Dutton's Defence becoming a place of alternate reality

Defence Minister Peter Dutton's pursuit of legal advice about Dr Samantha Crompvoets' forthcoming book about the Australian Defence Force and his statement that it's unlikely Defence will continue to engage in future contracts with Crompvoets' company are both matters which should concern Australians.

I thought Dr Crompvoets' research into the alleged murders by Australian forces in Afghanistan was basically a report of facts supplied to her by soldiers who had served in that war zone. That research was followed by the Brereton investigation which reported further disturbing findings.

The way Dutton is talking, one would think that these matters were inventions. Combine this with Crikey's recent list of 27 Morrison "porkies" and Australians have every reason to be concerned. Truth in government seems to be an outmoded concept. Any truth that conflicts with the government's preconceptions of how they see things is dismissed as a "leftist lunatic-fringe idea" and dismissed with all the enthusiasm they can muster.

Dutton's statement also does nothing to instil confidence in the principle that Defence contracts should be subject to impartial assessments. It makes one wonder how many Defence contracts are now finalised after input from the minister.

Round the corner they are building two units on the land on which a Mr Fluffy house previously stood. Reinforced concrete walls on the two partly buried garages, concrete-fibre (or similar) weatherboards on timber frames above, and brick-veneer where there is no garage under. A termite barrier was carefully run around the top of the garage walls and the brick base, to stop termites climbing up to the wooden frames of the home units.

Then they attached bits of pine to the concrete garage walls to provide attachment points for the weatherboards. The bits of pine run from ground level to the wooden house frame, forming a softwood bridge across the termite barrier to assist the termites in climbing up to the frame of the units.

Then there are the bits of broken brick holding steel bearers in place, the rubbish strewn around the site, the earthmoving equipment tearing up the adjacent parkland, and mud washing out on to the road and into the stormwater system. Such is the quality of construction in Australia's national capital these days.

It would require an incredibly cold-hearted person to ignore the plight of the Biloela family incarcerated on Christmas Island. It's not hard to imagine how traumatised they must feel. Surely this is a test for all Australians of conscience to demand the safe return of the family to Biloela, to a community that has been advocating for their return for the past three years.

Bill Deane (Letters, June 11) is right to call emphatically for Home Affairs to change its "damn restrictions" if that's what is holding up visas for Afghanis who worked for Australia. Would that same speed be applied to the Tamil family, but I suspect that, in both cases, the problem isn't bureaucratic so much as blatantly political.

In fact, there is no restriction whatsoever, other than the government's obduracy, in fixing both problems at the stroke of a minister's pen - at the same time, ironically, to considerable political advantage.

John Howard, opportunistically manipulating 9/11, launched a flood of anti-terrorist legislation - now totalling approximately 70 acts - acceded to by a wedged, recumbent opposition, leaving little unsurveilled, unless Morrison demands legislating fisheyes and recording devices be fitted to toilet pedestals and urinals ("PM's national security pitch 'good PR'", June 10, p7)!