It’s time to fight for the right to go peacefully
Death and taxes: the state parliament will consider the first of these two inevitabilities later in the year.
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The views of the community are well known already.
The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that of 300,000 Australians more than 85 per cent agreed that terminally ill people should be able to end their own lives with medical assistance.
However should a doctor attempt to do this at the moment they are committing a serious crime.
If you think this is nonsense, as I do, then the time has come to have the voice of the majority heard.
Otherwise, experience elsewhere tells us that a vocal few will hijack the debate by citing a range of "problems" and that politicians will infer from their "noise" that their numbers are greater than they are.
When one is dying or watching a loved one do so in distress it is too late to influence the political debate.
Now is the time.
Many pet owners would be horrified if their pets suffered unnecessarily. Yet a veterinarian can legally and humanely do what a doctor who believes in euthanasia cannot.
Practical steps include emailing your local member or joining one of the pro-euthanasia groups such as GoGentle (promoted by Andrew Denton) or Exit (promoted by Philip Nitschke).
S. Trotman (retired nurse), Shoalhaven Heads
Penalty rates cut looks like Robin Hood in reverse
I agree with your editorial that proof that reduction in penalty rates might be hard to find in employment numbers.
Nevertheless, we look forward to seeing more employment in the Shoalhaven and wholeheartedly accept “the gift” of penury from Ann Sudmalis MP while we wait.
One thing you might look out for in the short term is in price reductions across the board in cafes and restaurants throughout the region.
The proof should be in the pudding, the burger, the wrap and the coffee.
If not, what we have witnessed is a wholesale wealth transfer from the young, the not so young, the none too flush with funds, the underemployed to people living up the economic scale. A reverse Robin Hood of sorts.
Rarely do we see the intent of free market liberalism so brazenly displayed. It is even more rare to see wage theft repackaged as a “gift” from our local member.
Cheers, Ann, and please don’t bother with anything for us come Christmas time.
We can’t afford it.
D. Snow, Dolphin Point
Labor’s stance appears to be confected outrage
A question for Fiona Phillips the aspiring Labor party candidate for Gilmore:
Do you support the position of Bill Shorten in the mounting of a campaign to introduce legislation to overturn the latest decision of the Fair Work Commission to cut penalty rates?
Labor, headed up by Shorten and the unions gained approval for some 50 odd enterprise bargaining agreements.
These included similar if not more severe penalty rate cuts from the same Fair Work Commission.
It is reported that a condition of these enterprise bargaining agreements was union membership and use of a union superannuation scheme.
So what’s it to be, Fiona?
Fairness for all and let the latest decision stand or support the Shorten stand based upon the false premiss that the last decision is much different from from the previous decisions that included 50 EBAs approved by the FWC.
A case of confected outrage, some may say, but what is of great interest is what you say Fiona Phillips.
