Australia should lead the way in saving the planet

Led by former politician John Hewson, a Council for The Human Future (CHF), has been working with Canberra science writer Julian Cribb, (who has published several books on these matters), to develop a proposal for a "Global Earth Systems Treaty".

Such a treaty could be sponsored by the Australian government at the United Nations and help to change the threat of civilisation collapse, about which the Secretary-General of the UN has been particularly vocal in recent months.

We have suggested to the Prime Minister's Department that Australia could lead the development of such a treaty. Presently, no country on earth is dealing with the litany of catastrophic threats that have been elaborated in a growing series of books both nationally and internationally.

They include the 2021 book What's the worst that could happen? by Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh.

Come on Mr Albanese. Let's have some national discussion and action on this.

There are expressions of joy at the reopening of the Phillip swimming pool for summer.

The future of the pool is in the hands of the owner building company Geocon.

Given our local government has allowed sea plane flights to sneak onto our peaceful lake, how about making Phillip pool the sea plane port?

While we are at it, could the pool be heritage listed?

The NIMBYS in the inner south have shown heritage listing is a great way to block new developments.

Jenny Goldie's excellent letter (September 21) showed how ridiculous our migration realities are: officially 563,200 net additions in 2022-23. If the actual increase in people here had been used (arrivals minus departures) then the situation would have been more starkly illuminated.

Arrivals minus departures July 1 to April 30 were 683,000. So how many extra people were actually being accommodated and serviced by June 30?

An important aspect not covered by Jenny is water availability to humans. In the last drought water had to be trucked to a number of inland towns and cities, regularly. The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a serious risk of drought in this El Nino period. How bad will things be with over 1 million more people here since our last drought?

Will we re-establish cloud seeding, immediately invest in water purification so sewerage can be made drinkable, plan and begin construction of additional water storage?

Additional water storage is not practical in many inland regions because many rivers are already fully exploited.

PM Albanese has succeeded in having friends and family members fight each other for declaring which side they consider correct with the upcoming referendum.

Very shortly it will be the minority black population against the majority non-black people, with both sides seeing the other as getting preferential treatment.

Albanese will go down in history as the worst Prime Minister we have ever had; quite a feat after Turnbull and Rudd.

The best thing he could do now is admit defeat and cancel the referendum.

Archbishop Prowse, in his recent pastoral letter, has declined to endorse a "yes" vote on the grounds that advocacy in parishes and schools would be partisan politics.

Yet he had no qualms about leading a partisan political campaign against a democratically elected government when the church's power and finances were challenged.

This failure to side with the poor rather than the rich, and with the weak instead of the strong, must be deeply disappointing to those who listen to the gospel message and follow the synodal path Pope Francis is creating.

When I retrieved Jeremy Hanson's latest screed from my letterbox I paused beside the recycling bin to check the contents, half expecting to see the usual rant about "the tram".

Instead I found a diatribe about the forthcoming referendum, and ain't it awful that taxpayer dollars should be used to fund this "divisive" "yes" campaign.

He glowingly cited his "colleague", Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and disingenuously laid the blame for stoking division on the doorstep of the PM, when he and his fellow travellers have pumped out all manner of bile.

Notably lacking was any reference to his own leader's support for the "yes" case. I suspect that Jeremy Hansen actually covets Elizabeth Lee's job but realises a Liberal Party with him at the helm would be virtually unelectable in the ACT.

Unlike many city people, I live, teach and farm in remote parts of Australia. Many of my friends are Aboriginal. Indeed, the communities I most enjoy being a part of have high indigenous populations. (Bourke, Narrandera, Whitton and Darlington Point).

But I, like so many Aboriginal people in rural communities will be voting "no". That's simply because we don't accept Aboriginal people are different from any other Australians.

So why is it so that many city people, who have no interaction with Aboriginal people want to vote "yes"?

I believe many city people look down their noses at rural people and the way of life of Aboriginal people.

We seem to have forgotten equality is the most important value in our society. An Aboriginal person is just as equal as anyone else in this country. That's why I'll be voting "no".

It's 2023. A large empire-building, culturally opposite and militarily huge nation invades Australia.

We are quickly overrun. They push us out of all the nice fertile parts of the country and import huge numbers of their own settlers to blot out our local culture, religion, lifestyle and government. They rule with an iron fist.

They kill your brother for resisting and enslave his wife. They try to forcibly convert you to their religion. They take your daughter from you to indoctrinate her in an institution.

There is a new constitution, new laws and new societal norms. The new settlers have all the fertile land and money. Your old way of life is regarded as uncivilised, immoral. Your autonomy is very low.

Then, after 100 years, the new rulers asks the immigrant settlers if they would grant you, the assimilated population, a guaranteed body to advise the new government on how to make life a bit more liveable.

You would probably like the settler population to say "yes" wouldn't you?

I'm voting "yes". How about you?

There are some valid reasons you might vote "no" in the referendum on the Voice. But there are also a lot of rubbish reasons being spruiked by people who want to enhance their own selfish interests.

You might think the Voice won't make much difference, that it is tokenism, or that it might set back the causes of truth and treaty, and decide to vote "no". I would disagree with that judgement, but it's your judgement to make.

Then there are crazy claims that the Aborigines will demand more land, or a percentage of the GDP as reparations, or that it will divide our society and whitefellas will be second-class citizens, and so on and so on.

Well, them and what army? The First People are the least powerful people in the country.

The Voice will be able to offer advice, nothing more nor less. It will have no power. The legal experts agree it will not be able to tie up government and that the government can simply ignore it.

Please don't vote "no" for any of those rubbish reasons. Please consider saying "yes" to a very modest request. It will help to make Australia a calmer and more caring place for our children to grow up in.

Congratulations to the ACT Parks and Heritage authorities for the sensible decision to build huts near the original but fire-destroyed hut sites in Namadgi National Park ("Two new huts for Namadgi National Park", October 2).

However, the article wrongly said that the ACT Heritage Council had previously opposed this.

In fact, it simply wanted to protect the original archaeological sites from being built upon and disturbed.

Thankfully, the new siting and design concept will remember the Aboriginal and historic story of this beautiful landscape.

Zelenskyy's persistently fanciful idea of peace terms, reiterated at UN General Assembly, has obviously been fashioned for him by Western armament manufacturers and American politicians. God forbid the war ever end. There is no recognition of the security concerns that prompted Russia to invade.

Would you please advise me where I apply for a job, make a total mess of it, and then receive a $21 million exit bonus?

On a European holiday we have been very impressed with the electric buses running in many of the major cities. Surely their use has to be a significant consideration over the expense and disruption that the City to Woden tram necessitates?

Keith Hill (Letters, September 29 ) says that after swallowing Howard's children overboard lies, Abbott's carbon tax lies and ScoMo's franking credit lies it's not surprising voters seem to have swallowed Dutton's Voice lies. But he omits to say voters have also swallowed lies by Hawke on child poverty, Keating on tax and Gillard on carbon pricing.

Bob Hall (Letters, October 2) identifies a few of many lobbying groups to government. Some are even funded by the taxpayer. Their effectiveness are variable. But none are in the constitution. Why should the Voice be any different?

Adam Reynolds handed the Grand Final to the Panthers by squandering a seemingly unbeatable 24-8 lead. Virtually every time he did a short kick-off the Panthers scored.

The tragedy at the music festival in Sydney over the weekend resulting in fatalities and other serious effects is a stark reminder of the dangers of consuming illicit drugs. The local government with its soft-on-drugs policy should take careful note.

Wide consultation is replaced by "people talking to each other", thus salving the conscience of the NCA regarding the trashing of amenity to facilitate the rich airborne nuts who will use the seaplane service on the lake.

Captain Richard de Crespigny, a former Qantas pilot, has said "paying bonuses to leaders who have failed in their responsibilities undermines engagement, teamwork and trust". He suggests the leaders of the business need to get out and engage with their teams and customers. At least he has a plan.

Speed kills, especially on the Kings Highway, so please do not flash your lights at oncoming cars to warn of a police radar ahead. Drivers who endanger the lives of others by speeding must be stopped.