Though the prosecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery may be one of the great injustices of modern Australia, that doesn’t mean it will turn out well for the government pursuing it, say Crikey readers. The more the government tries to sweep it under the rug, the more Australians will remember. Meanwhile, readers hacked into the future of our Asia-Pacific neighbours (which have been rapidly developing despite Australia’s neglect) and reacted to INQ’s latest investigation: a look at Kerry Stokes’ dominance of Western Australian media.
On Witness K and Bernard Collaery
Mark E Smith writes: After watching Four Corners I wondered even more about the dumbness of prosecuting Collaery. Witness K may have been doing the right and moral whistleblowing thing but he was employed as a secret agent so it’s not hard to understand why he was prosecuted. Collaery on the other hand was just a lawyer representing his client. His prosecution guarantees the matter won’t go quietly into the night, as he himself promised at the end of the show. The executive have made their bed and must now lie in it. Another too-smart-by-half overreach by blithering bullies.
On development in Asia
Peter Snashall writes: I work at a university in Bangkok that was a provincial backwater when I got a job here nearly 20 years ago. With the rapid application of new technologies, it’s quite clear that many sectors of Asian economies are leapfrogging Australia. My university now produces fantastic graduates in many fields. Now it is Australia that is starting to look like a provincial backwater.
Roger Clifton writes: Most of the countries named in this article have populations similar to or somewhat greater than Australia. Since they are all developing fast, they are destined to join Australia as middleweight nations in the United Nations. We share a common future, and are more likely to look to our region than the more global powers, China and India.
On Kerry Stokes and the West
Wayne Robinson writes: I’m a shareholder in Seven West Media as a result of my being a long-standing shareholder of The West Australian newspaper. I voted against the merger in 2011, suspecting it would be a disaster, as it was. I refuse to read the local rags, preferring instead The Age. The final straw was when they started publishing Andrew Bolt as a columnist. I regard The West Australian to be Murdoch light, and actually not all that much lighter.
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Kathy Dawson writes: Thank you on your insightful article on Kerry Stokes and Seven West Media. As a born and bred West Australian I stopped buying and reading this rag a long time ago. I don’t know how successive editors could possibly see this newspaper as quality journalism. The West needs some quality competition. With the concentration of media ownership now being available to the likes of Stokes and Murdoch I think back to the sensible laws Keating introduced to stop this happening.