Lambie was right

Les Heimann writes: Re. “Crikey says: Lambie is a gift to the Abbott govt” (yesterday). Your editorial seeks to draw analogies to Pauline Hanson and John Howard and you draw a picture of latent conservative intent to keep Muslim immigration to a minimum. On all this you may be correct, and one wonders whether you are equally correct when you imply this is a bad thing.

I saw the Lambie interview and I understood what she was trying to say. Yes she was tripped up by the interviewer scoring points, but the views were quite clear. Despite me being a lightyear to the Left of Jacqui Lambie I understood her to say that sharia law must never be seen or accepted as more appropriate or more correct than the law of the people and if anyone thinks it is they should get out of Australia.

You know what; the massively overwhelming majority of Australians would agree with Lambie. No religious law is ever nor can ever override the law of the nation state. That simple concept is absolute to any free democracy, not just Australia.

Equally freedom of religion is just as important — naturally with the aforementioned caveat. Freedom of religion means any religion and, while we do have a right to be bigots, we do not have the right in any way act on that bigotry. So Islam is fine, Buddhism is fine, paganism is fine, Christianity, Hinduism, witchcraft, atheism and whatever is fine as long as it is observed strictly within the laws of Australia.

That’s what Lambie meant to me, and who disagrees?

Do we have to have a housing crisis?

Peter Matters writes: Re. “Housing boom delivers a potential headache for the government” (Wednesday). Everybody screams about the steep rise of house prices, but not once have I seen or heard any knowledgeable, thoughtful public discussion about the subject. For one thing, don’t blame the Chinese investors — they don’t drive up the price of the houses or apartments the battlers want to buy. For another, there has not ever been the slightest attempt to discuss the merits of the subdivisions or apartment blocks the developers present to us.

It so happens that I have impeccable qualifications of expertise on the subject, and I am saying that if you plan either a subdivision on the periphery of brickveneerea or inner suburban apartment blocks and replace the current combination of developers’ greed and ignorance with expert design and social responsibility, you can create a product that provides infinitely better quality of life style at a price 20-30% cheaper than current practice.

The escalator of extinction

Brian Smith writes: Re. “Children draw Paul Kelly’s Escalator of Decline” (yesterday).At least an “escalator to extinction” works on several levels:

  • We all know hot air rises
  • Maybe it is symbolic of how climate change is resulting in higher temperatures and the escalator is also increasing — both ending in the extinction of humankind?
  • Maybe he is simply like a toddler and doesn’t know when to step off the escalator (a symbol of his work at the Australian?) and is worried that he will fall flat on his face?