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Tapping reserves.Cathy Wilcox<\/p>\n
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au<\/a>. Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here<\/a> for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.<\/p>\n VICTORIA<\/p>\n In response to leadership speculation (\u2033\u2063Jacinta Allan is in a battle royale to keep her job<\/a>\u2033\u2063, 19\/3), Jacinta Allan says she\u2019s \u201cfocused on Victorians\u201d. Grand visions need local input Don\u2019t profile me by my suburb THE FORUM<\/p>\n Kowtowing has form Death duties please Windfalls of war Increase gas exports tax Miners pay pittance Renewable chimera Stop medico turf wars Walking on eggshells Praise art angels AND ANOTHER THING War How does Israel\u2019s bombing an Iranian oil refinery help the stated primary aim of the war (to prevent the development of nuclear weapons)? Hormuz is the dire strait which is directly responsible for making President Donald Trump self-flagellate. Geraldine Brooks\u2019 article (18\/3<\/a>) was scathingly brilliant, and now I can\u2019t see Pete Hegseth without hearing her words \u2013 \u2033\u2063the Ken Doll from Hell\u2033\u2063. Geraldine Brooks\u2019 article (18\/3<\/a>) showed the power of literary brilliance. It was the most concise, illuminating and powerful evaluation of Trump\u2019s reckless follies I have yet read. Geoff Cooper, Healesville<\/p>\n I think Netanyahu has trumped Trump! Furthermore All Jacinta Allan had to do was stop the duck slaughter and I would have voted for her. Can someone help me understand why health insurers charge singles or couples with no dependants the same amount as those couples or singles with up to four dependants? Finally The opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here<\/a>. <\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s hard to reconcile, given her government this week failed to pursue a bill that would have strengthened IBAC\u2019s woefully limited powers. And she has refused to call an investigation into the allegations that more than $15 billion of Victorians\u2019 money (enough for about 10 new Western General Hospitals) has been apparently siphoned from Big Build projects to line the pockets of a select few.
The premier needs to focus on Victorians by enlightening them about the fate of promised infrastructure projects that have effectively been scuttled as a result of the Big Build scandal \u2013 projects such as promised new hospitals and road rebuilds for which nothing was allocated in the current state budget.
Lawrence Gebert, Blackburn<\/p>\n
Here we go again. State politicians are hyperventilating daily over the same recycled issues for the November election. Many topics affect specific interest groups, creating divisions and conflict between, for example, urban and rural constituencies.
One area that unites all communities is the struggle that local government has to provide essential services and asset management within an environment of rate caps and cries for tighter \u2033\u2063fiscal responsibility\u2033\u2063.
My local government area, Moyne Shire in western Victoria, struggles to provide even basic services. RateMyCouncil gives the shire a D+ and places it 57th out of 79 Victorian councils.
The provision of basic services competes with infrastructure maintenance. In Port Fairy, my home town, lack of funds has recently forced the closure of the local pool. The old wooden bridge that links the town to East Beach has faced an enormous funding struggle.
Politicians and political aspirants might serve voters better by including local government in their grand visions for the future.
John Forbes, Port Fairy<\/p>\n
I live in an outer Melbourne suburb not far, in fact, from your correspondent (Letters, \u201cUnderstand the reasons,\u201d 18\/3<\/a>) and couldn\u2019t agree less with his views about a divide between those who live in the outer suburbs and those close to the city.
I\u2019ve lived out this way for a few years now. Public transport is fine even compared with the inner suburbs. I have also been the victim of crimes. Yes, more than just a couple. Not for a moment would I consider voting for Pauline Hanson and her hatred, bigotry and double standards.
Mick Kir, Upwey<\/p>\n
In defence of Scott Morrison (Letters, \u201cRegime changes\u201d 20\/3)<\/a>, he was just continuing the subservient approach of post-WWII Australian governments\u2019 \u201ckowtow(ing) to the US by entering into the one-sided arrangement\u201d.
This kowtowing can be traced back to John Curtin when he bowed to the Japanese scare in 1942 and sought help from the US from which ANZUS and AUKUS grew.
The kowtowing was expanded by RG Menzies, the first LNP prime minister, when he committed Australian troops to the disgraceful Vietnam War, which caused enormous damage to the people of Vietnam, the US and other nations.
The secrecy of party room compromises or betrayals, the disintegration (twice) of the federal LNP Coalition in opposition, the poor performance of the present federal government regarding the Middle East, the careless disregard of responsible government by the Victorian government, and the shemozzle of the Victorian Liberals even with a government that is on the nose, suggests that minority government may be the best path. Other countries work with it, so why not Australia?
Adrian Tabor, Point Lonsdale<\/p>\n
Columnist Luara Ferracioli provides some valuable insights into the depopulation dilemma (\u201cIt\u2019s one of the greatest challenges we face, but oh baby, simplistic solutions won\u2019t fix it<\/a>\u201d, 17\/3).
She points out that if the solution is more babies, the government will need to bear the cost of supporting mothers with childcare.
And if the solution is not more babies, it means more healthcare for the aged without a younger generation to fund this.
Either way, governments will need an expanded tax base and for me this raises the taboo subject of death duties, or in less emotive language, \u201cinheritance taxes\u201d.
The justification for inheritance taxes includes the fact that those of us who have accumulated wealth have done so with societal assistance.
We have benefited from assistance into the housing market which has been a source of rapid wealth accumulation.
Those of us who have been landlords have benefitted from tax policies. For a while there we also had access to free tertiary education. Over the past few decades, we have been able to hide large amounts of capital in tax-effective super funds.
The argument for inheritance taxes here is assisted by the fact that paying taxes when you are dead is a much more attractive proposition to paying taxes when alive.
I still believe that families should be able to look after their progeny and keep wealth within the family line.
But a modest inheritance tax on large buckets of wealth would not unduly disrupt this process.
Rodger Gibbins, Ivanhoe<\/p>\n
Energy Minister Chris Bowen reminds us that Labor\u2019s \u201cturbocharging of the rollout of solar and batteries\u201d is pushing energy prices down (\u201cGreen energy surge put price of home electricity on course for fall of up to 10% this year<\/a>\u201d, 20\/3).
It makes sense for turbocharging to continue, yet proposed budget cuts mean the incentives catalysing success are under threat. It is timely to consider where dollars for further supercharging our electrification can come from.
The broad calls to place a 25 per cent tax on gas exports seems timely given profits have already doubled in these times of war.
Gas exporters keep up to one-third of Australia\u2019s gas available to sell on the \u201cspot market\u201d allowing them to cash in when supply is short
It makes great sense for the Albanese government to ensure that these spot market markups, these \u201cwindfalls of war\u201d benefit all.
Gas exporters can well afford to \u201cspot\u201d all Australians in these challenging times.
Karen Campbell, Geelong<\/p>\n
There are five major sources of fuel: coal, gas, oil, sun and wind-generated electricity.
Australia has plenty of all except oil, but relies on imported oil overwhelmingly to power trucks, country trains, aircraft and most cars.
The gas and coal are owned by all Australians, but are largely exported with low levels of tax, unlike say Norway which exports 99 per cent of its oil taxed at about 80 per cent. Over 90 per cent of cars registered in Norway last year were electric.
Why keep electing the major party politicians who preside over and continue this woeful situation in Australia, currently exacerbated by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz?
Loch Wilson, Northcote<\/p>\n
James Massola\u2019s criticism of recent funding for research and development (20\/3<\/a>) \u2013 well below OECD averages \u2013 should ring alarm bells for all Australians. Further, our economic complexity ranking has fallen from 93rd to 102nd of 145 countries, behind countries like Bangladesh and Senegal.
Despite our reliance on raw material exports, Australian taxpayers receive scandalously inadequate returns from exploitation of their natural resources by global miners. Donald Horne\u2019s scathing assessment of the management of the \u2033\u2063Lucky Country\u2033\u2063 seems depressingly apt.
Norman Huon, Port Melbourne<\/p>\n
Talk has been revived of a banana republic owing to our economy\u2019s general malaise.
I suggest it should be viewed as a potential boomerang economy: It\u2019s a situation which will keep on returning as long as we have the ludicrous chimera of so-called renewable energy thrust upon us.
John Sheldrick, Peppermint Grove, WA<\/p>\n
As the daughter of both a GP and a pharmacist, I\u2019ve seen both professions at their best. However, the ongoing boundary skirmish between GPs and pharmacists is pitiful (\u201cDoctors\u2019 dossier reveals medical blunders made by pharmacists<\/a>\u201d, 20\/3).
The strategy of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners to release the dossier will backfire.
In addition to official data on GP blunders, The Age has run multiple stories about GP misdiagnosis, particularly in relation to women\u2019s pain.
My pharmacist mother would regularly contact GPs to query their prescriptions. Mistakes occur on both sides. Instead of these regular turf wars, can we focus on people\u2019s right to a competent, safe and affordable health system?
All sides must genuinely involve consumers in system change. Stop patronising, start listening.
Dr Philomena Horsley, Carlisle River<\/p>\n
Having worked in pharmacies quite a while ago, I think the pharmacists would be having a little chuckle knowing how often they had to contact GPs to correct the dispensing of medications to patients.
Often walking on eggshells while doing so.
Michael McKenna, Warragul<\/p>\n
The article \u2033\u2063These works have been hidden from view for far too long<\/a>\u2033\u2063, 20\/3) about the Heide Museum of Modern Art exhibition of John Perceval\u2019s work brought tears to my eyes as I was reminded of my first meeting at 15 with three of his ceramic angels exhibited at the NGV.
My heart instantly moved to my throat and felt to be twice its normal size as I was overwhelmed by what I was seeing and more so the avalanche of emotion these angels evoked.
Over time, I revisited these angels whenever I could, and quickly came to understand that what I saw and felt was Perceval\u2019s powerful depiction of the full ambit of human emotion.
My 55-year career as a nurse in acute care and community health, then studying creative arts, underpinned the insights gained by meeting Perceval\u2019s angels: compassion, empathy, meeting the person not the problem, intuiting feeling, and truly listening to people\u2019s stories
I met Perceval at a party in the 1970s and totally lost my voice for fear I would burst into tears and make a total fool of myself.
If only I could live that party over again, this village elder would be eternally grateful and fulfilled. I will be hot footing it to Heide Museum soon, trying to contain myself.
Please governments, provide more funding for the arts as they are a \u2033\u2063universal language\u201d that provide learning through the senses to build a better world.
Mary-Louise Tehan, Queenscliff<\/p>\n![\"<p>\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/486f7191e38245b3940e4bb262043f28d4d9bf98.jpeg\")
Matt Golding<\/p>\n
Journalists should refrain from parroting US propaganda doublespeak of \u2033\u2063eliminating\u2033\u2063 people, unless identifying it as a quote (\u2033\u2063Trump claims no warning ..<\/a>.\u2033\u2063, 20\/3).
Merryn Boan, Brighton<\/p>\n
Harley Powell, Elsternwick<\/p>\n
Eric Palm, Gympie, Qld<\/p>\n
Cate Broadbent, Yarraville<\/p>\n
Lisa Bishop, Macleod<\/p>\n
Nothing makes the case clearer for a reshaping of capital gains tax on family homes than news of expensive properties being sold for almost three times their original purchase price (\u2033\u2063Heiress who bought Coca-Cola boss\u2019s house for $8m to resell for $20m<\/a>\u2033\u2063, 14\/3).
Peta Colebatch, Hawthorn<\/p>\n
Alan Williams, Port Melbourne<\/p>\n
Garry Clarke, Glen Iris<\/p>\n
Am I the only parent that noted the irony of their child having to wearing orange to school on St Patrick\u2019s Day in the name of Harmony Week?
Michael Carroll, Kensington<\/p>\n