Why we need Janet

Chris Burt writes: Re. “Planet Janet’s greatest hits: the woman who’ll help pick the next ABC head” (yesterday). Having read Crikey’s and Myriam Robin’s hysterical rant about Janet Albrechtsen’s appointment, I now understand why such an appointment needed to be made.

Ignaz Amrein writes: The problem with people like Janet Albrechtsen is also the fact that they are incapable to see that the people they criticise and despise the most are a mirror image of themselves.

Too taxing

Joe Boswell writes: Re. “Many unhappy returns” (yesterday). Your report is perfectly correct to say the myGov and myTax sites are atrocious. Registering for myGov is a long and frustrating battle because of frequent disconnections. With that finally done, getting onto myTax is, I have found, simply impossible. The eTax system is certainly far more complicated than most people need and quite user-hostile, but at least it worked in recent years. I am now at the point where I wish I had saved myself time and trouble by sticking with eTax.

You quote the ATO boasting about the 12,454 people who managed to submit their returns on July 1. No doubt the ATO is correct, but this statistic requires to be set in context before it tells us anything meaningful. How many of those returns were made with eTax and how many with myTax? How many other people attempted to submit returns but were prevented by system failures? I can name one. Does the ATO know this total, or is that another area where the system is no use?

I was most amused by the ATO spokesman who told you, “only seven formal complaints were received in the past two day”. Well, yes, and one might salute the courage of the magnificent seven who have given the ATO a slap before they have even succeeded in submitting their tax return; but how many other people tried to complain but could not get on the system, or were too dispirited by the experience with myTax to face whatever grim online slog awaits those trying to complain?