Letters

Missing freebies in the west . . .

WHEN are Connex and the State Government going to get a clue? Our state transport system is riddled with problems that need urgent solutions and their answer appears to be heavy-handed attempts to book good-spirited travellers the second the clock hits 7.01am.

I travelled recently on the 6.50am Werribee service on a free early-bird ticket (after the 6.38 Williamstown service was cancelled, mind you). The carriage was visited by eight trenchcoat-clad inspectors demanding tickets. At 6.57am they proceeded to aggressively inform every traveller that their 7am early-bird ticket was to be used to reach their destination by 7am. Some travellers attempted to inform the inspectors of the earlier cancelled Williamstown service, with little success.

Genuine travellers who were to arrive at Seddon or Yarraville stations a few minutes past 7am were made to look like common criminals.

Is this how Connex would like to promote early travel to its customers? There have also been reports of commuters being booked before 7am for not holding or validating the not-so-readily-available early-bird tickets.

There is a simple solution. There is no need for any inspector to be on any train before 7.15am. It is that simple. I'm sure you can find something to spend the savings on.

Zane Laurie, Newport

. . . and in the south-east

CONNEX'S "free" train service before 7am is not charity. The absence of any later "free" period means that an early-bird traveller is committed to paying a full fare for the return trip. At best, this is a half-price deal for travelling off-peak.

But on Friday morning it wasn't even that, because the 6.06 from Dandenong, the last free train into the city, was cancelled. After a Connex staffer confirmed to me that there would be no free tickets for the 6.23, and that early-bird tickets would not be honoured, I validated my full-fare ticket. The cancellation earned Connex a few hundred full fares from passengers who otherwise would have travelled free.

Connex might say it's impossible to give free tickets to all affected passengers because some stations are unstaffed. Yes, but whose fault is that? Of course, some passengers would validate their early-bird tickets and fail to pay the required fare. So what would happen when they got to Melbourne Central after 7am? At the Elizabeth Street exit, staff simply opened the gate as if it were before 7am.

So the 6.23 was free after all. But Connex made me pay by telling me it wasn't.

Dr Gavin R. Putland, Dandenong

Third one is not a charm

WITH the tender for our rail network up for grabs, I'd like to fill you in on what 24 hours can be like when travelling to and from work on our Connex-run system.

Wednesday at Richmond station just after 5pm, a Sandringham line train has been cancelled. The platform runs deep with people and a second train is so overcrowded that only a lucky handful of people can board. Some 70 people are left waiting for a third train, 30-40 minutes from when we first arrived at the station. In peak hour.

Thursday morning at Windsor station, the same problem occurs when a train is cancelled. Thursday afternoon at Richmond station . . . no. Yes I'm afraid so. Third time in three trips. In peak hour.

Hang on . . . what was that? You've got enough problems trying to install a ticket system? But don't places such as Korea, Germany and Japan have ticketing systems that work, didn't take seven years to install and cost less than $1.3 billion?

Josh Slocum, East St Kilda

Underneath the spin, it's a sorry tale

IT'S sad and downright frightening when your report on the death of a baby during birth at the Royal Women's ("Mothers, babies 'at risk' ", The Age, 8/9), has to focus more on penetrating the unaccountable obstructive language of a batch of "suits", than on uniting to guarantee future safety, and showing compassion.

We now know that "escalation processes in critical situations" means "the hospital was unable to respond quickly enough in a crisis". As an English teacher, I will also recommend my VCE analysis students cut loose on the contradiction between the phrases "the death of a baby during a birth has led to an internal review" and "(our) risk management . . . resulted in successful mitigation of identified risks".

Evidently not a sufficiently thorough or exhaustive inquiry, or is it that the risks (underfunding and staff disenchantment) are all too obvious, and the gobbledegook is employed by negligent "suits" because they don't know how to be proactive and responsible?

It does not surprise in the least that the "document could change significantly, when finished" (that is, after spin has been applied), and contrary to the hospital spokeswoman, it is not in the least disappointing that they publish a draft document. It's mandatory, for openness, something they obviously need "counselling" about.

Robin Rattray-Wood, Rosanna

What hope now?

LAST year, I was kicked out of the Mercy Heidelberg four days after a caesarean, with soaring blood pressure, an ear infection and a baby with jaundice who wouldn't feed. The only thing about the Mercy that worked was the breastfeeding clinic. We were planning to go to the Royal Women's next time, for some quality obstetric care. What now?

Sue Picard-Peake, Coburg

Laboring the point

AS WE continue to provide a financial incentive for women to have babies, with the baby bonus, a baby boom continues.

Meanwhile, the State Government builds a new Women's Hospital that's too small and a Children's Hospital that will not keep up with an increased demand for services. Add to that a reduction in funding for lactation clinics and the routine discharge of new mothers within three days of giving birth (usually well before breastfeeding is established) and we will see a continued increase in the incidence of postnatal depression and a decrease in rates of breastfeeding. Great thinking from Labor.

Dr Dimity Williams, Ashburton

We must toughen up

PROFESSOR Garnaut's recommended climate-change target for 2020 is like going halfway to war. Fighting climate change requires a fully engaged emergency response, not a half-hearted one. Garnaut has tried to find middle ground, and admits that this could well lead to the loss of the Great Barrier Reef.

Climate change is not an issue for compromise. If effective reductions in carbon emissions are not made quickly enough, all Australians will suffer. This includes shareholders of the businesses that are arguing for exemptions to the emissions trading scheme or threatening to move overseas. Do they expect to find a long-term haven from carbon pollution on this planet?

The Government needs to set tougher targets as this is the only way to influence other countries to work together for a global solution.

Stephen Miller, Carlton North

Undoing capitalism

THERE is a flaw in the American system of capitalism: If a company is owned by shareholders, the shareholders should bear the brunt and cost of the failed institution, not the entire taxed population, which doesn't own the firm ("US loans rescue plan", BusinessDay, 8/9).

Even though more than half of American mortgages are under Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the US Government should not, under the principles of capitalism, seize control of the entities. The nation, made by the people for the people, is now run by an oligarchy for the oligarchy.

This decision may calm the markets and send stocks northwards, but it serves the oligarchy more than the people or the US.

Luke Mansillo, Panania, NSW

Saying sorry

THE article by Michael Gawenda (Comment & Debate, 28/8) was written with little regard to the views of the Japanese Government and misconstrues our Government's position.

Chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono released a statement in 1993, expressing sincere apologies and remorse and recognising the issue was, with the involvement of the military authorities of the day, a grave affront to the honour and dignity of a large number of women. The Government of Japan has since expressed its sincere apologies and remorse to the former "war-time comfort women" on many occasions. Successive prime ministers also sent letters expressing apologies and remorse directly to each former "comfort woman". The claim that "the Japanese Government has not only refused an apology, but has continued to argue that the brothels were not officially sanctioned and what's more, many of the comfort women had volunteered for sexual enslavement" is not based on fact.

The Government of Japan has expressed its apologies and remorse and will continue to maintain this position.

Yasufumi Kotake, acting consul-general of Japan, Melbourne

Pondering the alternatives to life

I HAVE never met my mother. If she is still alive, she will be 90 years old. She gave birth to me and surrendered me for adoption in 1940. I have often wondered what she is like, who she is. I tried for some years to trace her but my inquiries led to dead ends.

Most recently, as the Victorian Parliament debates the question of legalisation of abortion, I have wondered whether she made a conscious choice to give me life or whether, in the social climate of the time, she really had no choice. Then I got to thinking, what if circumstances had been different and she had lived in an era with attitudes and laws more similar to those in place today? What if she had made the choice not to give birth to me?

Whatever the reality of her situation, I thank my mother for giving me my life, just as I thank my adoptive parents for years of love and support. I only wish I could have told her to her face.

Paul Power, Richmond

Crime is no answer

DECRIMINALISING abortion does not send women racing to have abortions. Canada has had no criminal law on abortion since 1988, and its abortion rate is much lower than in Australia.

No one "wants" abortions, but some women need them. History shows that if women believe they require an abortion they will find a way to obtain it, legally or illegally.

Abortions are a serious medical issue. They should be taken seriously - as a medical question. Adding requirements for "cooling-off" periods and mandatory counselling only creates extra hurdles for already-distressed women, and ensures later procedures take place.

The answer to reducing the abortion rate is reducing the rate of unwanted pregnancy, with better education for girls and for boys, and better access to contraception.

Dr Bronwyn Naylor, law faculty, Monash University

Time where it counts

AS A teacher with 38 years' experience, I was pleased to hear that Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard recognises the value of practical experience for student teachers in the classroom ("Gillard faces clash on teacher training", The Age, 8/9).

In the past couple of decades, tertiary courses have taken up more and more of a student teacher's training, giving them less time for face-to-face classroom experience. While some tertiary courses can be valuable, others can be dispensed with and replaced by greater time in the classroom learning from experienced teachers.

Warren A. Sapir, East Bentleigh

Bona fides, from beyond the grave

ARE the privacy laws in this country insane? It seems that unless you know the exact day and time you are going to die, and notify government departments and service providers in advance, you are setting your executor up for a bureaucratic nightmare. My mother passed away three months ago and I have lost count of the number of hours I have wasted enduring ridiculous conversations with idiotic government departments and large companies.

Hundreds of people die in Australia every day. How can these faceless organisations be so ill-equipped to deal with this? I have been astonished at how many times I have been asked to put my dead mother on the phone. After repeating that my mother has passed away, I am regularly asked to get her to call them to give me authority to deal with her affairs (yes, Telstra, VicRoads and NAB, I'm talking to you). One major bank wanted her to "pop in", and its staff member was shocked when I said "it's going to be difficult".

Losing a loved one is stressful enough without having to grapple with the stupidity and downright rudeness of uninterested administrators who hide behind "privacy laws" to be deliberately unhelpful.

Robyn Selleck, Blackburn

All in the family

TO KATH Brown and other "sensible" people (Letters, 8/9), no need to fret over the pistol-packin' mama or the terrifying prospect of her becoming a heartbeat away from laying siege to the White House. Instead, let's pray that she is a flash of fool's gold in the pan, destined for dim obscurity, a mere footnote on the pages of US history. Of far greater concern is daughter Dulux and her reluctant bridegroom, already hell-bent on choosing a moniker for the hapless infant. My money's on Drill.

Jill Mazzotta, Balaclava

letters@theage.com.au