Letters to
the editor

Life for crime

Erin Patterson’s incarceration in Victoria (Lucie Morris-Marr, “A ‘pitiless’ crime”, September 13-19) would have been a lot more severe in New South Wales, where for several decades a life sentence has meant you will die in jail. No parole, no rehabilitation, no restitution and no release other than to an undertaker. Bronson Blessington and Matthew Elliot were aged 14 and 16 years, respectively, in 1988, when they abducted, raped and drowned Janine Balding. They are now in their 50s, having served 37 years in jail. They are model prisoners, fit and healthy, and could be in jail for another 20 or 30 years. At the time of their crimes, they had the mental capacity of much younger children, and the average “life” sentence for similar crimes committed by adults in 1990 was about 15 years. Sentencing children to life without parole is regarded as cruel and inhumane punishment in various international treaties to which Australia is a party. For Labor and Coalition politicians voting together back in 2001 to retrospectively legislate natural life sentences for children is pitiless beyond words.

– Peter Breen, Bellingen, NSW

No accountability

Rick Morton’s account of events at the University of Technology Sydney, as well as at the Australian National University (taken as illustrative of problems across the tertiary education sector as a whole), rightly notes that “university councils … act in a manner similar to – but far less rigorous than – company boards” (“UTS’s dirty laundry”, September 13-19). The contrast in governance is much starker than that. There is a qualitative difference between management of corporations and management of universities. Corporate management is accountable to shareholders by reference to readily observable and transparent performance metrics; whereas universities’ performance is about much more than financial metrics, involving dimensions not readily reducible to transparent quantitative indicators. In addition, universities’ “shareholders” (governments) appear largely akin to absentee landlords. Other regulatory mechanisms and institutions applying to private corporations also have no parallel in the case of universities.

– Tony Aspromourgos, emeritus professor of economics, University of Sydney

Bad build

Flemington housing tower resident HK suspects there is a “secret agenda” behind the demolition of his home (Anna Stewart, “Tower residents: ‘We all have anxiety’ ”, September 13-19). The refusal of the Victorian government and its housing agency to release reports or documents explaining their reasons for demolishing Melbourne’s 44 public housing towers makes it very hard to disagree. Overseas, similar postwar housing precincts have been updated and redeveloped in a more careful, considered way. Residents have even been able to stay in place while improvements were made. Building and architecture professionals concerned at the proposed Victorian demolitions have found considerable savings can be made in capital costs (25-30 per cent), embodied carbon (34-36 per cent) and construction time (15-20 per cent) through retrofitting, compared with constructing an equivalent new building. So, HK’s is a legitimate question – why exactly are these communities being destroyed?

– Lesley Walker, Northcote, Vic

Watch overlords

Thanks to Elizabeth Farrelly for her most revealing article (“Overlord of the rings,” September 13-19). The unconscious dedication to a device to keep one on track is such a fascinating denigration of human resource. The article also made me reflect on a quote often attributed to Einstein: “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”

– Will Martin, Bawley Point, NSW