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Credit: Illustration: Andrew Dyson

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MISINFORMATION

I cannot remember anything like the lies and spurious information that is occurring about the forthcoming referendum. A Voice would eventually take over the government and non-Indigenous residents would need to pay to continue living here, the country will be taken over by the United Nations and given to the Indigenous population, the Statement from the Heart is a declaration of war, and on and on the nonsense goes. There are large numbers of spurious lists containing committees and other bodies of Indigenous people already doing the job the Voice would do being circulated. Few people seem to bother fact checking such lists.

This presents an excellent opportunity for Peter Dutton to show his long-term potential leadership by demonstrating his honesty, integrity and statesmanship through repudiating these false claims and information; as the senior leader of the No camp, he is probably the only person most of the intending No voters would believe. Is he so short-sighted that a win over Labor is more important to him than demonstrating his future leadership potential?
Ivan Gregory, Rowville

Waleed Aly (“Dutton owes us an alternative” 6/10) provides further insight into the potential of the Voice and the failing of the Coalition to offer any viable alternative. In his March 2023 column Aly contended that we needed more light than partisan politics that only generate heat. So here we are a week out from the referendum vote having been beset by misinformation and reprehensible behaviour aimed at fuelling doubt.
I remain hopeful that fair-minded Australians who have done their homework to fully understand what the Voice can offer our First Nations peoples and us as a country, will not be deterred from an affirmative vote.
Anne Lyon, Camberwell

Make honesty the law
When the dust settles after the referendum, I will be pushing my MP to fight for legislation that demands honesty in political advertising reinforced by stiff penalties for non-compliant political parties and individuals. The dishonesty we’ve experienced in the referendum campaign has affected the result, given that so many people are giving debunked reasons for voting No. Australia simply cannot afford to go any further down the Trumpian path.

Margaret Callinan, Hawthorn

Check your facts
I was shocked to read in The Age’s explainer on The Voice (“Why is the Voice referendum on a knife-edge?” ) that: “Because Australia does not have federal truth in political advertising laws it is legal to tell outright lies and peddle misinformation as part of the campaign”.
As politicians are unlikely to vote to bring in an honesty law, voters must take the time to check every statement that a political party makes. Asking questions, listening to both sides of every argument and thinking for ourselves are essential in these uncertain times.
Christina Emblem, Aldgate, SA

THE FORUM

Toxic culture
The Age’s expose on 3M and toxic PFOS chemicals (also known as PFAS), now found in blood samples worldwide is brilliant (“Toxic culture behind ‘forever chemical’,” 6/10). How is it the Australian government is about to ban this class of chemicals on one hand and at the same time contending that there is “limited to no evidence of human disease or other clinically significant harm resulting from PFAS exposure”?

I am left to ponder my personal health issues that have zero family-related history and I now know that in the same manner that asbestos murdered my father and millions die from smoking-related cancers, there are now PFAS chemicals throughout the community.
Ross Kroger, Barwon Heads

Teaching science ethics
The public should be quite rightly furious about toxic forever chemicals in our bodies, but scientists won’t be. We’ve known about it and blush when it makes the front page.
This year, Victorian schools have a new senior secondary chemistry curriculum that prompts teachers to include the ethical, social and economic aspects of the chemistry they teach, including the use of forever chemicals. Just believe for a moment – students undertaking this curriculum will have the skills and expertise to not have this situation arise again. This belief is based however on teachers being provided quality professional development on how to implement it.
Seamus Delaney, Chemistry Education Association president

Mind the gaps
On Thursday the premier announced the first Metro Tunnel station at Arden was almost complete. It is indeed a striking edifice. In her media release, Premier Jacinta Allan claimed that “Arden is a central and connected precinct”. Sadly, for now, it is neither central nor connected, being the only one of five new Metro Tunnel stations to be devoid of adjacent trams or other public transport. Train passengers arriving at Arden will be bewildered to find their only means of reaching other destinations is by either walking some distance to North Melbourne station or to trams in Abbotsford Street. These extensions have been planned for many years but it’s another example of government’s failure to prioritise a multitude of badly needed public transport improvements in favour of a handful of massively expensive “Big Build” projects.
John Hearsch, Heathcote Junction

Planning for future
Until the early 1970s, the CBD only had two stations: Flinders Street and Spencer Street. Then the City Loop was built. Have you ever heard anyone ask if it was worth the cost? Can you imagine the city developing without it? The same will be said in 50 years about the Suburban Rail Loop.
The radial train network was begun in the century before last, as necessary infrastructure for the future city, and has served us extremely well. But it cannot possibly be adequate for this growing metropolis as the lines extend further and further out, and the gaps between them get wider. Buses are not and never will be the answer.

The Suburban Rail Loop (as planned or similar) will have to be built at some stage, if Melbourne is to remain a liveable city. Linking the radial rail lines with cross-town connections through the middle-ring suburbs will expand the public transport options enormously, and get many cars off the road. It will promote the growth of satellite activity centres instead of the current hub and spoke model, and connect major shopping hubs and universities – with each other and with the existing train network.
The plan is for the sectors of the Loop to be built as separate projects, over a number of decades. The projected cost is spread over a very long time. The important thing is to have the plan on the table, and broadly accepted; future state governments can take on another sector when they feel ready. Accordingly, I think the state government should postpone building the first sector, and prioritise projects like the Airport Rail, and finishing the Metro Rail Tunnel.
Geoff Dalton, East Malvern

Grid locked
The Age’s report about gridlock in Kalkallo (“Councils seek to take high road this time”, 5/10) hides bigger problems. These are due to a failure regarding basic road planning principles. Rule No.1 is that there has to be a continuous grid of arterial roads at 1.6-kilometre (one mile) spacings, north-south and east-west, without missing links and without driveways. Plans for this grid are completely missing in the northern corridor. The same problem exists elsewhere around the fringes of Melbourne, Geelong and Ballarat.

Mitchell’s mayor says Mitchell, Hume and Whittlesea councils “wanted to avoid the kind of planning failures that were already causing peak-hour gridlock in Kalkallo”. Yet it is these councils and the Victorian Planning Authority that have created them – despite advice by me and others.
The traffic problems in Kalkallo will now never go away, no matter how wide the few existing arterial roads are made. The only solution is to abandon Melbourne’s northern growth corridor and shift development across to Wyndham, where there is some semblance of a one-mile grid.
Rob Morgan, road safety engineer, Bulleen

Paint it black
I notice in the aerial photo of the new suburb of Kalkallo that nearly every roof is black. Down on the Surf Coast and in new southern Geelong suburbs, same black roofs everywhere … with solar panels! Does no one remember that black absorbs heat? The solar panels and the black roofs – do they cancel each other out?
Jane Carrigg, Ocean Grove

Dry message
“Live well and still enjoy a drink” (The Age, 5/10) really doesn’t show how a drink helps one live well. The only safe level of alcohol is zero, alcohol being toxic to just about every organ system and recognised cause of an increasing number of cancers. The trick is to live well without a drink because you can’t really do it with one.
John Massie, Middle Park

A right to work
Thank you, David Crowe, for providing the correct information on the causes of the backlog of claims for asylum (“Asylum failure Coalition can’t deny”, 6/10). It is good news that the government will provide more resources to speed up processing times. One matter not mentioned by the government or the opposition is the thousands of asylum seekers who have been living in the community for long periods in desperate conditions, after successive governments denied them the right to work or access to any Centrelink or Medicare support. These people have been reliant on charities, who in turn are stretched due to rising living costs. This desperation could be relieved by allowing these asylum seekers the right to work and access to the safety net available to everyone else in Australia.
Andrew Trembath, Blackburn

Neglecting the front door
Well may minister Claire O’Neil attack Peter Dutton’s poor record on immigration but Labor pursued the same policies of leaving the “front door” wide open to abuse while at the same time grandstanding about stopping the boats. I think both parties got it wrong and neither seems willing to admit it or correct it. They both spent billions on offshore detention to persecute a handful of mostly genuine refugees while criminals ran amok.

Tony Jackson, Fitzroy

Spreading myths
It’s been said that “of course, most people voting No are not racist” (“The reasons Australians are voting No to the Voice”, 6/10). Having spent many hours doing pre-poll duty for the Yes campaign, it is my observation that many of the No voters who are most vocal are citing very traditional racist reasons – such as that “Aborigines” already have everything handed to them, and that historic disadvantage, colonial dispossession and brutality are nothing more than self-serving myths.
Michelle Goldsmith, Eaglehawk

AND ANOTHER THING

Credit: Illustration: Matt Golding

Currency

The secret of eternal youth. Get your head on an Australian coin.
Kevan Porter, Alphington

Was the last time that the head of King Charles appeared without his body when England ditched the monarchy?
Greg Pyers, Daylesford

King Charles’ unrealistic appearance on our coins misses the point. Why is he there at all? An English monarch on our coins confirms our colonial child status.
John Laurie, Riddells Creek

The Voice
If you don’t know, make the effort to find out.
Nick Hansen, Altona

There are no polling stations in the CBD for the referendum. The AEC says they could not find even one venue in time – really?
Bill Clark, Melbourne

US politics
The trouble with American politics isn’t that “you can’t change the channel for five years” (Letters 6/10) but that there are only two channels, both unwatchable. How fortunate we are to have preferential voting.
Paul Perry, Fitzroy North

Your correspondent voices concerns regarding the future of US politics, citing Joe Biden, 81, as “elderly”. As opposed to the “youthful” Donald Trump at 77, I presume?
Jae Sconce, Moonee Ponds

Donald Trump, making America hate again.
Sally Beavis, Malvern

Furthermore
How is it possible that a chemical like PFAS that makes the 3M company so much money is harmful to human beings?
Tony O’Brien, South Melbourne

Angst about special schools being segregationist is ironic given our education system is already segregated based on wealth.
Michael Mifsud, Brunswick West

I agree, “fields” for “paddocks” is up there with sidewalk for footpath and cookie for biscuit. I don’t own sneakers, so I’ll put my runners onto protest.
Peter Leonard, Mount Eliza

Why aren’t local councils made redundant? No childcare, no aged care, rubbish and roads outsourced and planning taken over by the state.
Barbara Lynch, South Yarra

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