Letters to
the editor

Erosion factors

Mike Seccombe appears to have bought the line of the industry lobbyists hired by the Australian government to buttress their emissions denialism at UNESCO earlier this month when considering the World Heritage listing for the Murujuga rock art (“Inside Watt’s push for Murujuga World Heritage”, July 19-25). Orizontas, a crisis PR company that advised the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, is run by a former Minerals Council lobbyist. Save Our Songlines, founded by former MAC chairperson Raelene Cooper, presented UNESCO with the latest scientific evidence (including an independent German study just released) that shows increased erosion of Murujuga’s rock art correlates closely with the source of elevated acidic emissions – five times higher today than in the 1970s, mostly from Woodside’s North West Shelf gas export facility.

– Judith Hugo, co-convenor, Friends of Australian Rock Art, South Perth, WA

Familiar refrain

Philip Low (“Donald J. Trump: Are you an enemy of the constitution?”, July 19-25) lists some of Trump’s many executive order-driven assaults on the rule of law, the constitution, precedent, diplomacy, compassion and common sense. We may fervently hope Trump’s ignorance of history extends to a lack of knowledge about the 1933 German Enabling Act that allowed the power to rule by decree, issuing laws without the consent of the Reichstag; that these laws could deviate from the Weimar Republic’s constitution; that the act was set to expire after four years. It effectively continued, however, until other events overwhelmed the nation in 1945. The vote for the Enabling Act was accompanied by intimidation and violence from the SA and SS, who surrounded the Reichstag building and detained some members. There is something disturbingly familiar both in the powers provided by the Act and in the attack on the Reichstag.

– Sid Williams, Concord, NSW

Subjective object

As any amateur scientist would know, a scientific experiment that introduces subjectivity in its design is by definition invalid (Jackson Ryan, “Screen-washed”, July 19-25). How the Therapeutic Goods Administration permitted the SPF (sun protection factor) system, beloved and trusted by Australians since time immemorial, to be used as a measure of efficacy despite its obvious shortcomings in this regard is beyond me.

– David Beins, Cooks Hill, NSW

Act for humanity

Reading Stan Grant’s wise words (“The awe of silence”, July 19-25) brought to mind a silent vigil I attended last year in remembrance of the children killed in Gaza. The names, faces and respective ages of the slaughtered innocents were displayed in turn on the massive screen in Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne. The vigil enacted “a silence of resolve, silence as resistance”. A silence “that refuses the cruelty and injustice of the world and the words of politics that turn us from one other”. Transactional, adversarial politics and short-termism are failing us in this time of multiple crises. We, the people, must demand that our politicians act in the interests of our common humanity and of all living things on this fragile earth.

– Angela Smith, Clifton Hill, Vic

Prophetic menu

I very rarely read the Fiction column, but I’m glad I made an exception for “Grub” (Jack Cameron Stanton, July 19-25) – from the opening sentence about the “Mediterranean dreamfish that caused diners to hallucinate for several days” (Salema porgy – lock me in, waiter!), to Mira’s moving bathroom, the butterflied koala with no eyeballs and writhing eel lowered into Dave’s willing mouth, this was grotesque satire and epicurean wanker piss-taking at its amusing best! If we are at “The end of seriousness” (Santilla Chingaipe, July 19-25), then all hail our laudable new prophet, Jack Cameron Stanton.

– Chris Roylance, Paddington, NSW