Letters & Editorial

Anthony Albanese outlined his government’s first steps in a plan for universal childcare this week, and they were as sure-footed as any policy that has evolved through decades of setbacks. If Labor wins next year’s election, it will set up a $1 billion building early education fund. This is not a “cash splash”, as the Murdoch papers have described it.

There is perhaps no more perfect an illustration of the crudeness of Australian public life, the saucepan on one’s head stupidity, than the fact the commissioner of the country’s leading anti-corruption body is a member of the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.

When Queensland legalised abortion in 2018, only three Liberal National Party members voted for the reform. One of them, Jann Stuckey, says she was ostracised because of it. People in the party ignored her. Preselections were threatened. Eventually, she quit politics, citing depression.

Last month, when Zali Steggall accused Peter Dutton of racism, Sky News reported that the opposition leader was seeking legal advice. Presumably he chose not to pursue it. Truth is one of the few solid defences available under defamation law.