A recent feature story about Irish convicts has brought forward a couple of letters with local angles. 

I refer to your article about Irish convicts who were actually political prisoners (“Convict rebels cast as first political protesters”, CN February 19).

My great great grandfather Martin Pike, a member of the White Boy movement, was convicted with 10 of his colleagues of swearing an oath to somebody other than the British Oath of Allegiance.

He was transported aboard the Java, arriving in Sydney Cove. He marched up through the Domain to Hyde Park Barracks where he was allocated to the Surveyor of Roads for the colony of NSW.

He was in chains as part of an iron’d gang for 10 years before receiving a ticket of leave to reside at Tuggeranong Homestead as a shepherd. He later married Mary Blackburn and had a family. A man with a social conscience, he built the first public school in the Tuggeranong Valley with his own hand on his land.

He was never able to return to his native Ireland. I have walked in his footsteps from the cove to Hyde Park Barracks and I’ve written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer seeking an apology from the British government for the transportation of Irish freedom fighters. I’m yet to receive a reply.

Rohan Goyne, Evatt 

Convict rebels recast as first political protestors

… and most famous convict who became an editor

The feature article “Convict rebels recast as first political protestors” (CN February 19) contained the photograph of an anonymous Irish political prisoner, one of “at least 3600 political prisoners landed in NSW, convicted for protest, unionism and resistance”.

In fact, he is perhaps the most famous political convict transported – to WA – and he will be remembered in celebrations in Perth and Bunbury between March 23 and 29.

John Boyle O’Reilly was an Irish poet, journalist, author and activist political prisoner, transported on the last convict ship to our shores, the Hougomont, which arrived in the Swan River Colony in 1869.

He managed a daredevil escape from the “escape-proof” Fremantle Prison the following year and, from the US, was a lead organiser of the rescue of the other six political prisoners in 1876 in what’s known as the Catalpa Escape.

The Irish in the US raised enough funds to buy a whaling ship, the Catalpa, with the secret mission of rescuing them.

After whaling en route to WA, it picked up the remaining six political prisoners who had escaped from their work gangs to be collected by a horse-drawn cart to get them to Rockingham Beach to be rowed out to the Catalpa, which remained in international waters. 

A terrible storm broke out and they rowed for 28 hours in wild seas, chased by a police cutter and a commandeered coalship. It fired over the Catalpa after the men scrambled on board. 

With the brave captain raising the American flag and claiming over the loud speaker that if they fired again they would be declaring war on America, they managed to set sail to New Bedford, to a heroes’ welcome.

They had succeeded at what the daring American captain described as one of the most boldly conceived and audacious expeditions against the British government ever planned. 

John Boyle O’Reilly became a prominent spokesperson for the Irish diaspora community and culture through his editorship of the Boston Globe newspaper and The Pilot, in addition to personal writings and lecture tours – his true self over the photo of the prisoner you published.

This Easter is the 150th anniversary of the Catalpa Escape. Information on the celebrations is at fremantlefenians.com.au/fenians-festival/

Estelle Blackburn, Swinger Hill

Saddened by granddaughter’s school setback

Our granddaughter, now 17, was assaulted by a teacher at her high school 18 months ago and was then subjected to ongoing bullying, humiliation, intimidation and threat by the same teacher. 

She had experienced multiple suspensions based, we believe, on confected allegations resulting in her expulsion from school.

A good, intelligent, respectful, well-liked girl, whose desire to complete a sound education has been devastated.

Had she been a trouble maker, disobedient or a threat in any way, we might have said her treatment was deserved. But she was not, and it was not! 

Despite taking up this matter with the NSW police and the NSW education minister, the teacher concerned remains at the school posing, we believe, a threat to other students.

The matter will go to the NSW Ombudsman, but given the lengthy timeframe to conduct investigations, her completion of year 12 and attainment of a good ATAR are now well out of reach. We are dismayed, nay, disgusted, that this could occur.

Philip and Teresa Bewley, Barton

Editor’s note: The letter writers provided the name of the high school, but CityNews has decided not to publish it at this stage.

Angus and his engagement with the ACT 

Over dinner in Woolley Street, Dickson, in August 2018, Liberal “numbers man” Angus Taylor MP plotted with close Liberal hard-right faction colleagues Senator Zed Seselja and MPs Michael Sukkar, Andrew Hastie and Tony Pasin, to replace Malcolm Turnbull with Peter Dutton as prime minister.

The destabilisation led to Scott Morrison as prime minister for too many enervating years. 

In early 2022 Coalition ministers Taylor and Michaelia Cash came to Canberra during the federal election campaign, to engage with voters in support of their close factional friend, Senator Seselja.

This fellow minister needed help as he flailed around while voters warmed to the policies, principles and hard-work ethos of a new progressive independent Senate candidate for the territory.

At the end of 2022, then shadow minister Taylor, and most of the right-wing MPs who survived the Coalition’s election loss (and are also now in his current shadow ministry) voted “No” to overturning the controversial 1997 legislation that prevented the ACT and the NT governments from considering, legislating and putting in place voluntary assisted dying options for their residents.

In contrast, the new ACT independent Senate candidate had openly campaigned on the injustice of this contentious 1997 legal restriction. Once elected, Senator David Pocock worked hard to ensure that what territory voters wanted happened sooner rather than later.

The 1997 legislation was finally revised in the territories’ favour in December 2022. 

So far, now Liberal leader Taylor and the company he still prefers to keep and reward would not have left a positive mark or made a good impression on many ACT voters.

No one in the latest line up has given any convincing indication that the Liberal Party will become more progressive and inclusive from now on. Rather, the Liberals look like they will continue to be overinfluenced by the more conservative Nationals, and by the odious inflammatory racist and hate-inducing commentary rolled out by One Nation (“Taylor pulled between good policy and populist politics”, citynews.com.au February 20). 

Blinkered, both Coalition parties appear to be digging their own party-political graves along the way. New candidates for 2028 will end up flailing around like Senator Seselja in 2022 and Jacob Vadakkedathu in 2025, and for the same reasons. Vale, Coalition. 

Sue Dyer, Downer

What about waste from renewables?

Re letter from Bob Howden (CN February 19). He asked: “Why is it that advocates of nuclear energy never mention the waste”. I ask, when do the advocates of the so-called renewables never mention the waste? The wind turbines and solar panels, contrary to popular pushing from Labor, are in most cases not renewable and do not last as long as nuclear generation, which can last 80 years. The one we already have at Lucas heights was built between 1955 and 1958, and there have been no complaints.

The working life of wind turbines and solar panels vary depending on who you talk to, but in general they last about 15 years. In most cases, they cannot be recycled, so they have to be buried.

There are toxins in both turbines and solar panels and the toxins will probably leech into the soil and watertable, but we are never told about this. 

Vi Evans, via email

There’s no going back on power technology

However “real” your data, Nick Standish, any projections of future electricity costs involve modelling (“My costs come from ABS data, Fiona”, letters, CN February 24).

Despite what the Coalition and others may wish, there is no going back to 20th century power generation technology. 

Australia is currently generating around 43 per cent renewable electricity. South Australia leads the way: in 2025, renewables provided only half the electricity in the week starting July 21 but in the week starting November 24 they provided all of it. This is not modelling, this is real-time experience. 

We need flexible generation to fill the gaps. Nuclear is not flexible. 

As for nuclear waste, it is true most nuclear waste can be managed. It is the remaining three per cent that is deadly and remains so for hundreds of thousands of years.

Finland is the only country to have a purpose-built storage facility deep underground, with establishment costs of around $3-5 billion. Vitrification has been employed in several countries looking to safely store large amounts of nuclear waste. It is also a hugely expensive process.

Fiona Colin, Malvern East, Victoria

Opportunity for global-scale nuclear waste dump

I am sure Nick Standish (letters, CN February 26) would agree that the cost of the Victorian Big Battery was $170,000,000 and not $170,000.

I would agree that there is an opportunity for Australia to profit by developing and operating a global-scale nuclear waste dump.

Having had our manufacturing industries crippled by the cost of renewable energy, and having an education system bent on educating children as activist protestors rather than with the numeracy talent that is essential to the development of scientists and engineers, but with vast experience in digging holes in the ground, nuclear waste disposal seems to be one of our few opportunities.

If we committed to a waste-disposal facility, we could proceed to building nuclear power plants and rescue Minister Bowen from his ridiculous ideas of powering data centres and aluminium smelters from renewables.

John L Smith, Farrer 

No comparison between the attacks

In his February 19 column, Michael Moore bizarrely contrasts Australia’s reaction to the Bondi massacre to Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7 atrocities. There’s no comparison between the attacks.

Apart from the scale, Bondi was perpetrated by two Australian individuals. October 7 was carried out by Gaza’s government. The Bondi perpetrators were immediately neutralised. Israel needed to fight a war to try to neutralise the October 7 perpetrators.

Moore accuses Israel of killing 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza, but that total death toll includes around 10-12,000 who died of natural causes, and thousands more killed by misfiring terrorist rockets or deliberately by Hamas gunmen.

Of the rest, around 25,000 were fighters, meaning it was a ratio of around one fighter killed for every civilian, unprecedentedly good in a modern urban war, especially given Hamas’ pervasive human shield strategy.

This was achieved through selective targeting, and warning and evacuating civilians away from fighting.

All that makes Moore’s description of the Gaza war as the “Gaza Holocaust” almost as ridiculous as it is offensive. There’s a good reason why the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism includes, as an example of antisemitism, “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

Moore accuses Herzog of incitement, but a comment Herzog made in a press conference was cherry-picked and misrepresented, while other answers he gave at the same presser saying Israel must obey international law and that targeting civilians is never acceptable were ignored.

Finally, Moore wrongly says “many” Jews recognise that the Herzog visit increased antisemitism. That was a tiny few on the extreme fringe of the Jewish community. The overwhelming majority welcomed the visit, while recognising that antisemites and haters used it to stir division and that the only people who should ever be blamed for antisemitism are antisemites. 

Jamie Hyams, director of Public Affairs, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council

Moore’s pro-Palestine views ‘out of touch’

Political columnist Michael Moore blames visiting Israeli President Herzog for antisemitism and social division (“Why the Herzog visit made antisemitism worse”, CN February 19). Where has Moore been for the last two and a half years? 

More than 1200 innocent Israeli music goers were gunned down in cold blood and murdered, while others were raped, assaulted and held hostage for months.

Before the Israeli Defence Force had a chance to respond, radical Islamists were chanting anti-Israel and Jewish slurs, on the steps of our own Opera House, while a Muslim cleric in western Sydney was gleefully celebrating with his followers. 

Not a thing was done by our so-called leaders about these disgusting acts, which led to a huge increase in antisemiticism in Australia.

In December, 15 Jewish Australians were gunned down in cold blood while others who survived suffered horrific injuries.

Pro-Hamas and anti-Israel protests were allowed to continue. Moore states most protestors are there to express their disgust at Herzog. How does he know this and where is the evidence?

Most of the protestors I have witnessed have been chanting anti-Israel chants, holding up signs and photos supporting Islamic terrorism and have defied police to protest in a specific place. 

Where does Moore get his information that 70,000 Palestinians have died? From Hamas, the spokesperson for Palestine, where the majority of Palestinians support this recognised terrorist group.

He doesn’t mention that many of those dead would have been the terrorists themselves and that the IDF actively targets Hamas and gives notice to Gaza. Unfortunately, Hamas likes to hide behind civilians. 

If Australians had been murdered overseas in cold blood by terrorists acting under a radical religion, we would expect a representative from the country to go over there and show support just as Herzog has done for the innocent Jewish Australians from the Bondi massacre. 

Moore’s views are out of touch with regular Australians and his anti-Israel, pro-Palestine is unbecoming of a columnist with a platform such as his. 

Ian Pilsner, Weston

We need rational and humane reversals

Public anxiety over Islam can’t be spun out of existence by pointing at Pauline Hanson’s clumsy excesses.

Even without the litany of Islamist massacre, Islam retains considerable historic severity compared to other faiths.

The Islamophobia smokescreen can’t hide Islam’s status as the least feminist religion by a country mile with the Taliban showing how hard Islamic interpretation combined with local custom can hit.

Similarly nasty is the murderous retribution promised to those offending Islam’s tenets. Bullying zealotry has no place in a society that has already found an effective short circuit to centuries of religious fracture: a secular State umbrella protecting religious freedom – the polar opposite of an Islamist Caliphate.

Sadly, in the wake of Bondi, the Australian National Imams’ Council (ANIC) and related bodies denied the connection of Islamism to Islam. With equally shifty footwork, our federal government eschews responsibility for Australian ISIS widows and their children in Syria. These political reflexes do nothing to solve the problem of Islamism. We need rational and humane reversals by both parties.

Our government should process the fatherless families and address any criminality. The ANIC should concede Islamism falls within Islam’s historic purview just as Christianity owns its ugly variants like the Ku Klux Klan and Inquisition.

While an Albanese volte-face is in the realm of remote possibility, a concerted propaganda attack on Islam’s violent zealotry from Australian Islamic leaders and celebrities would be revolutionary. I’m dubbing that fantasy Ozlam.

Peter Robinson, Ainslie

As we stumble on, does anyone care?

Those following the press cannot help notice the barrage of negative opinion pieces about Canberra’s appalling debt and unforgivable loss of credit rating.

A brief respite occurred following the election of a new Liberal opposition leader, but little else since.

We seem to be stumbling on with minimal interest in our economic demise. Does anyone really care? It would be tragic if the answer is no!

John Lawrence via e–mail

Time to nationalise land sales

An analysis of house prices in new estates reveals that the retail land component is crippling affordability for most families. 

Profits are massive. Blocks are family-unfriendly. Trees and soil profiles go. 

Local authorities won’t challenge the situation, because rates are their main income source. Land developers chant “it’s the market” – theirs.

Time for the Commonwealth to comprehensively nationalise the acquisition, and responsible (functionally, socially, and environmentally) planning and development, of new suburban and satellite-town land, to maintain supply, to sell good-sized blocks to bona fide owner-occupiers at a verifiable cost.

A contribution to First Nation people would be made from each land sale. It is considered vital that the Commonwealth runs and funds these reforms.

Any hint of resultant construction profiteering can be dealt with by the ACCC. The suggested reforms would have flow-on effects to all housing typologies in all locations, and are not so new – remember Tom Uren in the Whitlam government.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah 

Minister Orr’s been asleep at the wheel

While Karen Lamb’s letter (CN, February 26) on old air polluting technologies was useful as far as it went, it failed to mention the elephant in the room across the cooler months in Canberra, namely wood heaters.

These produce hazardous smoke pollution observable using the real-time PurpleAir monitoring system, which is accessible on the web. The latter covers many more sites than the three government stations, and shows fine particulate PM2.5 levels across Canberra.

Wood smoke from wood heaters has been estimated to result in annual health costs in Canberra of the order of $100 to $300 million.

The previous ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment spelt out the facts and recommended progressive policy change in an excellent 2023 report entitled Can Canberra ‘Burn Right Tonight’ or is there ‘no safe level of air pollution’? 

Then ACT Environment Minister Rebecca Vassarotti drove progressive policy change following the Commissioner’s call for change to protect public health.

Since then, the current ACT Environment Minister Suzanne Orr has been asleep at the wheel. Equally, in a Legislative Assembly committee meeting, the ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith subscribed to the simplistic notion that Canberra has “clean air”.

Both these ministers perform poorly on this issue, and don’t appear to be across the detailed policy work done by the previous Commissioner for the Environment. 

The Greens MLA Laura Nuttall has valiantly continued the good work of Ms Vassarotti. When will the relevant ACT government ministers get their heads out of the sand? Wood smoke from wood heaters continues to harm many in the ACT community.

Murray May, Cook

Thanks for the Memory Walk support 

I extend my sincere thanks and congratulations to the community of Canberra for their participation and support of our 2026 Memory Walk & Jog.

Our 2026 event on February 22 in Commonwealth Park was a resounding success, with community efforts helping to raise more than $304,000.

These funds will help Dementia Australia provide invaluable support services, education and resources for Australians impacted by dementia, including the estimated 6300 people living with dementia in the ACT.

It was also heartening to see everyone lacing up and getting active for their brain health – one of the key things we can all do to help lower our risk of dementia. 

To all those who walked, ran, jogged, donated and volunteered, thank you. This event would not have been possible without your generous support.

Merran Kelsall AO, chair, Dementia Australia