No hope for taxi drivers while Uber’s around

John Amadio writes: Re. “Uber channels Obamania for some hope and change of its own” (yesterday). I know it is ok to “slag” on the cab industry, but as a driver in South Australia ,who knows that his owner has to pay about $1000 per week to lease a plate and meet govt statutory requirements before even starting the car. How can a cab compete price-wise with Uber? Once the taxi industries in each state are devastated will Uber still keep cheap prices? I think it is a case of “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and people need to be careful. Look at what has happened in other countries. Fair competition? I think not.

Conway Restom writes: According to David Plouffe, “personal human interaction was now the most powerful campaigning tool, and this could be achieved through social media”. Really? But social media is just “electronic graffti”. I know, our Prime Minister said so.

Collins Class not so disastrous

Shaun James writes: Re. “Andrews invents a new tender process” (Tuesday). I was very surprised to see Crikey‘s comments that “Australia has a wretched record of building submarines, and giving the job to ASC would have risked a repeat of the disastrous Collins Class procurement process”. How did Crikey arrive at that conclusion?  Surely not through reading the Daily Telegraph. Certainly the project had some problems as you would expect from such a bold venture, and a lot of lessons have been learned along the way, but the end result was a world class submarine that we should be proud of.  It was far from “wretched” and “disastrous”, with the local industry performing quite well.

The idea that the project was “disastrous” was introduced through the unprecedented political attack against this defence project used by John Howard and has somehow stuck despite all of the facts to the contrary.  I would have thought that Crikey would have seen the political spin. Please have a look at the attached report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute about the project if you are interested in reviewing Crikey’s opinion.

On Henderson Australia Day Honours

Patricia Tancred writes: Re. “The story behind Henderson Australia Day honours” (February 4). Umm, but Gerard, couldn’t Anne, that is, Mrs/Ms Henderson, author, commentator, refugee advocate, all round intellectual asset to Australia, have risen to her own defence? Rather than leaving it to, you know, her husband?