Simon Storey writes: Re “Dutton’s parting reward: Conservative Australia Day outrage, a Christmas custom”: I used to be as soon as firmly within the “change the date” camp till I started considering extra about our penchant to overlook on this huge brown land.
Australia Day wants to remain as a result of we will all rally on the streets and spotlight the intense drawback and racism that First Nations peoples must put up with, thereby maintaining the strain for actual change. We will banish it with glee when there’s true equality for First Nations peoples — when they aren’t overrepresented in jails; after they have equal entry to training and well being; and when all our youngsters are taught the factual historical past of this nation, i.e. it’s based on rape, homicide and dispossession.
Hmm. Australia Day may very well be with us for a very long time but…
Jean John writes: No one minds having an Australia Day. Most international locations really feel the necessity to have one, and everybody enjoys a time without work work and an excuse for a barbie. However why January 26? Within the 65,000-year historical past of our continent, why decide on the day solely 239 years in the past when the Brits invaded and grabbed the land for the British Crown?
Absolutely now we have higher days to have fun. Days that don’t remind Indigenous peoples of their dispossession or remind the remainder of us of our guilt over the actions of our predecessors. How about Federation Day or, higher nonetheless, the day all Australians, together with girls and Indigenous peoples, lastly turned full residents entitled to vote?
John Peel writes: Why waste breath boycotting Australia Day? For most individuals it’s a cheerful alternative to have fun being Australian. For just a few bigots it’s an opportunity to boost the center finger at First Nations peoples and at anybody who would like to not take part celebrating. So maybe it also needs to be referred to as Survival Day — survival of the ailments, massacres and dispossession that made immediately’s Australia potential.
John Courcier writes: An anachronism and an insult. White-bred (!) Australians gaze with misty eyes on the Fifties of the ladies tied to the kitchen and the blokes down the pub after a tough day’s work.
Flying blind
Frank Aquino writes: Re “Qantas gives litany of lies in a flight from actuality on regulation”: I now not select Qantas to fly domestically besides the place the monopoly forces me to. Quite like root canal remedy — disagreeable however unavoidable. All different flights are Virgin besides the place potential Air North, a genuinely good airline.
And what sort of cockamamie authorities places airports within the fingers of personal enterprise? And seaports? And telecommunications? And electrical energy? And water? And roads? I imply severely, roads? These amenities are progress enablers and shouldn’t be revenue centres. Why doesn’t anybody get that?
Dr Ian Douglas writes: It’s worrying however not shocking that Qantas opposes formalising particular client safety for airline clients. On-time efficiency (OTP) information for November exhibits the highest 10 carriers in Asia-Pacific at 81% on time, with solely Air New Zealand cancelling greater than 1% of its flights. North America OTP was 82% with lower than 1% cancelled. Europe OTP was 84% with lower than half of 1% of flights cancelled.
The Australian home Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Analysis Economics (BITRE) reporting for October exhibits OTP for Qantas within the mid-60s, cancellations round 4%, and the Australian carriers cancelling one in 10 flights between Melbourne and Sydney — a route largely served by the Qantas Group and Virgin Australia.
If Qantas was matching the OTP and cancellation fee of its friends in Asia, Europe and North America, it will have little publicity to compensation claims from passengers.
Glen Davis writes: Qantas continues to get it very improper. The lame duck chairman slammed the door on shareholder questions on the annual assembly after presiding over the outrageous golden handshake to the departed CEO. And he had presided over the collection of a brand new CEO who it was evident to all was wholly unsuited to the model emergency that Qantas continues to deepen.
Company boards throughout the nation observe the Qantas blunders with horror and one thing approaching disbelief. “What ought to we do to keep away from 5 years of self-immolation?” The Commonwealth Financial institution lately recoiled after I described it as “the Qantas of the banking trade”. It was true, nevertheless it was shocked to learn the phrases in print.
Qantas is a company aircraft crash in gradual movement, tail first. Passengers, clients and shareholders have been the primary damage and we’re moments away from whole loss.
Malcolm Spry writes: There’s a easy repair right here. To tremendously enhance competitors within the airline trade Qantas ought to be made to promote Jetstar instantly. We might then have three viable home airways, which might guarantee decrease fares and better service ranges.