliament for most of their lives and seem to have little real life experience and technical nous and yet here they are leading us down a path to ruination.
I would like to see some guarantee that, with all these widely dispersed wind and solar farms coming on and off line at frequent intervals depending on when the sun shines and the wind blows, the grid voltage and frequency will be kept stable in a reliable manner. We never hear anything about this aspect, which will be critical if we are to avoid blackouts as recently occurred in Spain and Portugal.
Short term, coal and gas must be retained, and longer term nuclear generation must be considered in the mix as it is the only emissions free 24/7 reliable power source. And after all we are committed to acquiring nuclear-powered submarines under AUKUS.
Unfortunately, there was no rational discussion on nuclear power led by the Coalition during the election. All we heard was Labor continually lying about the cost of nuclear generators, using inflated figures provided by a pro-renewables group stacked with Labor stooges. We never did hear from Labor the cost of renewables including thousands of kilometres of transmission lines.
Rod Smith, Belconnen
Keeping the lights on at night
Dr Andrew Hughes didn’t quite hit the nail on the head in his 15 May City News article about how the Liberal Party lost the election (CN May 15).
The Libs’ mistake wasn’t to propose a $600 billion nuclear power plan, their mistake was not explaining why nuclear power is the only way we can achieve net zero and keep the lights on at night in the long term.
William Ginn, via email
AEMO is on top of the inertia challenge
John L Smith is right to highlight the complexity of energy grids, but he seems to imply that anyone who wants Australia’s energy system to be solar, wind and hydro backed up by batteries, pumped hydro and gas is either ignorant or a climate catastrophist (“Intrusion opens new unknown to energy supply”, letters, CN May 15).
He appears to have little faith in the energy experts overseeing Australia’s transition. Dr John Ward is the research director of CSIRO’s Energy Systems Research Program, which leads the Global Power System Transformation (G-PST) Consortium.
He said: “Our goal is to allow the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to confidently supply all available renewable energy to consumers while maintaining the grid’s stability.”
As Mr Smith points out, the cause of the April system outage in Spain is still unknown, but was probably due to inadequate system-level requirements such as frequency control and inertia, typically provided by conventional generators.
Mr Smith may be comforted by the fact that each year AEMO publishes an inertia report under the National Electricity Rules. Its annual reports identify any projected inertia shortfalls in advance. AEMO states that system needs can be met by “a combination of synchronous inertia and synthetic inertial response on the power system.”
Currently, most grid-level inertia is being met by synchronous condensers, synchronous generators, or synthetic inertia from battery energy storage systems (BESS). It’s clear AEMO is on top of the challenge.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn, Victoria
Elderly disadvantaged by less parking space
In response to Owen Reid’s letter (CN May 8) about the closure of the car park adjacent to the polling centre at Belconnen Community Centre. It’s not just the polling centre. There’s Centrelink, Medicare, the library and senior citizens’ club. Where are these users going to park?
Another car park in Belconnen has been sold to developers for apartments, further reducing parking in the town centre. The elderly and those with disabilities will be the most disadvantaged.
The Barr government needs to consider the needs of the community, not more revenue to fund the tram.
Judy Williams, via email
Pushing or pulling when it comes to golf buggies?
Wokeism is the absence of common sense. In the 1940s and 1950s, I used to caddy and play golf where we pulled the buggy behind us so as to avoid running into unexpected potholes and jamming the handle into our chest, jarring our arm and toppling over – buggy and all.
Today, common sense has departed; manual (not remote controlled) buggies are pushed in front by the golfer.
The questions are: where has common sense gone? And did wokeism evolve from its absence or did wokeism push common sense aside?
Peter Gately, Flynn
Stan and Ollie’s vanity of ‘another nice mess’
As more deficiencies and disruption of the light rail extension become apparent, it is not hard to imagine a conversation between “Oliver” Barr and “Stan” Rattenbury along the lines of: “Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into”.
How can this unassessed vanity project be a higher priority than social housing for a party with the raison d’etre of social justice?
Mike Quirk, Garran
Has Albo the guts to take on gambling reform?
Columnist Michael Moore’s column on gambling (CN May 1) could not be more timely.
Let us hope that the newly re-elected Albanese government, with its huge store of political capital, will now have the guts to stare down the core vested interests in gambling (the gambling industry itself, media moguls, sports chief executives) and ban all gambling advertising both online, in broadcasting and at all sporting events.
In the last government, Labor failed to act on any of the key recommendations of the 2023 parliamentary inquiry into online gambling (the Murphy review), with the Minister for Communications constantly claiming the need for more extensive consultation with stakeholders before decisions could be made.
The need for decisions is even more urgent now. An Australian Institute report (April 2025) found that Australian teens were spending more time gambling online than playing sports. More specifically, almost one in three 12-17-year-olds gamble as do 46 per cent of 18-19-year-olds according to this study.
Advertising on social media and streaming platforms no doubt contributes to this addiction level. The introduction of loot boxes (applications embedded in sub-teen and teenage level online games (to encourage gambling/addictive practices) is perhaps even more concerning.
The Albanese government’s proposal to ban all under 16-year-olds from social media will likely have little impact on this cohort and online gaming is exempted anyway.
Until the federal government mandates that all major sporting codes cease all financial and other in-kind sponsorships, advertising and marketing arrangements with the gambling industry, the popularity of sports attendances within the wider community, will continue to drive an increase in gambling addiction.
Ron Edgecombe, Evatt
Inquiry must examine all deaths in custody
I applaud the pressure that the CEO of Winnunga, Julie Tongs, and the ACT indigenous and Torres Strait Island community, have placed on the ACT government to hold an inquiry into indigenous deaths in custody.
However, I believe any inquiry must examine all deaths in custody, regardless of ethnicity.
Further, I believe the inquiry should be extended to encompass deaths of former detainees, in the first year of post-release from the AMC or the youth justice facility, Bimberi.
Research reports that the risk of death significantly increases for individuals shortly after their release from prison, with a particularly high risk within the first few weeks. Leading causes of death in this period include alcohol and other drug poisoning, suicide, and cardiovascular disease.
In 2021, people released from prisons in Australia were more likely to die within the first 28 days of release (18.5 per 1000 person years) than within 365 days of release (10.1 per 1000 person years).
An inquiry into detainee deaths should look at all such deaths, both inside detention centres, and within the first-year post release.
As a progressive, enlightened community, our goal should be to rehabilitate prisoners, not bury them.
Janine Haskins, prison reform community advocate
Pocock proves trust is the key ingredient
Senior NSW MP Sussan Ley (“Ley voted first woman to lead federal Libs”, citynews.com.au May 13) made a long-lasting name for herself by rorting parliamentary travel entitlements when tripping around southern Queensland over a two-year period and subsequently resigning as a minister in 2017.
But she managed to avoid appearing in the top 10 list of Australian political leaders who received the highest net distrust scores in the April 2025 Roy Morgan research survey of political trust and distrust.
The federal Coalition parties boasted four senior representatives in the survey’s most distrusted list – after March 2022 Peter Dutton moved up that list to be the most distrusted politician in Australia in 2025.
Sussan Ley’s right-wing leadership contender Angus Taylor appears at number 8, followed by Barnaby Joyce MP and Senator Michaelia Cash.
In contrast, ACT Senator David Pocock received the highest net trust score of any political leader in Australia, because he is “seen as a genuine, principled, and articulate politician who listens to his constituents… and approaches politics with humility and a willingness to learn”. Senator Jacquie Lambie moved up from being the fifth most trusted in March 2022 to second place this year.
The top three most trusted politicians in 2022 all became Labor ministers; but in 2025 no Labor minister or Coalition shadow minister appeared in the top five net trust score positions.
Hopefully, main party representatives will learn from judgments that the public communicates outside the ballot box. Other politicians in leadership positions could do worse than stop whingeing and pointing the finger elsewhere, and instead get back to basics, show they are willing to call out and tackle the hard stuff, stop spouting spin and weasel words, and give up pursuing divisive “culture wars”.
Sue Dyer, Downer
On the trail of Ho Chi Minh
I have a future Whimsy column coming out about the Ho Chi Minh Trail, but in the interim I’m hoping to get a group of experienced, off-road motorcycle riders to commit to riding the trail next year on Honda 250cc CRFs.
The previously scheduled motorcycle tours of Explore Indochina for 2025/2026 are already sold out, but the Australian organiser is prepared to put on an extra one from January 26-February 6 if there are at least six starters – but not more than 10. The tour will start and end at Vientiane.
If you’re interested, email me at clive.williams@terrint.org for a brochure. We’ll be riding 1320 kilometres on tarmac and 860 offroad. It promises to be a great adventure!
Clive Williams, CityNews columnist
Thank you for the kindness, Antonio
Thank you, Antonio Di Dio for your Kindness column, particularly the item about your friend Flea (CN May 15), and that Flea, like so many others, was and is, a wonderful person.
Your column is always positive and heart-warming. It is much appreciated.
Elaine Staples, Campbell
Stop printing money and borrowing. Or else…
I intended to send off a letter to criticise the government’s economically nonsensical intention of taxing the value of superannuation funds.
But then the terrible news came in.
The US government is losing its AAA rating in the bond market. Saying this is a disaster is an understatement. It is a nuclear explosion. Things can, will, get bad very quickly. Everything is interconnected.
Then the US Secretary of the Treasury said that the US won’t default as the US can print unlimited amounts of money to support the bond market! True. But, as I explained in a previous letter, if governments won’t stop printing money, the price of money drops to zero. The economy seizes up. And this can happen fast.
If the US government bond rating drops below AAA, that of Australia’s is effectively AA or less. This does matter. Governments live off selling bonds, to soak up the money they print to support their spending. If they can’t sell as many bonds, they must stop printing money, so they must stop spending, or…
I shall quote from the Australian Financial Review from a couple of days before the ratings announcement, one Peter Berezen, of BCA Research: “My guess is that 2025 will unfold like the Jaws movie, where the inhabitants sigh in relief after they catch a great white shark, only to realise that a much bigger one is still stalking the beachgoers. Tariffs are the small shark; a fiscal crisis is the bigger one.”
If the moderates want to go swimming, pushing the NDIS rubber ducky, best of luck to them. The Australian government must massively reduce its total expenditure immediately to the point where it ceases printing money and borrowing. Notional accounting surpluses are not sufficient. Or else…
Tim Walshaw, Watson
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