Perth Voice Interactive

Punish pure greed
I SEE all the “news” about clothing and other allowances… some recompense is fair enough, some is pure greed, and the response should be as harsh.
When a mayor or elected official is performing a function on behalf of the community they should in my opinion be offered reimbursement or an allowance on behalf of the community.
Malcolm McCusker as Governor showed the way here, donating his entire pay to charity, others could be mindful of such behaviour! They do not have to claim!
Those that transgress should be exposed, the current  guidance is poor and the method of operation not good enough. Why? no one cares especially those who have their nose in the trough.
The minister for local government is the man who sets the standard and is responsible for prosecution of it. He is the man.
Brett Moir
Park Rd, Mount Lawley

On rainy days?
AS a pedestrian and public transport user I am not opposed to the Scarborough Beach Road bike lane.
For one thing, it encourages bike riders to ride on the road and not on the footpath. However, what does concern me is if more roads are converted to a single lane and a cycle lane then what is going to happen on days when people don’t cycle, such as on rainy days?
Are cyclists committed to using public transport on these days, or will they jump in a car and clog up the road with traffic, which will then slow down public transport?
Carolyn Mitchell
Shakespeare St, Mt Hawthorn

A bleak but liveable Plan B
NOW that the UN Security Council has voted unanimously to wipe out IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh, or whatever it is calling itself today, we have to ask ourselves, “what’s the next step?”
We can’t just raise the biggest army the world has ever seen and march over and smack ‘em in the eye. We will not be fighting an army. We will not be fighting another nation. We will not be fighting an ethnic group, a religion, a culture, or even a language.  We will be fighting an idea, and ideas have a habit of surviving the most appalling oppression (think of democracy, or freedom of religion, for a start).
If we are to think of ourselves as civilised nations, we cannot just march over there and behead the lot of them. These people are, after all, creatures of whichever force is with them, and have a right to live as they see fit (provided it doesn’t interfere with us).  In civilised nations, solutions as final as industrialised annihilation are seen as politically incorrect. We have to have a Plan B.
We can no longer just redraw the map, with absolute disregard for ethnicity or faith, as we used to do from Whitehall, and we are running out of places to send the vanquished. St Helena is too small; Australia has done its bit as the wastepaper bin of Empire; the Amazon rainforest is spoken for; Antarctica is too cold; Atlantis sank a long time ago; and Mars is too expensive. Perhaps Mr Putin will re-open the gulags…
Wait … a … minute! That’s it! Think of a place mostly occupied by people no-one cares about; people with little in common with John and Jenny from Joondalup.
A place that’s bleak, but liveable; a place stuck in the middle of nowhere in particular; a place of no use to anyone else. Isn’t it obvious? Canberra!
Instead of soaking up the world’s nuclear waste we take Daesh and fence them into the ACT! As the meerkat said, “simple!”
Rick Duley
Walcott St, North Perth
The Ed says: This letter has been edited for good taste.

Get rid of the grid?
HOME energy options may save the grid from privatisation
If the state follows the federal suggestion to sell the power grid to the private sector will they be able to charge you for not being connected as the energy corps does now?
The annual supply charge from Synergy is $156.54: should this increase to a point that home energy storage is a viable option people will opt out of the grid system leaving those who can’t afford to, or don’t care to pay for, the grid and a system powered by coal and gas.
The seven cents feed-in credit paid to solar homes makes natural gas at 14 cents per unit and $98.55 supply charge per annum unviable to most solar homes.
Will grid-supplied electricity follow?
Michael Whitworth
Caribbean Drive, Safety Bay

Pollies deserve special treatment
POLITICIANS continuously break laws hoping not to get caught. When they do, they expect to be forgiven by just saying “sorry”, because they think they are above the law.
The most recent ”sorry” is from Bill Shorten for using his mobile phone while driving, as if he was not aware of the traffic laws.
Can an ordinary citizen  get away by saying “sorry”?. Politicians are expected to set examples. They should be penalised double, or perhaps triple.
Alex Mulla
Smith St, Highgate
The Ed says: Shorten handed himself into police and was fined $455 and lost four demerit points — the same penalty anyone else would have faced.