STATE PARLIAMENT: Next to cricket, this plan was more pair-shaped

Wilma Hills, Echuca

You think they're at bottom, and they go lower

Pages and pages are written about our cricketers cheating. Yet the Victorian opposition "cheats" on a pair deal to kill off legislation to reorganise fire services, and what happens to them? They get praised by their boss, and there will be no consequences.

Every time it seems politicians have sunk as low as they can go, they find a way to sink further. And yet, despite calls for politicians to step up, they refuse to even acknowledge, except in the most cursory fashion, that their behaviour sets a precedent for the rest of the populace. Why should sportspeople be punished for not acting as role models when those who hold the highest offices (and get rewarded accordingly) are so rarely held to account, and then only when it is politically expedient to do so.

Sue James, Wantirna South

If this is winning, it is appalling

Good Friday is a holy day for many and a public holiday for all so Parliament should not have been sitting. However it did and two MLCs who wanted to attend their respective religions were paired so their votes would not be lost. Unfortunately religious observance taught them nothing, they came to the chamber and voted while their pairs stayed away thereby defeating the government's bill. What an appalling example of winning whatever the cost.

Megan Peniston-Bird, Hawthorn

Trust is gone with this example of behaviour

The cheating in Parliament of Craig Ondarchie and Bernie Finn will have an effect on Victorians. The practice of pairing will also, no doubt, be a thing of the past. Trust will be lost. Politicians determine the rules and the laws. They constantly lecture on Australian values. It would be expected that they would provide examples of the best behaviour to the rest of us.

Jean Tansey, Berwick

FORUM

Not cricket

The Liberal Party's egregious breach of convention by "paired absentees" returning to Parliament to vote without giving adequate (or any) notice to the government is just not cricket. But then again, cricket is no longer cricket.

Harry Kowalski, Ivanhoe

Bowled over

Just as the cricketers were making the politicians look good the Victorian Parliament put it back in perspective again.

Kyle Matheson, Mont Albert

Rotten pairs

It would appear that Matthew Guy and his not quite so pious parliamentary colleagues haven't heard of the saying, "What goes around comes around". I wouldn't fancy their chances of getting a pair the next time they think they need one after pulling this latest stunt.

Ross Hudson, Camberwell

For shame, PM

Is the irony of Malcolm Turnbull telling people to be kind to those less fortunate completely lost to him? His government happily cuts pensions, approves a cut to weekend rates, makes it harder and harder for the unemployed to gain benefits while making so-called increases so small you couldn't buy a stamp with the fortnightly rise. And, of course, the government just got a nice rise of their own, which helps them buy more investment property. Then they want to give a tax cut to their big business mates. Really, Mr Turnbull, have you no shame?

Davina MacLeod, Thornbury

Turn, turn, turn

As Peter Hartcher (Comment, 31/3) so rightly points out, people no longer see Malcolm Turnbull after his ascendancy to prime minister as Turnbull but rather see him as "Turncoat". His days are certainly numbered.

Glenise Michaelson, Montmorency

Common passion

I was deeply moved reading two eloquent and inspiring opinion articles, the first written by Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post (24/3) and the second in The Age by Julian Burnside (26/3). Rubin's article , entitled "They came, they marched, they inspired", analysed the March for our Lives protest in Washington. Julian Burnside's piece reflected on the nine people who protested peacefully against the Adani mine and were collectively fined over $70,000.

The impact on me was profound and striking in that the contrast between the two "protests" was great (different countries, difference is numbers protesting and different issues) and yet the key players in each protest demonstrated incredible courage, tenacity and vision. Both demonstrated publicly with passion and clarity utter desperation, fears and hopes for change – whether the issue was safety from guns or survival of our environment. In each case there stood ominously in their path a giant organisation oozing destruction and greed.

The writers not only exposed the hypocrisy, and lack of vision of our political and legal systems, but they heightened the absence of vision, tenacity and courage in the rest of us who tend to respond with apathy, cynicism and helplessness.

Rosemary Jill Wearing, Richmond

Bring back passbooks

My father, aged 87, was scammed by someone who called him on the phone and convinced him his computer needed to be repaired. The scammer then proceeded try to gain access to his computer. If it had succeeded his bank account would have been cleared.

My father struggles with memory loss and other cognitive difficulties. Since my mother's death three years ago he has made a good go of the computer technology that had been my mother's domain. Although the banks have been helpful the fact remains that their insistence on online banking and technological development means that people like my father are severely disadvantaged. He would manage far better if he had a physical passbook. He would be able to see his financial status, withdraw money and do the things he used to do. He would feel and be safer. He would not have had to hand over the management of his bank account to me or my siblings.

A banking system that takes heed that a large proportion of its customer base struggles with technology is something those in charge of these things at the banks might consider.

Christine Brett Vickers, Lockwood

The killing season

Wounded ducks don't quack. They don't squeal, growl or whine. Nor do they scream. Ducks are prey animals, silent when in pain lest they be discovered by predators. If possible, they hide.

Ironically, this Easter, as the duck-hunting season rolls on, ducks are being shot, wounded and left to die all over state wetlands by predators with guns, shooting for fun.

More ironic still is that this season went ahead at all, given the Andrews' government's new animal welfare laws recognising that animals feel pain and fear.

Debbie Lustig, Elsternwick

Culture pressure

Why do good people do bad things? It is because "You can't be a sweet cucumber in a vinegar barrel," says psychologist Philip Zimbardo. In other words, the situational and systemic forces can put enormous pressures on people to perform or else.

This is clear from what is happening from cricket to the Commonwealth Bank, where the culture of performance targets was pushing employees to sell financial products that were not in customers' interests. It is good that both these institutions plan to look at their broader culture.

Geeta Singh, Canadian

Giving perspective

Many will be thinking that the unprecedented harshness of the penalty handed out to the Australian cricketers is not proportional to the misdemeanour.

Consider then how much greater the injustice of the penalty handed out to asylum seekers of indefinite incarceration for trying to escape persecution. Their only misdemeanour was to choose the wrong form of transport and possibly to queue jump. Their cases should be processed immediately.

The first major political party to instigate this process, although belatedly, will gain some credence at the next election although the callous and cruel treatment of these people will remain a dark stain on Australian history.

Philip Bunn, Beechworth

Lost art of losing

As former national coach Mickey Arthur says ("Arthur criticises Cricket Australia over culture", The Age, 30/3), Cricket Australia is not blameless in this shameful affair.

For years there has been no significant efforts to curb the over-aggressive behaviour on the field, a culture widely recognised by opposition players across the world. That this culture should implode in South Africa can be attributable, in part, to insufficient efforts to address the ugly sportsmanship that has developed.

Much attention is given to creating a winning culture but insufficient to losing with good grace.

Doug Petering, Blackburn

Wrong judgment

It's not an error of judgment. It's cheating. An error of judgment is choosing what turns out to be the wrong queue at the supermarket.

Penny Hawe, Lorne

A bigger religion

I have long suspected that the religion of Australian Rules Football has overtaken the more accepted modes of religion in Australia. The crowds converging on the MCG on any given Sunday is in direct contrast to the dwindling and ageing numbers attending Sunday church Services.

The defining evidence occurred last Sunday at the Melbourne-Geelong game. I had to remove my earphones, which I was using to keep track of other games, when the sound of loud bells rang out over the loud speakers. All in the name of spectator participation, apparently. As Easter is upon us, the call to prayer took on new significance.

Joan Noone, Hampton

Loos change

Wendy Squires raises the basic question of access to public toilets (Comment, 31/3). Recently, after a long train trip I found new public toilets at McKinnon station locked. They were built to replace public toilets demolished for the crossing removal. When I complained, Metro said the toilets were locked unless the station was staffed. Similar situations occur regularly at public sporting facilities and parks. Existing toilets need to be open and accessible and more need to be provided.

Graham Bull, McKinnon