On corporate tax

John Richardson writes: Re. “Is Treasury another victim of the great corporate tax heist?” (yesterday). So, is Bernard Keane really surprised by the coalition’s plans to loot our national purse? Australia has been a permanent crime scene since the first fleet, with its natural resources stripped away and populace abused at every turn by rapacious foreign interests, with a few home-grown pirates thrown in for local colour along the way; all enabled by successive gangs of crooked politicians of every hue and a bought and paid-for media.

It was Joseph Goebbels who proclaimed that “The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed.” More remarkable is what Goebbels didn’t observe, which is our readiness to accept that all our political leaders lie and deceive us all the time, and rather than consign them to the trash can we are simply content to anoint those who we think will lie to us the least.

On Vote Compass

Les Heimann writes: Re. “Vote Compass complete bunkum” (yesterday). So Crikey considers Vote Compass as complete bunkum simply because people get pro-active about something instead of waiting to (never) be asked. With respect I point out that if people opt in, they have gone out of their way to voice a concern, and if many thousands do that they are more relevant than the so called silent majority.

I know of no one in my large circle of friends and acquaintances, regardless of their political persuasion, who wouldn’t applaud a federal ICAC. In fact I would go on to say that I have no doubt whatever that if either of the major parties were to promise the creation of an ICAC with clear terms of reference then the one that got in first would be on a major vote winner. Combine the promise of an ICAC with the abolition of 457 type visas and whoever promised such would sweep to victory in this federal election.

Of the so called “new jobs” how many have been created through visas be they 457 or overstayed students and how many jobs included in the total number in Australia are filled by visa people? We are not stupid, we can all reference at least one job we know of is a “false 457”. Corruption is far too prevalent in Australia and everyone knows. So what about it pollies: want to win an election or are you also too corrupt?