PRICE OF EGO-DRIVEN LEADERS
Your editorial may be right in that for most Australians there is no direct connection with Ukraine and the war ("Invasion felt throughout communty", The Daily Advertiser, March 3).
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However, it will impact upon Australia and its people. For example, Russia has recently imposed restrictions on the export of fertiliser, and this is having a major impact on the farming sector. It will only get worse with the war.
The personal impact goes beyond those Ukrainians living in Australia when one sees a 13-year-old daughter come home from school crying because of what Putin is doing to innocent men, women and children in Ukraine.
Such a heartfelt reaction is real. It also brings home to us the behaviour of that other autocrat - President Xi of China - who seems bent on attacking Taiwan, an independent, democratic nation.
In both instances, they are facing the wrath of communist regimes with no good reason to go to war, apart from the ego of the two leaders - Putin and Xi.
Perhaps both need to get in the ring and punch it out until their testosterone is spent? The world will then once more be at peace (well, almost).
Michael Organ, Murrumburrah
GOVT OUT OF STEP WITH VOTERS
The disparity between issues that matter to Australians and the corresponding federal governmental inaction is striking ("McCormack downplays climate change issue in election as reader poll revealed", The Daily Advertiser, February 28).
Climate change, for example, is reported as the number one issue to Australian Community Media readers with 43 per cent listing climate and the environment as one of their top three concerns.
Yet, Australia scored zero for climate policy in the recent Climate Change Performance Index and the Morrison government continues to actively support further fossil fuel development.
Last financial year, $10.3 billion in subsidies were provided to fossil fuel industries. People all over Australia understand that it is in our best health, social, and economic interests to protect our natural environment and rapidly address climate change, which means rapidly switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
The upcoming federal election is our chance to vote for representatives who will actively pursue these vital goals.
Amy Hiller, Kew, VIC
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KICK OUT RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR
An ambassador is not simply a senior foreign ministry officer sent abroad to head up an embassy.
An ambassador is the personal - repeat, personal - representative of the head of state of the sending country to the head of state of the receiving country.
Thus the Russian ambassador in Australia, Dr Aleksey Pavlovsky, is President Putin's personal representative to our head of state.
Do we need the personal representative of a war criminal in Canberra right now?
Why hasn't he been declared persona non grata?
Lindsay Reves, Hawker, ACT
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