Courageous Labor MP Trish Doyle gives domestic violence voice

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Courageous Labor MP Trish Doyle gives domestic violence voice

Congratulations on your editorial ("Abbott's credibility on the line over domestic violence shame?", May 17). Labor MP Trish Doyle gets my vote for Australian of the Year. It must have taken great courage for her to get up in Parliament and tell fellow MPs and the rest of the country of the domestic violence suffered by her mother.

Our parliaments should implement policies to help all those who are at grave risk of physical terror in their homes and by providing needed accommodation. Perhaps it would give politicians more incentive if it occurred to them that children are often the hidden casualties in these violent situations and which probably leaves them scarred for the rest of their lives. They should be aware, too, that women suffer from this vile thing right across the social board.

<i>Illustration: Cathy Wilcox.</i>

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox.

Lorraine Nelson Frenchs Forest

Chewing it over

Whether it be pizza wars, a cat cafe or a Japanese developer wanting a slice of the fish markets, Fairfax newspapers always provides food for thought ("Pizza War: claim may cost dough", May 17).

Peter Miniutti Ashbury

Med school cure

Australians are entitled to ask whether Tony Abbott's "calamitous captain's call" of deciding to throw his weight behind a plan to set up another medical school - at Curtin University in Perth - by offering millions of dollars in federal funding, is just another blatant attempt by the Abbott government to shore up softening Coalition support in Western Australia ("Abbott school call 'chaos' ", May 17). Cynical voters might think, Mr Abbott, that the fact that a few of those West Australian Liberal MPs agitated for a leadership spill a few months ago is behind your plan to curry their favour.

Eric Palm Gympie (Qld)

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Forgotten battle

Peter FitzSimons said that the Rats of Tobruk were "the first Australians to have contact with the Germans in World War II" ("Mighty Rats of Tobruk fade away", May 17). It may be true of Australian ground troops but it would appear that FitzSimons has forgotten the 25 Australians who were considered eligible for the Battle of Britain clasp to the 1939-45 Star, including eight Australians who became aces during the Battle of Britain. This included Pat Hughes, from Cooma, who became one of the leading aces, with 14 victories.

Tobruk was a vital victory for the Allies but we should not forget the Australians who, along with Poles, Czechs, British, Canadian, free French and even the then neutral Americans, saved Britain during that Battle of Britain and subsequent operations over occupied Europe.

Jonathon Troy Farrer (ACT)

High-rise sprawl

Your article, "Chinese bid for fish market expansion" (May 17), needed a cartoon, with residents in the high rises holding their noses at the stink from the fish market and insisting it be moved elsewhere. Once the city is sea-to-mountains high-rises, then what? Underwater?

David Neilson Invergowrie

Break shock cycle

Tow truck scams seem to emerge about every 15 years from my memory and each time new regulations are put in place to stop it ("Tow me the money", May 17). After a few years everybody, including the law, forget about it all and the scammers sneak back in.

Live baiting of greyhounds is another example of what goes on when the dust settles after a shock/horror expose and the law is brushed aside while the gaggle is goggling at some trivial celebrity with four hours of make-up obliterating any trace of humanity. The funny thing is that we all get shocked each time and ask why aren't there laws to prevent it - the make-up too please, as it is false advertising.

Richard Lynch Elizabeth Bay

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