Garret & Abbott:

Keith Binns writes: Re. Friday’s editorial. As I’ve said before, Peter Garrett was dead meat from the moment he joined the Labor Party. He was “kernoted” (as in Cheryl): wooed, won and then not respected in the morning.

None of his major concerns about the environment have been addressed seriously by his party. He would have been better off going to the Senate as a Green.

Niall Clugston writes: Your editorial comments, “It’s now almost a prerequisite that the people who succeed as political leaders are automatons. Maybe, just maybe, Tony Abbott can break that mould.”

Since when has Action Abbott ever been a conviction politician or a policy maverick?  He has always been robotic as everyone else, though perhaps more in the mould of a Terminator action figure than a protocol droid.

Renewable electricity:

Dr Mark Diesendorf, Deputy Director, Institute of Environmental Studies,  University of New South Wales, writes: Re. “Ziggy voted down in public debate on nuclear energy” (Friday, item 17). The story by freelance journalist Timothy Roberts puts words into my mouth that I didn’t say at the big debate or anywhere else.

The offending sentence is: “Dr Diesendorf believes Australia could install a 100% renewable mix by 2020 using off-the-shelf technology — at an affordable cost of 3.5% of annual GDP. ”

The date I mentioned for 100% renewable electricity was 2030, not 2020, and I made no estimate of the cost.

Macquarie:

Mark Ptolemy writes: Re. “Tips and rumours” (Friday, item 7). After reading the little piece where my name was mentioned, along with the description of non-Socialist Left members of the ALP in the branches in the Federal seat of Macquarie as part of the “forces of darkness”, I really have to scratch my head and wonder why we are plagued by these nutters in the ALP.

It is unfortunate that a minority of self-proclaimed intellectual elites in the Blue Mountains feel so threatened by pragmatism. Dealing with these loonies, who huddle in the corners of Branch meetings whispering and muttering, can be quite tiresome. Still, those of us who are not part of some local Left cabal (which has been manipulated for many years by clever MPs), feel that the party can be better off without the politics of exclusion, which has been long part of the Labor scene in the Blue Mountains.

Many of us are also against branch stacking, an issue conveniently overlooked by those who like to take the moral high ground frequented by Socialist Left activists. However, frustration aside, I will be staying around to cause the muttering nutjobs from the extreme Left more angst in the years ahead. That I promise.

First Dog on the Moon:

“Buzz” writes: Re. “First Dog on the Moon” (Friday, item 6). Here I am in hospital after double knee replacements and I’ve had to purchase extra internet cards from the hospital because I’ve been downloading too many First Dog ‘toons and Crikey video clips.

Now I need even more internet time to make my own movie for the Flopfest competition.  I wonder if Medibank will reimburse me?  It’s more effective than Prozac.

Perhaps this is an idea for hospitals to make more money — an additional medical test to ensure their patients have an addiction to First Dog so they can flog more internet time.