We already have a nuclear fusion reactor – it’s called the Sun

Nuclear’s water issue

Rebecca Knol, chief executive of the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy, incorrectly claims “Modern nuclear energy offers a zero-emissions energy source with the ability to provide safe, affordable, reliable and dispatchable baseload power in extremely large quantities” (“SA business craves nuclear future”, September 18).

Nuclear’s use of water-based cooling systems means that droughts or heatwaves can lead to unexpected shutdowns, as has been happening recently in Europe and the US. So, in reality, nuclear power is not reliably dispatchable in large quantities, especially on hot days when the demand is high.

Nor is nuclear “affordable”. Ottawa subsidises its nuclear power companies with many billions of dollars each year. Nevertheless, Ottowa’s electricity still costs twice as much as neighbouring Quebec’s.

Our decarbonisation problems will not be solved by going nuclear. It is a shame we are wasting so much time on this distraction.

Lesley Walker, Northcote, Victoria

Price should be lauded

Jacinta Price’s National Press Club speech last week (“Colonisation had ‘a positive impact’: Price”, September 14) ranks with Martin Luther King’s famous speech in 1963. After “I have a dream”, he articulated his vision including “equality ... for Negros” and, in seeking this, beseeched that they not “drink … from the cup of bitterness and hatred”.

His speech was forward-looking, not one couched in revenge for past wrongs, urging all Americans to march ahead together as one country.

It seems the Yes advocates seek a Voice, then a treaty, then truth telling, then reparations, and finally sovereignty. It will lock in aggrievement. It ignores the reality that there is so much in the past that was wrong throughout the world, modelled on our current thinking and values. It is based on the false premise that we can correct history.

Senator Price wants us to go forward as one country, comprising people from many lands who now call Australia home, and for us all to deal with disadvantage and need, whoever it may be who needs help and whatever their background. She deserves to be lauded.

Ian Morison, St Forrest, ACT

Time for a Burney-Price debate

In his article “Langton just handed the No case what it’s been waiting for” (September 14), Phillip Coorey refers to Professor Marcia Langton’s comments that the No case is racist and is based on sheer stupidity.

I don’t think these comments will assist the Yes case, and I agree with Coorey that it is imperative the Albanese government, and in particular the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, immediately issue a strong statement distancing themselves from these comments. Otherwise, undecided voters will be entitled to believe that Anthony Albanese and Ms Burney share the comments of Professor Langton.

A better strategy for the government would be for Ms Burney to debate the Opposition spokesperson on Indigenous Affairs, Jacinta Price, to help Australian voters understand the key issues before casting their votes.

Over to you, minister. It isn’t too late, but time is on the wing.

Adrian Hassett, Vermont, Vic

Childcare is more than child minding

The brain’s extraordinary capacity for learning in the early years is a profoundly strong argument for early childhood education (“Childcare kids were better off during COVID”, September 18), but we need to drop the pretence that childcare and education are the same thing. They are not.

The childcare system is a way of subsidising two-income families so that they have a higher standard of living and pay less tax than one-income families on the same income; i.e, middle-class welfare. It is also a way of subsidising business to create a bigger workforce and thus put downward pressure on wages.

Early childhood education focuses on the child’s needs and employs reading, playing, rhyme, rhythm and song in an organised way to grow the brain’s potential. It is far more than minding children, so if we are to take it seriously, all young children must be freely entitled to such education with qualified teachers directing the program and other staff providing, as already occurs in kindergartens.

Chris Curtis, Hurstbridge, Victoria

Gurner was spot on

While perhaps insensitive remarks to some, Tim Gurner’s thoughtful, honest and candid view on why unemployment needs to increase (“Fix productivity with a jump in jobless: Gurner, September 13) is absolutely spot on and correct. Many of us – myself included – have repeatedly experienced the same lack of productivity among workers, and have been expressing the same points for the past several years.

Good economies are built on normal business cycles occurring, including recessions and rising unemployment. Economic history shows that allowing extraordinary low employment to rise, and for unrealistically propped-up business to fail, creates greater opportunities for workers, investors, and business owners in the long run.

It’s called “creative destruction”.

Now retired at 70 years of age, I’ve lived through many of these business cycles during my lifetime owning and investing in different businesses in different countries. Allowing the cycles to take their own course, long term, produces positive outcomes overall.

It’s regrettable that Tim was pressured to back off from his remarks. Instead, many of us would have preferred he had reinforced the importance of why he expressed his position. Maybe left for another day.

There’s too much at stake to allow wokeism to get in the way of honest dialogue on such important issues.

Thank you, Tim, for putting your views out there.

David Tanzer, Gold Coast, Queensland

AFL winning the wrong contest

The Australian Football League’s leadership might not be the nation’s most incompetent but they are certainly trying to win that premiership – back to back.

The litigation being brought by former players around concussion (“Concussion litigant says AFL not serious”, September 16) and racism is entirely predictable.

While chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE has only been formally recognised in the past 20 years, a similar diagnosis in boxers – “punch drunk” syndrome – was published by Dr Harrison Martland in the Journal of the American Medical Association as far back as 1928.

From Sir Doug Nicholls to Nicky Winmar and Adam Goodes, the AFL has passively watched as spectators and fellow players vilified Indigenous players.

Stupidity, ignorance and laziness do not stand up as excuses in any business except, it appears, when it involves chasing a pigskin around a paddock between March and September.

C.M. Abbott, Leeming, WA

Aston for chairman

We recommend that Joe Aston be appointed chairman of Qantas.

Jan Kauffman & Paul Kauffman, O’Connor, ACT