Letters to the editor | May 7, 2022

To encourage drivers to share their vehicle with others a levy was imposed on driver's alone in their vehicles.

These days, with very high petrol prices it makes sense to share your ride with others.

Car pools should be the order of the day.

It is a simple technological problem to monitor cars entering our cities along major routes and then bill those travelling alone each month. A levy of $2 per day would be a real incentive to ensure you had others travelling with you and sharing the petrol cost.

This should be a state government initiative with all money raised to be spent on highway upgrades and the development of alternative routes.

I READ in (The Examiner, May 3) that the police are unhappy that they were left out of the freedom from prosecution section of the LNP's proposed ICAC rules. Why should anyone who has engaged in fraudulent or illegal practice be exempt at all? Some might say that public servants or police were only following the parliament's orders, but they have a legal as well as moral obligation to speak out about any directive given that is illegal and that's where the buck stops.

We have seen past cases of the military using this defence, but these days it doesn't wash and lower grade military personnel can be charged for not disobeying an illegal order. It's time for the truth to come out, the country can see the dodgy deals almost daily on the news so why aren't the perpetrators liable to the full weight of the law?

IT was rightly pointed out that Scott Morrison has been unlucky with happenings outside his control (editorial, The Examiner, May 3). The point was made that no doubt Bill Shorten would not have done any better, or even as well. Firstly we had the worst bushfires on record for some areas followed by heavy floods. COVID was the next on the scene which is still with us. Then we had record floods in Southern Queensland and Northern NSW.

The last straw was Putin's war (special military operation) in Ukraine which has wreaked havoc on supply chains and numerous other goods and services. Through this Labor has sniped from the sidelines and the media in some instances has been less than kind. Australia has fared better than most countries' health and economy wise and for this I am very grateful to the current government.

Like the cough ad a few years ago, Mr Morrison has soldiered on fending off criticism with patience and dignity.

I NOTE that in the coming electoral battle, apart from the major parties there are many smaller parties aiming for the disillusioned voters, and also a growing number who believe that urgent action on climate change is the most important issue.

While I don't entirely disagree, the real problem is human nature itself. We live in a world that seems to be built on greed, ambition and deceit, where products are packaged in indestructible plastic and appliances are built to last a limited time so we have to buy more.

On a nationwide scale, we have tyrants like Vladimir Putin who has managed to convince himself, and apparently a large part of Russia that Ukraine are aggressors simply for not wanting to be part of an old-style Soviet Union.

It seems the best we can do is vote for a government that can give us stability and fairness in these uncertain times.

THE government is thinking of giving a discount to the poorer class of the community for what they charge for the electricity.

They pipe into our homes now, all they have to do is get the way to discount right, whether it be by way of a price discount on the account or just a fraction discount on your overall bill, such as 50 per cent would seem fair to most people. Will it stop there?

The federal government has already given us a discount on petrol by taking less in taxes and revenue for what we pay at the pump. Groceries is the next obvious bill to tackle as they have been going up for the past few months. Some soft drinks are going up in price by as much as 25 per cent of and the meat prices nearly make you turn vegetarian.

The trouble is how long is this going to last because the government can't pay forever as it must affect the overall budget if continued for an extended period of time.