According to the UK Daily Express, "Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite stated: "I believe they [the people] want to have a say in who our next head of state is and I anticipate there will be a rejuvenation in republicanism in Australia when the Queen's reign ends."

Mr Thistlethwaite is the Labor opposition Shadow Assistant Minister for the Republic.

In his commentary, Mr Thistlethwaite conveniently ignores the fact that Australia became a sovereign nation in 1901 and no one disputes that we have not been totally independent of control from the United Kingdom for decades nor that we are not a mature country.

The fact that the monarch of Australia is separately the monarch of the United Kingdom and other realms is Australia's choice.

Under our system the Governor-General, now always an Australian and nominated by the Australian prime minister, becomes our effective head of state.

Our system of governance has become completely Australianised over time whilst still maintaining the checks and balances inherent in a constitutional monarchy.

Furthermore, the newspaper article itself was wrong when it claimed that the "republican movement in Australia had previously successfully campaigned in favour of a referendum on the monarchy."

Quite the reverse.

The 1999 republic referendum ended in total defeat with, on an electorate basis, 72 per cent voting no to a republic and however hard republicans may have tried and despite there being republican prime ministers in power for over eight-and-half years during the past 13 years, no government has been game enough to put change to a republic to the people again.

The Australian constitutional system of governance may not be perfect, but republicans have never been able to put forward any alternative that denies politicians absolute power in the same manner that the current system does.

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Sam Hatzis seems to be advocating the wearing of masks as a no-brainer way of avoiding COVID infection ("Masks just common sense", December 29). On the contrary, masks mostly protect other people from you, rather than you from them.

The retail masks that most of us wear draw air (when we inhale) mainly from the - unfiltered - sides and gaps; it's our exhalations that will be more likely trapped in the body of the mask so that the wearer, if diseased, has a lesser chance of infecting others. And I'd agree that that's a good thing, but it's the opposite of what Mr Hatzis is saying.

For the same reason, hospital staff wear masks (and gowns and gloves) so that their exhalations are minimised when patients are opened up on the operating table - it's not to stop them breathing in a germ from your appendix, it's to minimise your internal exposure to whatever they might be breathing out.

Any letter writer who signs-off "Take care poddies", whatever that means, whilst bringing in "election year" warnings about deliberate political disinformation should first examine the quality of their own logic.

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