Labor needs to fight back against bully-boy Dutton

Peter Dutton’s sneering “Airbus Albo” typifies his propensity to pulverise (“Strategy player v street fighter”, November 20). If the PM continues to allow himself to be a punching bag, Labor’s political fortunes will decline further. Such incessant attacks take their toll, especially within a context of dire cost-of-living, housing and other such pressures. A Labor leadership spill is unlikely, but it is just possible that better communicators like Jim Chalmers and Clare O’Neil, more able to take the fight to Dutton, might be considered to avoid the ALP being ousted after a single term. Ron Sinclair, Windradyne

There was no need for urgent legislation to deal with the recently released stateless detainees. We already have laws to protect us from anyone previously convicted of serious crimes. Surely, Australian and non-Australian criminals convicted of the same crimes pose the same risk? The government should have held its ground until the details of the High Court decision are released. For many, Dutton has stoked fear and negativity, but the government panicked and agreed to a half-baked legislation, which could well be overturned by the High Court. Labor can easily disarm Dutton by standing up to his bully-boy tactics. Dutton lacks the essential ingredients of a good leader. Given enough rope, he will hang himself. Graham Lum, North Rocks

The Federal Labor Party should also take advice from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz that “you don’t get elected to be re-elected”, suggesting that the path to success for the first-term government was to aggressively pursue reform. I would suggest that when the stage-three tax cuts were legislated, the Australian economy looked a lot different. It’s time for Albo to step up and make the hard decision to ditch those tax cuts and stick it right up the “king of division”, Peter Dutton. Peter Nelson, Moss Vale

Sean Kelly’s insights into the type of approach from our strategist prime minister and the street fighting Opposition Leader is very interesting. Street fighters have few rules though and the odds are against them in such a metaphorical bout. In politics, while truth has become rarer, outright lies and bullying have short term positive outcomes. Ask the Budgie Smuggler and the Bulldozer how it worked out for them. The sad part of this saga is the country suffers, as do the victims of the bullies along the way. Perhaps polite, at times bipartisan, discourse might be an alternative. Just a thought. Geoff Nilon, Mascot

What Peter Dutton lacks in subtlety and nuance he more than makes up for in aggression and loudness, qualities he knows will attract media attention and make him the headline. Dutton has learnt from the likes of Donald Trump that the deliberate dissemination of lies and half-truths is the entire point of the exercise. John Bailey, Canterbury

Our dachshund loves exploring life at a low level. Now, his space is being shaken by Peter Dutton and his never-ending negativity. We reassure Rimski that the Opposition Leader is playing politics at a low level, but that it has no impact on his life, or thinking voters. Bea Hodgson, Gerringong

Cricket winners light up a darkened world

Well done to Pat Cummins and team (“‘That’s the pinnacle’: Cummins hails World Cup triumph over India”, smh.com.au, November 20). Win, draw or lose, they’ve been positive news in these troubled times. Martin Frohlich, Adamstown Heights

Congratulations Aussies! While India lost the finals against a deserving Australia, India gained in many other areas. One estimate suggests that around $US3.2 billion was added to the Indian economy, including thousands of jobs created all over India, the quality of hotels and amenities improved substantially and ground infrastructure is now as good as Australia. India also proved that it is capable of hosting big events successfully. There is always something good that comes out of it. Mukul Desai, Hunters Hill

Our teams’ winning via skill and combative petulance for a couple of decades slowly became a turn-off for many Australian cricket fans. Look at the news any night and see the world offers a range of bad attitude and action. Well done to Pat Cummins and his team for the way they play, but also credit where it’s due. It was New Zealand, under the leadership of Brendon McCullum (yes, the Bazball man) who first decided that the way you play has a value that should not be trashed. Cummins has the courage and principle to learn from others and execute his own strategies. Disclosure, I’m not a Kiwi. Brian Jones, Leura

Are the “good old boys” of Australian cricket satisfied now, or is Pat Cummins’ mob with their infectious love of the game and obvious enjoyment in sharing the successes of each other and their company not good enough? Peter Snowden, Orange

Regardless of the excellent result, it has been a spectacular tournament success for the ages, and any talk of the ODI format of the game of cricket being shunted into history should be dismissed because, as West Indies cricket great Sir Viv Richards has pointed out, after Test cricket, it is the only other format of the game that offers players enough time to get in and score impressive runs. Eric Palm, Gympie (Qld)

After listening to the Indian broadcasters claim that the only reason Australia won the Cricket World Cup match was because they got to bat second I am awarding India a “Moral Victory Cup”. The team’s names will be placed on the reverse side from this year’s losing English Ashes team members. Henry Spirek, Muswellbrook

Is it possible for Albo to declare a public holiday to celebrate Australia winning the World Cup? I need a day off to catch up on my sleep. Robyn Lewis, Raglan

The perils of a more congested Sydney CBD

Daniel Mookhey’s insistence the Eastern Suburbs shoulder more of the housing load is correct (“East must raise contribution to housing supply: Mookhey”, November 20). What he fails to point out is that an ever taller, ever more congested Sydney CBD will continue to suck workers in from the periphery. What is also needed are caps on CBD towers to limit further concentration of business there, and active encouragement of new office and business infrastructure in the west, north and south. We need more high-rise development in Penrith and Blacktown, Hornsby and Pymble/Gordon, and potentially Brookvale and/or Mona Vale, and sensibly Sutherland/Kirrawee as well. Perhaps CBD-based firms might be persuaded to shift to the Central Coast, Newcastle or Wollongong, increasing availability of employment in those areas crying out for more? To reduce commutes and further inner-city congestion we need people travelling in the opposite direction. Away from the CBD, not towards it. Mark Walker, Kempsey

The NSW treasurer gives sound climate-based reasons for more medium density infill housing in Sydney’s east, but it will be futile in terms of carbon emissions from housing, unless the state also raises design and construction standards to control the lifecycle emissions of residential building, which are currently not considered in planning. Building codes do not yet regulate the embodied emissions in the design and construction process, which far outweigh operational emissions. Codes were revised in 2022 to require greater energy efficiency in occupied homes, but initiatives such as a proposed ‘NABERS Embodied emissions initiative framework’ remain only nice ideas. If NSW builds the hundreds of thousands of the treasurer’s new homes under the existing inadequate standards, it will unacceptably delay real reductions in Australia’s emissions from this dominant sector. We can’t afford that delay; new embodied emissions standards should urgently be included in building codes. Barry Laing, Castle Cove

If Daniel Mookhey wants the east to “take more housing”, then he had better improve Sydney’s shambolic public transport system, which, on a good day, runs out of timetable schedule and on a bad day is non-existent, cancelled, overcrowded, slow and out of date. With track work regularly halting rail travel on the Eastern Suburbs line, resulting in even more cars than usual already choking the bottle-necked roads in and out of the East, the nightmare on Sydney’s roads is set to worsen. Fred Jansohn, Rose Bay

Beneficial migration

A trickle of climate change-driven refugees will almost certainly degenerate to a flood over the next fifty years as unstoppable sea level rise and deterioration of agricultural production impacts living conditions in the Pacific (“Crafting a strategic Pacific ‘family’”, November 20). It is far better that this migration occurs in an orderly fashion and begins immediately, to maintain the best possible relations with our neighbours. The advantages are strategic in providing a bulwark against Chinese expansionism, economic in providing a source of necessary low or unskilled labour, and the recompense by Australia after our profligate production of destructive greenhouse gases. Australia must terminate the flow of migrants who have been permitted to buy their way in with little if any benefit to the country and concentrate on more deserving and beneficial migration. Geoff Harding, Chatswood

Abominable stats

The abominable statistics revealed in the recent study on the level of men’s attraction to children are bad enough (“One in six men ‘drawn to children’” , November 20). What’s equally sickening is the realisation that it’s only now coming to light. Institutional child abuse is one thing, but the true level of such abuse within otherwise ordinary families and communities has yet to be quantified much less properly dealt with. And it isn’t just in Indigenous communities, as some have recently tried to paint. It’s everywhere. Let’s hope that whatever action is taken to deal with the enormity of the problem - if it ever can be - the welfare and safety of all kids isn’t pushed to one side as people try to weaponise the issue for political advantage. Adrian Connelly, Springwood

The results of psychological surveys on human sexuality, unlike studies in the physical sciences, are difficult to confirm by repetition. All humanity studies are contextual. The study findings depend on the society and its mores in which the study was done. In the Algerian desert, years ago, I encountered a Tuareg couple riding a camel. The 60-year-old husband and his 11-year-old wife (he had three other wives at home) were on their honeymoon. Australians would find this disgusting and would imprison the husband as a paedophiliac. But at the time, in Tuareg society, this union was considered normal. Geoff Black, Caves Beach

Big pain

Your correspondent wonders whether expensive houses are not nice to live in (Letters, November 20). I don’t know about expensive ones, but I do know that large and multi-storey ones are a pain in the neck (“Where are my glasses?” etc). Large backyards are wonderful, though. We should all be so lucky. Norman Carter, Roseville Chase

It is nothing to do with whether the homes are not nice to live in. If you have a few spare millions to invest you can put them into all sorts of things and pay tax on the earnings, or you can sell your house and buy a more expensive one and watch it increase in value all tax-free. Jock Brodie, Port Macquarie

Wedded bliss

We’ve been happily married since 1977 (Letters, November 20) and we only have one tip for success. Early on, we made a pact that if one of us left, that person had to take the children. A good incentive to work things out. When Margaret Whitlam was asked the reason for her long marriage to Gough, she replied, tongue in cheek, “Inertia.” Pauline McGinley, Drummoyne

Like-minded

When The Sydney Morning Herald changed from broadsheet to tabloid, I wrote suggesting readers be issued with a badge saying, “I am reading the SMH” (Letters, November 20) so others would not think they were reading that other daily. Similarly, I now suggest a new badge, with the words: “I am a letter writer.” Instantly recognisable to others of the letter-writing fraternity, new friendships with neighbours and strangers alike would thus be established. Everyone wins. Terry Charleston, Cootamundra

Occasionally, my neighbours comment about not seeing one of my letters in print. I blame the capriciousness of the editor. David Farrell, Erskineville

Aussie icons

Now all Twiggy and Nicola need to do is to bring back Chesty Bond (“Forrests’ investment arm buys Akubra in latest fashion foray”, November 19). Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook

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