Outrage over hate speech laws a confected contradiction

I reject Parnell Palme McGuinness’s attack on the government’s hate speech reforms (“Albanese loves to ban things. But PM, your prohibition fixation’s not working”, January 18). What is striking is not the legislation itself, but the sudden outrage from commentators like McGuinness who, since the Bondi attack, have been loudly demanding stronger action on hate, extremism and social cohesion. For weeks, we were told Anthony Albanese and the government must “do something”. Now that Albo has attempted to act, the response has been a pile-on, not to improve the law but to ridicule the very idea of trying. Australia has always drawn limits around speech that defames, threatens or incites harm. Hate speech laws sit squarely within that tradition. They do not criminalise disagreement or offence; they target serious intimidation directed at people because of who they are. Free speech cannot survive where fear silences participation. If governments are condemned both for acting and for not acting, then paralysis becomes the only acceptable option. That is not principled commentary. It is contradiction masquerading as concern. Denise McHugh, Tamworth

I am (somewhat unusually) in agreement with Parnell Palme McGuinness in opposing excessive banning and censoring. There need to be exceptions: incitement to violence, extreme personal abuse in public, spreading dangerous misinformation about medical issues, child pornography, serious defamation, dangerous driving, using unsafe building materials. Generally though, information is preferable to banning. But let us be consistent on the predominant perpetrators of banning: conservatives and sections of the religious right. It wasn’t Albo or the “left” who stopped Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Ulysses coming to Australia, prosecuted Oz magazine, chased out Yassmin Abdel-Magied or denied a visa to Chelsea Manning. And if we accept that we shouldn’t restrict tobacco products or vapes, why the ineffective bans on many other drugs, often no more dangerous? Al Svirskis, Mount Druitt

Room to grow

Correspondents (usually from older, leafier suburbs) are continually commenting that new housing estates do not have established gardens and shade trees. Given that new houses today are so much more energy efficient than those built in the past (solar, better insulation and batteries, etc), these correspondents would also be surprised to learn that the now-leafier suburbs had no trees or gardens when they were first developed 50 years ago. Bernie De Vries, Bolwarra

Waste away

In an ideal world, we would not need landfills and all household goods would be endlessly repaired, reused, repurposed, disassembled and recycled (“The dirty secret in Australia’s love affair with rooftop solar”, January 18). Though we might never get there, we should at least try. For a start, there should be a compulsory product stewardship scheme for all household items, including clothes and textiles. Only then will manufacturers be incentivised to design products for circularity. Jill Robinson, Randwick

The Albanese government deserves credit for finally initiating a national recycling scheme in an effort to do something about the four million solar panels that go into landfill each year. Experts say it could generate billions of dollars and prevent the waste of valuable materials such as silver, copper, aluminium and glass. Eric Palm, Gympie (Qld)

ICE thugs the real threat

The caption for the picture of a woman being manhandled by ICE thugs, published with a Sun-Herald story (“How Trump’s first year has ushered in ‘law of the jungle’”, January 18), calls her a protester. I have seen the video of that incident and she is a disabled person with autism. She was trying to get to a doctor’s appointment when she was blocked in by traffic, then violently removed from her vehicle and kidnapped. These Gestapo-like animals are in Minneapolis to create tension. They racially profile citizens, they pepper-spray peaceful protesters in the face at point-blank range. One 21-year-old man has been permanently blinded in his left eye. They flash-bang and tear gas them. Trump has no morality. He thinks he does, but he has proven that he does not. He is surrounded by sycophantic buffoons. They are the real domestic terrorists. Martin McNamee, Wollongong

Donald Trump has declared that control over Greenland represents “a very dangerous situation for the safety, security and survival of our planet” (“The four reasons Trump’s tariff threats won’t hand Greenland to him”, January 18). Agreed. Who would have thought that we would live to see the day when NATO allies were planning and arming to protect themselves against the USA? Nell Knight, Avoca Beach

While Trump and his yes-team abuse their own people, bully, ridicule, and abandon their allies, and attack, threaten and steal from weaker countries, the hardened despots Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are laughing all the way to world dominance. We are living in dangerous and disturbing times. Meredith Williams, Baulkham Hills