Prior to the Voice referendum, it is worth re-visiting recent history.

The Pilbara strike of 1946-49 was one of the most dramatic moments in Australia’s Indigenous history. Aboriginal people not only defied the owners of pastoral stations in North-West Western Australia by demanding better wages and conditions, but also sought to win independence from their colonial masters. In its aftermath, they acquired considerable freedom and autonomy through co-operative mining and other ventures. The story of this struggle inspired the campaign for Aboriginal rights throughout Australia. The Voice is a continuation of this – no surprises here, it’s called natural decent progress – don’t panic.

• J Lawrence, Flynn ACT

Bill Stefaniak’s ‘Superannuation: A big test for the federal government’ opinion piece (CW 2 March 2023), endeavours to portray defined benefit Commonwealth superannuants as fat cats needing a haircut because the government is going to prune the largesse tax concessions for multi-millionaires. Contrary to what Bill would have readers believe, the average Commonwealth superannuation pension, excluding MPs and judges, was $39,100 in 2021. That’s a long way short of the “solid but not a motza” pension of $113,000 those with $3 million in super will generate, as Bill quotes.

The 5% super deduction he refers to was paid by public servants from after-tax salary and was compulsory for those wishing to be a public servant. No such compulsory retirement savings measure was imposed on other workers who could, if they chose, save in a way that ensured they’d receive a full or at least a part Age Pension. 

As for the haircut Bill recommends for Commonwealth superannuants, he may be interested to know that the scissors were sharpened and savagely used from the mid-1990s, when the CPI, used to index Commonwealth superannuants’ pensions, was modified so that it no longer adjusted pensions to reflect the real prices people pay for goods and services. No fewer than three Senate enquiries recommended, unsuccessfully, that this unfair indexation mechanism be scrapped for something more appropriate and fairer. The severity of those haircuts continues to cause Commonwealth superannuants’ pensions to increase in percentage terms by about half that of the Age Pension over the long term. Very much a short back and sides haircut, eh Bill?

• J Coleman, Deakin ACT

You keep this up Mark Parton (CW, 2 March 2023), namely, your railing (pun intended) against the fiscally disastrous and irresponsible tram to Woden, you will have my wife and I on-track (again, pun intended) to vote Liberal at 2024 ACT elections for 1st time in our septuagenarian lives!

And can only hope (perhaps forlornly), you are also prompting many other similarly jaded and horrified “never before voted Liberal” Canberrans to be also similarly inclined.

• W Fyffe, Cook ACT

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