LETTERS

Illustration: Rocco Fazzari

Although my wife and I have for many years been lovers of whales and avid supporters of measures to protect them, we strongly object to Australian taxpayers bearing the cost of thousands of dollars to assist the three Australians who committed stupid and illegal acts against a sovereign Japanese ship (”Whalers gain upper hand in protest boat chase”, January 11). We should never reward criminal behaviour.

The actions of these so-called ”activists” have damaged Australia’s international image and our efforts to protect whales. they and their supporters should be forced to pay for their release.

David Harris Clifton Grove

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Dear Prime Minister, I just want to let you know that as an Australian citizen I am very happy for my taxes to be redirected to help Sea Shepherd in its efforts to thwart the Japanese whaling fleet.

The heinous practice of killing whales for so-called ”scientific research” is totally abhorrent and must be brought to an end once and for all.

Delia Dowsett Point Frederick

Les Tomlinson (Letters, January 11) speaks of the ”senseless slaughter” of whales. This is just silly.

Japan claims that the kill is for scientific purposes but everyone knows this is codswallop. they are killed for food.

Now, although I do not plan to try whale meat, what is so wrong with eating it, provided endangered species are not targeted?

We kill and eat lots of mammals and non-mammals that live on the land and we catch and eat lots of non-mammals that live in the sea. what is so wrong about catching and eating mammals that live in the sea?

And no one seems to care about the millions of poor little defenceless krill that whales eat alive every day. I’m thinking of starting a ”Save the Krill” campaign to protect them from those cruel whales.

David Fraser Ballina

I cannot understand why we are spending taxpayers’ money on sending a customs boat to pick up the trio aboard the Japanese whaling vessel.

They boarded of their own volition, they are not prisoners or in harm’s way, they are being fed and kept warm. I am sure if they wish to leave, the Japanese sailors would be very helpful, possibly even providing life vests for them to swim to the Sea Shepherd ship they are following.

Wayne Brown Queanbeyan

The three Australians who illegally boarded a foreign ship on the high seas are, in my opinion, environmental terrorists, and I agree with our Prime Minister and her predecessors that the best way to achieve the end of whaling by the Japanese is through the international court system.

In some parts of the world, there are terrorists boarding ships on the high seas and they are being called pirates.

The cost of assisting the men should be passed on to them, the people who own and operate the vessel that they jumped from and any other group or individual involved.

This is just going to give the Japanese government ammunition to ridicule our system and the Australian way of life.

Valentine Tyson Bowral

Blame for road toll rests on drivers, not speed

Bob Phipps (Letters, January 11) suggests that (more) ”hidden speed cameras” would somehow help reduce the road toll. my understanding is that only about 30 per cent of serious accidents are attributed to excessive speed, which doesn’t necessarily mean exceeding the posted speed limit.

Speed cameras will do nothing to detect drivers who insist on driving at the speed limit in heavy rain or fog; they will not detect or deter those drivers who swerve and weave across three lanes trying to advance a few hundred metres in heavy traffic; they will not prevent selfish (or stupid) drivers from proceeding serenely in the right-hand lane at 80km/h on a 110km/h freeway; they will not detect drivers straying on to the wrong side of the road because of fatigue or excessive alcohol consumption.

These failings (and others of a like nature) can only be detected and penalised by police actually patrolling the freeways and major roads and, as mr Phipps suggests, adopting a no-tolerance approach for any behaviour which breaches safe driving standards.

Martyn Yeomans St Ives

Scott Pfaff is incorrect about the distance between the Urunga speed camera and the accident site (Letters, January 11). It is only 700 metres, not three kilometres.

There can be no doubt that some well-located cameras reduce speeding, such as at this site, which is basically a meandering two-lane suburban street carrying extreme traffic volumes. to remove the camera or de-activate it without a full assessment is negligent. the uncertainty of whether the camera is active or not is also not helpful.

To also praise the O’Farrell government for a drop in traffic accidents is a bit rich. what about the $4.1 billion investment by the Labor governments in four years, compared with the miserly $1.3 billion by the Howard government as outlined in the Herald (January 10).

It seems to me, as an engineer who has worked on the highway for many years, including at Urunga, that semi-trailers and B-doubles should not be permitted on certain unsafe sections of the road, unless carefully managed at reduced speeds. more use of rail is necessary for heavy loads.

Also, there is so much work being done on the highway at this time that there is a great shortage of machinery and experienced contractors. It is difficult to see how more complex bypasses such as at Urunga can be expedited.

Mike Dutton Kempsey

In ”Taxing truckers could fix highway’s duplication dilemma” (January 11) Jacob Saulwick argued that trucks should pay hundreds of dollars in tolls to fund the duplication of the Pacific Highway.

The trucking industry is already paying its share through very high fuel and registration charges. these charges raise more than $2 billion a year. the yearly registration charge on a B-double is $15,708. Since 2008, the effective fuel tax paid by trucking operators has increased almost 18 per cent. the fuel tax paid by car drivers has remained unchanged.

The charges imposed on trucks are set by a government body, the National Transport Commission, to reflect the industry’s share of the cost of upgrading and maintaining the road system.

In other words, the more the state and federal governments spend on upgrading the Pacific Highway, the more they will get back from the trucking industry in the years to come.

Australia’s governments need to maintain their focus on building safer roads, improving driver training, better on-road enforcement and encouraging safer vehicles.

Stuart St Clair chief executive, Australian Trucking Association, Forrest (ACT)

Just the ticket

It was distressing to read of the plight of our former premiers (”Revealed: millions of dollars worth of claims made by former premiers”, January 11). at absolutely no charge I would like to offer a simple solution: send Messrs Greiner, Wran, Carr and Unsworth application forms for seniors cards. they will find they can travel anywhere around Sydney for a mere $2.50.

The added bonus would be that ”infrastructure tsar” Greiner would get a far clearer view of the average punter’s commuting problems than from the rear seat of a chauffeur-driven limo.

Nick Franklin Katoomba

At the end of the article on the money provided by taxpayers to fund former premiers was: ”All three former [long-serving] premiers were approached for comment but did not return phone calls.”

Maybe they need more staff to help with the huge public responsibility that comes from being a former premier of NSW.

What is that exactly? could you call them again? I would like to know.

John Maley Greenwich

One wonders whether Nick Greiner – our ”infrastructure tsar” and proud owner of a gold life pass – is aware of Margaret Thatcher’s quote: ”You and I come by road or rail, but economists travel on infrastructure.”

Gawen Rudder Castlecrag

Too late

The NSW Bar Association is concerned ”there is a risk of a two-tier system of justice unless funding is increased” for legal aid work (”Legal aid rates imperil justice – counsel”, January 11).

What planet have these barristers been practising on if they don’t realise that this is how our justice system has operated ever since Emperor Justinian created the Corpus Juris Civilis.

mark Pearce Richmond

All about the habit

Smoking is largely a habit rather than an addiction (”Real drag: study finds patches no help for smokers after quitting”, January 11). Someone smoking 20 cigarettes a day for just 10 years will have practised this action about 70,000 times on a variable basis. This makes it extremely difficult to eradicate.

I reviewed the use of hypnosis and other techniques for the modification of smoking behaviour at the School of Public Health at Sydney University in about 1974 and I recall then my amazement that nicotine substitutes such as the substance lobeline were not considered the answer.

We seem slow to learn: the habit is more addictive than the nicotine.

James Athanasou Maroubra

Monorail pluses

With the call to demolish the monorail (Letters, January 11) comes final confirmation that our transport planners are incapable of thinking in 3D.

Like a demented coterie of school prefects they seek to ban cars from the CBD, ban buses from George Street, monopolise the street with an outdated tram system, and ultimately squeeze the life out of the city.

Never mind that the monorail has always carried more passengers than the Lilyfield light rail (despite the latter having greater capacity, and with a route twice as long).

Never mind that a monorail doesn’t get in the way of pedestrians or vehicles.

Never mind that the monorail is extremely popular with tourists (remember them?).

And never mind that the modular nature of monorail enables the creation of new routes with minimal disruption.

No, the allegedly progressive lord mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, and the Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, seek to further reduce the liveability of the city by taking it back to the 1950s. Only this time they seem to be using Pyongyang as their role model.

Peter Maresch Lane Cove

Perhaps we need a feasibility study into the feasibility of feasibility studies. Longitudinal, of course.

Vicky Marquis Glebe

Poverty a link when hygiene’s the issue

In a teaching career covering more decades than I care to admit, I have needed to counsel many students over ”personal freshness” (Letters, January 11). regardless of whether their families had been on this continent for generations or were newly arrived, a single issue connected them: poverty.

Rather than indulging in dogwhistle anti-immigrant politics, Teresa Gambaro would do better to campaign for a higher minimum wage, more generous welfare payments and funding to end homelessness so that everyone can afford not only showers and toiletries but also access to laundry facilities and changes of clothes.

Nor have I ever heard Gambaro’s voice raised demanding that this government, or the previous one (in which she was the assistant minister for immigration and citizenship) provide dental care for all Australian. Healthy teeth are essential for fresh breath.

Jennifer Killen St Peters

While Teresa Gambaro is counselling migrant workers on the use of deodorant, may I suggest she washes her mouth out.

Janet Abraham Coal Point

Just another tag

Does Jacqueline Maley not recognise her own intolerance and hypocrisy regarding ”drag queens” (”Keep your cool to give tolerance a chance”, January 11)?

As a respected, unique and non-misogynist ”gender illusionist” entertainer, educator and activist I take great offence at her imputations that all ”drag queens” are the same. I have had to fight the stereotype during my whole 25-year performing career.

How is it that Dame Edna is an Aussie ”cultural icon” and I am lumped with the inauspicious and sweepingly generic ”drag queen” label? might this be due to my same-sex attraction or my out HIV status? One wouldn’t want to speculate intolerance.

Tobin Saunders South Ballina

Gloomy times

Re Michael Pascoe’s story ”Cards stacked against retailers in Boxing Day sales” (January 11).

I can sympathise with them, as December was a very bad month for me, too. the poor weather and extensive cloud cover during the month resulted in electricity output from my solar panels being down some 30 per cent compared with bright sunny November.

Milton Battaglini Carindale (Qld)

Wedding blue

John McDonald might know something about art (”Wait and the right name will appear in the frame”, January 11), but has he ever been to a wedding? the bridegroom and best man do not walk down the aisle towards the waiting bride. It’s the other way round.

Mike Phillips Wollstonecraft

Tasman overcoat

Jim Henderson’s suggestion (Letters, January 11) on conducting burials at sea, with bodies weighted with concrete, is excellent. It is not only environmentally friendly but provides an opportunity for organised crime to use its expertise for the good of society.

David Markham Flynn (ACT)

Papal rhetoric

Modern research is increasingly indicating that homosexuality is genetic and not a ”lifestyle” choice. Alfred Kinsey and others have shown that the incidence of homosexuality is about 6 per cent. probably only a small minority of this small minority would want to marry.

Maybe the Pope and Archbishop Pell (”Gay marriage risk to family cell, says Pope”, January 11) can explain how these facts warrant the alarmist rhetoric about threats ”to human dignity and the future of humanity itself”.

What a load of nonsense.

Robert McKenna Liberty Grove

Mozart downsized

I was surprised to read ”Enchanting world, but a pity about so many cuts”, January 9) to learn about 50 minutes had been removed from the Sydney performances of Mozart’s the Magic Flute, particularly as patrons were not warned.

If Opera Australia is to continue its process of miniaturisation this season, perhaps it could alter the titles: the Magic Flute would become ”The Magic Piccolo” and Cosi Fan Tutte (They all do it) could become ”Cosi Fan Alcune” (Some do it). And patrons should be warned about the ”Dance of the Four Veils” in Salome.

John Smith Randwick

Much misery in trading obesity for stability

It is heartening to see a few psychiatrists finally taking their Hippocratic oath seriously and attempting to combat the horrendous weight gain associated with atypical antipsychotic drugs (”Psychosis treatment makes light work of weighty side effects”, January 11).

For at least 20 years their colleagues have stood idly by and watched these drugs transform normal-weight, healthy young people into obese and morbidly obese individuals; the massive weight gain was supposed to be an acceptable ”trade off” for so-called stability.

Before Jackie Curtis and her colleagues at the early psychosis program become too self-congratulatory, it should be noted that US bipolar specialists, such as Dr Candida Fink, have been prescribing metformin for many years to offset the damage atypicals cause. perhaps it is the Bondi team’s addition of the statin that is so groundbreaking.

As for Dr Curtis wondering if outcomes will be improved by this approach, as someone who had my late 20s to my late 30s stolen by the obesity atypicals caused, I can guarantee ”psychiatric outcomes will be improved”.

Had I not been transformed from an attractive size-10 woman into an obese size 18 in the course of six months at 28, my life would have been very different.

I was just so fortunate that, at 37, I met a man who was evolved enough to see past my obesity. Thousands of others aren’t so lucky.

Name and address withheld

Activists should have to pay their own way home