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 August 17
“We have long wondered why there has never been any change to politicians being paid when they do not attend parliament when it is sitting. Ordinary Australians would lose their jobs if they did not attend as often as some Queensland pollies. We understand that there should be personal and sick leave but not leave for politicking. When parliament sits we feel all MPs should be present to represent the people who have voted them in. Is this something the Conversation could take up through their pages?”
Danny and Kerrie Green, NSW
“The new arrangement for forcing big tech to pay Australian media is better than nothing, but excluding AI and risking further concentration of our media landscape means it’s not all positive. Perhaps even more important in the long run is how Meta pays for controversial content. Sites have rules about dealing with undesirable content; the question is whether their payment systems undermine them.”
Gary Barnes, NSW 
Tuesday August 17
“My feeling is that much of the Victorian support for One Nation is a vote for an empty chair. They have next to no policies or candidates. Meanwhile, Labor is showing the symptoms of a time-expired government. For a decade, the Coalition has demonstrated a total inability to govern itself, let alone the state. My question about the statistics in Monday morning’s polls article: did the polling have an option for ‘none of the above’?”
David Moore, Kew
“I would be very interested to see an age and location breakdown of stats that show the fall in support for Labor. While the cost of living is biting most of us, a deeper dive is needed to see what is really going on. As a Victorian, I know that COVID lockdowns affected us very deeply and probably still do. Labor needs to go out and talk with and most of all, listen to Victorians and get to the heart of what is really driving this shift. Victorians deserve better than right-wing, hate-filled rhetoric.”
Jane Davis, Naarm
“Michelle Grattan sounds the praises of the South Australian premier, but as an Adelaide resident, there is a very large proportion of the SA community who believe the premier has little commitment to environmental issues in our rapidly warming world. His government’s increasing takeover of the Adelaide Park Lands for development, LIV Golf and car and motorbike races puts a big hole in his shiny image. There are growing protests to this lack of respect for the National Heritage listed Park Lands which are increasingly important as precious and vital green space for a burgeoning population. These events also have a huge impact on local communities who have never been consulted. A petition asking that work on the MotoGP redevelopment be halted immediately has now garnered more than 30,000 signatures. The loss of hundreds of trees and lack of respect for the unique and important Adelaide Park Lands is appalling.”
Anne Wharton
Wednesday August 19
“The latest iteration of the national gun buyback in NSW, following in the footsteps of John Howard, appears somewhat flawed. While Howard’s effort to remove semi-automatic firearms was lauded, it also spawned an increase in gun ownership. The catalyst was tying gun licensing to gun club membership that consequently also financed the gun lobby. The folly of the current scheme foisted on NSW gun owners at taxpayer expense, to limit firearms to five for recreation and hunting, is that it does nothing to directly address the terrorist threat in terms of boosting our counter-terrorism capability.”
James Vereker, Bendigo
“Brian Yates and Nathan Kilah write that Australia needs more scientists because ‘science literacy isn’t just about knowledge. It’s about the ability to reason, evaluate evidence, and make informed decisions in a complex, changing world.’ Granted, but so is history – and more than that, history provides a window to the past that helps us understand the ‘complex’ and ‘changing’ world of the present with greater calmness and clarity. Yet, while science is being promoted at school and university, history (and other humanities subjects) are being squeezed out by a lack of attention to their importance at secondary level, ridiculously over-priced tertiary degrees and a concept that ‘history won’t get you a job’. Now that universities have been turned into job-creating mills, if students can’t be attracted to high profile fields such as science, then clearly the education system is failing on all fronts.”
Associate Professor Bobbie Oliver, The University of Western Australia
“It is spelt faeces in Australian English and here you are, The Conversation with all that entails, misspelling it throughout this article. Feces is the American spelling. Please do not cave in to this copycat laziness that is advancing the intrusion of American English into our own language. I will stand up forever for the purity of Australian English, its derivations and history and our own dictionary and so it should remain.”
Victoria Moore
Editor’s note: right you are, Victoria! We’ve corrected that one, thanks for spotting.
Thursday August 20
“Australia Institute research shows fewer gun owners than in 1996, but that firearms held by shooters has doubled. We now have over 4 million licenced guns in Australia — in those numbers, they’re an ever-present danger. That’s why we need to limit how many guns a person can own and to buy back the rest. WA recently used its buyback scheme to remove 84,000 guns from households. That’s a great start, now it’s time for the rest of Australia to follow WA and NSW’s lead. Fewer guns in society means less gun theft and less gun violence. What price for public safety?”
Frank Noakes, QLD
“I was a tertiary lecturer in the area of religious studies for two decades and every unit was taught in an academic, objective manner. I believed, and still do, that the study of world religions should be included in every school, whether public or independent. Knowledge is crucial to religious tolerance, although I use the word ‘tolerance’ with misgivings. Through understanding and accepting differences, perhaps we will move towards a more unified society.”
Dr Anne Harris, Perth
Friday August 21
“Regarding your article on ‘Question Time’ I think a big improvement would be to ban Dorothy Dix questions and now that we have a more genuine democracy with a number of Independents and small parties in parliament, it’s well past time that the Greens and Independents be given opportunities to ask questions. The ‘democracy’ we inherited from ‘mother’ England is based on class – the workers in one, struggling with the ‘born to rule’ elite, an entrenched two-party adversarial system. The media is equally at fault and in my view part of the problem also.”
Mike McKeon, Boon Wurrong Country
“I found the articles on chiropractors, physiotherapists, and osteopaths illuminating. Very timely for me and would have to be very interesting to people who have ailments that make it difficult to know who to go to, to get appropriate assistance.”
Geoffrey Graham