Correction

Yesterday’s article “Child p-rn — or art censorship by wannabe Tory pollies?” misidentified St Kilda councillor Andrew Bond as an independent. He is a member of the Liberal Party.

Pollies back from the dead

Peter Forrest writes: Re. “The Pauline precedent: our greatest political comebacks” (yesterday). Regarding great political comebacks, I think special mention should go to William (Bill) Yates (September 15, 1921 – April 18, 2010). Yates was a member of the House of Commons (Conservative Party) from 1955 to 1966. He subsequently left the Conservative Party in 1967 over a dispute over the Arab-Israeli War and immigrated to Australia. In 1975 he was elected as a Liberal member of the House of representatives for the seat of Holt. He was defeated by Michael Duffy in 1980 and went on to become Australia’s administrator of Christmas Island from 1982-83. In 2003 at 82,  Yates earned a PhD from the University of Melbourne writing about British foreign policy during the Suez crisis.

Government requirements hampering charity

Adam Duncan writes: Re. “Waste from paddock to plate: the just desserts of recycling good food” (yesterday). As a catering manager with a more than $2 million annual budget can I say I could not agree more with John Dee’s article. What’s even more frustrating, however, is the waste of food that under federal, state and local government laws and bylaws I must throw away. We insist on fresh bread every day for our clients and yet bread left over at the end of the day can’t be given away to charity. Obviously as a business we keep our wastage to bare minimum, but there needs to be flexibility where giving food to charity is possible. The cost and effort to produce food is too great to not donate where there are no possible health or contamination issues.

Elitism in politics

Pamela Papadopoulos writes: Re. “Too late to even save the furniture…” (yesterday). Just to add to the wonderful First Dog On The Moon’s cartoon yesterday about the issues surrounding the ALP is Nick Carter’s book The Lucky Culture. The sneering elitism that Nick describes contributes towards this snobbish attitude among the political class that’s also led to this problem.

Self-entitlement with two dimensional ideas creates this out-of-touch mentality and a complex sociological problem. Limited life experiences and the selfish careerist path of the professional politician will just add further disdain for the polity. Citizenry is an important function of a decent democracy, and this has sadly been ignored by many in the media.

Aboriginal name ban a phony distortion

Niall Clugston writes: Re. “Should full names appear in Aboriginal obituaries?” (Tuesday). The media ban on naming dead Aborigines is simply a parade of sanctimonious hypocrisy and ignorance. Some Aborigines in traditional communities do indeed believe that by naming the recently deceased they risk recalling their spirits. Hence they do not name Alice Springs if an Alice dies, or even kerosene if a Kerry dies.  This applies equally to non-Aboriginal people they know, because they have spirits too. Like all religious beliefs, these beliefs deserve to be treated with respect. But policing a ban on the names and images of all dead Aborigines in the media is a distortion of Aboriginal tradition, and only serves to marginalise Aborigines in Australian society. And while this phony debate runs its course, the crying need for action on Aboriginal poverty remains unaddressed.