The CIT needs the money much more than Mr Hollingworth

I seem to remember that he then introduced a photo of himself climbing with only a light bundle on his back.

I supposed that we were being encouraged to imitate him by coping without much equipment.

It occurs to me that Mr Hollingworth doesn't need all those millions of dollars he was paid because he is an expert at managing with very little.

On the other hand, the Canberra Institute of Technology, given its name, should be equipped with the very latest, necessarily expensive technology so that the community can access tradespeople who are well-trained in its use.

It would be very inspiring if that money was returned to the CIT.

I would have thought that, having been established in 1901, it could be time for the federal Labor party to review the way it, as a "team", reaches decisions.

It should find a way to allow those we have elected to represent us because of their individual qualities and to use their skills and intellects on our behalf.

Would the players in the football team (or whatever fruit or animal it's called) that Albo so often spends time watching and talking about, have to have the approval of a caucus meeting before taking that one magic kick that decides the game or takes the team to another level?

The potential is there Albo.

I absolutely don't support the desecration of war memorials on Anzac Parade with pro-Palestinian slogans and the government was rightly highly critical.

But why hasn't the government been also critical of Israeli Defence Force destruction and desecration of Australian war graves in its bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip? [Britain sought, and received, compensation for damage to Commonwealth war graves in Gaza damaged by Israeli attacks in 2008].

Senator Payman is a duly elected senator for Western Australia.

As such her business should be about the affairs of her State, not foreign affairs, such as Palestine.

What her personal views on international issues are is nobody's business, nor should they impinge on the running of the federal Parliament.

Labor gave her a chance and as a former child refugee she should exercise some humility rather than biting the hand that helped her.

I think she has pulled a political stunt to blackmail the Albanese government into to kow towing to the Muslim vote.

Dr Douglas Mackenzie suggests there is a problem with unions and the principle of solidarity (July 3). Unions, through their aid organisation, have long acted in solidarity with the oppressed, in this case Palestine.

There are very few genuine unionists in the ALP today.

Senator Payman, a former union official, is in fact acting on ALP policy and in solidarity with rank and file members and with the people of Palestine.

We are, after all, social beings and our best defence against oppressors is to combine.

The Australian way of life, albeit fast disappearing, weekends, reasonable holidays, equal pay, defending our environments and the like, were won mostly because people combined, formed unions and acted together in solidarity.

The last time I consulted the Parliamentary website Senator Payman was an elected representative for Western Australia, not Gaza.

As such, if she is no longer willing to represent that state she should resign from the Parliament.

As it stands Hamas, which instigated an illegal invasion of Israel, is an internationally listed terrorist organisation, not a legitimate government. It is wholly responsible for the predicament Gazans find themselves in.

What did Hamas think would happen after October 7 when it embarrassed the most powerful military in the Middle East?

Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy in Lebanon, is heading down the same road to self-destruction.

The implications of Senator Payman's stand for Palestine recognition go beyond the humanitarian principle that no amount of sympathy for the people of Israel after October 7 can justify that nation's turning Gaza into a deathly hell on earth.

Even America's clear, and Labor's tacit, acquiescence in that action is not the issue. Nor are Labor's caucus rules.

By her courageous action, Senator Payman has exposed the moral bankruptcy of Labor's "even-handed" stance re Israel/Palestine, when polls show most Australians reject it as cynical and self-serving.

Has Labor got the strength to face the truth here?

It would not be anti-Semitic for the Labor government to tell our Israel-supporters, Jewish and non-Jewish, that they got it wrong, and for the government to admit it got it wrong too.

Israel needs to revisit what a true conception of peace in the region would look like for all who revere Jerusalem whether they be Muslim, Jewish or Christian.

It's not unity that Labor needs, it's integrity.

I agree with your editorial that "The US election should have us worried" (June 30). The first presidential debate presented the following choices.

The President: a frail elderly man having trouble remembering his lines, mumbling, his voice trailing off to a hoarse whisper, and failing to land a telling blow on his opponent.

His opponent: an habitual liar and convicted felon fond of wild exaggeration, boasting, self-aggrandisement -"we" (the royal plural) rather than "I" - whose psychologist niece, Mary L. Trump, regards as unfit to lead his country and "the world's most dangerous man". I am so glad to have been born an Australian rather than an American.

Reporting of the Trump immunity decision by the Supreme Court of the United States indicates the majority held that at least with respect to the President's exercise of his core constitutional powers this immunity must be absolute and that Trump has "absolute immunity" for any instructions or pressure he exerted on his acting attorney general, for instance.

Amazing. One hopes that in Australia definitions of corruption make it clear that the exercise of any legally held power motivated by personal advancement is not immune from prosecution.

I thought your coverage of the US Presidential debate was very one-sided and inaccurate. Trump certainly told lies, but Biden also told multiple falsehoods (eg border crossing numbers, interest rates and US military deaths) but to be fair, it was impossible to know if he was telling lies like Trump, or simply didn't know what he was saying.

Your report was also overly kind to him in terms of his performance - it wasn't just a stumble. He has trouble focusing, speaking coherently and following a debate.

As a kindly old gentleman who has long served his country he should not be put under this pressure, rather he should be focusing on retirement and finding someone to write his memoirs for him.

The Democrats, and his family, should politely but firmly tell him to step aside and give someone else the opportunity to stand against Trump.

The "increase interest rate hounds" are baying following recent inflation rate news. But if those without a mortgage are the big spenders what good would be achieved?

Is it time to reconsider the structure of the old sales tax regime (which was killed off by the GST)? One aspect of the sales tax system was that there was a range of rates, from "exempt" on essential goods through to over 40 per cent on some luxury goods.

Increasing the GST on non-essential goods and services is a more targeted way to reduce expenditure by those without a mortgage while bringing in extra income to government. However, a way of achieving this without increasing the normal 10 per cent GST distribution to the state and territory governments would have to be resolved.

Extra spending by those bodies would negate the objectives of any GST increase. Maybe mandate using extra funds to reduce the debts of the recipients?