On the SSM postal plebiscite push

Reg Jones writes: Re”A postal plebiscite is a bad idea — just ask Malcolm Turnbull” (Wednesday)

Another concern I have is the secrecy of the ballot. With the Republic Constitutional Convention postal vote and some overseas postal voting, I know everyone gets the ballot papers out on the kitchen table and fills them out at the same time.

I worry that in more culturally conservative and patriarchal families, such as evangelical Christians and more fundamentalist leaning families of other faiths and denominations, the vote will done publicly as a family. In that situation any opportunity for the younger or female members of the family to depart from the wishes of the family patriarch are diminished, if not extinguished.

On the Murray-Darling basin

Les Heimann writes: Re. “Rundle: the Murray-Darling furore epitomises the failure of right-wing politics” (Wednesday) 

The good old boys in the USA once hanged horse thieves; they also killed each other for water.

This Howardesque Murray/Darling envelope developed scheme — and yes “scheme” is just the right word for it — is rapidly leaking into the grateful earth by theft. Minister Joyce shrugs this aside. Wake up South Australia; get the police to charge the cotton kings with theft., it is a criminal offence after all. Just another day in pollie-land.