I wasn't blogging, but did manage to fire off a few quick letters to the Herald Sun (under a pseudonym of course). Why the 'Hun? I think because I tend to read it at work over lunch so I'd get a chance to respond promptly, whereas the Age gets taken home and read maybe days later making it too late to respond. Also, the 'Hun publishes so much drivel, I thought they'd generally be happy to publish mine...
Preference poll threat
(Published 21/11/14)
Letters to the Editor
Dear Sir / Madam,
Your editorial (Preference poll threat, 19/11) tells us that we “need to vote Liberal or Labor for effective government”. As both parties have “effectively” committed us to massive overpriced infrastructure projects without the slightest mandate from the people, I think I’d like to get a bit less “effective” and a bit more democratic government by voting for a minor party and trying to break the dodgy duopoly we’ve got running this state.
Yours,
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(Published 11/4/18)
Yours sincerely,
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Greens not the dopes on dope
Preference poll threat
(Published 21/11/14)
Letters to the Editor
Dear Sir / Madam,
Your editorial (Preference poll threat, 19/11) tells us that we “need to vote Liberal or Labor for effective government”. As both parties have “effectively” committed us to massive overpriced infrastructure projects without the slightest mandate from the people, I think I’d like to get a bit less “effective” and a bit more democratic government by voting for a minor party and trying to break the dodgy duopoly we’ve got running this state.
Yours,
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Andrew Bolt is wrong to dismiss "universal wage" as Greens lunacy
(Published 11/4/18)
To the Letters Editor.
Dear Sir/Madam,
Andrew
Bolt is wrong to dismiss the "universal wage" as Greens lunacy (Aly
only a pawn in crazy Greens ideology, 9/3). In fact, this elegant idea,
as part of a broader overhaul of tax and welfare, has much to appeal to
conservatives and was advocated by the fathers of neo-liberal economics,
Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. It could go a long way to
pay for itself through the dismantling of the existing welfare
bureaucracy, it removes the disincentive to work caused by the high
effective marginal tax rates that job seekers face when they attempt to
transition from welfare, and it would save businesses the administrative
hassle of dealing with hundreds of unqualified applicants for any
vacancy as Newstart recipients attempt to meet their mutual obligations.
All
sides of politics should embrace this idea and make the ideological
battle around what level the income should be and how it can be paid
for.
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Greens not the dopes on dope
(Not published)
The Letters Editor,
Herald Sun.
Dear Sir / Madam,
Your Editorial (Greens’ white flag on
dope, 17/4/18), in its predictable diatribe against sensible drug
reform, tells us that Richard di Natale is no Winston Churchill as he
“waves the white flag” on the war on drugs. That might be so,
but your editorial writer reminds me of Comical Ali in Baghdad, 2003,
telling us how well Saddam’s war was going whilst the coalition’s tanks
rolled into town behind him.
Cannabis can be harmful for some
people, sometimes, but a regulated market is actually the best way to
reduce those harms, and to raise funds to resource rehabilitation
programs. The illegal market, which your editorial in effect supports,
does nothing to reduce supply, but exacerbates the harms to users and
to the wider society by leaving supply and distribution in the hands of
criminals.
We’ve had fifty years of the same
failed policies on illicit drugs; how many more decades do we want to
waste fuelling organised crime and bleeding billions from government
coffers, before we concede that there might be a better way?
The only winners in the war on drugs are criminals.
Yours,
