This is doubly senseless

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The cost of detaining asylum seekers (“Hotel detention cost $3 million a month”, The Age, 23/7) should be worrying on several accounts.

The extraordinary cost of detaining people and treating them like criminals rather than identified refugees is one thing, but the money could have been better used in supporting them in the community. It doesn’t make sense economically or socially to treat people in this way.

For several years, we have shamefully ignored the UNHRC on the rights of refugees to be treated with compassion. That we still have refugees detained on Nauru is unacceptable and one can but hope that the new federal government may act with compassion.
Denise Stevens, Healesville

A case in point
George Brandis’ article (“Rishi is dishy but Truss is true-blue”, Comment, 22/7) illustrates out why political party rank-and-file should not have the final choice in the selection of party leader.

He writes: “[Rishi] Sunak is the clever person’s choice”, but forecasts a win by Liz Truss “the true believers’ favourite”.

The article suggests that the UK is facing another period where the prime minister is not the best person for the task but rather the person who appeals to the narrow rump of Tory party members.
Gerry O’Reilly, Camberwell

Rhyme and reason
The Golden Treasury of Poetry was one of my favourite childhood books, and I read it avidly. Now we have a copy in the car so that when I drive my nine-year-old grandson to school, he picks a poem and reads it to me.

I couldn’t agree more, Gabrielle Carey (“The bounty we are denying our children”, Opinion, The Sunday Age, 17/7) – children understand the linguistic, literary and rhythmic beauty of poetry, even if they can’t explain it.

Parents, pop a book in the car; encourage and enjoy your children’s recitations.
Tania Hardy-Smith, Mitcham

I had to look elsewhere
I was sad to read “Praying for a change” (The Sunday Age, 17/7). As a devout Catholic for more than
30 years, I have become frustrated with the church that formed me but now leaves me asking more questions than giving me answers.

I no longer seek the changes in the church because I believe that they will never happen, so I seek to be the change I want to see in my life, which has led me to discover God in many more places than the church.

Sadly, the church is lagging in a changing world and this leaves me seeking a deeper spiritual truth and connection in order to grow.
Julie Ottobre, Forest Hill

Inept at best
How you could appoint a person, no matter how talented, who has a close relative as a lobbyist in the area of arguably one of the most delicate and high-profile ministries in state politics beggars belief. Was it thought that no one would notice?

How can Lizzie Blandthorn be considered across her brief if she has to recuse herself from any matter involving her brother?

Planning is about the most contentious and private money-related state portfolio. It needs better than a part-time minister who must hand possibly significant matters and decisions to another. Will she answer for them in the parliament or will the minister assisting the minister for planning take those questions?

Any decision made involving a client of John-Paul Blandthorn’s firm will now, with or without justification, be open to scepticism and dispute, rendering his efforts pointless and creating confusion.

This appointment was, at best, inept, and at worst an example reflecting the very matters for which the ALP has just been cited.
Mark Morrison, Kew

It works for me
As someone who has the privilege of being able to work from home and the office, I’m glad the unions are getting on board with convincing large corporations of the value of this model.

Enshrining the rights of workers to choose the way they want to engage has to be good for everyone. You stand to lose more office staff by clamping down on this than by realising it can work for many. It certainly works for me.
David Jeffery, East Geelong

A typical response
Former prime minister Scott Morrison’s recent remarks about not trusting in governments and the United Nations are astonishing, until one recalls Shaun Carney’s apt description of him as “irredeemably superficial” (“Stop hiding, or all is lost for Labor”, Comment, 3/11/21).

It’s typical of Morrison to console himself in defeat by disparaging what he has lost. He should probably now return to marketing: he never really left it.
Anthea Hyslop, Eltham

Mayhem on the Monash
I have just returned from a road trip around south-east NSW, including Sydney, and I found the truck drivers there to be unusually amazing; they would stick like glue to the left-hand lanes.

On return to Melbourne, I have again encountered Monash Freeway mayhem with large trucks often three to four abreast and often speeding. Why is this so?
Anthony Palmer, Southbank

It doesn’t stack up
I write in response to Michael Buxton’s article “Rail loop plan is on the wrong track” (Comment, 22/7).
With so many experts casting doubt on the Suburban Rail Loop, the government must carefully consider whether building what is proposed is in the best interests of all Victorians.

For the exorbitant cost of this project, the benefits don’t stack up. I feel short-changed.
Yvonne Bowyer, Surrey Hills

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This is doubly senseless

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