The Echo loves your letters and is proud to provide a community forum on the issues that matter most to our readers and the people of the NSW north coast. So don’t be a passive reader, send us your epistles.
The letters deadline for The Echo is noon Friday. Letters longer than 200 words may be cut. The publication of letters is at the discretion of the letters editor.
Send to Letters Editor Aslan Shand, email: [email protected], fax: 6684 1719 or mail to The Letters Editor, The Echo, 6 Village Way, Mullumbimby, 2482, NSW, Australia.
Please include your full name, address, and phone number for verification purposes. Letters already published in other papers will not be considered.
WHY WOULD YOU VOTE FOR THE LIBERAL NATIONALS? The federal independent commission against corruption is investigating former leader Scott Morrison for the Ruby Princess Covid leak, aged care eventuating in 652 deaths, 2000 Robodebt-related suicides, sports rorts of $102 million and “donations” to the Hillsong Church of $42 million.
Current leader Peter Dutton was involved in the Ruby Princess Covid leak, Paladin detention centres $423 million, childcare $5.6 million and his personal au pair $150k.
NSW State leader Dominic Perrottet has funnelled $18 million into icare. These issues are only a small percentage of what is under current investigation.
A common thread in these events is the abuse of power and entitlement in the hands of rich white men. Is this who you want running the country?
Failure to vote for the Uluru Statement from the Heart highlights the racist tendencies of the Liberal National party which have existed since colonisation, suppressing First Nations, and still destroying sacred sites for the sake of money.
Our indigenous people are not the only ones experiencing racism. Just look at harsh border policies for asylum seekers, sending boats back resulting in casualties, and locking people up for years in poorly equipped detention centres … this is not how people should be treated.
The me-too movement exposed the misogynistic behaviour in our Australian parliament. Former prime minister Scott Morrison wouldn’t even address the 100,000 women protesting in Canberra to acknowledge pain and suffering. Instead, he stated protesters should be grateful they weren’t “met with bullets”, and still a woman dies every nine days from domestic violence.
Not to mention MPs Christian Porter, Alan Tudge and Andrew Laming, accused of sexual assault and forced to stand down. The Jenkins review, which recommends a significant overhaul of the Australian parliament, found one in three staffers interviewed had been sexually harassed. It’s also a homophobic party that failed to support gay marriage when 85 per cent of the population agreed and over-polices Gay Pride every year.
And when you think it couldn’t get any worse, the fact that three party leaders John Howard, Scott Morrison, and Peter Dutton, openly supported accused paedophile George Pell is a disgrace.
They are climate deniers that only exist to line the pockets of billionaires. Do you really think they support the farmers when they are backing big fossil fuels, which is causing frequent natural disasters, significantly affecting the farming industry. Are they trying to fix the problem, or are they just handing out chunks of money to farmers so they can continue to support big fossil fuels? We pay fossil fuels with more of our taxable income than they pay us back in royalties. Fossil fuels make billions of dollars’ profit each year and they don’t even pay tax. If billionaires were equally taxed and paid their fair share, imagine how that money could transform our communities. Why are Australians paying through the roof for gas and electricity when we are one of the most energy-rich countries in the world?
If you or I behaved like this in our jobs, we’d be instantly sacked. You must ask yourself … are they running our country and supporting our people, or are they party stacking and pork-barrelling for big corporation’s best interest? Think twice when you vote number one on March 25.