Mid-East balance doesn’t mean backing Hamas

In Gawenda’s criticism of me and other journalists, he suggests, without evidence, that signatories would have sympathy for Hamas. Speaking for myself, I have no sympathy for Hamas. I do have a great deal of concern, though, for Palestinians under siege in Gaza, as should anyone with an ounce of empathy for those who find themselves the innocent victims of war on either side of the conflict. I’ve seen too much of that up-close in my time, and not from a safe distance.

Tony Walker, Barwon Heads, Vic

Overseas student fees and uni funding

We’re keen to clarify Victoria University’s recent article “Gonski schools model will boost uni funding and skills” (November 19). Yes, the University of Sydney taught about 30,000 full degree international students last year, about the same number as VU’s total student enrolments including its domestic intake; we also taught an additional 39,000 domestic students, a fact that seems to be missing from this analysis.

We appreciate there are differing views about whether income from international students should be used to support our national research and development effort as well as the costs of providing their education, or whether it should be redirected to universities with fewer international enrolments.

We also appreciate there are differing views about whether diverting these funds would damage Australia’s largest services export industry.

I’m sure we can all agree that all universities ought to be better funded, and that Australia is fortunate to have such a world-class higher education system. But as with any data, it’s important to compare apples with apples to achieve an accurate representation of the facts.

Kirsten Andrews, vice president, external engagement, University of Sydney

Yesterday’s battle plans in RBA’s fight

Karen Maley’s article “Margin squeeze has banks wondering” and Adrian Blundell-Wignall’s “How disinflation is driving more social inequality” (both November 21) present two aspects of an inflationary cycle.

First, you have bank margins being squeezed as the RBA lifts interest rates. Most of the media attention is on mortgage rates but the banks watch the long-term deposit rate more closely. The more they have to pay for long-term deposits, the lower their margins. Consumers, meanwhile, have to pay higher interest on credit purchases. The more credit purchases they make, the more higher interest rates affect living standards.

With bank shareholders as well as consumers missing out during aggressive rate increases, it’s hard to justify the RBA’s fixation on a relatively low inflation target. Perhaps the board’s obsession with a wage-price spiral explains this stubborn streak. But that is a ghost of the past.

Like battlefield generals, the RBA board seems to be fighting today’s battle against inflation with yesterday’s battle plans.

Gregory J. McKenzie, Manly, NSW

Sexist implication in Optus comment

Jennifer Hewett’s column on the departure of Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin (November 21) containing the highlighted phrase: “Whether a new generation of female CEOs will be better at accommodating demands for corporate accountability or contrition than their male counterparts have been is not clear”, was disheartening and disappointing. For a major Australian newspaper in 2023 to countenance and highlight the implication that a person’s intellectual capacity and business acumen might be based on gender alone, I find sexist and appalling.

Margaret Edwards, Toorak, Vic

Berejiklian ran NSW, but a telco is a different matter

Surely Optus will not repeat its bad judgment of the past. With all due respect to Gladys Berejiklian, running a state, not always with fault, is a far cry from heading a listed company controlled by an overseas company.

Never mind the nuances of Singapore’s legal and financial regime, you need someone with a solid telco background.

Rod Ross, North Lakes, Qld

ASIC’s shortcomings as an enforcer

When a member of the public approaches a police station to report a break-and-enter crime, does the officer say: “We’re concentrating on family violence at the moment, we might look at break-and-enters next year”? This is effectively how ASIC works to “police” financial services.

Financial services crimes can be committed with unaccountable abandon. Joe Longo (“We’re one of the world’s most active enforcers”, November 22) claims to be “active”, but this doesn’t equate to effective. The rate of ineffective responses to alleged crimes reported testifies to that.

Elizabeth Wirtz, Bass, Vic

Robo-debt royal commissioners’ oversight

The robo-debt report has offered many significant recommendations that have been accepted by the government. However, a primary legislation/regulation change was not included.

Under Australian laws, all citizens are considered innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt. But Centrelink customers are discriminated against under Services Australia rules and regulations, and are obliged to prove their innocence when accused. Thus, the robo-debt commissioners have neglected to tackle this indiscrepancy.

Graham McPherson, Mandurah, WA

Rooftop solar democratises energy

Matthew Warren’s article on rooftop solar overload (November 22) misses the main game – or ignores it. The main game is the democratisation of electricity by consumers generating their own with PV on their roofs.

The extension to this is electric cars allowing the storage of many gigawatt hours of solar PV for discharge in the evenings. I would be doing this now if the federal and state governments facilitated the necessary technology. We need governments to force the hands of car and equipment suppliers to standardise the protocols and hardware. Unfortunately, Warren does not note the upside in the current and emerging technologies.

Peter Morrison, Belair, SA

The gambling lobby’s big lie

Thank you for the excellent article by Elizabeth Baldwin and Kate Griffiths about the power of the gambling lobby. I find its tactics similar to those of the National Rifle Association in the US: ingratiate yourself with both sides of politics with perks and donations – and any politicians who don’t co-operate can be targeted with media ads and donations to their opponents.

Both also rely on the big lie. With the NRA, it’s “guns don’t kill, people do”. With the gambling lobby, it is all about the loss of jobs in the industry.

A dollar not spent on gambling is spent on groceries and shoes for the kids. The impact on the economy and jobs is the same, but the social cost is a lot less.

Barry Lizmore, Grove, Vic