Elections are coming
With the local by-election, closely followed by a Victorian state election, who do we vote for? Federally the situation is reflective of our state. Labor making strange decisions, and Liberal operating a revolving door of leaders, the far right and green left on the rise. Who will reclaim the middle vote?
Locally there is a cry of climate change response, yet the Victorian government builds underground train stations. Who will use them when the suburbs they serve flood by rising seas, turning rails into drains?
Federally they invite the head of the Israeli government to pacify a few thousand people following the horrible Bondi shooting dead of 15 people, knowing that many, many, more will feel divided knowing over 70,000 souls have died as part of the over-reaction by that govern-ment to 1200 souls being killed by a just a few of those many thousands murdered. It lacks common political sense.
Paying our money to another country for obsolete subs that everybody knows will never be delivered. The world is turning to drone warfare, and the next war will be in cyberspace, drones run by AI.
We need to stop barracking for political parties like football teams. We need to look at ALL the political teams, gauge the very best players who kick goals, and pick those to govern us.
Leave these other duds on the bench. Westminster system be dammed.
The dream team: Not red, blue, green, teal, yellow or orange. Just people. People who are worthy of office, and play for red-white-blue Australia, not for divided parties.
John Dusting, Mornington
Marsh for Liberals?
Anthony Marsh’s move to join the Liberal Party of Australia might be politically unsurprising. What is less comfortable is the broader governance pattern that has unfolded during his tenure on the Mornington Peninsula Shire.
Many ratepayers have long remarked on the presence of a consistent voting bloc within council — a small group that frequently determines outcomes. While alliance-building is part of politics, the perception that decisions are pre-set rather than openly debated erodes public confidence.
That context makes the current preselection question more significant. Party rules reportedly require two years of membership before candidacy. If those rules are being reconsidered, transparency is essential.
This by-election is expected to cost the community close to $2m. At that level of public investment, both party processes and candidate records deserve scrutiny.
No individual councillor operates alone. But leadership is measured not only by ambition or influence — it is measured by the trust a community places in the fairness of decision-making.
If standards exist, they should be applied consistently. If they do not, they should not exist at all.
Anne Kruger, Rye
Credlin and Bolt
With so much perceived to be wrong with both Victoria state and federal left leaning governments, it’s time for Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt to come out from behind their keyboards and TV news desks and insist on being “parachuted” into winnable seats (there is now one available in Nepean) by their Liberal friends, as they clearly have “all the answers” and policies to bring the Liberals back to power.
Of course, Credlin has already had experience, actually on the floor of parliament, as she guided Tony Abbott and his government through day to day debates and decision making, (how did that work out?) and Bolt has had the ear of the most powerful of right leaning politicians for many years.
Coming off sound thrashings from the left at the last elections, there may well be a few issues to overcome in this process for Peta and Andrew.
- Will they get through the pre-selection process at local Liberal branch levels needed to endorse them? Maybe not.
- Will the local voters elect them to state or federal government? Possible, but most likely not. (How embarrassing)
- If they were to get to state or federal parliament, would their proposed ideas and polices get the support of whichever House they were in? Could they cope with the debating process and application of logic from their opponents? There would be no head-nodding, captive audiences there – so, no again.
Never mind, back to the comfort and safety of the keyboard and TV studio to continue to just take ineffective and poorly considered “potshots” at the left’s policies, and quite a few from the right.
What a pity Credlin and Bolt do not have “the guts” to try to get into parliament themselves and test their ideas and policies in the real world of a democratic state or federal parliament.
Brian Nankervis, Mornington
Petrol prices
I’ll never buy petrol in Mornington.
It seems to me that all the petrol stations here are in active collusion with one another. Prices go up virtually at the same time.
They are always higher than Frankston, and at times can be as much 50 cents more.
Do we have to pay for the Mornington post-code?
Peter Lynch, Mornington
Protecting all species
It was pleasing to read about Moonlit Sanctuary’s efforts to save the endangered Eastern Dwarf Galaxias (New aquatic conservation facility opens, The News 10/2/26). It is a beautiful fish with coloured stripes running the full length of its body.
Incredibly, Victoria has 1,649 endangered and critically endangered species, including 173 vertebrates.
As noted, the Galaxias is threatened by wetland drainage, habitat loss, climate change and introduced species. Although previously found in several creeks across the Mornington Peninsula, its populations have been hit hard by agricultural and residential development in particular, with some disappearing in recent decades.
Against this backdrop, it is alarming that the Victorian Government is proposing to abolish or severely cut the scientific and advisory committees that safeguard our natural spaces and threatened wildlife, along with more than 300 staff — many from the biodiversity section of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action.
There is still time for Victorians to urge their MPs to stop these proposals. As the Victorian National Parks Association says, “Nature can’t afford more cuts.”
Will Bass MP Jordan Crugnale, who opened the Moonlit Sanctuary facility, resist her government’s draconian proposal to slash protection of Victoria’s unique but vulnerable biodiversity?
I hope she does.
Sarah Brennan, Hawthorn
Climate hysteria
The editor’s comments re the last 11 years and the top three being the warmest since 1850 and instrumental records is typical climate hysteria (Cooler earth in 2025, Letters 3/2/26).
Ice cores not only show temperatures over millions of years being many times higher, but that CO₂ the was also up to ten times higher, millions of years before man’s arrival, and surprisingly the planet was mostly a lush rainforest, supporting dinosaurs and giant insects, so is more CO₂ really the issue?
It is required for plant life, and if it gets too low as in below 0.02% plant life begins to die. Note: the speed of the increase is the only thing that can be proven not the actual cause, is it really caused by human activity or is it volcanoes, solar flares, oceans atmosphere exchange, respiration of animals, the close orbit of earth to the sun etc, etc?
To be honest, overpopulation and pollution are more concerning, and no hysteria about those.
Dale Young, Frankston South
Don’t blame wind
Sue Glenn is right. Development is removing animal habitat (Turbine trouble?, Letters 10/2/26). But wind turbines are not the main culprit.
Analysis of land clearing, with and without federal environmental approval, from sources such as Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) data, reveals that in NSW and Qld, clearing for agriculture and mining eclipses clearing for renewables.
This is not to say that no koala habitat is lost for renewables nor that it is not on the increase, but it’s silly to only point the finger at wind turbines.
In fact, as renewable energy goes, wind has a smaller footprint than solar. And, as noted by the Australian Conservation Foundation; “The single biggest cause of deforestation in Australia is bulldozing the bush for beef production.”
The federal government’s recent strengthening of national nature laws should mean that fewer habitat-destroying activities can slip through without assessment.
If we really care about koalas, and other threatened species too, we must look beyond turbines.
John Godfrey, Cape Paterson
Koala habitat lost
Like your correspondent (Turbine trouble?, Letters 10/2/26), I do not support development that destroys the habitat of koalas or any native wildlife.
I did a little research and discovered that 34,000 hectares or 17,000 MCG’s worth of koala habitat has been approved for land clearing by the federal government since 2012.
The majority, 8000 MCGs worth, was cleared for mining, mainly coal mines, but 3000 MCGs have been cleared for renewable energy projects and 2400 MCGs have been cleared for transport with some also cleared for residential develop-ment.
None of this is acceptable. Koalas shouldn’t be losing their homes so that we can keep our lights on. Our federal environment laws have clearly not been working in favour of our envi-ronment.
Amy Hiller, Kew
BarleyCharlie@Almost90
Cliffie’s Awards:
- Christopher Pine & Bill Shorten, Fridays, Sarah Ferguson’s 7.30, ABC – Politics Gold
- Niki Savva, The Age 5/2. Peter Dutton as “Little Sir Echo.”
Indigenous Australians; mainly conservative politicians and their acolytes – insisted on rubbing their noses in their loss by demanding they show gratitude every year on that day. January26. And if they protested, they were abused by people in powerful positions occupying the last refuge of scoundrels.
Karoline Levitt’s painful proTrump continues on, and on, unabated, Lies, and damned lies; we pray?
Method acting, Marlon Brando (I’m a big fan) but a particular method? Give me a break; 1000 actors = 1000 methods. If (nonsense?) was gold, actors would all be billionaires. Oh Woe Is Us?
Politics, The Greens and Peerless Pauline, surely not? On and on about Sussan’s leader-ship, vague true, far from convincing; equally (as I see it) neither has Angus Taylor as a replacement, and David Littleproud (obviously) bad mouthed all of them behind closed doors, occasionally in public? “Waiting for Godot” indeed.
And Albo? Dreaming of our love for him, occasionally over confident and putting his head out from under his doona.
Another bright and breezy Peninsula Post compliments of our Canberra Rep, MP Zoe, with thanks, wondering how Chris Brayne would have seen it all?
The pain of so many jumping to conclusions. A song comes to mind, “When I grow too old to dream”.
One day at a time. Collingwood for premiers? Sorry, joking. Sadly the master, John le Carre, never wrote about politics in Australia. Keep yourselves nice.
Cliff Ellen, Rye
