(This first observation is right on the money. As I noted yesterday, will he use this as the excuse to introduce the 1,1,1, democratic principle. One man, one vote, once.)
In the wake of the failed coup in Turkey, hundreds of judges are reported to have been summarily removed from their posts, and a purge of the officer corps of the Turkish army is under way.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is already known to be of an authoritarian bent. Will he now consolidate his power by using the failed coup attempt to destroy the checks and balances that are essential to a true democracy in the same way? There is a precedent: in 1933, Hitler used the Reichstag fire to destroy the ramshackle but democratic Weimar Republic and establish the Nazi dictatorship in Germany.
David Armstrong, Maylands, WA
couldn’t believe my ears when I heard Labor frontbencher Brendan O’Connor saying Malcolm Turnbull should to be “ethical” and come clean on his $1 million donation to the Liberal Party. I wouldn’t have thought the word ethical scored a mention in Labor’s play book. After all, here is the organisation that takes millions from the union movement, some of it secured by questionable means. Here is the mob that peddled the lie on Medicare during the campaign and here are the people who resist a construction industry watchdog to stop union lawlessness.
If Labor wants ethical behaviour to be paramount in politics it should take the lead.
John George, Terrigal, NSW
The generous donation of $1m by Malcolm Turnbull to the insipid Liberal Party election campaign is certainly laudable. However, one has to wonder how much influence such a donation had on the result. Surely it would have been more productive for Turnbull, the campaign director, Liberal MPs and others, to use all the ammunition that was available to attack Bill Shorten and decimate his campaign, particularly the blatant Medicare lie.
N. Bailey, Nicholls, ACT