The only way to secure an economically sustainable Australia with lower skills shortages is to lower immigration back to the long-term average cap of 70,000 per year – and seriously invest in local education and training.

William Bourke

Wollstonecraft, NSW

Succession planning has gone awry

Re "More than a third of ASX100 CEOs are foreign" (April 24).

It is unclear from the article the proportion of these CEOs who are immigrants and those who have come under a 457 visa. This lack of clarity and potential conflation is symptomatic of our modern society's desire for a headline, however meaningless, rather than solid analysis and conclusions.

As worrying as the seemingly protectionist-driven changes to the 457 visa regime are, an important question is why boards feel the need to import from overseas so many people to fill CEO and CIO positions. It appears to confirm that boards, whose membership comprises ex-CEOs, have been remiss in ensuring proper development and succession planning for their successors from their pool of Australian staff. Surely the 457 imports who end up in the top jobs here are those who have missed out on the top role in their own country.

There are many Australians, both native-born and immigrants, just as talented and skilled as people anywhere in the world, who have lived and worked in Australia and overseas for global companies. Isn't it time to appoint on the basis of real meritocracy rather than simply riskmitigation?


Michael Lifson

Westleigh, NSW

Reduce migrant intake to relieve pressure

The Australian government is fiscally broke. It's running a huge budget deficit that is adding to its interest bill. At the same time the economy risks a slump as apartment construction slows and resource prices weaken again.

To alleviate demand pressure on social services, education and health the government should halve the permanent immigration intake.

To avoid any racist overtones the humanitarian component should be expanded. Significantly slowing Australia's population growth would also reduce pressure on house prices, city congestion and stagnant wages.

To rescue the economy the government should embark on a massive public works program to expand intra- and intercity transport infrastructure and fund it by requiring the Reserve Bank of Australia to adopt quantitative easing through buying government securities. Such securities should take the form of share capital, not bonds, to avoid lumbering the federal Treasury with additional debt.

The reason Australia has an overvalued currency is that the central banks of America, Europe, Britain and Japan have engaged in massive credit creation, whereas ours has not. Globally, excess industrial capacity and record indebtedness have seen bank loans used for asset speculation and share buybacks rather than productive investment.


If Australia embarks on quantitative easing it should avoid the mistakes of other countries. The Reserve Bank should directly fund public works rather than boost bank lending for inflating house, share and bond prices for the already asset rich.

Professor Percy Allan, AM

Percy Allan & Associates

Public Policy, Management and Finance Advisers

Balmain, NSW

Fast train to ruin

Whilst Peter Knight's enthusiasm for high speed rail is undoubtedly genuine, it is extremely disappointing to see yet another proponent asserting that a $200 billion project "would cost government nothing and would not increase government debt." There has not been one project or high speed rail organisation that has not either needed significant government financial support upfront or been bailed out once in operation and that includes the four biggest systems built to date in China, France, Spain and Japan.

It is not clear what project or technology Mr Knight was in fact referring to but if it was the proposition being advanced by Consolidated Land and Rail Australia, then this is a funding approach entirely unproven on this scale anywhere in the world.


For any fixed infrastructure public transport system, government is the lender of last resort and would not want to risk the opprobrium of having a failed project standing derelict as a testimony to poor decision making, as is the Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System.

Agreed, we do need improved rail to serve the regions, but there are much better and more financially modest ways to achieve that, and with commensurately much less risk to government and taxpayers. Unfortunately, these have been ignored for the past 30 years.

Peter Thornton

Killara, NSW

Pipeline sale a farce

What a wonderful contribution to Anzac Day from our politicians with the carefully timed and choreographed announcement the WA Dampier to Bunbury gas pipeline will be sold to the Chinese, with the approval of the Treasurer Scott Morrison and the pliant Foreign Investment Review Board.

After weeks of listening to ministerial outpourings about respect, values, inclusiveness, tolerance, sacrifice, service and every other cliché from the globalist hand book, the announcement of the sale was to be hidden in Anzac Day events.

There is certainly no real respect for our community when this one-time vital public asset joins other major asset sales in being handballed on to eventual Chinese ownership.


I'm forced to write this letter because I don't expect a murmur from any senior backbencher, senator or associated seat-warming factotum.

Gerard O'Neill

South Perth, WA

No method in march

The March for Science is a meaningless gesture. It is inspired by people, among them scientists, who are seeking to silence the sceptics of climate science, essentially on the basis of what is referred to as "consensus science".

Scientific method does not bow to consensus. Unless the participants were equipped with at least major high school maths, physics and chemistry, and preferably a degree majoring in those three, they have scarcely been exposed to the rigours of the scientific method.

Peter Brun

Vaucluse, NSW