Celebrating Dan Andrews’ departure

Goodbye and good riddance, Mr Andrews.

Jason Galea, Melbourne, Vic

Unfit to run a milk bar

Reports suggest that Dan Andrews has indicated that he is looking for opportunities in the private sector. After destroying the financial stability of the public sector, imposing dozens of new taxes and increasing existing ones, who in the private sector would offer him a job?

His sledgehammer approach to the pandemic and ridiculously long lockdowns destroyed many medium and small businesses, and many have gone out of business completely. He has no qualifications to run a milk bar let alone a corporation in the private sector. Marxist economics has no place in our mixed free enterprise economy, and they should give him a wide berth.

Coke Tomyn, Camberwell, Vic

Election nights will never be the same

I think I speak for a silent minority here among your regular readers in regretting the resignation of Dan Andrews, purely because we will never again witness another election night featuring Peta Credlin’s and Michael Kroger’s Shakespearean performances when the vote tally goes “the wrong way”. It was always a great night of TV.

Don Dowell, Kew, Vic

Victorian economy isn’t all that bad

The Australian Financial Review seems determined to pursue the old bean-counter Scrooge economics when the rest of the world has finally realised its ideological bankruptcy. Suggesting Victoria is broke when its net debt to gross state product is two-thirds that of those spendthrifts in Switzerland or 40 per cent of Germany’s, or a quarter of America’s, or less than half of Henry Bolte’s Liberals, what form of lazy economic analysis is this?

Now that the public is beginning to realise that debt to GSP is almost useless, we are presented with a new scary statistic, debt to operating income: a “horrendous” 220 per cent. A conservatively geared company with $100 million of assets, $40 million of debt and $12 million of profits has a debt to income ratio of 330 per cent.

The fact that the state has effectively infinite time to pay off its debt and is virtually guaranteed a rising income just makes its position far more secure than that of a company on the stock exchange, but somehow taking on debt to build things is bad for Victoria and Victorians. This is just another useless statistic to beat up on a government you don’t like.

Victoria contributes a greater share of revenue to the federal government relative to receipts than any other state, even though it is not blessed with their natural resource bounties. Despite its geographical and resource deficits, migrants continue to flock here. Are they all mad?

Peter Farley, Kew, Victoria

Andrews would feel at home in Harare

Let’s make use of Dan Andrews’ skills by posting him as ambassador to Zimbabwe. He can share his economic wisdom with a like-minded state.

James Thompson, Turramurra, NSW

We can’t rely on the US for defence needs

It is to be hoped that Sam Roggeveen’s analysis in his new book (“Why we can’t rely on our alliance with the US”, September 27) gains some traction within the Australian political class. At one level his basic thesis is an exercise in the bleeding obvious. No rational person can look at the US today and conclude that it could conceivably be a reliable ally on the time scales that matter to us.

You have a former president who excites his cult followers to kill not only the vice president but the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and who daily undermines every element of the legal, political and military infrastructure that the US developed after World War II. And apart from a handful of Republicans, his party goes along with the whole outrageous business.

Yet we enter into massively expensive long-term submarine contracts with the US as though it is a stable regime. It isn’t.

To be a “prickly” military power we will have throw money at domestic defence technology that both sides of politics have left to languish for decades. Are we ready for this shift in world view?

Peter Haggstrom, Bondi Beach, NSW

Nothing is forever, even if it’s in the Constitution

One of the more curious aspects of the Voice debate, argued by both sides, is that once recorded in the Constitution, the Voice is entrenched forever. This is not true.

Consider section 101 of the Constitution, which established the interstate commission as one of the founding institutions of the federation: seen it around lately? It existed briefly in the early years, was revived for a short time by the Whitlam government, and has long since been forgotten, although the words remain.

Even the High Court didn’t operate until October 1903, awaiting passage of the Judiciary Act of that year.

Constitutional institutions can be defunded, have no appointments made or have their operations totally revised by the legislation required to bring them into existence. Nothing is forever, even if it’s in the Constitution.

Robin Ryan, Hawthorn, SA

Voice is needed to address disadvantage

Lead pollution 12 times the safe level has been found at Yarrabah, an Aboriginal settlement in Queensland. This dangerous situation has not received the shocked attention it may have if it was happening elsewhere.

Past efforts to address the stark contrast between the life and health expectations of Indigenous people and the wider community have not been remarkably successful.

Some have not understood the effects of dispossession through the generations.
Obviously, a better way to address inequity is necessary.

Say Yes to a Voice that speaks for a small part of the population that accounts for most of the unjust disadvantage in Australia.

Sally Spain, Oxenford, Qld

Investing in coal is hardly the way to go

Many of us would not share Alan Svoboda’s enthusiasm for mining coal in the current climate (“Czech investor ‘excited’ to be white knight for coal-fired power”, September 28). Research shows that most Australians are concerned about the impacts of climate change. We are now facing an intense El Niño summer, with increased danger of devastating bushfires.

Last year, forced blackouts due to the unreliability of our ageing coal-fired power stations left the grid short of capacity for months. But according to energy adviser Nexa, the transition to clean energy can be done on time without extending the life of coal-fired power stations. Why invest in this heat-trapping pollutant when the clean energy transition is doable?

Anne O’Hara, Wanniassa, ACT

Energy efficiency can accelerate transition

Jennifer Hewett’s assessment of Australia’s energy transition progress was accurate and fair, but disappointing (“Nuclear dreams must meet energy reality”, September 28). We still, however, have trump cards up our sleeve. For example, Hewett failed to mention energy efficiency, where there’s lots of scope for improvement – from the building code to households and industry. Where there’s a will, there’s usually a way.

Amy Hiller, Kew, Vic