While hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities will now get services they've never had, we must examine closely the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The public should demand nothing less in return for the $22 billion spent on the scheme and the vulnerability of the recipients. But that is not happening. The NDIS is seen as untouchable. As the funding formula stands in Victoria, the most vulnerable people – those with profound disabilities living in residential accommodation – are likely to get a significantly lesser service. Furthermore, the scheme is being rolled out without "quality and safeguarding guidelines" in place. How can this be, especially in light of the rape and abuse scandals at Yooralla? The NDIS model is a unique experiment using a market-based voucher system. Vulnerable people and families will be exploited unless proper regulation exists. Staff numbers are expected to double, but there's no allowance for training in the funding formulas, for mandatory background checking, or for minimum qualifications of the staff who support people with complex cognitive and health issues. Finally, the proposed structures will drive down wages and conditions. The NDIS is Australia's biggest social reform in 30 years, and we want it to work. But it's time we paid attention to its flaws.
Lloyd Williams, Health and Community Services Union
Illustration: Ron Tandberg
Bags of money in aged care
Residential aged care is big business. The Aged Care Financing Authority estimates the sector requires an investment of $31 billion over the next decade. Most of this will come from the private sector (The Age, 29/7). The bipartisan "Living longer living better" reforms have decreased regulation in aged-care homes. Vulnerable older people are now "consumers" in a market-based system. Deregulation serves the interests of providers, not residents. Paradoxically, private providers of aged-care homes lobby for a decrease in regulation and an increase in government subsidies. Leading Age Services Australia, the peak body representing private providers, is using images of "money bags" to promote their funding workshops to optimise government subsidies. This ad suggests that profits trump residents' care. Recent calls for camera surveillance in aged-care homes divert the focus away from the need for systemic change. The care of vulnerable older Australians is too important to be traded on the market like any other commodity.
Sarah Russell, Northcote
Don't count me because I don't count
I'm not going to fill in the census because in the eyes of society I don't count. A single female, I don't have children and am over 50. I'm not the future. I own (most of) my own home but do not own an investment property. I only have a small superannuation balance, and am just on the wrong (right?) side of the assets equation, so I will not be troubling the public purse in the near future. And I should have mentioned – I am unemployed. No employment services can help me, because in the eyes of the job gatekeepers (recruiters, HR people) I should have gone quietly away long before now. I have three tertiary qualifications (the first was free but I paid for the other two in full). I have run my own business for more than 30 years. But I am too old for the work I am trained to do, overqualified for a regular job in my field, and not qualified to work at Bunnings. I want to heed the exhortations of various treasurers to work until, well, a lot further into the future. I never want, er, wanted, to retire. I don't want handouts or welfare. But the job gate is shut. So I don't pay much tax any more, and my consumption is kept to a minimum. I'm neither a burden nor a contributor. I am socially and economically invisible. The government does not need to count me because I don't count.
Name and address withheld
THE FORUM
PM demeans office
The discussion around Kevin Rudd's UN secretary-general bid should move away from whether this brilliant but flawed individual should have been endorsed to focus on Malcolm Turnbull's inept handling of the process. We could learn from the US in this regard. Traditionally, Republicans and Democrats have abided by a convention that an ex-president retains his honorific title; and is duly respected as the former holder of an esteemed office. In refusing Mr Rudd the courtesy of a one-on-one meeting and providing an explanation for his non-endorsement, Mr Turnbull has demeaned the status of the office of the prime minister. Australia's already shabby governing ethos has been further damaged.
Jon McMillan, Mount Eliza
Unfit to lead UN
How sad that Australia can't find someone to put forward for the UN role. Then again, given the human rights abuses in our detention centres and juvenile prisons, Australia should be appearing before the UN, not leading it.
Rob Kneale, Ascot Vale
Paucity of leadership
Far from wealthy, my parents were optimistic for their children's future. Surviving two world wars and global depression, they were part of a community that opened our eyes and our borders to a rich mix of cultures and opportunities. From the 1960s to the 1990s we built on that optimism. Now I am saddened by increasing awareness that my country is falling behind in many areas. We might enjoy the good life, but how do we explain our ongoing practice of child abuse; our Pollyanna approach to climate change; our increasing levels of homelessness; our vindictive approach to genuine refugees; and fear-driven legislation that undermines the very freedoms we boast about?
There is a paucity of real leadership needed to govern in a complex 21st century. Mr Turnbull's inability to transcend petty party politics in snubbing ex-PM Rudd will sadly not be the last example of just how far we have slipped from what being "Australian" was all about.
William Chandler, Surrey Hills
Fair go has gone
I am a white Australian, living in a Muslim country. Not once have I been told to "go back where you came from", or "learn our language". Nor have I suffered any racial discrimination. In fact, it is the opposite. I have been warmly received by everyone I meet and greeted with genuine smiles of welcome. The people ask lots of questions about Australia and our culture. I tell them I grew up in a country where multiculturalism was supported by the governments of the day and embraced by society in general, and how our citizens of so many different nationalities enriched our way of life with their food, customs, art and culture. Sadly, however, they now ask "But what about Pauline Hanson?".
The people among whom I live are just like you and me, just wanting to get on with their lives, raise a family and be happy, but they express despair and frustration when radical minority elements from their society are seen to speak for the majority. Sound familiar?
David Oliver, Kuala Lumpur
Accept defeat gracefully
Is the Liberal party unable to accept defeat gracefully? The last federal seat to be decided, Herbert, finally has a result after weeks of recounting, yet the Liberals want to mount a legal challenge. Meanwhile, in Victoria three more rail crossings are eliminated and the Liberals' Matthew Guy says this doesn't solve the traffic congestion. It will in this neck of the woods.
Judith Dunn, Bentleigh East
Powerless pulverised
I live in a remote Indigenous town. Seeing the the brutality meted out by full-grown men on Indigenous boys comes as no surprise to me. It has always been so; the powerful pulverise the powerless, one way or another. The new images seamlessly match the unofficial account of 228 years of colonisation. They are a perfect fit with our true history of forced displacement; dispossession; the stolen generation; the stolen wages; the black deaths in custody; the purposeful and pointless massacres; and the systematic dismantling of this world's oldest, living culture.
The image is one of an Indigenous boy being pulverised by our people. His bowed head is covered in a spit hood; his arms and legs shackled to a mechanical device eerily resembling the executioner's chair. His chest is bare and his pants are borrowed from a circus clown. He is so terribly alone in an empty, silent room. He is being punished when he should be loved or comforted because he threatened to take back the only tiny sliver of control he has over his life – his threat to self-harm. Instead of our people pulverising him he chose to do it to himself.
Jane Bean, Halls Creek, WA
Such lack of empathy
No, Amanda Vanstone, the media did not "have a go" at Nigel Scullion for "his choice of words" (Comment, 1/8). To use your words the media had a go at him for his apparent lack of dhunderstanding of an "issue devastating the rest of us".
Bob Graham, Yarragon
Reserve some gas
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has ignored the main reason behind the east coast gas crisis. Gas prices are high because east coast gas is being diverted to LNG plants at Gladstone that have long-term contracts to export gas. Locals have recently paid double the price paid by Japanese for Australian gas after it has been refrigerated and exported as LNG. The gas committed under longer-term export contracts is causing domestic shortages and east coast wholesalers are forced to buy on the more-expensive spot market.
The minister's solutions include Victoria lifting the coal seam gas moratorium, maintaining a renewable energy target to promote investment, and subsidising gas generators to keep plants on standby.
However, increasing supply without a gas reservation policy will not lower prices as the gas will continue to be shipped offshore. CSG extraction in Victoria risks degrading prime Gippsland and Otway farming land. And maintaining the RET is important but without a carbon price it is difficult to achieve a lowest cost/best outcome energy mix. Paying subsidies to gas generators to keep plants on standby embeds higher prices permanently in the system. The minister must institute a gas reservations policy, put a price on carbon and regulate the return on gas pipelines.
Jenny Henty, Canterbury
Asbestos harm ignored
Products containing asbestos imported from China are being installed in buildings throughout Australia. This is occurring at an alarming rate, yet only two companies have been prosecuted. In Melbourne, the product has been discovered in our trams and new apartment buildings, while Perth's new $1.2 billion children's hospital has white asbestos in its roof panels. It is well known that China uses asbestos in many products. Even toys and crayons have been recalled in recent times.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection cannot conduct checks on all imported products, so there is only one solution. These products should be banned until China – and other countries – get the message. But why the silence on this issue? Who are we protecting? The signatories to the free trade agreement? Or the developers and construction companies that import these products? Sure, these asbestos-ridden products are cheaper, but what about the long-term costs?
Sally Davis, Malvern East
Unrealistic philosophy
I was appalled to read Herb Elliott's statement that as a competitor there were only two options – success (i.e. a gold medal) or failure (The Age, 1/8). Every athlete who is chosen to go to the games is a success.
The ABC's recent Barracuda program was the closest thing to reality TV I've ever seen. I felt almost ill to see the anguish of the main character Danny Kelly after his fourth-placed swim because I saw how close to reality the story was. How many athletes will we damage psychologically before we stop placing totally unrealistic expectations on their young shoulders?
Judy Kevill, Ringwood
Flat-track bullies
It is farcical that Australia is ranked the No.1 test nation. We do not hold the Ashes, were thrashed by Pakistan in a series in the UAE in 2014, have won just one of our last 16 tests in the sub-continent and now have suffered a substantial defeat in Sri Lanka. Our batsmen may be flat-track bullies at home but their fragility has been consistently exposed in conditions unfavourable to them, especially on turning wickets.
David Seal, Balwyn
Prize must be earned
The ridiculous "everyone must get a prize" culture means that two children who became lost in Orange, NSW, and were rescued are to be nominated for bravery awards ("Little girls found as roo pursuit has a happy ending", 1/8). Not only does this diminish the value of awards made to people who put themselves at risk for the sake of others, it encourages other children to try to "earn" a gong by showing off to other kids.
Philip Shehan, Brunswick
AND ANOTHER THING...
The Coalition
Some politicians labelled Kevin Rudd a "narcissist" in his UN bid. Wonder if those same guys like what they see when they look in a mirror ?
Alan Cotterell, Benalla
Turnbull: Tony Abbott's puppet.
Carl Francoli, Ocean Grove
Shouldn't Turnbull change his title from Prime Minister to Coalition spokesman? I'm sure prime ministers Bernardi, Abetz and Abbott would approve.
Richard Jamonts, Williamstown
Is it a "Captain's pick" when you don't pick somebody?
Cath Dyson, Mount Eliza
Stop the boats. Easy. Stop the mining tax. Easy. Stop Kevin. Easy. Stop the disunity. Not so easy.
Tony Lenten, Glen Waverley
Kevin is left out in the cold, Mal's in the hot seat, and the would-be usurpers are just cooling their heels.
Paul Murchison, Kingsbury
Turnbull should have told Rudd to quietly withdraw rather than publicly humiliate him.
Ian Bell, Fitzroy
Politics
Malcolm: Less haste, more speed, more consultation, better decision.
Geoffrey Lane, Mornington
Malcolm too nimble; Malcolm too quick; Malcolm's burnt by the candlestick.
Marilyn Willis, Kallista
Pauline Hanson's One Narcissist.
Wendy Knight, Little River
The ABS: is that Australian Bureaucratic Surveillance, the Australia Card by another name?
Henry Haszler, Eltham
So, our Ivory Towers are now incorporated as cost centres. What's new?
Alex Njoo, St Kilda
We need to start producing something other than training colleges.
Elizabeth Jovanovic, Moonee Ponds
And finally
Our first gold medal should go to Kitty Chiller for best in "surviving the Games' preliminaries".
Ian Powell, Glen Waverley