IN this week’s Speakers’ Corner environmental scientist MARY GRAY responds to recent coverage of the state government’s lack of a plan to protect native vegetation. Ms Gray was awarded an OAM for service to conservation and the environment in 2022.  THE article “No plan for bushland” (Perth Voice, January 14, 2023) does not tell the…

DAVID BUTTERFIELD was conscripted as an infantry gunner when he was called up for National Service in 1966. In this week’s THINKING ALLOWED he recalls what that time was like, and why today Nasho’s who trained up for combat, but never went overseas, believe their medical needs have been ignored too long. WHEN my birthdate…

GREG ASH is a Mount Lawley resident and member of the members-only Mount Lawley golf club. He says how the club manages the hundreds of trees and shrubs that line its fairways and greens needs to be seen in context after the Voice’s recent stories about how many have been earmarked to be removed. I…

THIS week Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, dubbed “dangerous” by WA media, was in Perth for two public lectures. The West Australian newspaper’s description of him as a “gateway to far-right extremism” was hard to reconcile with the mild, esoteric, and slightly flat performance Prof Peterson delivered at Tuesday night’s show at HBF Stadium.  Critics argue…

MARY GRAY is an environmental scientist who was awarded the OAM in this year’s Queen’s birthday honours for her service to conservation and the environment. In this piece she reminds us gas is a fossil fuel and has some thoughts on how householders and government ought get out of gas. WITH so much media attention focusing…

COLIN MENDELSOHN was the founding chair of the charity Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association. In this week’s Speaker’s Corner he argues that a blanket ban on nicotine in vapes is creating a black market that’s out of control. ATHRA is a big advocate of using vapes to help people quit smoking, and while it received…

GREG LYNCH is a cinema historian and author, whose involvement in the industry goes back to 1954 when he repaired film for 20th Century Fox in Perth and soon became assistant projectionist at the Regent Theatre in Guildford.  In 2020 Bayswater council considered heritage listing the Lyric Theatre Maylands.  Expert written testimony was submitted, debated,…

    HANA JESTRIBEK is the co-founder of Little Hawk Cafe. Despite taking a chance with a hipster cafe in a semi-industrial area of Beaconsfield, it proved a roaring success – and then Covid came along. With WA in the midst of its pandemic, she says the impact on the hospitality sector – and its workers…

SARAH HULT and LILY McAULIFFE are founding members of the Fremantle-based Abortion Project, a pro-choice movement which seeks to destigmatise discussions about abortion and provide peer support for the many people who have experienced one. 1 in 4 to 1 in 6 people with uteruses have had abortions in Australia. You may have had one,…

IN this week’s Speakers Corner, Free the Hounds president MEL HARRISON says dogs continue to race on tracks hardened by sweltering weather. THE recent WA heatwave has been tough on everyone, but many West Australians would be unaware of the impact the weather has had on the racetracks that our greyhounds run on at Cannington…