Letters to the editor, The Daily Advertiser, May 27

I refer to Paul Keating's unruly outbursts of late, and Malcolm Turnbull's crazier than ever "new ideas" when he has already left us with an unfavorable legacy of the Snowy Mountains river catastrophe a debt, blown way out of proportion, a project that may well never be realised.

Both these men (it would seem) are evidently desperate to be seen and heard on the world stage just to appear relevant and needed, which they aren't. People would rather listen to the ones of today have their say, as to how, they feel, we should all live our lives today to suit them - and we already have enough crazy views and actions from today's misguided element to cope with.

It's time Keating and Turnbull closed up shop and really retired from politics gracefully. Time for the media (with guts that is) to draw more attention to the real issues, like an ailing economy through lack of proper management.

When an overtly conservative columnist has a gratuitous swipe at another commentator, that columnist might at least be expected to take account of the facts - all the more so when claims of wisdom are involved (Wheeler's Wisdom, Daily Advertiser, May 24).

Wheeler takes issue with Stan Grant's opinions - expressed during coverage of the recent coronation - about the impact of British settlement in this country.

He asks "is Grant seeing himself as the fall guy for the ABC cringeworthy coronation program?", and then opines "Grant should not take the criticism as a personal attack".

The sad truth is that Mr Grant (one of this country's best read and most insightful observers) was condemned not because of his opinion but because of who he is - an outspoken First Nations man. It hardly get more personal than that.

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Confirmation can be found in the fact that he, rather than others who appeared on the program in question, is the one who has borne the brunt of criticism.

As for Wheeler's espousal of a view that "the past is a foreign country", the best that can be said is that it smacks of ignorance, or at least a wilful closed mind.

The impact of British settlement, whatever benefit it may have for sections of Australia's current inhabitants, has been entirely disastrous for First Nations people. Their dispossession (with no compensation) and the subsequent murders, rapes and sundry abuses, eg stolen children, by incoming settlers has a direct consequence in the parlous condition of so many of their number today.

Perhaps a reason for so much hostility to the Voice is a fear of some that unpalatable truth will be spoken by articulate and knowledgeable individuals like Mr Grant.

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