Inebriated

Sir: Dr Tanveer Ahmed’s intemperate rush to make refugee advocates the main culprit for the plight of people in detention showed little understanding of logic, justice and prudence. The advocates did not shatter the refugees’ expectations, did not create the ongoing condition of uncertainty and did not create “an artefactual space where acting out behaviours like self-harm or false allegations of rape have had incentives and rewards.” (Incidentally, I would strongly suggest that self-harm behaviours are usually driven by escape and avoidance rather than rewards per se.) Justice demands that people be treated as human beings, not as objects and not as means to an end however worthy. In order to treat people with justice we need compassion. That compassion needs to be exercised prudently but compassion is not an evil that needs to be mitigated. As for his gratuitous imputation to advocates of “inebriated moral superiority” he needs to be wary of projecting onto others.
Mark Porter
New Lambton, NSW

Getting wet

Sir: With rain threatening Canberra, I avoided Capital Hill on Australia Day, fearing that both my person and my politics might end up wet. Instead, I shuttled between my Canberra garden and ABC1. From the small screen I learnt that Jeremy Fernandez was an engaging host, not least because of his respectful, conciliatory reference to the Ngunnagwal people’s custodianship of the land. A half-hour’s weeding had me returning in time to see Prime Minister Turnbull saying, “as we stand on land owned by the Ngunnagwal people”. Really? Did he mean “owned” literally or symbolically? I want to know. Even at the geographical heart of our parliamentary democracy, the inverted commas were nowhere to be seen. Things only began to make sense once aircraft noise made me look up from the compost heap. Clearly, the RAAF Roulettes were there to defend us from ourselves.
Alastair McKenzie
KAMBAH ACT

Freedom ride

Sir: The awful spectre of “driverless” cars has been with us since we (or some of us old enough, anyway) spent after-school hours watching “The Jetsons” on TV, instead of doing our school homework. It seems that some of these former kids have taken the next step and developed the things. What concerns me is that Terri Butler in article Google-mobile ( Spectator Aust., 30 Jan.) writes about all of this, as if it’s a good thing. Well. Of course she would. Ms Butler is a politician and a left-of-centre one, too boot. Which brings me to an observation made some years ago by a former CEO of Volvo, and that was that the automobile could not have been invented in our times (he was speaking back in the 1990s I think) as politicians would never have allowed the freedom it gave ordinary people. So here we are now. Be afraid… be very afraid.
David Gerber
East Lindfield, NSW

Governmental ignorance

Sir: Your leading article (13 February) blames junior doctors for playing with lives in their dispute; but what alternative do they have when confronted with the monumental ignorance of our present government (and the last, and the one before that, for that matter)? The NHS, when it started, was propped up by the amazing dedication of the post-war generation and then the baby-boomers. Even so, by the 1960s it was dependent on cheap foreign labour. If people want a first-class service they have to pay for it. It is about time somebody made our government aware of the facts of life — and the junior doctors seem to have stepped up to the plate.
William Sellwood
Stafford

Communist suggestion

Sir: Your suggestion that doctors pay for their training should they decide to emigrate reminds me of a relative who left communist Czechoslovakia for the West after having trained as a dental technician. Accused of stealing her education, she was unable to return for many years afterwards for fear of imprisonment. Are you suggesting that we adopt the tactics of a communist state?

Apprentices and undergraduates of any worth are thin on the ground. Many children nowadays are too lazy to make anything of themselves. Surely the ones who are willing to invest several years of their lives in education and training should not have to pay for it, and indeed should receive an income for making the effort.
Tom Roberts
Derby

Claim back Europe

Sir: Two of your correspondents (Letters, 13 February) refer to the EU as ‘Europe’, and this has now become the norm. Can something be done about it? Europe is a continent, whereas the EU is an artificial construct with no physical existence, in which not all European countries even participate. Referring to the EU as ‘Europe’ gives groups like Britain Stronger in Europe an unfair advantage in the referendum campaign, implying as it does that those who want Britain to regain control of its own affairs are somehow not Europhiles. Most of us are proud to be part of Europe, but very few have much affection for the Brussels bureaucracy.

The promoters of the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign must know very well that Europe is not the EU. What guidelines are in force about names that are so misleading? Can they not be required to change it to ‘Britain Stronger in the EU’?
Anthony Jennings
London WC1