Commenting on the opinion piece: God help us: Why niche politicians love a religious war

“Binning the central prayer of the Christian faith is about banning a religious practice. It’s hard to see it in any other light.”

The light seems to have gone out from Mr Abraham’s reasoning.  The argument put forward for removing the Lord’s Prayer is that it is not inclusive for all attending the parliamentary chambers, and also neglects the fact that South Australia is a secular state and not beholden to any religion or belief.

Then to go on and denigrate the Greens by saying it is political grandstanding (and abusing the ABC regarding a completely unrelated topic) makes one wonder whether Mr Abraham has lost his journalistic nous. – Christopher Millington 

I have a clear memory of this fellow Alex Antic at the height of the Covid 19 pandemic appearing on Steve Bannon’s alt-right podcast, War Room, banned by Twitter for it’s violent rhetoric,  urging “real” Australians to “fight back”. What would one expect? – Gilbert Aitken

Instead of Lords Prayer, how about a modified and expanded version of the citizenship pledge covering: allegiance to Australia and its people; obedience of laws; faithful discharge of duties as a member of Parliament; frank and fearless debate in the interests of Australia and its people; respectful interaction with colleagues and the public. – Stefan Landherr

I nearly choked on my spicy lentil pie reading Matthew Abraham’s opinion about the greens calling for the Lord’s Prayer to no longer be read out at the start of a parliamentary session. He might want to check the census data on how many people still identify as Christian and ask himself whether it is a reasonable thing for parliament to act guided by a god that less than 50% of the population believe in.  Also, the tie-dye sledge is kind of unoriginal and tedious don’t you think? – Greg Sarre

Commenting on the story: Bumpy road ahead for electric car transition, industry group warns

State and federal governments show a complete lack of ability to set the appropriate policies for, or to manage, the implementation of these types of “transitions”.

Look at the (needed) deregulation of the financial system in the 1980s; the push for renewable energy with no apparent planning for the needed changes to the distribution and firming infrastructure; the collapse of the local motor vehicle industry; pushing the mentally ill into the community with little support; the closures of domestic liquid fuel refining and the lack of domestic fuel reserves etc.

How about the SA Government releasing its modelling on the impact of their planned increase in the number of electric vehicles on the electricity system? – Darryl Gobbett

The media, including InDaily, is currently full of stories about the transition to electric vehicles. However, nearly all of the stories miss a type of EV that could solve a few societal issues in one fell swoop: namely, electric bicycles. With the humble electric bicycle, we could reduce our fossil fuel dependence, reduce traffic congestion, improve the health of our society, and even free up land currently allocated to car parking.

The Federal Government strategy mentions what it terms micro-mobility which covers e-bikes, scooters and even skateboards. It even asks about what government policies could support the take up of these. However, we also need state and local governments to make further progress on creating a connected and safe network for pedal and electric bikes.

South Australia still trails the rest of the states in the amount of money that we invest in cycling infrastructure, and hence we have very low rates of people cycling for transport. This is despite our city and state being fantastic for using a bike to get places. And the problem is that people don’t feel safe. There has been improvement over the 30 years that I’ve been travelling around by bike, but we have a long long way to go. – Jon Holbrook

Commenting on the story: Flowers from France: Sleuthing a Remembrance Day letter

Beautiful read. Thank you. – Michelle Wilksch

What a beautiful article, and a warm tribute to Remembrance Day. Would love to see more articles like these on such occasions. – Cassandra Cook