PM’s migration policy kowtows to the right

It is disappointing that the prime minister is following Pauline Hanson and Angus Taylor in his approach to migration (“Albanese pledges to keep reducing migration as third poll puts One Nation in lead”, June 9). His government has also quietly imposed a severe cut in issuing international student visas. With his huge majority, PM Anthony Albanese is in a position to show real leadership and argue the case for the benefits of migration. Hawke, Keating and Rudd would surely not have fallen victim to right-wing populism. Tony Simons, Balmain

I wonder how Anthony Albanese came to a figure of 225,000 when deciding how much to reduce migration numbers. Hopefully it’s not just to attract One Nation and other xenophobic voters. It’s definitely not for social cohesion. Hanson is wagging the dog and Labor is serving us up a dog’s breakfast of knee-jerk policy and blatant migrant-bashing. Beverley Fine, Pagewood

Coalition clamour

Paul Sakkal’s article inadvertently shines the light on all that is wrong with the current Coalition parties (“Taylor blames Albanese’s budget for plummeting Coalition vote as One Nation surges” June 9). In a twisted piece of logic, Liberal leader Angus Taylor blames Labor for the rise in support for One Nation. The new Liberal Party director, Lincoln Folo, has come up with the glib idea that members need to be more “active” in their communities. Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson has suggested that the party start listening to voter’s anxiety (who knew?). Nationals leader Matt Canavan, predictably, had nothing to offer other than accuse the government of lying after their budget. Liberal president Tony Abbot, in an inspiring directive, has “called for calm”. Nowhere in any of these responses do we see a shred of a policy on anything or a belated acceptance that perhaps renewable energy initiatives are far preferable to fossil fuels. At this rate, not only will One Nation thrive but the Coalition will disappear down the vortex of its growing irrelevance. Robert Hickey, Green Point

I’m both bemused and amused by Angus Taylor laying the blame for the Liberal Party’s decline on Anthony Albanese and Labor. When we consider Tony Abbott’s unrelenting negativity, Scott Morrison’s lack of empathy and Peter Dutton’s dearth of policies, the obvious conclusion is that the Liberals brought their ill-fortune on themselves. In addition, the Liberals appear to have a misogyny problem. Given these factors, the leader of the opposition should have a good, long look in the mirror to see the real reason for the demise of the Liberal Party. Blaming others for your own mistakes is delusional. Michael Davis, Balmain East

NDIS as robo-debt

Shame on the Labor Party for trying to rush through massive cuts to the NDIS without adequate consultation with the community. Yes, the cost of the scheme is unsustainable, largely due to a wily group of shonks and shysters who worked out how to game the system. Weeding them out is urgent and essential, but not at the expense of genuine cases. I’ve heard of instances where funding to severely disabled young adults has recently been cut to the tune of 60 per cent without warning and with immediate effect. This is devastating for them and their parents, many of whom are struggling to survive. I have grave fears that the NDIS is about to become Labor’s robo-debt. There has to be a better way. Donna Wiemann, Balmain

A bad sign

Domestic violence is a constant in too many women’s lives (“Snapshot of the killers who walk among us”, June 9). Police, politicians and our courts spend a lot of their time dealing with this sad and tragic fact. Schools try to teach kids that respect for everyone is the best way to live your life. Now a disgusting sign saying Ditch the Witch is being driven around Melbourne (“‘Ditch the witch’ a MAGA-like sign of moral decline”, June 9). No respect there. No political argument. Just a stupid, misogynistic slogan. Many politicians have condemned it, but not Pauline Hanson, whose appalling response of “suck it up, sweetheart” is disrespectful to women and a dreadful message to young girls and women. Bea Hodgson, Gerringong

AI not all bad

Poor old AI has been getting a bit of a beating in the letters pages and elsewhere recently (Letters, June 9). By contrast, I would like to say that as a teacher, I love it. It is profoundly useful. I can, for instance, feed it an article from the Herald (always acknowledged) that I would like the students to read and ask it to create specific comprehension, grammar, speaking, discussion or writing exercises based on the reading at a level appropriate for the English second-language class I’m teaching. It delivers within seconds something that would have taken me many hours. In oral assessments, I can record the students’ exchanges and obtain a written transcript, saving hours of work. Previously we had to play and replay recordings over and over, listening for a particular verb tense, vocabulary or discourse marker. The autonomy of AI users is not lost, as suggested by some of your correspondents. We are just developing new skills in prompting, editing and checking the accuracy of what AI produces and, in my case at least, still writing our own letters to the Herald. I sympathise with authors whose work is stolen and understand the problems it creates when trying to assess students’ work, but rather than condemning AI in total, let’s celebrate the good things and work harder on ways to regulate the less desirable. Heather Johnson, West Pennant Hills

This week’s Four Corners, titled “The AI race”, should be compulsory viewing for all Australians. It cites three global tech leaders, Sam Altman (OpenAI), Dario Amodel (Anthropic) and Elon Musk, each of whom is on record conceding AI’s risk to humanity. It’s one thing for Australia to be complicit in the climate-damaging fossil fuel industries, but at least we understand the dangerous trajectory we are on. And we can do something about it. It is a totally different matter for the Australian government, without any clear mandate from voters, to be taking us headlong into building resource-hungry AI data centres across Australia when no one in the world knows where AI will end up. Australia can’t solve it all, but we can make a difference. The Albanese government should announce an immediate moratorium on new data centres until the worldwide AI industry accepts enforceable guardrails and regulation, and stringent oversight is implemented for all data centre proposals. Rob Firth, Red Hill (ACT)

It’s good to know that Professor Guy Curtis was an “exemplary teacher”: you can never have enough of them. But Salvatore Sorbello’s defence of Curtis’s “argument” misses the point (Letters, June 9). In defending AI, both Curtis and Cath Ellis (whom Curtis supported) make an untenable distinction between “what really matters, which is the ideas” and the words that express those ideas. On the contrary, real thinking is inseparable from the words that express the thought. Original thinking doesn’t, as Curtis claimed, “distil knowledge into words”. The knowledge is the words, from the very beginning, and the connections between those words – “grammar” and “syntax” – are part of that knowledge and intrinsic to thought. AI will never be able to do what humans can. Rob Jackson, Cheltenham

It’s not only humans that are fooled by AI. I was watching Four Corners when a barking AI dog appeared on the screen. Suddenly, from the sofa, up jumped my sister’s puppy barking back loudly, obviously thinking he had found a new friend. Mary Julian, Glebe

Paul Casey wonders if AI ever sleeps or dreams (Letters, June 9). I don’t know, but it certainly seems to hallucinate. David Gordon, Cranebrook

Stay proud

Kane Evans has been applauded for being courageous and brave for “coming out” (“Former NRL enforcer Kane Evans comes out in emotional interview”, June 9). As he has said, it has been a huge struggle. Nevertheless, I think it is deeply sad that in 2026, being gay still carries such a stigma and that it takes so much courage to tell the world. Why is it still considered so taboo? Is it the football world or the NRL world in particular? It doesn’t seem to be a problem for the women in the Matildas to be who they are. What does this say about so-called masculinity? What are men so afraid of? Kane, all power to you and may you be out and proud forever more. We non-heterosexuals are everywhere. Christine McCabe, Dulwich Hill

I would urge those Manly Sea Eagles players who a few years ago refused to play in a jersey celebrating Gay Pride week to watch James Bracey’s heartbreaking interview with Kane Evans, in which he describes the traumatic effects that hiding his sexuality had on his mental and physical health. Suicide was preferable to living with blackmail and the shame he had felt since he was 15. True Christian kindness and compassion from former Panther player Joe Galuvao and his former coach Trent Robinson and the Roosters playing group helped put him on the road to recovery. One can’t help but wonder how many other young men within the NRL have suffered from the consequences of homophobic bigotry on their lives and playing careers. Jennifer McKay, Ashbury

Lucky country

The relentless negativity about how awful it apparently is to live in Australia is becoming tiresome (“Can’t get no satisfaction? You’re not alone”, June 9). Especially when it is disingenuously presented as Australia’s problem alone and unconnected to multiple international factors, not least the Trump/Netanyahu/Putin wars and the world’s growing inequality assisted by decades of neoliberal policies. Australia is doing pretty well. We rank third in the world for quality of life. We are cemented into the global top 10 for happiness and we consistently rank among the top countries in the UN Human Development Index. Yes, all is not perfect but much of the world is even less perfect. And the federal government’s bold tax plan is less a broken promise than an attempt, finally, to equalise opportunity. Alison Stewart, Riverview

It’s come to pass

Living next door to the Victoria Pass disaster, I can see why people are voting for One Nation or independents. Trucks are constantly breaking down, the whole highway beyond Katoomba is a disaster and we have daily closures due to accidents, with traffic jams up to 10 kilometres preventing access by emergency services. Businesses along this section of the highway are struggling to survive. Labor seems to have given up on any long-term solution, the lord mayor and the premier are nowhere to be seen, the local member generates noise with zero substance. Not a peep from the Liberals – one would think they have shut up shop altogether. Paul Toole of the Nationals does support us. We are left with one independent, Andrew Gee, the member for Calare, who is making daily statements and videos, and a One Nation senator, Sean Bell, who has called for a long-term solution. Considering this absurd situation, who do you think the people who live either side of Victoria Pass are going to vote for? Tony Lewis, Mount Victoria

Battery power

I had a wonderful dream last night. Every tabloid in Australia ran a front-page banner headline “Shocking news: Household power bills decline”. That dream vanished as day dawned, but the reality hasn’t. Prices are going down (“Big batteries shield nation from power price shock,” June 9). Grid-scale batteries are soaking up the surplus of day-time solar power for release at the evening peak. There’s less reliance on costly gas-fired power generation. Australia has “crossed a threshold”. The market has undergone a “structural shift”. And all this in the context of the global energy crisis brought on by the Iran war. Challenges remain, as Origin boss Frank Calabria points out, with the coming closure of coal-fired power plants and the need for large-scale investment in the grid. But we have turned a corner and that’s worth a cheery headline in these tetchy times. Tom Knowles, Parkville (Vic)

Talking turkey

I have had brush turkeys in my back garden for many years and I can recommend the following ways of minimising the havoc they wreak (“The brush turkey invasion in your backyard”, June 9). Use protective cones around new plantings to discourage digging. Use rocks and logs to stabilise beds of more established plants. This year, I allowed “Romeo” and his harem to build their mound and lay their eggs. When the breeding season ended and all the eggs had hatched (mid-February), I began to dismantle the mound. The turkeys provided me with free compost, more than enough to cover my entire garden. Gerianne Rudd, Toowong (Qld)

The proliferation of brush turkeys has become a societal menace. Once protected as it became close to extinction, the species is now in numbers beyond reason. When a similar situation occurred with rabbits, a culling program was introduced. The same should happen with these creatures. Carmen Fenech, Frenchs Forest

The brush turkey may not be a threat to native Australian animals, but it is a threat to some species, specifically humans, who are likely to experience elevated blood pressure, sleepless nights and a heightened sense of frustration as these feathered fiends arrive uninvited to upend the humans’ carefully tended gardens. Doug Walker, Baulkham Hills

Some Indigenous elders believe that the sighting of a brush turkey is a portent of good fortune.
In that case, it looks like Sydney’s luck is about to take a turn for the better. Ken McNamara, Wollongong

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