Letters
Letters to
the editor
Sacrificial man
Jason Koutsoukis’s story about Don Farrell (“Meet the man who really controls Canberra,” November 1-7) shines some light on a pivotal but not well-known character in the Australian Labor Party. I hadn’t realised his influence throughout the government bureaucracy. All the work Farrell did to undo some of the mess Scott Morrison left would probably not gain Labor one vote among the people who most benefited – farmers, winegrowers and fishermen, even though it added billions to their bottom line. His other major act was to step aside from the No. 1 position in the Senate list for Penny Wong in the dreadful 2013 election. South Australia elected only one Labor senator that year, so Wong would have gone. Farrell cooled his heels until 2016 and he hasn’t looked back.
– Wayne Carveth, Forest Lodge, NSW
Positions filled
As part of your article regarding Don Farrell was the question of whether the number of Lower House MPs should be increased by some 50 per cent. Integral to the argument is bringing our level of representation in line with other democracies. It would be relevant, I believe, to include in this assessment of these unnamed democracies their levels of government in comparison with our own. As a resident in an Adelaide suburb I can walk to my state government member’s office, I am within a 10-minute drive of my council office and my local federal MP is close by should I want to go in. If I were to include Upper Houses in both state and federal governments, I am blessed with five levels looking after my best interests!
– Peter Barnhurst, Blackwood, SA
Moving parts
Murray Watt can luxuriate in playing the Coalition off against the Greens. Karen Barlow’s article captures the current position with exquisite clarity (“Watt next”, November 1-7). Will Sussan Ley be able to corral her recalcitrant right into supporting greater environmental protection? Or will the Greens again make the perfect the enemy of the good? Beyond parliament lie powerful business lobby groups on the one hand – wielding influence and political donations – and popular opinion on the other. Watt may also have to consider the views of the prime minister who, as his pre-election support for the Tasmanian salmon industry showed, can place a higher priority on jobs and prosperity now than on environmental protection for the future. Economist Ken Henry argues that strengthened environmental protection can improve productivity. Can Watt’s political nous deliver a sustainable future for all?
– Chris Young, Surrey Hills, Vic
AI mirage
Louisa Lim’s article and the podcast discussed make a common error: that AI is inevitable and the only possible outcomes are boom or doom (“Doom machine”, November 1-7). We will have superabundance, everything is magically solved and no one need work again, or the robots will rise up and kill us all. That the AI arms race is a road to nowhere, and large language models might be a technological dead end with minimal real-world application, goes unconsidered. When people attribute intelligence to probabilistic text extrusion, they are experiencing the ELIZA effect. It does not logically follow that because machines can play chess or Space Invaders (tightly defined “world models” with unambiguous rules), that feeding all the text ever published into a language model will result in machine sentience. It’s like saying if I feed enough tuna to my cat, it will develop gills.
– Richard Thomas, Glenmore Park, NSW
Coup de Grace
Grace Tame bubbles away in the background of our national conversation and sometimes rises to the surface: Australian of the Year, advocacy for victims of sexual assault, appearances with Brittany Higgins et cetera. When she does, she is always worth our attention and what sets her apart is her wonderfully Aussie bullshit radar. For me, her Scomo side eye is a high point in Australian public life. If there was an award in journalism for puncturing windbaggery, then Tame deserves it for her piece on Tony Abbott’s recent historical tome (“His story of Australia”, November 1-7). Biting, witty and beautifully written. She is a national treasure.
– Trevor Hodges, Bundaberg North, Qld
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This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on November 8, 2025.
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