Every day, we publish a selection of your emails in our newsletter. We’d love to hear from you, you can email us at yoursay@theconversation.edu.au.
Monday April 13
Electric dreams
“Reading the article about 6 things Australia should do to tackle the energy crisis made me wonder how big the task is to ‘turn over’ the passenger vehicle fleet as the main candidate for conversion to electric vehicles. There are about 15.7 million passenger vehicles in Australia so increasing the proportion of EVs in new vehicle sales to 120,000 in six years is pretty small beer. A faster EV uptake won’t make much difference either as the task is too big for that. The government would need to think about re-introducing a domestic car industry that focused on changing existing vehicles to battery power. It would need to find a domestic supplier and promise subsidies and/or tariff protection for a manufacturer or several manufacturers who could undertake the task. If one million vehicles could be converted each year it would still take 10 years to complete two thirds of the task.”
John Elliott, Canberra
Tuesday April 14
The importance of good information in a democracy
“This article from the Grattan Institute yesterday on saving Australia from following the US into autocracy is timely. It needs emphasising that the biggest risk is the decline of traditional media with the internet and social media taking over. Few under-40s ever read a newspaper. It is no surprise that conspiracy theories flourish and those who would push particular political agendas are having a field day. The article recommends investing in institutions that produce trusted information of which The Conversation is a prime example, along with the ABC.”
Gary Barnes, Mosman NSW 
What will it take to get ships to go through the Strait?
“There are conventions and laws but the imperative here is insurance. Lack of it is indicative of risk. It’s doubtful that many shipping companies will take on that risk on Trump’s word. The analogy I see is a herd of smart cattle contemplating a river crossing in the presence of waiting crocs. Donald is there sitting in his Humvee on the bank, shouting ‘we’ve got your back’, it lacks credibility. Not even his own forces believe it.”
David Young
Wednesday April 15
Is our state ‘captured’?
“The Grattan Institute’s warning about threats to democracy in Australia omits mention of a major threat, state capture by powerful vested interests. For example, cases can be made that the fossil fuel and gambling industries, and US military-industrial complex, have excessive influence on our governments’ policies, whichever political party is in power. We see this influence, even control, in the continuing development of new coal and gas fields in the face of global climate change, the failure to ban gambling advertising, and Australia’s involvement in unnecessary, destructive overseas wars and the AUKUS agreement. When vested interests determine government policies, democracy suffers.”
Dr Mark Diesendorf, Honorary Associate Professor in Environment & Society, UNSW Sydney
Is legality even the right question?
“Donald Rothwell asked if a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be legal and answers it would be as it is a legitimate wartime tactic. The problem is there is no declaration of war, Trump described it as a ‘major combat operation’ and used his presidential prerogative to attack Iran. There was no casus belli and no approval from Congress. He does not mention the elephant in the room: under international law the attack was illegal, the threat of total destruction was illegal and there have been multiple war crimes committed, not least the bombing of civilian infrastructure.”
John Forrest
Thursday April 16
How to reduce fuel consumption
“I enjoyed the insights shared in the article Victoria has made public transport free – NSW hasn’t. Has there been any difference in uptake? – especially regarding how reduced public transport fares haven’t directly spurred a significant increase in public transport uptake. Though I’m constantly perplexed by the near total radio silence regarding working from home. My employer currently mandates four days onsite for around 1,500 employees, who were almost exclusively capable of working from home during COVID. With some rough estimates on fuel use, and given a negligible public transport usage, that could quite easily be forcing more than 10,000 litres of fuel consumption per mandated day onsite. [But] my employer has indicated absolutely no appetite to adjust this mandate. Surely the return on investment for fuel demand pressure is far greater for flexible work arrangements than it is for free public transport.”
Nathan Snoxall
The opposition’s migrant policy
“The proposed migrant scrutiny policy announced by Angus Taylor has points seemingly at odds with Liberal philosophy. How can you espouse freedom of speech and religion on the one hand and ban migrants who might have alternate views on ‘Australian Values’ on the other? Is it even possible to define, codify [and] then police such values? Is Taylor’s version of acceptable values the same as mine, or each and every citizen? What about Taylor’s ‘Fair go … respect and tolerance’ clause? How does this square with proscribing how potential migrants should think, let alone act?”
Geoff McClintock
Friday April 17
Endangered Antarctic species
“After reading this article I am curious to know why there was no mention of the massive krill fishing industry that targets vital feeding grounds of Antarctic whales, penguins and seals. The comment in the article that ‘we need to reduce the interaction of marine species with industrial fishing’ does not go nearly far enough to address the impact of this growing greedy (and completely unnecessary) industry. Surely, along with bird flu and climate change, the issue of krill fishing is of equal major concern to the survival of these vulnerable creatures, and should have been addressed as part of this article.”
Carey Barlow
Taylor’s Aussie values
“When did Australian values develop? Before or after we genocided much of our original population? Before or after we supported Indonesia’s invasion and occupation for 24 years in East Timor? Or did those values suddenly materialise when Howard and Downer were forced by public pressure to create INTERFET to force the Indonesian military out? Or do they materialise when in opposition?”
Rob Wesley