Perth Voice Interactive

Strauss is grouse
LET’S embrace remembrance of Richard Strauss.
Between August 12, 1938 until September 11, 1949 he and I shared the same planet. What privilege for this music illiterate.
The legendary German composer and conductor was born June 11, 1864. Please let June not pass without mention in the Voice of his 150th birthday.
He loved sopranos, as I do. The ravishing Elizabeth Schwarzkopf (ok), who recorded the definitive version of his Last Four Songs, once dashed down an Aussie beach for a skinny dip in the ocean’s embrace.
Ron Willis
First Ave, Mount Lawley

Hollow defence of the ABC
THE Voice presents a very hollow defence of the ABC against accusations of left-wing bias by Michael Sutherland (Voice Mail, June 14, 2014) when he has to resort to the result of a commission set up in 2007. We need to “move forward” to 2014.
The ABC has a long list of programs that lean to the left, such as Insiders, Lateline, Q&A, The Drum, 7.30 Report, to say nothing of their news reports. These are all examples of left-wing bias. Usually the guests are left-wing journalists, with an occasional conservative thrown in, whose opinions are mostly interrupted and derided by the rest of the panel.
If the Board of the ABC wants to have any credibility at all it will sack the director, Mark Scott, who recently was ordered to apologise to Chris Kenny, a journalist with News Corporation, after The Hamster Wheel program mocked up an image of Mr Kenny having sex with a dog. The Chaser team responsible for the skit should have been sacked, if not for the original skit, then surely for the fact they still refused to apologise, and held Scott himself up to ridicule for doing so.
Where are our standards heading?
Maureen Mackay
Second Ave, Mt Lawley
The Ed says: The ABC has regular bias audits and strict rules about editorial impartiality. The most recent audits have—again—cleared it of claims of bias. Mr Scott is a former adviser to the NSW Liberal Greiner government and the board has had on it people like News Corporation right-wing columnist Janet Albrechtsen. Former ABC journalist Sarah Henderson was elected last year to federal parliament as a Liberal MP. Just because the ABC isn’t The Bolt Report doesn’t make it left-wing.

Meat is murdering the planet
PRIME MINISTER Tony Abbott should prove his claim he’s a conservationist—and that he’s earnest about saving the environment—by encouraging people to eat vegan foods rather than meat, eggs, and dairy products.
This will help reduce carbon emissions, conserve resources and convince President Obama and the rest of the world Australia is serious about climate change.
About two thirds of agricultural emissions come from cattle and sheep. Scientists with Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden recently calculated ways to combat climate change and concluded that reducing meat and dairy consumption is the key to reducing greenhouse gases.
Likewise, Ilmi Granoff from the Overseas Development Institute in the UK, wants officials to forget about coal and cars, saying the fastest way to combat climate change is to encourage people to eat less meat.
Let’s look no further than our own supermarkets to figure out how we can help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as our healthcare costs and the suffering of hundreds of millions of animals: choose mock meats and other tasty plant-based foods.
Des Bellamy
PETA Australia
Byron Bay NSW 

Attaboy Doy!
DAVID DOY is one of the place managers Vincent council has employed to liaise with local groups and help smooth red tape issues. He has done exactly that.
I own a retail business on Angove Street, and David visited me recently to see if there was anything he could do to help. I told him about my plans for a cafe next door.
Within a week, David had arranged an onsite meeting with himself, the Vincent health officer, technical services officer and planning officer to let me know what I need to do to get council approval.
Within 30 minutes, we had discussed hand basins, maximum seating, how many car bays I needed and what to do if I couldn’t provide them, whether I met disabled access requirements, and a whole host of other little questions that can really only be answered face to face.
It was such an effective way to get a clear and instant idea of how viable my idea was in terms of council regulations.
So, a big thanks to Vincent mayor John Carey, place manager David Doy and all the officers for being accessible, helpful, and human.
What a pity we risk losing small, effective councils like this.
Greg Baker
Angove Street Collective

That’s a fact
OUR farmers are threatened with an agricultural products ban by Arab nations because our government is seen to be pro-Israel.
According to Australia Arab Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman Suzannah Moss-Wright, up to $15 billion a year in exports is at stake.
Attorney-General George Brandis has declared the word “occupied” will be deleted from the term “occupied territories” in reference to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. He says these are “disputed” territories. This argument makes no logical or legal sense.
The UN has long held that Israel occupies East Jerusalem. If the Israelis wish to “dispute” that  judgement that is their prerogative. However, until the UN changes its decision the present judgement remains the operative reality.
Similarly, if a duly constituted body, such as a court, decides someone is guilty, the fact the guilty party disputes that judgement in no way changes the judgement during the period of any such dispute.
Australia must not collude with Israel in its attempt to obfuscate the nasty truth.
Mr Brandis must stop playing a dangerous game of semantics.
Our farmers won’t thank him, our economy can’t afford it and it hurts the peace process between Palestine and Israel.
Vincent Sammut
Franklin St, Leederville