Peter Hartcher's dispassionate analysis (Forum, 4/11) of the situation on Manus Island stands in stark contrast to the emotional (one could say hysterical) outbursts being whipped up by those who would be happy to see our controlled immigration program subverted for ideological and self-serving reasons. Some Australians who are neither racists nor redneck bigots are not in the slightest bit ashamed of that carefully orchestrated program which has benefited so many people in the past, is doing so every week and will do so into the future.
What is of great regret is that some who have been made aware of the wonderful opportunities and attributes of our nation have been led to believe that if they can just get here they will stay here, to be eventually joined by their families and friends. Some men are now are now suffering the consequences of that deception and delusion.
Illustration: Michael Leunig.
The Greens, lawyers and refugee advocates acting to the benefit of venal migration agents and people smugglers should be condemned for their past and, at one stage, successful machinations to remove controls on informal immigration. This is what led to the present impasse.
Bruce Stillman, Fitzroy North
Quickly process claims in our region
Australia should make considerably greater effort in co-operating with our regional partners and international agencies to quickly process asylum seeker claims in countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. Such expeditious processing in our region would eliminate the demand for boat journeys, and billions of dollars would be saved by closing offshore detention centres.
Most asylum seeker claims are made by people who come to Australia by plane. Many wait years to be processed, often in domestic detention centres. Their claims should also be processed quickly while they live in the community with all civil rights. With these simple and cost-saving changes, Australia would no longer be traumatising people seeking our help and it would fulfil its international obligations.
Andrew Trembath, Blackburn
We should have accepted NZ's offer
How generous of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to offer to take some refugees on Manus Island. However, I wonder why she made the offer to us when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton keep saying that it is Papua New Guinea's responsibility, not ours. Why not make the offer to PNG and let it decide? Or does it need our permission first, in which case it is our problem. We should have accepted the generous offer with thanks. Meanwhile, these poor people are in limbo with no future to plan for.
Jane Dubsky, Glen Iris
Our proud record of resettling refugees
Oh dear. Look at all the complaining about Peter Dutton. People need to be made aware of a couple of salient points. Firstly, that Australia is one of fewer than 30 countries that accept refugees for permanent resettlement. And secondly, of those countries, Australia is in the top handful for accepting refugees on a per capita basis.
Barrie Dempster, Balwyn
Hypocrisy of some "Christian" politicians
I wonder if there is a special place in hell for those Christian politicians who create hell on earth for others. Shame on politicians of any religious or cultural persuasion who do nothing positive for those on Manus Island and Nauru.
Andrew Moloney, Frankston
THE FORUM
Show me the money
Thank you, Laura Weyman-Jones, for highlighting the cruelty associated with horse racing (Comment, 7/11). Whilst we accusingly point our fingers at the United States for being blind to gun ownership, we say that horse racing is OK and part of the Australian way of life. How hypocritical. Why? Money, money, money.
Rob Willis, Wheelers Hill
So strange: silence
It is amazing that there is no huff and puff from business about the number of people who have a "four-day weekend" for the Melbourne Cup, as there always has been since the grand final public holiday was introduced.
Catherine Fewster, Ascot Vale
Dangerous technology
Donald Trump says the Texas mass shootings is "not a guns situation". The local sheriff insists that "guns don't kill people; people kill people". These comments seem to miss the point that the right to bear arms was written (into the constitution) at a time of the single-shot musket, which took some time to load, and when technology did not have the modern capability of killing 30people per minute. It is time the American constitution was bought up to speed with 21st century weapons technology.
Tibor Majlath, Greensborough
And dangerous 'logic'
Wait for it. When will the National Rifle Association in the US say: "A good man with a gun killed a bad man with a gun. We all need guns to stop the carnage."
Graham Fetherstonhaugh, Carlton North
Follow Howard's lead
Donald Trump (a buffoon, yet a political genius) should take a leaf out of John Howard's book and steel himself to rid the US of semi-automatic, assault-type rifles and shot guns, along with semi-automatic pistols, and immediately implement Mr Howard's gun laws. Sadly, our modern world has far too many disturbed people. So, President Trump, why give them such easy access to any type of gun, let alone access to military-type weapons, so they can continue to slaughter innocent Americans? This not what your Founding Fathers intended.
Howard Hutchins, Chirnside Park
Haves and have-nots
The highlighting of tax havens of the rich and powerful (Four Corners, 6/11) makes for such a contrast to views presented for why there is declining revenue. Joe Hockey's infamous budget, where he declared "the age of entitlement is over", was aimed at subjecting the disenfranchised and least powerful as scapegoats for this declining revenue, post-mining boom. This is consistent with conservative policies – to lower the corporate tax rate and reduce the size of government. One can only wonder, where do the government's citizens fit into all of this?
Damien Peters, Brighton
Make the cheaters pay
Now that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has exposed the scale and method of tax evasion, it is time for those of us who do fund government-provided services through our taxes to take action. Perhaps the culprits can be excluded from using those services and infrastructure that we mere taxpayers pay for, such as roads, emergency services, hospitals and schools. I am prepared to make one exception – prisons. They should make good use of our prisons. In the meantime, I will continue to boycott the brands that are cheating us.
John Everett, Eltham
The cycle of stress
November is the peak month for stress among young teachers in the state education system. Schools support their students, but not their graduate or contracted staff as they engage on the annual cycle of applying for dozens of jobs on an antiquated centralised computer system, producing responses to "criteria" which, to the uninitiated, appear to be gobbledegook jargon.
This is all in the hope that one application may result in an interview and (yet another) 12-month contract for the following year. Internal applicants advised by their principals that they will have to wait until all external candidates have been interviewed in case there is a better prospect or an appeal. No job security. Mounting debt from the HECS and post-graduate loans. A two-tier system where teachers with permanent tenure reap all the benefits. How can we best support our young people who risk becoming disillusioned when their passion is to teach, but they are caught up in an annual bureaucratic lottery?
Charlotte Chidell, Eltham North
Spotlight on our MPs
I have got the dual citizenship debacle solved. In Victoria, teachers entering the profession have to undertake rigorous scrutiny to register to teach. As a long practising teacher, each year I must fulfil the requirements to maintain my registration through the Victorian Institute of Teaching. And I have to pay. I may even be subject to an audit. Why not our politicians? I demand that they do the same – answer honestly the questions put to them, including on dual citizenship, and prove their fitness for the job. They need a body to scrutinise their eligibility. So let us set up a Politicians' Institute of Scrutiny.
Lorraine Ryan, Templestowe
The Brits' dilemma
Arriving here in the 1970s as a UK citizen, I acquired the right and, in fact, was compulsorily required to, vote after six months as a permanent resident. (This was a unique right for British citizens.) That rule was rescinded for UK citizens arriving after 1984 but "grandfathered" for those up to that date. Today Australian citizenship is a prerequisite for voting for all. Having the right to vote should surely confer the right to stand for election. So, do the pre-1984 UK permanent residents or their Australian descendants have the right to sit in Parliament?
Duncan McLaren, Bendigo
Agreement not to tell
"Voluntary disclosure" might just be a quaint way of each party respectively acknowledging an awareness of dual citizenship in its own ranks, and hence accepting the need to keep quiet about the same problem in other parties.
Meg McPherson, Brighton
101 on citizenship
The process of proving your citizenship bona fides appears to be absurdly simple: identify the birth place of your parents; follow the process put in place by that country to identify your citizenship rights; and formally renounce that citizenship if it exists. It took all of three minutes to check for British and New Zealand citizenship. The United States' website asks a few more questions but it is not hard to find. As the body responsible for processing candidates for Parliament, the Australian Electoral Commission should include such checks in the registration process. After all, it is a key selection criteria for the job.
Greg Walsh, Black Rock
About Arthur Calwell
Amanda Vanstone (Comment, 6/11) provided an unprofessional historical interpretation to achieve a desired result. The Restrictive Immigration Act 1901 was defended by ALP MPs who believed that employers would import unskilled workers to subvert conditions as had occurred.
My father, Arthur Calwell, the first immigration minister, had close relationships with many communities, tried to get Chinese residents naturalised in 1941, partly succeeded in 1947 and succeeded in 1956. He spoke some Mandarin, and Chinese communities in Australia and PNG honoured him.
Of the assisted settlers whose passages he arranged between January 1947 and June 1950, 58per cent were displaced persons. Adviser on immigration and multiculturalism Jerzy Zubrzycki stated that Calwell was "the unacknowledged father of multiculturalism", not a racist but a visionary. Later immigration ministers Harold Holt excluded British-born Jews from the Middle East in 1952, Hubert Opperman deported Nancy Prasad in 1965 and Jim Forbes defended the policy in 1972. History must be interpreted according to the times.
Mary Elizabeth Calwell, Travancore
All-party call to arms
At last we are hearing Liberal Party stalwarts, such as Oliver Yates (The Age, 7/11), speak out against the immorality of our aiding and abetting climate change by promoting, selling and using fossil fuels. (And yes, he has renewable energy interests, thank goodness.) The last time morality was mentioned was when Kevin Rudd cited climate change as the greatest moral challenge of our times.
Two degrees of warming will inflict huge pain, directly or economically, on people in every country. We are now at 403 particles per million of atmospheric carbon dioxide, not seen for 5million years. There were certainly no humans around then, let alone the crops and ecosystems upon which we now depend. Liberals, Laborites, Greens and crossbenchers must agitate in and out of their party rooms for real climate action policies and action before Australia experiences irreversible food ecosystem damage.
Jill Dumsday, Ashburton
AND ANOTHER THING
Politics
The PM's idea of having fun: ordering MPs to tell the truth. The joke of the decade.
Kerry Bergin, Abbotsford
An audit when you're not having an audit. Another case of the government treating its citizens as if they were fools.
Gregory Clark, Woodend
Manus: an example of where bloody mindedness can take you.
Howard Tankey, Box Hill North
If anybody knocks on your door that has a political message, ask them to leave.
Cecil Deans, Ballarat
US shooting
Are those in the American gun lobby blind, deaf or stupid?
Ruth Hilton, Mount Martha
Two terrorist massacres and not a Muslim to be seen. The silence from some media pulpits is deafening.
Jonathan Lipshut, Elwood
Where was their God when the shooting started? Looking the other way?
Colin Smith, Mount Waverley
"Fake news" Trump shoots from the lip to the finger, bypassing the brain. An American tragedy.
Anne McKenzie, Preston
Twenty-six more reasons why the gun laws should be changed.
Chris Burgess, Port Melbourne
Note to the US: Pray for gun control.
Michael Petit, Brunswick
I can't wait for Trump to announce extreme vetting of all white males with guns.
Peter Harris, Preston
When will they ever learn?
Wasyl Abrat, Mornington
Furthermore
News flash. The Queen pays some tax.
George Greenberg, Malvern
Shock, horror. Petrol prices forecast to rise over the Christmas holidays. Who would have thought it?
Stephen Dinham, Surrey Hills