Hands in cell bars
(Image: Adobe/Private Media)

Dr Jeanine Leane writes: I’d like to thank all at Crikey for publishing the very moving and disturbing article by Aunty Geraldine Atkinson “‘Children don’t belong in prison’: We shouldn’t wait four years to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14”. I acknowledge your commitment in giving this crucial plea the space as not all media outlets do.

I belong to the Wiradjuri peoples of the Murrumbidgee River in south-western NSW and live in Victoria where I teach creative writing and Indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne. I was born in a country town in the 1960s and educated in the country through the 1960s and ’70s at a time when Blak kids would be sitting in class one day and institutionalised the next — mainly never to return to a fully functioning life after incarceration.

In response to the question “Is the Victorian government kicking the can down the road by waiting four years to raise the age of imprisonment to 14 years?” posed at the end of Aunty Geraldine’s heartbreaking story of what happens to First Nations children when (not if but when) they are locked up as children — usually for stealing (space doesn’t and probably never will permit all that I want to say about the hypocrisy of locking our mob up for “stealing” in a nation that is still an invasion site) — I want to say that it’s worse.

If the Victorian government was kicking a can it would just be a lot of empty white noise. But the Andrews government is not just kicking an empty can down the road, it is kicking our children down the road. It is kicking our futures down the road. The first premise of cultural genocide is harming, taking and killing our children. Despite all claims to the contrary this nation is still hurting our children, is still practising cultural genocide.

I implore you, Dan Andrews, please stop locking our children up at 12. Please raise the age to at least 16.

Mark Pearce writes: To follow up on this article that only opens the topic: are you able to access under freedom of information (FOI) a disclosure article that addresses the demographic breakdown by age, nationality, term of imprisonment, alleged crime and geographic distribution? I fear it will in fact show that a white 10-year-old from Vaucluse who may have bashed and robbed someone of $200 will serve no time but a 10-year-old Indigenous child who stole $20 worth of goods from a supermarket is thrown into a prison cell. What do the facts tell us?

The Sky is falling

Tim Stephens writes: I am horrified that one of Sky’s funniest comedies is going to be harassed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) (“‘Systematically spreading lies’: Turnbull and Burrow laud watchdog’s Sky News climate crackdown”). There is nothing I enjoy more than watching and giggling at all the great Sky after dark shows. And has the ACMA given any thought to where all the angry old white men are going to get their quality information/conspiracies from? Certainly not from Crikey, The Conversation or heaven forbid the ABC!

Roger Clifton writes: Foxtel has chosen to air the wilful misinterpretation of the denialists instead of the analysis of the experts. 

The evidence in the ice cores does support CO2-driven warming. The ice cores show long periods of slow cooling, separated by short periods of rapid warming. In the subset of records showing warming, the CO2 concentration leads the temperature, showing that CO2 is the cause of the warming. In the rest of the ice cores the CO2 lags the cooling, where the CO2 is being taken down by a cooling ocean and weathering of rock. 

In our period, the ocean surface will be too hot for a long time, so any projections of CO2 reduction have to rely on very slow weathering processes deep into the future. As far as human history is concerned, the excess CO2 is up there forever.

Digging for truth

Geoff Ballard writes: After reading “Deep-seabed mining is creating a noisy problem for Australia — and it’s only getting louder”, two thoughts spring to mind:

  • Has anyone examined the impact of depth charges — mostly during WWII — or the atomic bomb blasts on atolls in the Pacific? I would think that sea mining noise would pale in comparison?
  • The Greens are seemingly opposed to mining underwater the very minerals that are required for the production of carbon-free power generation. They can’t have it both ways, surely?

Murdoch v Monash

Allen Brown writes: Before we sanctify Sir Keith Murdoch (“Where to now for Lachlan Keith Murdoch and the values he espouses?”), let’s not forget his disgraceful attempted undermining of Sir John Monash, who was possibly the best general of WWI. Murdoch’s tactics included telling PM Billy Hughes that Monash was not supported by the officers under his command, an outright lie.

Fortunately, Hughes checked the situation for himself and found Monash had the full support of his officers. Monash went on to win the Battle of Hamel, an important turning point in the war, through his innovative tactics.

Too close for comfort

Margery Clark writes: I am very uneasy about Richard Marles and Christopher Pyne being almost bosom buddies (“Marles and Pyne: the game of mates plays on as questions on probity count for little”). It makes me wonder about Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as this is the second incident regarding a minister on his team, namely Michelle Rowlands as communications minister who accepted money from gambling interests. All it took was her assurance she would never do it again and everything died down.

This is a big problem when we have an incompetent opposition. It never followed up on these allegations and is totally distracted by its ridiculous claims about the Voice.