HOW banks can use moralising as an excuse to charge excessive fees is amazing. Recently and for the first time, I bought a Lotto ticket online using my credit card.
The ticket cost $20.20. Today I noticed a $0.13 cash advance interest charge appearing on my statement.
I looked back on recent transactions to find a $4 cash advance debit immediately following my purchase of the Lotto ticket, the bank fee being 20 per cent.
If the purchase had been for a $2.20 lottery ticket the bank fee would have been the same $4 or 3 per cent (up to a maximum of $300), whichever is the greater.
I approached the bank to find out why they charged me, and they said they are trying to stop online gambling. However, the bank is not stopping online gambling - nor, for that matter, penalising people who buy lottery tickets at a newsagent using a credit card.
I believe this is a grab for higher fees at extortionate rates using the claim of protecting people.
At least the online gambling industry has to warn about the dangers of online gambling, but here is a bank profiteering from this activity and not warning people before they apply extortionate fees.
How long before they decide to ban liquor sales online?
If the banks believe in their cause, they should lobby the government to ban online gamblers and stop their cards being used on these sites.
John Davies, Newcastle East
Strawmen may spell Voice's doom
THE insidious power of the straw man argument is killing off support for the Voice. This paper reported: "chief for 'no' group Advance, Chris Inglis, instructed 'no' volunteers to play on voters' fear and doubt rather than facts ...". 'No' advocates know that they cannot argue against what the Voice really is about, so they contrive arguments for what the Voice is not about - and it's effective.
They have invented a long list of half-truths, misrepresentations and plain lies.
The Voice is not about Albanese or the Labor party, land rights, abolishing Australia Day, land grabs and huge compensation for dispossession; it's not a 26-page document instead of a single page, and it's certainly not proof of a woke world gone mad where minority groups get special treatment, where we are made to feel shame about our past and where power is a zero-sum game.
Consistent bombardment by these fallacies has taken the narrative away from the truth and, according to polls, the Voice looks doomed. Indigenous Australia believed we were mature enough as a nation to seriously consider this offer, but we obviously are not.
John Arnold, Anna Bay
Sport shows why we need change
I'VE recently had a conversation with a couple of 'no' voters who are adamant that the Voice is a land grab. The details they offered prompted me to ask: "why would I vote for a group who wants to take my home, as well as most of my relatives and friends?"
They raised other topics that were equally unfathomable.
Aboriginal leader Thomas Mayo and journalist Kerry O'Brien have published a book titled The Voice to Parliament. They have highlighted the expectation that if the 'yes' vote is defeated, nothing will change.
They record a perfect example where "the endemic history of racism in the 1930s was noted by Pastor Doug Nicholls (later Sir Douglas)". Sixty years later AFL greats Nicky Winmar and Michael Long were still fighting very public battles against racism in 1993 and 1995. Michael Long's stand against racism later forced the AFL to adopt a racial code and umpires were instructed to report racist incidents.
Twenty years later, a respected dual Brownlow medallist, Adam Goodes, was booed out of the game for once again calling out racist abuse.
This is just one reason why the 'yes' vote is crucial; because the past has demonstrated that present conditions for many of Australia's First Nations People has not changed. The best predictor of the future is that of the past.
Pat Garnet, Wickham
Electric cars are no easy answer
A TYPICAL electric vehicle battery has about eight kilograms of lithium, 20 kilograms of manganese and 14 of cobalt. It averages more than 360 kilograms of minerals that are mined using oil, gas, coal, nuclear or water. That is the truth about the lie of "green energy"'; EVs are a blight on the planet.
Don Fraser, Belmont North
Fast-food ad's message is cooked
DESPITE watching free-to-air TV only now and again (Sunrise, NBN news, Botched and Shaun the Sheep), I have started to detest the fast-food ad in which a hungry skateboard rider's alter ego convinces him to steal someone else's meal while he is sitting on a park bench.
The skateboarder executes the theft by laying on his skateboard and skating past the hapless victim, snatching the meal as he passes. Next you see the victim reaching for his non-existent chicken lunch to find nothing there. The next scene shows the thief grinning and taking a bite with satisfaction at his well-executed theft.
I think this ad tells the vulnerable people and children of society that it is OK to steal other people's property and ultimately be rewarded for it. What are we teaching the next generation when we glorify such misadventure? Theft is not an adventure to be rewarded. Shame on you, Red Rooster; I won't buy any of your products again.
Tony Buzek, East Maitland
China's trade sanctions belie bullying ways
I think it's a little sad that we have to go cap in hand to ask China to ease trade sanctions on our wine and lobster exports. To my mind, China is a bully which refuses to recognise international law and does little to actively encourage peace in a world which is presently begging for it. Frankly, I'm almost embarrassed to be wearing their underpants.
David Stuart, New Lambton
Uncertainty may drive some votes
MY thoughts on voting in the referendum? Don't know, vote 'no'.
Michael Carmody, Newcastle West
Party lines don't need to be drawn
ACCORDING to reports, Liberal politicians who support 'yes' are having their preselections threatened. I can't understand this. It's no way to preserve the illusion of party unity. The Voice will have no power. The next Liberal PM will therefore simply ignore it. You'd think that Peter Dutton would do the same to 'yes' supporters now, then leave them in political Siberia if he ever wins government.
Grant Agnew, Coopers Plains
Wooden spoons to Warriors clash
I HATE to admit it but I've enjoyed waving my two wooden spoons around and screaming like a man possessed by the spirit of a dead Henny Penny chook watching the Knights. They have the Warriors on toast if they tackle their butts off. If you're reading this boys, the attitude you take to the game is the same as trying to get a feed of Maccas in King Street at a stupid hour of the morning. With that desperation you're odds on to bring home the bacon. Good luck, but remember don't go too hard on that turncoat Barnett bloke. Cheers.
Steve Barnett, Fingal Bay
Knights shot brings tear to the eye
GREAT Knights picture by Peter Lorimer of the crowd cheering Dom Young on the poster in Thursday's print edition. I like the sole Raiders supporter with both hands over his mouth. Must have put a tear in his eye.
