Letters
The Age
Monday September 14, 2009
The statistics that just don't add upI SUPPORT the push for better standards of literacy and numeracy in Australia. So I must comment on the report that one in 10 students is below basic standards ("Students don't make the grade", The Age, 12/9). The report says that 5.1 per cent of year 9 students failed the basic standard in numeracy. What a joke. This actually implies that 19 out of 20 are up to standard in maths. If only.To add a decimal place to such a fake percentage figure may seem to add an air of scientific precision. But these figures have no basis in reality, except what some education-industry window-dresser thought they could get away with. The whole point is: the so-called standard has been set ridiculously low.Many countries have a more numerate population than we do. The vast majority of Australians would just swallow this report without realising that there was no real-world floor to the figures at all. The first step is to spend a lot more of the time wasted in teacher training actually teaching trainee teachers what they are supposed to teach especially maths and English.Philip O'Carroll, co-founder, Fitzroy Community School, North FitzroyAim low on coalTHE proposal for the export of brown coal (The Sunday Age, 13/9) is a poorly developed concept typical of short-sighted business thinking. If it is to be allowed, there need to be protections that guarantee its use only in a power station equipped to successfully capture the carbon dioxide emissions.The coal industry keeps trotting out claims about clean coal technology. But there is insufficient incentive or pressure on it to do the hard yards of research and development to make this claim bear fruit. There are predictions this will not be in commercial operation for another 20 years.If the proposal was instead to export the product of a coal gasification plant, then it would have substantially more merit as it would be a value-added export creating substantially more local jobs, it would be cleaner burning and give us the ability to minimise the risk from climate change.This proposal is typical of an immature approach to business risk-taking go for the lowest risk with the least investment, which brings with it the least sophistication and the lowest value-add for the country and the environment.Robert Brown, Glen IrisGoing, goingAS THE scale of our theft from future generations becomes clearer every day, the State Government's determination to keep its head in the sand (or perhaps somewhere dirtier) grows. Selling brown coal, disinvesting in solar, desalination, urban sprawl . . .Tony Faithfull, Brunswick EastCall this a success?PAUL Austin's report ("Labor's Victorian empire", Insight, 12/9) claims that the State Labor Government "has cemented its place as the most successful".I believe Labor has improved on its past, but disagree that it's successful. Under Labor, crime has skyrocketed and has become the focal point of today's news. Labor is forcing its way on to country Victorians' properties to build a pipeline. It has failed rural Victoria by not acting on consecutive bushfire prevention reports. It has allowed our water supplies to fall to all-time lows. Our trains, trams and buses still arrive late and are still overcrowded, after so many transport reviews. I do not regard Victorian Labor as "successful".Jiannis Tsaousis, Balwyn EastWorking the systemTHERE has been considerable debate about hold-ups in planning and building and the Government talks about charging residents for the right to object to an unsuitable development. It is time to set the record straight.Figures from Boroondara Council show that of the 1342 applications lodged last year for development, only 142 had objections and 201 went to VCAT (some of these were refused outright, without being advertised). This means that 1141 applications were approved immediately. I cannot understand what Rob Rogers (Letters, 12/9) is worried about. When an architect designs a building that blends in with the area, especially in a heritage area, nobody objects.If they refuse to design to suit the area, they must expect opposition. In which case, I suggest developers pay the cost of residents putting in objections they might then design something acceptable.Mary Drost, Planning Backlash, Camberwell'Technically' insultingWILL The Age's journalists please refrain from referring to Caster Semenya as "technically an hermaphrodite". This is akin to referring to someone with an intellectual disability as "technically a retard".It is an outdated and discriminatory term that is not used "technically" anywhere today. Look at how other reputable international news sites are reporting this. The preferred term for someone who has both male and female reproductive organs is intersex. How is Australia meant to be perceived as progressive and non-discriminatory internationally when our media is using such archaic and insulting terms?Rebecca Millard, HeidelbergDrink and walkCLANCY Wright is wrong to say that there is no "silver bullet" to deal with the alcohol-related violence that left his friend disabled ("The right kind of fight", Insight, 12/9). The "Pedestrian 08" campaign is that bullet. Clancy laments that our violence level is to be a "long ongoing problem in our society". He, his employer, the Australian Drug Foundation, and the Victorian Government should consider the efficacy of setting a sensible pedestrian 08 limit. Any higher blood alcohol limit leaves pedestrians unsafe to cross roads and use trams and trains.Under such a policy, Wright's outer suburbanites who "arrive at a venue already drunk", could be picked up on their way to Melbourne, their behaviour changed through fines and detention. So too would inner city club-goers. If organised as effectively as the motorist 05 campaign, only a small minority of Clancy Wright's 100,000 "pissed" pedestrians would persist as problem drinkers.A pedestrian 08 limit is the effective, workable, "silver bullet" that Melbourne and so many other towns need.Mike Cockburn, Pedestrian 08 Campaign, BeaumarisExamine the pastBILL Mathew's criticisms of the AFP investigation (Letters, 11/9) into the deaths of the Balibo five are fundamentally flawed. The news crews did not go into Indonesia; they were at all times in what was then Portuguese Timor. There is ample evidence that the Indonesian military knew they were journalists, not spies, and were unarmed. They were entitled to protection under the Geneva Convention.Indonesia was not on a war footing; it was the aggressor against a relatively defenceless small neighbour. Indonesia's claim to East Timor was never given legal recognition by the UN, nor countries other than Australia.The AFP probe may result in bad blood between the Indonesian Government and Australia, but not necessarily bad blood between Australian and Indonesian people. Indonesian people also need their military to be held accountable for war crimes. The development of a more robust democracy in Indonesia is increasingly allowing for more scrutiny of the past.Kate Jeffery, CanterburyOnce were beatenI NOTE that the whipping of horses is described by race-followers as nothing other than "encouragement". This is certain proof that they think the public are fools. Let's at least be honest: horses are whipped to inflict pain upon them so that they will run faster. In 1900 that was thoroughly acceptable behaviour. In a modern society, many will find it objectionable.John Capel, Black RockSafe on the roads, me and the B-doublesI AM reassured by Transport Minister Tim Pallas' comment that 30-metre-long trucks will be safe on our roads, as I am aware how unsafe the existing B-doubles are ("Giant trucks begin two-year trial", The Age, 12/9). The new 77-tonne trucks must be safe, because he has imposed no restrictions on the times of day they can be on the roads. I look forward to sharing my commute on the West Gate and Princes highways with them during the two-year "trial".It is also reassuring that he has deemed them "not intimidating", because the existing B-doubles are indeed intimidating, especially at high speed and swinging wide to negotiate a corner or traffic lights. How large does a vehicle have to get before it is intimidating?What are the criteria for the approval or rejection of the leviathans at the end of the trial? Or is this just another example of the Government's contempt for the voters?Philip Lethlean, Williamstown
Β© 2009 The Age
