A chance for some new blood

The election of a new leader of the Labor Party is an opportunity for new blood, new vision and acceptance in the 21st century. Without new, young voices, the past party survivors will offer more of the same.

To be a constructive opposition, alternative ideas need to be well supported with facts. People need to feel their incomes are safe and there is growth with opportunities for all. New leaders hold the future of all of us and can make Australia a frontrunner for

21st-century progress for all of us.

Catherine Brotherton, Carnegie

Listen to the membership

Let's hope Labor politicians when they vote for the new leader, will this time, take heed of the membership choice and not factions.

Malcolm McDonald, Burwood

Penny Wong is my pick

I believe Tanya Plibersek or Anthony Albanese would make an outstanding leader of the ALP. I, however, will always fly a flag for Penny Wong. In the words of the University of Melbourne Provost Mark Considine when she won the coveted McKinnon Prize for Political Leadership: "She's quite remarkable".

What a pity she is such a private person who is not driven by

self-aggrandisement. She is so measured, so calmly logical, so respectful, so unflappable.

The citation for the award says it all: "For her leadership and advocacy in promoting a more tolerant and inclusive Australia, and for shaping Australia's foreign policy dialogue".

I'd love her to lead the party, but suspect I will have to be content with her as a senator and minister for foreign affairs after the next election.

Noel Butterfield, Montmorency.

Never bow to the factions

Sixty per cent of ALP members voted for Anthony Albanese in 2013. Never bow to party factions again. The members must elect the leader.

Malcolm Cameron, Camberwell

The Morrison blueprint worked

Rebecca Huntley astutely observes that the federal election result was "almost our version of a Trump/Brexit moment" (The Age, 20/5).

Like those events, our election can be seen as a revolt by the forgotten people. Voters in parts of Queensland and Tasmania sent a message to their better educated and wealthier compatriots in the major cities that they are sick of being mocked and dismissed.

On the morning of the election, as Bill Shorten visited inner Melbourne electorates such as Higgins, Scott Morrison was in the Tasmanian seats of Bass and Braddon. As Sean Kelly says, Labor cannot win without a popular leader (The Age, 20/5). Yet it is hard to imagine any of the people likely to succeed Shorten as Labor leader doing many of the things such as trying to shear a sheep, that Morrison did during the campaign. But these were the things that made many people like and respect him.

To use a rudimentary term, he's not "up himself".

Rod Wise, Surrey Hills

THE FORUM

Engage with opponents

Having voted Greens all my life, I was disappointed yet unsurprised as the votes started being tallied and a win for the Coalition seemed likely. Derogatory comments from the echo chamber on social media soon began, calling, half-jokingly, for Queensland to secede.

We are missing the point of our democratic process in saying such things.

One cannot begrudge another human being for voting with their conscience. Certainly, begrudge the system that enables them to make an uneducated decision. However, having a go at someone or some group of people for taking rightful part in our electoral process is an ugly thing to do that goes against all the values I myself ascribe to being a "leftie".

How many of us actually reach out and try to have a conversation about our current political climate with somebody other than those who totally agree with us? We need to stop congratulating one another for being so switched on and "correct" in our political standpoint, get out of our houses, off our phones and talk to people who might not see things our way. It's the only way to effect meaningful, long-lasting change.

Robert Macfarlane, Fitzroy North

An unsurprising result

Last Friday I walked up Collins Street from Southern Cross Station to Parliament Station. I counted 11 people begging on the street. I then saw a queue of more than 30 people waiting to be admitted into a very up-market retail store. I am not surprised by Saturday's election result.

Mark Hulls, Sandringham

My generation has failed

This election may have been the most disappointing of all, even when thinking about "the dismissal". We were young then, knowing there was time, knowing we would get back, knowing right was better than wrong, knowing our generation was not going to caress selfishness and self-centred interests, knowing we were better than that.

This election has been the most disappointing of all because my generation failed us all. The oldies have acted not for the good of our world, the good of generations to come, the good of Australians beyond our time, but voted for self-interest and the dying neo-liberal gods. We did not ask how we could do something for the collective good. We could only ask, "What does it cost and what is in it for me?"

Basically my generation has really stuffed it up. The Boomers started out so well back then. I thought we helped change the world and should have known better. Yes, we will get back again, but I am so desperately disappointed I may not see the fruits of change making a better climate and world for all.

Suzanne Morris, Cairns

A lesson for Labor ...

Unlike Ken Chapman (Letters, 20/5), I am not a lifetime Liberal voter. Yet on Saturday I could not bring myself to vote Labor.

Put simply I could not reward a party which sought to take away a substantial amount of money from my wife and me while saying dismissively, "Are you worried about someone who ... complains about franking credits sitting on the back of their yacht?"

The implication was that we – as people who had worked hard in good faith to fund our retirement – had somehow become "top end of the town", tax-rorting recipients of a "gift" that we were not entitled to.

The lesson the Labor Party needs to learn from this defeat is that aspiration is a good thing and it should not be condemned. Moreover, it should realise that divisive, class warfare language is not appropriate in present day Australia.

Ivan Glynn, Vermont

... over franking credits

There have been many letters on the subject of franking credits and we will never know how much of a role they played in the return of the Coalition.

One aspect that seems not to have been raised, however, is the message that it sent – namely that Labor might seek to change the superannuation rules without "grandfathering".

People plan for retirement on a set of rules, and it seems to be that Labor is happy to change them for some people – but not for example for those who rely on negative gearing.

Who knows what else they may dream up in future?

David Torr, Werribee

A feeling of despair

The experience after my Quaker meeting for worship on Sunday was one of great despair. I've never witnessed this after an election before, in all my years of being part of Christian communities in various places in Victoria.

In our discussion we wondered why the politicians who will form our next government have so little concern for the future of our planet and have , seemingly, disregard for the social and just needs of people here and overseas – especially for those held in Australian funded and staffed detention camps.

Many of us participate actively in many different areas of welfare and human rights, in their respective places of employment and in non- government and/or local organisations. We strive to live simply, acting with integrity, speaking truth to power for others and for environmental sustainability.

During the long campaign weeks, we have participated in local and national groups. Like many, we had hoped that we could "retire" from this intensive activity.

Now the questions are asked: How can we engage with people who aren't interested in the needs of others? How do we present relevant information that supports our cause when some don't wish to listen or observe the state of environmental change?

I expect that many could be as demoralised as I and my fellow Quakers are.

Margaret Tonkin, Box Hill

Stick to your guns, Labor

In the wash-up after the election already there are calls within the Labor Party to move to the centre, with some prominent Labor members claiming the party has moved too far to the left.

A retreat from its progressive social justice and environmental policies would be a tragedy for the party and the electorate as a whole. Becoming a clone of the Liberal Party would mean election battles would be further reduced to a presidential-style contest based on the popularity of the leaders rather than giving the electorate an alternative policy choice.

Yes, the electorate didn't embrace Labor's progressive agenda this time but with refinement and an education campaign to explain the details of their platform, Labor is only 2 per cent or 3per cent away from gaining office. Labor came close in 1969 and went on to a comfortable win in 1972 with a consistent raft of progressive policies which presented an alternative to the Liberal-National agenda.

Please, let's not see our next election reduced to Tweedledum versus Tweedledee.

Graeme Lechte, Brunswick West

A failure to communicate

In the same way John Hewson could not explain the GST on that birthday cake, Labor could not explain the intricacies of its franking credit and negative gearing policies.

Punters just reworked Paul Keating's old line, "If you don't understand it, don't vote for it."

Ray Armstrong, Tweed Heads South, NSW

Scavenging for Bob

I was a student at Melbourne University in 1970, and taking part in the annual scavenger hunt. One of the items on the to-find list was ACTU president Bob Hawke. So I went to the ACTU offices and was told to look for him next door, in the pub.

Finding Bob drinking there, I asked if he would accompany me to the university.

He readily agreed, we drove up Swanston Street in my decrepit Morris Minor, I presented my trophy, returned him to the pub, and thanked him.

Bob Hawke was a man of the people.

Alan Freeman, Annandale, NSW

Taking a second mortgage

Much is said these days about the economic challenges faced by developed nations such as ours, as a consequence of the ageing of our population. There is a growing burden on a shrinking productive workforce tasked to pay for the increasing demands of the older generation.

There is no more wretched manifestation of this than the result of the weekend's federal poll, where the electorate cravenly chose to prop up entrenched distortions of the taxation system, which have feathered the nests of the Baby Boomers and postwar generations, contributing to widening inequality and progressively robbing our children of the means of financial security that we took for granted, such as affordable home ownership.

All this and another giant coal mine to further pollute their world.

Wasn't a first mortgage on their future enough for us?

Philip Peyton, Park Orchards

Change is possible

To paraphrase Tony Abbott, the Coalition does it tough on the moral issue of climate change but very, very well on the political issue.

So there it is, our country and former PM in a nutshell. Don't persuade the doubters and deniers – that won't win you office. Go with them and amplify their fears on the cost to them – jobs, tradies' utes, the weekend.

If the sight of all those dead fish at Menindee cannot rouse us, then we must ask what ever will? The state that has suffered the greatest devastation with floods and drought prove Abbott's point beyond all doubt.

Change is always difficult, yet Jacinda Ardern tackled the moral imperatives and prevailed. So it can be done. Now is the time for a leader with real appeal and real moral courage.

Labor, I hope you are listening.

Tony Newport, Hillwood, Tas

Same old, same old

When all is said and done about how unexpected the election outcome was, the end result is that an incumbent government with a very slim majority has been returned with a very slim majority.

I'm not picking up any narrative about the country's direction or future here.

Kris Hansen, Ringwood

AND ANOTHER THING

Reading the tea leaves

The opinion polls were correct in one sense: in the sense that that's what they were ... opinions.

Barry Lamb, Heidelberg West

Bob Brown's convoy

Bob Brown, in leading his provocative anti-Adani convoy into the deep north and costing Labor crucial seats, may come to be remembered as the Ralph Nader of Australian politics.

Peter McCarthy, Mentone

Next time Bob Brown would do well to stay home and look after his own park.

Graeme Lee, Fitzroy

Politics

A further three years of being shouted at by Scott Morrison. A wearisome prospect.

Jane Oldfield, Caulfield

An ALP win and a Tony Abbott loss would have been a nice big cake with icing on the top for me. Now I'm left with the icing and no bloody cake.

Mark Tomkinson, Bridgetown, WA

Heard from the Liberal Party campaign headquarters: "Oh, hell, we won, now what do we do?"

David Kitchen, Violet Town

Shorten, the Bill Australia didn't want.

Graham Cadd, Dromana

Sir Humphrey Appleby would have described Labor's franking credits policy as "brave".

Alan Inchley, Frankston

Having lost an unlosable election, the Labor leaders need to ask their New Zealand friends how they made winning an unwinnable one look so easy.

Jenifer Nicholls, Armadale

Furthermore

We can add another species to the endangered list: the altruistic Australian.

Anne Ross, Caulfield North

Now, so late in my life, I have to suffer the shame of being labelled a Baby Boomer.

Christine Duncan, Surrey Hills

Finally

Do the people who voted for politicians who don't understand climate change think that this will solve the problem?

Tom Maher, Aspendale