Meg Lees
If Meg Lees is forced to eat her words on tax "reform", will she be charged a 10% GST on them?
No, because they are less than half-baked.
Sydney
Food snobs
The Democrats, not to mention the other mob, are such snobs saying they won't put a GST on unprocessed food because they are so caring. This reeks of the mentality behind food vouchers, soup kitchens, slavery and capitalism.
They just don't like the normal working person having access to anything that may liven up their situation. The ruling elite and their minders insist on imposing their idea of what's good for the majority of people who didn't vote for them or their GST.
It equates to the controversy surrounding Lolita. The ruling elites say they alone have the cognitive facilities to view this movie and the masses will have to take their word for it. It's all censorship on what we do and what we eat imposed upon us by the wealthy. The wealthy elite need us more than we need them.
Nutritious food produced on a mass scale must be more beneficial to the environment than having a lot of small cooking facilities which at the moment are antiquated and inadequate. There are many times that people have not turned on an oven because of the cost of fuel to run the appliance. It minds me of Mao Tsetung in China during the "Great Leap Forward" and the introduction of "backyard furnaces".
Canberra
[Abridged.]
Paul Keating
Once again questions arise about Paul Keating's lucrative piggery deals and their association with Indonesian businesses.
Paul Keating was a leader of the government which signed the treaty whereby Australia and Indonesia held the rights to drill for oil in the seabed on which the island of Timor sits. All the benefits and profits were then to be divided between them, with apparently nothing for the Timorese.
It would, I think, be a reasonable conclusion that, consciously or not, his failure to support the struggle of many Timorese to be rid of the Indonesians and the occupation of their country, with its reign of terror and takeover, could have arisen out of self-interest.
Balmain NSW
Forests as weeds
Wilson Tuckey has announced a list of eradicable exotic weeds. But Wilson got in early in the South-West of Western Australia declaring Karri, Kauri and Marri heritage forests to be eminently eradicable for woodchippers' profits.
Wentworth Falls NSW
Justice Einfeld
The reported remarks of Justice Einfeld calling for a military invasion of Yugoslavia place him firmly in the camp of the warmongers. Not only would such an invasion make the return of the refugees even less likely but it would be as illegal and as immoral as the present murderous bombing campaign.
Mr Justice Einfeld may be the human rights darling of the establishment but his belligerence only serves to highlight the need for an alterative international criminal tribunal to indict the real war criminals, the leaders of those western nations responsible for the destruction of the life support systems of Yugoslavia. Is that not genocide?
Alawa NT
Christians
I am a Christian and on reading your paper I find myself sharing much common ground with you. However, I don't fool myself for a minute that the reason stems from the same ideological base.
You agree with Senator Harradine's position on the GST, but you lack the generosity to acknowledge the reason for his position. Well, if you are generous enough to print this, I will enlighten your readers for you.
It is because the man is a true Christian who cannot separate his faith from his political ideology as Kim Beazley, for example, openly admits he can do. Neither will his faith allow him to sacrifice some Australians for the supposed good of the country, a principle which is not Christian but utilitarian liberalism, which is the true religion of John Howard and Peter Costello, both of whom say they are Christians.
The truth is politicians of any political persuasion use religion if it suits their purpose and they can win votes. It takes a properly formed Christian conscience to take the stand Senator Harradine has and stand by it and it wouldn't hurt you to say so.
Mandurah WA
Aircraft noise
Hidden away on page 46 of the Sydney Morning Herald, April 10, was an advertisement for the Bankstown, Camden, Hoxton Park Airport Preliminary Draft Environmental Strategy.
Contained in that advertisement was the startling statement that noise and pollution of aircraft cannot be addressed in the strategy to manage the environmental issues that arise from the operation and activities of these airports!
In the same edition (page 27), there was a report from America about an entire township, eight kilometres from an airport, that is going to be relocated.
We all know that the politicians have abandoned the up to 1 million people affected by Mascot airport, but it seems that the people who live within eight kilometres of Bankstown, Camden, Hoxton Park and the proposed Badgerys Creek airports (a population which, when added to flight path-affected residents, could top 2 million) are about to be done like a dog's dinner.
Normanhurst NSW
[Abridged.]
Darwin free-speech fight
A number of changes have taken place at Mindil Beach Market recently, and most of them are bad. The fee for all casual stalls (commercial or otherwise) has gone up from $10 to $20. This places a considerable financial burden on community and charity organisations.
More serious is the harassment which has driven sellers of Green Left Weekly out of the market. Mindil Beach Market management have refused permission to GLW sellers because they don't have a busking licence. When sellers apply for a licence they are informed there are none available.
People attempting to leaflet the markets find themselves in the same predicament. GLW sellers and leafleters have been accosted in a physically threatening manner.
GLW has been sold at Mindil Beach Market without incident for years. For many, the availability of GLW at the market adds to its colour and attraction.
Freedom of political expression is very important in any democratic society and it is only real if alternative points of view have the right to use public space. Mindil Beach Market is a public space on crown land. The market management should not try to censor free speech.
Rapid Creek NT
[Abridged.]