Our readers tell John Howard what he should do in his third term - Part 2

This was not a one off case and my point is that in the era of high speed transmission of email and large Ministerial staff a letter that has no content of interest should not take 5 months to produce. It MUST be a case of 'If you can't outwit 'em, outwait 'em'.

Similarly should you go to the taxpayer funded Parliamentary web site you will find the email address for many, many Members and Senators. Not however for the Minister of Defence or the PM. Admittedly it is possible to go to the PM's page and email him from there with a fiddley little reply form that has no spell checker and is totally different from your normal email program. It is very time consuming. It is not possible to do so for the good Senator from South Australia.

Nothing drives home more clearly the thought that Canberra is a town filled with middle aged white males that have dismissed the technology age as irrelevant than this comparison.

I sent an email to Newt Gingrich the former Speaker of the House in the USA, the PM of Australia, the Government of New Zealand and the Minister for Vets Affairs. I couldn't find an email address for the new Minister of Defence. From Gingrich I got a credible email reply addressing the question in 48 hours. From our PM I got a 'thanks for your email' email in 48 hours and then silence. From the Kiwis I got, inside 14 days, two separate hard copy letters filled with detail from both the PM and the relevant Minister. From our relevant Minister a hard copy letter was received. The first one took two months and said little. The second on a different but related matter took five months and said nothing.

I support the Government. I hope it takes action on this failing. I just hope that they don't write to me about it in five months time.

From: Rosemary Lynch
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 5:32 AM

Although disinclined to support Mr. Howard in any way at all, the most obvious issue is one close to his family tree: the entitlements of employees to long service leave, holiday pay, and superannuation must be removed from the capacity of employers to pilfer in the hope of personal or proprietary gain, and protected by federal legislation immediately.

Immediately.

OK for a first try, I s'pose.

From: E.J.Thomas
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 8:02 AM

One of the most pressing issues is Environmental issues.

Why are we having so much land cleared particularly in Queensland. Why is it so difficult to tell people not to clear?