What Thinking Australians Are Thinking
Sam Dastyari and Bill Shorten ignore the basic truth. It’s not the dollar amount that is the essence of the matter. It is that he made, as a federal shadow minister, a statement which unconditionally supported China in its non-observance of an international ruling. This he can never recant.
Peter Troy, Kingston, Tas
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Dastyaritis: a seemingly overwhelming urge to have others pick up the tab, followed by an unprecedented inability to articulate the affliction’s origins or scope.
Albert Gerber, Griffith, NSW
Sam Dastyari looks like Mr Bean, acts like Mr Bean — is he Mr Bean?
J. Ecclestone, Perth, WA
Dim Sam, anyone?
John Smith, Camberwell, Vic
t is hardly surprising that $10bn in school funding has failed to lift student results, when instead of focusing on reading, writing and arithmetic, schools appear to be focusing students’ attention on sex, sexuality and sexual orientation.
When students’ attention is diverted to such uncomfortable practices as breast binding and penis tucking, and they are required to figure out to which of 57 different genders they belong, what mental energy do they have left for basic education in literacy and numeracy?
Programs such as the Safe Schools Coalition Program, permissive sex education programs and the contraceptive pill dispensers should be banned from schools which need a breath of fresh air and a focus on the great works of literature, maths and science.
Greg Byrne, Wantirna South, Vic
In a publishing case brought against the late Richard Neville (“Charmer from Oz rocked the staid world”, 6/8) a British Court of Appeal decision in 1971 found that “it was not criminal to shock and offend”. I wonder what the same court would have made of section 18C of the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act.
Brian Sanaghan, Preston, Vic