Toilet closures unacceptable
I was flabbergasted to read the article (Cr Holland creates stink with toilet motion, The News, 7/8/24) outlining Cr David Gill’s attempt to raise the issue of closed toilet facilities on the Mornington Peninsula. This seems a perfectly reasonable motion from Cr Gill, yet not one councillor supported the motion. And for Cr Steve Holland to consider an amendment to the motion accusing Cr Gill of wasting everybody’s time, is extraordinary. For Cr Holland’s information, there are many people who read our local newspaper – sometimes that is the only way we find out what is going on in Council.
As a ratepayer, I would like to see all of our toilet facilities, whether state government or shire-managed, open all year round for both locals and tourists. It is a basic human right to be able to access toilet facilities, and think of the alternative if these facilities are not provided. I fully support writing to the State Government asking them to ensure the toilets they are responsible for are in good working order and kept open all year round.
Karen Gelley, Rye
Democracy manifest
I read with disbelief a letter (Welfare not nuclear, Letters 6/8/24) in which the author seemed incredulous that member for Flinders, Zoe McKenzie, had voted the way her constituents had directed her to, by voting along party lines, after electing Zoe to Parliament. Imagine if big Max Gawn decided to kick with the wind when the rest of the team were going the other way because it was easier. I actually passed it off as someone with no idea how parliament worked until last week, when another letter of the same ilk arrived (Independent a must, Letters 13/8/24).
So, perhaps a little lesson on how this works is in order. People vote. The person with the most votes after preferences wins. They represent those that voted for them in Canberra. In most cases people vote for a party, not a person and so that person represents the parties view in parliament.
Convenor of the call for an independent candidate, Sarah Russell, stood at the last election as an independent and barely beat the informal vote. This despite the fact that Sarah was a very viable candidate with excellent credentials.
As the Teals in Canberra have shown, a one trick pony is just that with absolutely no influence on policy.
Michael Free, Mount Martha
Humanity missing
I heard a doctor from Palestine being interviewed on the radio about fleeing Gaza to come to Australia. Asked why she fled, she said “I want to protect my children – I want them to live in peace”. She spoke of the horrors she experienced in Gaza with hospitals and schools being bombed and finding no safe place.
It seems to me that it is people like this doctor that [Flinders MP] Zoe McKenzie and her leader Peter Dutton want to demonise. It is children like hers that they want banned from seeking refuge in Australia, despite them being subjected to stringent security checks.
The coalition’s demonisation of Palestinian refugees is not shared by many of [McKenzie’s] constituents. The local people who have either participated in or offered support to the local marches for Peace for Palestine show that many of her constituents demonstrate a greater level of humanity and compassion than Ms McKenzie apparently feels, as she seems happy for people to live in a constant state of terror and starvation simply because of where they were born.
Peter Dutton and Ms Mckenzie obviously missed the briefing from our security chiefs who asked that politicians take care with their language rather than creating more fear and division in the community.
Marg D’Arcy, Rye
Weaponising refugees
Our federal MP, Zoe McKenzie, is weaponising the Gaza refugee issue to create fear and division in the community.
Her behaviour during a recent Question Time in parliament demonstrated her support for the Opposition Leader’s heartless call to ban all refugees from Gaza.
Has McKenzie consulted residents in her electorate? Or is this yet another example in which McKenzie supports the views of her party not the views of the people in her local community? If McKenzie had sat down with residents, as I have done during numerous Kitchen Table Conversations, she may find that many people in Flinders believe Australia should help civilians who seek safety from the devastating war in Palestine.
Surely it is time Flinders had a federal MP who genuinely represented the views of their local community not their party.
Sarah Russell, Mount Martha
Editor: Sarah Russell is a member of the Independent 4 Flinders group (Independent sought to ‘flip’ Flinders, The News 6/8/24).
Ad survival
As I understand it, media companies are claiming that the world as we know it will collapse if gambling ads are banned, much in the same way as happened when cigarette ads were banned and we all remember that catastrophe. Don’t we?
Ross Hudson, Mount Martha
Candidate Gill
I wish to announce that I am standing again for Mornington Peninsula Shire Council at this year’s October election.
Red Hill Ward has been renamed Coolart Ward and is now larger with an extension to the north that includes the Devilbend area. Coolart Ward will be 60 per cent of the shire with one councillor. Ten other wards will share the rest of the shire; this is based on population. Seventy per cent of the Mornington Peninsula is green wedge, zoned mainly for farming and conservation; most is in the new Coolart Ward. I am privileged to have been your local councillor, elected to help look after this area and resident concerns for the past eight years and hope to have your trust again for the next council term.
David Gill, Mornington Peninsula Shire councillor, Red Hill Ward
Independent push
We are living in a “democratic dictatorship” where we are allowed to vote every once in a while to elect the next “democratic dictatorship”. Australians are losing faith in democracy – most of us look at politics and recoil in horror or sullenly disengage, some in frustration gravitate to ultra-right wing parties like in Europe. People vote for who they thought would represent them. They have not represented them. They have not even listened to them. They have not even spoken to them, They have remained slaves to the party, not the elector.
Three-quarters of Australians believe MPs enter politics to serve their own interests. Less than 40% of Australians are satisfied with how democracy is working in Australia. It is getting harder and harder to distinguish one major party from the other and Australian voters are increasingly driven by issues rather than party loyalty – and that’s bad news for the old political order. American politics is entering Australia through the two major parties, the major parties legally lie in their political advertisements. Major parties engage in imagining something improbable, then feeding off the controversy. “doubt is the great divider and does not have to be true or based on fact”.
The only fix for this state of affairs is a stronger crossbench where governments cannot continue to implement dictatorial policies. The Greens are part of the crossbench and bring things to the party. However, they are also slaves to their party platform. The only hope for our democracy is to elect independents where we can have MP’s who are not slaves to lobby groups and represent us not the party and special interest groups.
Joe Lenzo, Safety Beach
Social Justice?
Hopefully the I4F group, (Independent sought to ‘flip’ Flinders, The News 7/8/24) by the time it finds it’s candidate of choice, will also have found time to reflect on the difference between social democracy and ‘social justice’.
The former was a broad movement of the late nineteenth century with its roots in the liberal movements proceeding it, and overlayed with a concern for equality of opportunity. Today it is still, generally speaking, successfully pursued by major centre-left political parties in western nations. The hallmark of it is equality, rather than equity.
‘Social justice’ on the other hand, is a destructive political conformity which has taken over scholarship in the humanities and which is now being applied in wider society. It is needed here in the seat of Flinders, or anywhere, about as much as might holes in our heads be.
Anthony Clifford, Blairgowrie
Vice advice
If you don’t smoke, gamble, or drink alcohol you indulge yourself as an upstanding person, surely? I worked part time for the TAB and other totalisator companies for 37 years at racetracks all over Victoria. A small percentage lose more than they can afford and in trying to recoup their losses only succeed in worsening their situation, in rare cases destroy a marriage, or themselves. Some smoke 50 cigarettes a day, destroy their lungs, some drink too much liquor, destroy their kidneys and some are sex maniacs with no apparent after effects.
On this subject of gambling they (the upstanding) go way overboard. For every sad gambler there’s another 100 who bet within their means as entertainment, be it horses, football, the pokies, the lotteries. Men and women, young and old, pensioners, the rich and workers alike. Some spend $250 to see a concert. Others $20 for the pleasure, social, an outing, and occasionally win. It’s not evil.
Cliff Ellen, Rye
Take heed
The beautiful endangered species banner coloured by children and presented to Dunkley MP Jodie Belyea should remind us all what is at stake for our wildlife (‘Threatened’ species need help, The News, 13/8/24). With eight more new additions this year, 2224 Australian species are now recognised as at risk of extinction. We’ve already lost at least 100 species since colonisation. The precious web of life can’t afford to lose any more.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek acknowledges this, but Federal Labor has, after two years in office, failed to improve our weak 20 year old national environment laws. To save our koalas, our leadbeater’s possums, our greater gliders and all other threatened species, full reform of our nature laws, including consideration of the impact of climate change, is urgently needed. The children who coloured the banner deserve to experience and enjoy the same natural environment and wildlife that we have enjoyed.
Amy Hiller, Kew
Risky process
The health risks of eating meat have been known for ages, but now a new study has found that eating two servings a week of processed red meat (such as bacon) raises the risk of dementia by 14 per cent compared to those who eat less than three servings a month. Each additional daily serving of processed red meat was linked to an extra 1.6 years of global cognitive ageing, including language and executive function. Swapping a serving of processed red meat for a serving of nuts, beans or tofu every day may lower the risk of dementia by 20 per cent.
These findings, from a study of more than 130,000 people over 43 years, were reported at the Alzheimer’s Association international conference on 31 July. It stated that “Processed red meat has also been shown to raise the risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. It may affect the brain because it has high levels of harmful substances such as nitrites (preservatives) and sodium.”
As well as being terrible for our bodies and minds, eating bacon and other processed meats causes environmental devastation and terrible suffering to the innocent animals who go kicking and screaming to their terrifying deaths in slaughterhouses. Another reason to quit, just like smoking.
Dr Desmond Bellamy, special projects coordinator, PETA Australia
