Give Kevin a go

June Conway writes: Re. “Lay off Kevin Rudd” (yesterday). I totally agree with David Arthur’s assessment that Crikey has some bats to pitch at Kevin Rudd. Whatever has this highly intelligent man ever done to make people so disdainful and hateful of him? Who hasn’t got some faults? But how many have the brain capacity to offer solutions to the world’s problems. Not many! It seems to me our hatred is centred in our DNA to destroy our intelligentsia. No one can be more important or knowledgeable than me. Wayne Swan suffered this syndrome when Rudd was dux at high school. The First Peoples of Australia have declared their support for Rudd from his genuine Sorry speech, which Howard could not utter. I wish they would nominate him on behalf of 4% of our population.

And  don’t forget his winning formula of giving money  to the people, not the banks, thus keeping  Australia from recession. He gained recognition from world authorities for this achievement but was not recognised by the opposition. Lately he has gained the prestigious office at Harvard Uni on Asian policy, and surely it is time to give him a chance at attaining just a nomination for UN Secretary-General. It is just a nomination, not a selection, and Turnbull is not on the selection panel. Australia is in desperate need of a statesman and that achievement is so remote with our current  lot. All Mr Turnbull had to do was give the OK to Rudd and then let him face the outcome. Bipartisanship is impossible with Turnbull and the Libs, as the hard right of the party is so enamoured of their divine right to rule. The election though told a different story. Please give him a go, as I can’t see any other Australian with the same capabilities as Kevin Rudd.

Gooda will be great

Hugh McCaig writes: Re. “Why Mick Gooda should have been disqualified from NT royal commission” (yesterday). Michael Bradley let off a lot of steam to eventually have a go at Mick Gooda the Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner, now one of the two royal commissioners into the scandal of  NT  youth detention. Gooda had  tweeted/commented his shock the day after the ABC’s  Four Corners program ran the horror of the detention and treatment over a number of years of young Aboriginal boys. Michael, get real, Mick Gooda is human, he’s Aboriginal and his view was in line with the majority of viewers of the program — you’re being unnecessarily  legalistic.