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 25
Political complexity
“Four ways to pressure Israel makes sense but fails to address the difficulties referred to in Martin Kear’s article and also fails to address what Israel should do about the fact that Hamas, Iran, Yemen and Hezbollah want to wipe it out. I’d love to see a story about what the Western powers can do about that little problem.”
Ron Spackman
Valuing regulation
“The article taking issue with the licensing of occupations seemed so strange that I looked carefully at the sources: one is a working paper based on some European Union countries and a limited range of occupations. The other is an American study of an online platform used for home improvements, similar to Airtasker. Such weak evidence should not be used to bolster arguments to dismantle the protections which licensing and qualifications offer. Workers, employers and training providers have cooperated over many years to produce a system where quality, safety and worker protection are key concerns. Two days ago my car broke down while I was away from home; I was very glad to have the RACV send a qualified motor vehicle mechanic.”
Erica Smith, Emeritus Professor of Vocational Education and Training, Federation University
Tuesday August 26
From a hidden worker
“Your article on hidden workers resonated strongly with me. I previously worked as a criminal, family violence and child protection lawyer and more recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Family Violence to upskill and move into the family violence sector. Over the past year I have submitted more than 25 applications for practitioner roles but have not been successful due to a lack of direct sector experience. This creates a Catch-22: without experience it is very difficult to gain a position, yet without a position it is impossible to gain the experience. I share this not just as my personal story, but as an example of the broader barriers faced by many skilled and motivated workers who are ready to contribute yet remain locked out.”
Sohila Zanjani
Wrong problem?
“I had high hopes that academia would attempt to understand what became known as the Liberal party’s ‘women problem’, but must admit some disappointment. This was largely promulgated by a small group of journalists at the public broadcaster after the 2019 election. As the article makes clear, the media had very loud and provocative headlines about the Liberals’ alleged ‘women problem’. I think we would do well to explore the media’s role in this political episode. To my mind your article is looking in the wrong place to understand the issue.”
Hugh Daniel, Meanjin (Brisbane) QLD
Big issues
“It is great to read that intergenerational equity has been discussed at the roundtable meeting. But environmental sustainability is a critical aspect of future-proofing our economy, so it is concerning that environmental approvals could be fast tracked. The proposed EPBC legislation must ensure that our descendants and all other species have a safe and healthy environment where they can thrive.”
Jennie Epstein, Little River VIC
Wednesday August 27
Weighing the costs
“Your article on the NDIS is quite one-sided in that it considers only the cost to the NDIS, and not the benefits the children receive, helping them to become tax paying citizens, and hopefully leading fulfilling lives. The government needs to collect statistics on how many people have joined the workforce after having received NDIS support. How much would it have cost the government if there had been no such support?”
Dennis Crowley
The hidden pros of WFH
“As a woman with chronic degenerative illnesses resulting in disability, working from home allows me to work full-time. Any discussion about WFH that doesn’t take into account the benefits for people with disabling conditions, who don’t fit into traditional disability models (or ineligible for NDIS), ignores how we contribute to better outcomes and productivity.”
May Vrazofski
Don’t blame it on the women
“Every time the topic of the Liberal Party’s failure to attract women to its ranks is raised, it’s referred to as its ‘women problem’ when the problem lies with the male decision makers. It’s a ‘man problem’.”
Glenda Gartrell
Thursday August 28
Universities have lost their way
“The fundamental cause of this is a massive expansion of student numbers, which is in many ways a good thing, but creates costs too great to support from the public purse. Making money has become the objective rather than being a constraint. There has been reliance on making monopoly profits from selling degrees to overseas students, which creates financial volatility and is unsustainable long term. As graduate numbers have gone up, average quality and average wages have gone down. The idea of a community of scholars has been cast aside. Sadly, it looks like we will keep getting more of the same.”
Graham Partington, retired finance academic
City-centric thinking
“It’s obvious that the research quoted in the article about safety systems being switched off in cars depends too much on a city centric view of the world. The reason I turn off lane keeping assistance is quite simple. I live in rural Victoria in an area where the roads are atrocious and the systems do not detect dangerous potholes that can blow tyres, destroy rims and even damage transmissions. More importantly, it could possibly put the occupants into a life threatening situation. Can we please use more nuance in this debate?”
Max King
Friday August 29
In defence of universities
“Universities have not lost their way, but rather are enacting strategies that respond to external forces acting on them, particularly high demand from international students, and reduced government funding. The one thing we must not drop our guard on is quality, of both research and teaching, because doing so will indeed comprise ‘losing our way’. As to vice chancellors’ salaries, I suggest that the whingeing is unjustified and we let the market work because a high-quality VC is worth every cent.”
Professor Danny Samson, Department of Management and Marketing, University of Melbourne
AI and us
“The question we must urgently ask of AI technology is: who benefits? If current trends continue, the answer may be troubling. We are witnessing a growing concentration of wealth and power, with AI increasingly used to reduce labour costs and maximise profits—often at the expense of workers. The risk is clear: a future where wages are driven down, jobs are eliminated, and economic inequality deepens. This is not an inevitable outcome. It is a choice.”
Scott Draffin