Hans Paas, Castlemaine.

I cannot let the letter from prominent local citizen and former mayor Robin Taylor go unanswered. Like Mr Bayliss, Mr Taylor’s assertions are completely unsupported by the facts.
“Weak sentencing of criminals” and an emphasis on rehabilitation is leading to the most substantial drop in crime rates we have seen in Victoria in decades. If of course you look for your facts in certain tabloid publications you would be oblivious of this.
No credible scientist supports the view that a temperature “rise (of) 1 to 2 degrees..would hardly pose a threat to our survival”. In addition we have the evidence of our own eyes indicating that this is now an emergency threatening, not future generations, but us now.
The recent blackouts suffered in Victoria were caused by the unreliable and old coal technology that Mr Taylor spruiks so enthusiastically.
When it comes to “workers’ conditions in Australia”, despite more than 20 years of outstanding economic growth and watershed corporate profits, Australian workers have been subject to a wages recession for more than half that time. These are not our ‘work choices’ but those of an elite who become richer and richer at the expense of ordinary Australians.
Immigration, long the driver of Australia’s economic development continues to enrich our nation economically and culturally. No need to worry about a Centrelink cost blow-out there, as the numbers show they get jobs more quickly, set up profitable businesses and pay more tax proportionately to the rest of us.
If I may, one comment on Ian Braybrook’s relentless push for a republic ‘A day we can all celebrate’. In 1999 we dodged a bullet with a model that ceded power to the politicians. If we make this decision based purely on sentiment we jeopardise our very freedoms. Doubtless that is why similar pluralist societies like Canada and New Zealand have stuck with a system that denies politicians absolute power.