Letters to
the editor

AUKUS charade

Thank you, Rick Morton, for your excellent report on the government’s agenda to cut funding to NDIS recipients or deny access to others (“Exclusive: One third of reassessed NDIS plans see cuts to funding”, January 10-16). This callous agenda reveals itself to be little better than robodebt. Here we have a Labor government inflicting similar torture upon families in need of support, forcing them to pay if they dare to challenge the computer-generated decisions of these bureaucrats. It appears that for this government, giving away multibillions of taxpayer funds to America for the charade of AUKUS is a much higher priority than assisting physically and mentally disabled Australians. I see no difference between the priorities of both major parties. The “health and disability minister” should hang his head in shame, along with the prime minister.

– Elizabeth Chandler, Napoleon Reef, NSW

Measured definition

Royal commission or not, we need a working definition of anti-Semitism (Marcia Langton, “Action over words”, January 10-16). Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal uses the definition from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, but there are other less divisive definitions. The 2021 Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism is an alliance of members combining the fields of Holocaust history, Jewish studies and Middle East studies. This body has prepared a clear working definition. Inspired by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1969 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the 2000 Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, and the 2005 United Nations resolution on Holocaust remembrance, the declaration has about 370 signatories, many of them Jewish, several from Australia. This measured definition is what Australia should be considering.

– Victoria Wilkinson, Grindelwald, Tas

Trump’s venturing

As last week’s editorial (“Mock orange”, January 10-16) notes, Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong failed to condemn Donald Trump’s illegal raid on Venezuela, while reassuring us of their support for international law. This is just the most recent example of our leaders’ hypocrisy and absence of a moral compass. The strong do what they can get away with, the weak suffer and the spineless rest look solely through the lens of self-interest, while parroting their unwavering support of the international rules-based order. Both the strong and the spineless are making our world less safe. Trump’s latest illegal venture, with more in the wings, should cause our government to urgently redraw the US alliance as security experts have long urged it to do.

– Angela Smith, Clifton Hill, Vic

Rogue state of play

Another great editorial – a challenge to all Australians, and especially to those on Labor’s back bench, to demand a different approach from a timid and obstinate Albanese government. After a stunning United States breach of international law in taking over Venezuela, surely our government can do better than mouth pathetic platitudes calling for restraint. As your editorial points out, the US is now a rogue state, capable of even worse atrocities than we are seeing at present. The Australian people deserve better from our own government, which continues to offer blind support and billions of taxpayer dollars to prop up a highly flawed AUKUS agreement. More than dollars, it’s costing us our sovereignty, our dignity, our once-respected place as a middle power on the global stage.

– Jo Vallentine, Coolbellup, WA