As readers continue to critique the My Health Record controversy, some argue we’re losing sight of the larger issue. Plus, it’s clear that Australia needs ABC shows like The Checkout, so what is the opposition going to do about it?
On the man behind My Health Record
Zut Alors writes: Thanks, Bernard and Crikey. This was the prompt I needed to go online to opt out. Mission accomplished. One of life’s mysteries: how executives/high fliers/management boffins with consistent lacklustre records transfer seamlessly to a series of other highly paid positions.
CML writes: You are all missing the point. I was a registered nurse for the best part of 50 years. In an emergency situation, the retrieval of information at the touch of a button could mean the difference between life and death. If you want to die in such a situation, then be my guest. But DON’T attack the very people whose hands you have tied with your “opt out” crap! By all means fix the problems described, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater!
Greg Mundy writes: Ad hominem attacks on Kelsey are fair game but the debate about My Health Record shouldn’t be about specific personalities. Kelsey didn’t design the MHR. A debate between personality types (paranoid/trusting) could go on forever…
On The Checkout getting chucked
Robin writes: One does have to wonder about these decisions. Much of what the ABC produces is more or less worthy rubbish, but The Checkout is a great program, not only informative, but consistently inventive and funny. What possible logic can have led to its being suspended?
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Marcus Hicks writes: Make no mistake, Media Watch will be next on the chopping block. Murdoch and his minions will only tolerate being made to look foolish for so long.
Simon Mansfield writes: Labor should commit to explicitly funding The Checkout team and its various consumer news stories and features. Probably one of the most successful shows in making business and government lift its game.
Susan Rushworth writes: The Checkout achieved the perfect balance between information and entertainment. It appealed to my 15-year-old daughter and my 60+ housemate alike. It was — and I hope will be again — a genuine national treasure.
On Labor instability
Ian Harvey writes: Thanks Guy for highlighting the reasons for my disillusionment with the ALP over many years. More of the same old same old factional warfares fighting amongst themselves rather than fighting the LNP. A gift to the LNP that keeps on giving!
The same old patterns keep emerging. Good public policy presented to the electorate and then going to water when the powerful vested interests apply the “blowtorch to the belly” …. Is it any wonder that the electorate is tuning out, myself included, when the paucity in the quality of leadership in government and opposition has been on the nose for so long?
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