Speaking from the Jewish Museum, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last week, "We have seen, since October 7 last year, a significant increase in anti-Semitism in Australia. That is why the government has made the decision to appoint a special envoy on antisemitism. I am very pleased Jillian Segal has agreed to take up that role".
Considering that recently the PM said that faith-based political parties would undermine social cohesion in Australia, this appointment seems hypocritical.
He appears to have aligned Labor with a race and a religion and driven a wedge into the fabric of our multicultural and multi-faith society, the very thing he warned of.
Fatima Payman found out the hard way what Labor's like. She has too much heart and conscience to be a member of a major party.
There are 38,000-plus reasons why she crossed the floor, but apparently that is not enough.
Julie Robinson, Cardiff
Laws of the land in focus
After multiple breaches by youth offenders, which has resulted in further criminal activities including the death of innocent Australians, why is it that each state has its own laws?
It is one nation, one country, so we should have unity for bail laws that affect every Australian. One solid unreachable law, not each state setting its own laws so each premier can thump their chest to win votes and brownie points for their political party.
Set our laws in concrete so breaches cannot happen and early parole is almost impossible.
On another note, the Anzac Day trading laws set by Chris Minns in NSW is a great concept, and should be nationwide. It's about time that real Australians buckled down and believed in past history.
Australian men and women sacrificed their lives to give us the life and comfort we now appreciate. Anzac Day is a show of respect for their sacrifices.
The least we can do is unite in this respect, including simple things such as standing in clubs when The Ode is played.
Be Aussies, not bogans or visitors ignoring our culture and way of life.
Graeme Kime, Muswellbrook
Economic failure stacks up
The controversy created by climate protesters should not obscure the reality that we are one of the highest per capita polluters with 17.8 tonnes of CO2 compared with a global average of 4.7 tonnes.
But even this figure underestimates our impact on climate change, because Australia is also the second-largest exporter of thermal coal (198 million tonnes) and LNG (182 million m3), which accounts for over half of all electricity generation and more than 90 per cent of all power sector emissions.
Alarmingly this seems likely to increase as the second federal budget boosted funding for fossil fuel industries by $50 billion.
This need for reliance on dirty fuels is a direct result of terrible economic policies that made us import all the products we once manufactured, such as ships, trains, rolling stock, and cars.
In 1970, we manufactured almost half a million vehicles, but now we import 1.26 million at a cost of $24 billion.
We also import most of the stuff needed for our massive demand for house construction, including cement, bricks, tiles, glass, insulation materials, electrical wiring, and plumbing fixtures that cost us $27.3 billion, along with household furniture and white goods that added another $4 billion.
To build houses and infrastructure, we imported $47.2 billion worth of machinery and another $43.9 billion in mineral fuels needed to drive the cars, tractors, and the mining equipment we depend on.
Incredibly, data published by the World Bank reveals that we even imported $9.438 billion worth of bricks, which, along with other imports, have huge carbon costs from transport.
Don Owers, Dudley
Merchants of doubt
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I suggest that correspondents demanding climate protesters be jailed ("Public not on protesters' side", Letters, 9/7) may be the victims of a shadowy international network who have for decades contrived to undermine climate action.
The Atlas Network consists of more than 500 neoliberal "think tanks" who hide the sources of their funding and say the types of things their backers couldn't, simply because their naked self-interest would be too clear.
While claiming to be "independent" experts, some paid influencers allegedly spread climate change denial messaging, and share strategies, such as pushing the idea that climate protesters are "criminals" and "putting lives at risk".
It sounds preposterous, but that's part of the network's genius.
That's why we have the disgraceful situation where a 19-year-old student is arrested before she manages to lock onto the front gate of a WA gas executives's home and is facing years in jail.
Unfortunately, global heating is real and conspiracies to stop protests and delay climate action are too.
Lesley Walker, Northcote
SHORT TAKES
Ball's in our court
The loss of green space in our cities is always lamentable, and therefore requires very strong justification. Is there a compelling reason why the proposed Broadmeadow/Lambton basketball complex cannot possibly be located on the old, and bare, Gas Works site at Hamilton North? If so, let's hear it. If not, then those residents fighting to save their park deserve our support.
Carl Boyd, Newcastle
Support seems misguided
We now have contributors supporting the foolish actions of climate protesters. Protests are fine, disrupting society is not and should be punished by the law. These people don't care about the rest of us, they are attention-seekers. Supporting them is akin to anarchy, a practice that is dangerous to the very fabric of our civilised society.
Greg Hunt, Newcastle West
Explain why we need envoy
The government has appointed an envoy to combat anti-Semitism in Australia. I hope she explains what Semitism is, and why we need it in this country.
Steven Busch, Rathmines
Independent incarnation
So a former federal Liberal Party MP is considering a run for Port Stephens mayor as an independent. How silly does he think we are? I find it a bit like the other former Liberal contender, Jaimie Abbott.
John Bonnyman, Fern Bay
Don't count on Taylor's claims
I just saw Angus Taylor on the news saying Labor inherited better inflation and wage growth when they came to power. It is public knowledge inflation was a little over 6 per cent, and wages were stagnant for almost a decade of the former government's term. Wages have, albeit slowly, grown since Labor came to office and inflation is lower than the 6 per cent Labor inherited. The thing that got me, was that Taylor said this with a straight face.
