To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.

GAMBLING

We need major restrictions on gambling operations and not just on its advertising. Turn off pokies and casino tables for 15 minutes every hour. Open the venues at midday and close them at 10pm. Close them all two days a week. No online gambling. None, including the TAB.

Sounds harsh? It wasn’t that long ago Victorians had none of it and we managed fine. Privatising TABs birthed a monster. Pokies and casinos fed it.

State governments feel addicted to gambling taxes the same way sports clubs once felt about tobacco sponsorship. Sports clubs survived and thrived and so will the states.

Gambling companies and sports clubs will vehemently oppose any change and probably threaten lengthy legal action and more. The best way to counter this is counter threats of onerously detailed annual tax audits.

We know we can do this. The best time to start was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.Mark Freeman, Macleod

Public done over by political leaders

The gambling laws may be done and dusted and off the front pages, but the harm from gambling ads remains. Maybe in 10 years, when the regulator remains shackled and our kids are still watching gambling ads, knowing the harm they do, we will ask “why?“

Why are we still losing billions? Why do the major sporting codes and the media have so much influence? And why did our elected representatives allow this to happen?

If we don’t want to be done over in other areas by our leaders, then let’s see more of the integrity from the likes of Andrew Wilkie, Monique Ryan and David Pocock, and a lot less of the hungry hands of greedy lobby groups in parliament.Jenny Kashyap, Bentleigh

Voters ignored by those meant to represent us

We have a two-party system in Australia that is so focused on winning the next election that providing leadership and good governance is merely an accidental byproduct, a bonus if you like. And as governments are frugal in every way, they don’t give bonuses away easily.

They also don’t like being told what to do. The gambling legislation had almost universal support across the nation but ended up as a shell of what it might have been.

A cynic might look at which group would suffer the most from full and proper implementation of online gambling advertising restrictions, and whether a gambling lobby group pulled the strings to make the two parties dance.

We have been dudded, and we have little recourse in the matter. Gambling addiction will continue to grow and suicides caused by gambling will increase. You can bet your house on that.Greg Tuck, Warragul

Cup time cometh, and with it, heartbreak

With spring comes the racing carnival, a time of merriment and festivity culminating in the Melbourne Cup, with the wealthy, racing elite jetting in while sweeps and flutters galvanise the nation. Gambling will be swathed in fun, glitz, panache and beautiful people, affirming its social place as the way “winners” enjoy themselves, accessible through some means to us all.

As ever, Melbourne’s Crown Casino, and its interstate counterparts, will be heavily patronised and pulsating with high-rolling brio, notwithstanding the heartbreak of those who lose not just their money, but much more.

Online advertising may well be “grooming children and young people to gamble”, with elevated risk of suicide, as the late MP Peta Murphy’s study concluded.

What, then of the alluring, come-hither imagery around gambling that will soon pervade society, affirming its glamour, acceptability and centrality to adult life in Australia?Barbara Chapman, South Yarra

THE FORUM

Middle-class welfare

How does Ben Carroll propose guaranteeing his free dental care to those who really need it (″Free dental care for all: Carroll kick-starts campaign with $230 million promise″, 22/8)? Without some form of means testing, it looks like yet another case of middle-class welfare.

Low-income people are likely to end up waiting yet again, as those who can afford private dentistry clog up the new clinics’ obviously very limited capacity.Xavier Duff, Brunswick West

Abbott returns

Once again, Tony Abbott demonstrates why making him president of the Liberal Party was a gigantic mistake (″Tony Abbott backs Pauline Hanson’s High Court racial vilification bid″, 23/8).

As someone who never learns, he’s still intent on wasting everyone’s precious time fighting for the right to make utterly stupid racist comments. He and Pauline are the gifts that just keep on giving for Labor.

To quote Tony Burke’s response: ″I think it’s pretty hard to say we should have more racist hate speech than we currently have″.Julie Conquest, Brighton

Hanson’s double standard

Pauline Hanson will seek leave to appeal to the High Court over her rudeness to senator Mehreen Faruqi. The Federal Court found her tweet racially discriminated against Faruqi. Hanson claims the principle of free speech is at stake. Yet, at the same time, her and her One Nation party have banned this masthead, the ABC and The Guardian from attending their press conferences.

So, it’s fine for her to tell immigrant politicians to “piss off” back to their homelands but when three credible news outlets report facts she doesn’t agree with, they should be silenced.

Anyone wanting logic, consistency and a ″fair go″ from our political parties should avoid voting for One Nation.Kerrie Byrne, Port Melbourne

Sport’s bonding power

Some young people are disconnected from school and their local community, and some are turning to crime. An investment by the government and councils needs to be made in community sport for young people. The cost of participating in local community sports such as football, soccer, basketball, netball tennis, cricket etc. is very expensive.

All young people should be encouraged to participate in out-of-school-hours sporting programs. This would improve connection and engagement with other young people and the local community. Also, other free programs and support need to be more readily available to support parents with parenting and other issues.Julie Jones, Camberwell

Betrayed by club

Bravo, Malcolm Knox (″The deep reaction among Swans fans is the disgust at having been sold a lie. Can they fix it?″, 22/8). A perfect description of the feelings of shame, sadness and betrayal affecting many AFL supporters of every club at present. Despite my excessive enthusiasm for my chosen club, my kids have not developed an interest in AFL, and for that I have never been gladder. For the damage done to the victims and the AFL supporters at large, I have never been sadder.Eliza Allender, Templestowe Lower

‘Better’ starts at top

As a mother of young men, I find myself deeply concerned about the standard of leadership being set at the highest levels of our country.

Our prime minister recently appeared on a commercial podcast engaging in casual banter that included inappropriate comments about Kylie Minogue and a demeaning, juvenile attitude towards a culturally significant gift from the Japanese prime minister. This kind of locker-room humour diminishes the dignity of his office and the international relationships he represents.

For the leader of our nation to then lecture the AFL to ″do better″ regarding the recent Sydney Swans saga feels incredibly hypocritical.

Our young men do not need public lectures on behaviour from a leader who lowers the bar of his office for ″casual banter″. They need to see genuine respect and mature conduct in everyday life. True leadership is not about instructing others to ″do better″– it is about having the character to model basic decency.Jodie Brown, Northcote

Show Swans support

What’s the point of a Swans supporter walkout? The alleged offenders have been suspended for breaching club rules; police are investigating; the club has not just been in damage control but genuinely acknowledging the issues and apologising profusely to alleged victims, to families and to supporters. The club at this time needs the affirmation of its supporters, not a walkout.Brendan O’Farrell, Brunswick

Systemic misogyny

It is encouraging to see the swift response regarding the alleged mistreatment of women by members of a football team (″Sydney’s night of debauchery″, 22/8). However, I only wish we had such soul-searching and analysis of men’s behaviour when it comes to the shocking statistic of one woman murdered a week and the ongoing crisis of domestic and family violence in this country.

When do we start focusing on the behaviour of the men responsible and the systemic culture of misogyny in this country? That’s the type of royal commission we need, rather than Band-Aids and platitudes.Denise Stevens, St Kilda

SpaceX display

The SpaceX rocket, recovered from the Indian Ocean and on its way to Christmas Island represents an unequalled museum acquisition opportunity.

Like the whale skeleton at the Australian Museum in Sydney, this rocket should be hung up under the roof of the new Parramatta Powerhouse Museum. All they need to do is buy it, temporarily display it in Darling Harbour and then float it up the Parramatta River next time it floods. It could hang from the Powerhouse’s ceiling, or it could be put on the site of Sir Thomas Brisbane’s former Parramatta Observatory (1822-47).Garry Dalrymple, Earlwood, NSW

Arts Centre hides assets

Arts Centre Melbourne was built as a public cultural institution, not simply as a group of theatres to be opened when performances are on.

Yet, on repeated visits I have found large parts of the building roped off during the day, including areas where works by Arthur Boyd and other major Australian artists are displayed. When I have asked why, I have been told it is because of OH&S and staffing requirements.

What makes this especially hard to justify is that Arts Centre Melbourne is now advertising $25 guided tours of its public art, architecture and interior spaces.

These are not simply foyers for ticket-holders before and after performances. Public access to the building, its interiors and its art was part of the original conception of Arts Centre Melbourne. Much of the art was commissioned, acquired or donated to be seen and enjoyed by the public.

Occasional closures are understandable. Routine exclusion is something else, particularly when access can apparently be provided once the public pays to be escorted through.

The public should not have to buy a guided tour to gain reliable access to public art in a public building.Andrew McIlroy, Blackburn North

Buying into class

While it is unarguably true that some schools are better than others, what parents are really buying when they purchase a $2million house in a sought-after government school zone (“Home in desirable school zones comes at a cost”, 22/8) is the companionship for their children of other children whose parents can also afford a $2million house.

In other words, they are concentrating cultural capital in some schools and reducing it in others, and this cultural capital has at least as much to do with the success of the students in the school as any teaching by the school itself.

It is exactly the same process as that of parents who pay for a $1million house and then spend another $1million sending their two children to a high-fee independent school for 13 years each. The class division in the government school sector is as great as that between the government and the non-government sector.Chris Curtis, Hurstbridge

Feathered athletes

Surely, one of Age columnist Tony Wright’s finest contributions was a recent ode to his favourite seabird, the gannet that frequents his western Victorian coast (“These diving dinosaurs have defied death forever. But what now?”, 13/8).

He gives an electric description of gannets plunging into pilchard shoals: “Each bird soars, spins into a vertical dive and in the split second before piercing the water, folds its wings and becomes a perfect arrow ... Each bird hits the water at maybe 100km/h, spearing deep... The fierce intent of it.“

He segues to gannet resilience, despite past pillaging and predators. But now its crowded breeding colonies are highly vulnerable to lethal bird flu.

Thanks, Tony, for sharing your sense of wonder, and your hope that these feathered athletes can survive.Joan Reilly, Surrey Hills

Not written by AI

What a beautifully written Ode to Winter, by Ann Rennie in the Sunday Age (23/8).

Her descriptions of leaving home for an early commute by train, observing passengers and places, feelings and memories, takes the reader with her and evokes their own experience and memories of the wonders of winter.

Such personalised prose could never be composed by AI. Thank you Ann, for reminding us that AI will never replace a human’s eloquence and creativity.Judy Nichol, Ringwood East

AND ANOTHER THING

Former premiers

Several recent Liberal-led state governments have been defeated due to pursuit of economic rationalism: Nick Greiner, Jeff Kennett, Campbell Newman, Steven Marshall (and federally in John Howard’s infamous WorkChoices). However, public goods and services serve human welfare and should be enhanced, not destroyed.William Fraser, Holder, ACT

Jeff Kennett would seem to be a little disconnected from climate change (″The world according to Jeff Kennett″, 23/8).Colin Nicholson, Brunswick West

Well, we remember “to be Jeffed” (23/8). Wholesale sackings of the public service and privatisation of public assets come to mind!Greg Curtin, Nunawading

Swans

It must be time for an AFL round that promotes treating women with respect.Matthew Hamilton, Kew

All adult football players must be taught the all-encompassing meaning of the term role model. It applies to their behaviour at all times, not just on the field.Peter Hendrickson, East Melbourne

Re the Swans saga; maybe it’s bird flu.Peter Dodds, Montmorency

What is it about the Swans? Always working to snatch defeat from the jaws of an approaching victory. Even the now remote possibility of winning the flag would be a pyrrhic victory.James Ogilvie, Kew

For peace of mind, focusing on ″scams, modern slavery and the Swans″, as your Letters correspondent (23/8) playfully suggests, rather than on the man who is doing his best to destroy the Western alliance, world trade, peace in the Middle East and democracy itself has a certain appeal. But I’m not sure that putting a bag over our heads is the answer.Claude Miller, Castlemaine

Finally

Thank you, Tony Wright. One is often left with a feeling of despair after reading the newspaper. Your columns reminded us that there is still plenty of goodness out there.Bronwyn Petrie, Portland

The opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.