Poor timing for migrant debate

Since when did xenophobia become Opposition policy? We have to hand it to federal Labor and their knack for poorly timed dog-whistling; Senator Keneally's opinion piece ("Advancing Australia", 3/5) was equal parts disheartening and tone-deaf considering what many migrants are going through at the moment. What makes her think now is a good time to vilify future migrants (who will be crucial in rebuilding our society post-coronavirus) while so many are suffering from xenophobia and racism, not to mention falling through the cracks of LNP wage guarantee policies? Surely the Opposition has better things to do, such as coming up with robust, progressive alternatives, or a jobs and training package that would actually address the problems raised by the senator.

Mark Yin, Keilor East

Legitimate chance to question policy

What is so sacrosanct about immigration that any suggestion it be reviewed or critically discussed is met with indignation, the playing of the racism card and accusations of populism and dog-whistling? Kristina Keneally's temerity in daring to question whether pre-COVID-19 immigration settings are in the nation's best interest post-COVID-19 has set the cat among the pigeons, with the "pigeons" doing some dog-whistling of their own in an effort to discredit her. From trying to wedge her with accusations masquerading as questions about the "bluntness" of her language, to seeking to damn her by association with Pauline Hanson, it's clear a hatchet job must be done on any questioning of immigration levels – regardless of whether the questioning could have any validity.

Deborah Morrison, Malvern East

Reduced numbers good news for quality of life

I applaud Kristina Keneally for signalling Labor will no longer support the mass immigration intake of recent times. The reduced immigration we will experience for the next few years is good news for our environment, food and water security, housing affordability, wage growth, traffic congestion and access to public healthcare. The self-serving and short-sighted advocates of a "big Australia" – property developers, migration agents and other vested interests – have no regard for our sustainability and quality of life.

Adele Homburg, Elsternwick

Time to plug the immigration flow

COVID-19 has given the Morrison government the opportunity to rethink Australia's immigration policy. Australia's projected 160,000 migration intake for 2019-20 is expected to reduce owing to travel restrictions. Economists claim that bringing in people in such huge numbers every year is necessary to maintain economic growth. However, ongoing growth in the population and economy is simply not desirable for the environment or quality of life. We should instead be thinking of reduced migration, developing a sustainable economy, and creating jobs for the large pool of newly unemployed.

Clive Williams, Forrest, ACT

THE FORUM

Discover true identity

The article ("After the siren sounds", 6/5) really nails the problems faced by some of our AFL greats who have experienced a dramatic decline in mental health. Carlton coach David Teague gets to the heart of it when he says "they can struggle if they don't have enough purpose in life". If we make our career our purpose in life and that is removed, then we face an existential crisis that can lead to a loss of identity and a sense of worthlessness. This establishes the breeding ground for wrong choices and depression. This problem is not exclusively the province of high achievers in sport. Unfortunately we tend to identify ourselves by what we do rather than by who we are. When we discover our true identity it will most likely have little to do with our career. If the AFL is appointing life coaches and psychologists to help their players and coaches in the transition, then their approach is not working.

Lance Sterling, Burwood

Required reading

Robert Graham's erudite exposition ("Vaccine optimism misplaced. A Plan B is needed", 6/5) on viral transmission and the associated difficulties in developing an effective vaccine for COVID-19 was a breath of fresh air. If I was a parent engaged in the home schooling of my children, it would be required reading for them.

Brian Sanaghan, West Preston

Food before sprawl

The article "Urban sprawl puts crisis food production 'at risk"' (6/5) strikes a note of caution regarding food supplies to Melbourne in crises such as COVID-19. In the past governments have bent to pressure from developers to release urban fringe land for housing, thus reducing food production capacity. Comparing cities in Asia and Africa with Melbourne, Professor Michael Buxton notes that "cities that protect their peri-urban areas are best able to survive the inevitable and more severe crises". The government needs to protect farmland and stop inappropriate development.

Colleen Hackett, Hurstbridge

Flawed fires logic

In claiming that bushfires are a consequence of logging ("Native forest logging a fires factor: study", 6/5) Professor James Watson and colleagues have made the serious error of confusing cause with correlation. Using their reasoning, one could just as well conclude that the existence of national parks has caused serious bushfires in the past 25 years. Another flaw in their findings is that they don't acknowledge that debris left over after timber harvesting is almost always burnt to make a seedbed for the regenerating forest, negating their claim that potential bushfire fuel is greater after harvesting. The fact is that under the conditions of long drought, hot windy weather, and lightning strikes in remote country, any area of forest, whether having been logged or not, will burn fiercely. To blame timber harvesting for the fires is another attempt by some academics to shut down a sustainable industry.

Peter Fagg, retired bushfire recovery scientist

Union support

I am an employee of the Independent Education Union and applaud the actions of the union in challenging and preventing the plans of some independent schools to shed staff during the crisis. Most notably, Haileybury, Ballarat and Clarendon and more recently Ivanhoe Grammar were prevented from standing down staff in the face of Fair Work action. All of a sudden, schools in receipt of hefty student fees, the largesse of government funding and wealthy benefactors will have to rethink their attitude to staff.

Marshall Toohey, Fairfield

Climate of emergency

Unfortunately, one emergency cannot exclude all others. The climate emergency cannot be disregarded when Australia restarts the economy. Glen Eira Council yesterday recognised the urgency of climate change by voting to declare a Climate Emergency, and for a suite of actions to mitigate climate change. Action to prevent drastic climate change can be achieved without sacrificing jobs or freedom – it merely requires us to prioritise our long-term wellbeing over business as usual. Mark Wallace, St Kilda East

Draconian state

It is a source of amazement how Victorians seem to have fallen in line behind Daniel Andrews' draconian lockdowns. Victoria now has the largest number of positive results nationwide in the past two days. On top of that we have learnt that Victoria is the hardest-hit state in terms of unemployment and business closures. And yet there is no indication from the Andrews government of when or how we will emerge from this crisis or any explanation as to how we are benefiting from the restrictions. He is continuing to insist that schools are unsafe. Until schools return there is no possibility that the Victorian economy will be able to get up and running again.

Heather May, Surrey Hills

App for demonisation

I'm sure there are quite a few "mouldy oldies" like myself who don't have a mobile phone. There are also a lot of people who do have phones, but cannot download the COVIDSafe app owing to its incompatibility with their phones. I'd like the government to stop demonising people for this. There needs to be an adjustment made to the required percentage of take-up of the app before lockdown restrictions can be lifted.

Jan Laidlaw, Geelong

Panic blinds us

In the midst of the pandemic, the panic it has caused is phenomenal. It has blinded us and caused a lot of us to behave irrationally. Ever since the outbreak of the coronavirus, there has been a spike in reports of hate crimes against Asians who are living in places where they are a minority, such as Melbourne. Being an Asian Australian myself, my family and I do not go out in public, avoiding other people in fear of getting verbally or violently abused. Last week my mother was abused when she was out with a face mask on and somebody remarked that people like her were the reason there was a shortage of face masks in hospitals. After years of campaigning against racism and ethnic marginalisation, I have to admit it is disappointing that the danger Asians are now facing shows we have learnt nothing.

Albert Truong, year 10 student

Back to the future

I had a chuckle to myself while reading the ideas proposed for workplaces when restrictions are eased. Proposal one, introduce staggered start/finish times. That was all the rage in the 1970s and 1980s; it was called Flexitime. It was popular in unionised workplaces. Because employees liked it, employers decided to oppose it. Over time they gradually eroded this option, with the help of changes to IR laws. Proposal two, get rid of Hot Desking. This became popular among employers this millennium. Many of their employees didn't like it but because it was proposed by management they thought it was a great idea so persisted. Post COVID-19 we will need a huge change in managers believing that they have all the answers.

Kevin Ward, Preston

Best and fairest plan

Instead of hubs and a truncated season that pleases nobody, why not play a 34-round season where every team plays each other twice, home and away? It could start in July-August this year and continue into next year, with some breaks in between batches of five to six games. This way, you could even contrive a finals series for September, 2021 to conclude the 20-21 season. It could be the best and fairest season ever.

John Cox, Melbourne

Bungling PM

Let's not get carried away. Scott Morrison hasn't changed. Yes, he's doing a passable job during this COVID-19 crisis. But that's what he's supposed to do as Prime Minister. When it comes to the next election, please don't forget how he bungled his way through the bushfire crisis, the treatment of asylum seekers, and the growing gap between the rich and poor.

John Cross, Richmond

Cyclists behaving badly

A nice walk on Tuesday down the main Yarra Trail from Richmond to Dights Falls was spoilt yet again by a few selfish speeding lycra-clad cyclists. It's dangerous considering the dozens of walkers, runners, children on scooters, dogs and normal cyclists using this shared nature trail. What can be done to stop this bad behaviour before someone is seriously injured?

Flynn Pollock, Richmond

Patchy relief

Nick Gibson (Letters, 5/5) nails the paucity of intelligent thought in federal parliament. Emergency or casual relief teachers receive no financial relief because we're paid by the individual school for whom we work, not the Department of Education. As I've never enjoyed the privilege of ongoing tenure, I can expect nothing. Meanwhile, a young lad close to me receives double what he earned working at a fast food franchise for not going into work.

Simon Clegg, Donvale

Lean into exercise

I readily recognise most of the groups of people identified in the article by Josephine Cafagna (Comment, 5/5) but I was mildly miffed by her categorisation of "grey shufflers". Down here on the Surf Coast, I mainly see, and identify with, determined striders with a slight forward lean. We do tend to lean a bit more, and slow down quite a lot more, on the steep parts of the track, but we mostly keep up on the flat parts. We also enjoy exchanging a friendly greeting with the other categories.

Rod Lingard, Torquay

Questions remain

Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo claim to have evidence about the origin of the COVID-19 virus in Wuhan to aid attacks on China. The US Senate had sufficient evidence to impeach Trump and refused to subpoena witnesses to complete the process and get rid of him.

Peng Ee, Castle Cove, NSW

AND ANOTHER THING

Coronavirus

The new timescale. BC, before COVID-19. AC, after COVID-19.

Maurice Woolcock, Frankston South

Vbrosy? ("One word explains Wuhan lab ploy", 6/5) I thought the word for disinformation was covfefe.

Heather D'Cruz, Geelong West

Mr Morrison, what's your acceptable increase in the death rate to pay for opening up the economy?

Steve Melzer, Hughesdale

A useful IR reform to help snap back the economy would be to allow children to return to work in underground coal mines.

Ian Powell, Glen Waverley

Australia must not shut its doors to overseas workers, but our priority must be to ensure that the million Australians who have lost their jobs can find employment.

Leigh Ackland, Deepdene

Westpac won't support thermal coal projects after 2030. That's the kind of urgent and decisive leadership we need from big business.

Tony Haydon, Springvale

All people who travelled overseas in the last 12 months should be tested. Make this mandatory.

Jane Spier, Seaford

Gun-toting civilians at a public rally to call for a return to work. The Chief Bully Boy will be pleased.

Annette Wood, Surrey Hills

How many coal miners have lost their job due to the pandemic?

Helen Davison, Burnley

Close to home

May I remind Gladys Liu MP there are libertarian politicians within her own party who are strident defenders of freedom of speech and have been pushing to dismantle racial vilification laws.

Pamela Papadopoulos, South Yarra

Sci-fi comes to Earth

Anti-vaccination arguments are usually good for a laugh, but plutonium from destroyed satellites causing coronavirus symptoms had me in stitches.

Dr Ralph Frank, Malvern East

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