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 July 28
Reality check
“We have changed the climate of a whole planet and damaged every single habitat on earth. Net zero by 2050 is delusional. Have politicians and the media not been paying attention for the last 50 years? Me buying an EV is not going to refreeze the ice caps. Unfortunately reality does not bite, reality sucks.”
Steve Bentley, Camira QLD
Childcare penalties
“Cutting funding to childcare providers in breach indicates a very poor understanding of both human and organisational behaviour. Such a threat is more likely to motivate ‘keeping mum’ than reporting suspicious behaviours. A more effective incentive to report would be to adopt the Royal Commission into Child Abuse recommendation to hold directors and managers personally liable for breaches.”
Karl Smith
We love snail mail!
“As a visitor to New Zealand, I was recently horrified by its supermarket prices which seem to be about a third higher than Australia. This only makes sense to me if goods are sent via Australia, thereby adding extra costs. Since wages in NZ are lower than here, is there a rational explanation?”
Julia Bovard, via Australia Post
Tuesday July 29
Hormones in US beef
“As a small scale beef producer in Australia, we have to certify that our cattle aren’t treated with growth enhancing hormones to be eligible to be sold in our main export markets. By contrast, some 90% of US feedlot beef is routinely hormone treated. We just need to mandate that any meat sold here must be labelled if the animal has been treated with hormones, so consumers can avoid it.”
David Woodcock
Not all debt is equal
“While the court has mandated the recalculation of welfare debt for individuals, the tax office hasn’t been required to collect significant tax debts. This discrepancy appears to promote discrimination and inequality. The court’s decision impacts many individuals who are already in vulnerable positions, while the lack of similar action for tax debt collection seems to benefit those with greater financial stability. This situation raises important questions about fairness and equity in our legal and financial systems.”
Beverly Cranwell
Book review
“I love when I get knocked for six, and this review of Kazuo Ishiguro’s book ‘Never Let Me Go’ did it for me. The complexity of looking and asking yourself about the requirement for some to live longer at the expense of others shook me and my values. We can see this playing out ever so publicly in other ways on the global stage and the drain of it turns me inward to accept the natural time of my death.”
Emma Hain
Wednesday July 30
Can’t we fund the forecasting?
“I just read the article about the threat to Australian weather forecasting. NASA, NOAA and other organisations provide useful data to Australia that’s essential to our way of life, economy and security. If the present US government is not prepared to bear the full cost then I believe other nations which make use of the information should be prepared to step up and contribute. For the good of all.”
Joe Phillips, Woollahra NSW
Another fan
“To the correspondent (Emma Hain, July 29) who was very moved by the book Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro: the British film of the same name, starring a young Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan did the same for me!”
Emily Cross
Not so Hottest 100
“This is a rhetorical question: what makes a song Australian? The songs on the Hottest 100 Australian songs are pop music, and pop is a foreign form. Pop is so foreign because it’s a product of the record industry, and the British and USA record industry at that. If an Australian song is by Australians and reflects Australian life, maybe the most Australian songs were by Skyhooks (1974). Never Tear Us Apart hardly qualifies.”
Kym Houghton
Thursday July 31
YouTube ban
“From my way of thinking, a risk/benefit analysis of the platform clearly shows there are many more benefits than risks. There is a wealth of information and valuable videos teaching people how to successfully achieve anything from peeling an orange to complex mechanical procedures. How can that be bad for children? Perhaps more focus on the content that is posted is appropriate. Banning children from what is an essential human resource in this day and age is more akin to Luddite behaviour. The world changes and restricting access to tools is not the way to prepare children for their adult life.”
Bob Sibson 
Coercive control or discipline?
“Your story on parental impact on their children produced conflicting emotions in me. I would never, ever endorse sexual abuse or savage beatings by a parent on a child. However, I am very wary of what children, social workers and psychologists say constitutes ‘abuse’. Anyone who has been around for a few decades has seen with their own eyes the decline in social cohesion and the increase in crime and violence committed by children. What that says to me is that what we as a society are doing, is not working. When individuals have more rights than the community as a whole and when children are allowed to behave badly with no repercussions, we set ourselves up to become a failed society.”
Stuart Kennedy
Taking a stand
“After a lot of hesitation, many years ago, Australia finally took a stand on apartheid. How is Israel different to apartheid South Africa? Why should it not be sanctioned and shamed for its wilful, discriminating, and damaging policies and actions?”
Dr Brian Harlech-Jones
Friday August 1
Gaza position
“The PM and Penny Wong both complain about the "terrible” images coming out of Gaza as if it’s the photographers fault, while in our parliament acknowledging Australia is part of a global supply chain that enables the genocide. Even if you supply just a plastic trigger of a gun, you have enabled the weapon and its only purpose is to kill. Michelle Grattan could you tease out this issue more please?“
Catherine Comans
YouTube be gone
"As the parent of three young children, banning YouTube except for YouTube kids is an excellent idea. People can go on about the good videos that are on there. The reality is the slop videos have 100 million views and the informative ones have thousands. Two percent of videos are incredible, but the rest is just to suck the life out of kids. Generations survived before, they can handle it again.”
Alex Isaac, Melbourne
YouTube experts?
“I was surprised to see the experts you asked to comment on the YouTube ban for kids were mostly communications or IT experts. None seemed to be significantly qualified in child developmental psychology or child education. A surprising oversight. Surely the intellectual, emotional, and social development of children is particularly relevant in considering the proposed ban.”
John Ingram