The whitenecks of Crikey

Niall Clugston writes: Re. “Crikey says: Xi Jinping has no place in our Parliament” (yesterday). Crikey is becoming the megaphone for “whitenecks”: intellectuals who are as ignorant and intolerant as rednecks. So was Whitlam’s overture to the People Republic of China a mistake? Should we return to the Cold War? And, by the way, it’s not “our Parliament” — it’s the Parliament of the Queen of the decadent British Empire. Rather than being a place that operates “without bloodshed, violence or persecution”, the Parliament has presided over the White Australia Policy, the oppression of the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, political censorship, banning of political parties, secret police operations, and the declaration of countless wars. But I guess they don’t teach that in private schools … ?

Misleading energy statements

Michael Rook writes: Re. “Self-serving Business Council’s energy report poisons gas debate” (yesterday). So “… retail electricity prices have doubled in the last decade for residential and small business consumers and increased by 88% for large businesses …”

Finger pointing aside, why doesn’t the BCA — or Crikey for that matter — report price increases in terms that the average punter can understand? What annual price increase results in the doubling of prices over a 10-year period?

And when Origin Energy tries to explain electricity costs to its customers, why does it show the cost of “Retail Services” in the colour green in this chart, and the cost of “Government Green Schemes” in the colour grey? Is it because managing customer accounts (15%) costs two-and-a-half times the cost of the renewable energy target (6%)?

Correction

In yesterday’s story “Cyclists wheel out a good preference deal, but Country Alliance left hanging” we incorrectly stated that the Liberal Democratic Party would give its second preference to the Liberal Party in the Western Metropolitan region. In fact the Liberals get the LDP’s 20th preference — but still come in above Labor.