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Urgent care praise
Like Millie Muroi, I went to an urgent care clinic when I tripped and sustained a small fracture in my arm when on holidays by myself (″⁣How I ended up in a Medicare urgent care clinic and liked it″⁣, 18/7). I went to a nearby hospital to find it did not have an emergency department but an urgent care clinic. I had never heard of them before, but my experience was overwhelmingly positive.
Within an hour I was assessed, medicated, x-rayed and had a consult with a physio, and in a taxi to a nearby hotel. My only cost? $10 for a sling.
I love urgent care and as a taxpayer am more than happy to foot the bill so that others can have the same sort of help in their hour of need.
Claire Wallder, Mooroolbark

Nation going nowhere
One Nation has always been the party of choice for climate deniers, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists. This has resulted in them having six MPs in the federal parliament – two in the lower house and four in the Senate. It is not a great return for Pauline Hanson after 30 years of trying. Now they are in the public eye as a potential other party to address the ills created by the other two major parties. But in doing this they must gain more votes than they did in the 2025 election. To attract others they actually have to create the semblance of a political party, not a protest party full of anarchists.
In the past few days we see them failing miserably when the conspiracy theories of Malcolm Roberts came to the fore. And in the midst of this imbroglio Pauline Hanson was overseas on a fact-finding mission mixing with conspiracy theorists and the like while staying at an Italian resort with billionaire Gina Rinehart. In the coming months One Nation is going to contest seats in the Victorian and NSW elections. Immigration is not on the agenda, that is a federal issue. Unless One Nation acts like a unified party with some kind of positivity, I think it is going nowhere fast.
John Rome, Mt Lawley, WA

Point to this suburb
As a fourth-generation Australian, I feel fortunate to live in Point Cook, one of Australia’s most multicultural suburbs. My neighbours come from every corner of the world, and our diversity enriches our community rather than diminishes it. I like living here, and I’m equally glad that I’m unlikely ever to run into Pauline Hanson.
Louise Lawson, Point Cook

Different perspectives
Waleed Aly (Comment, 17/7) suggests that Pauline Hanson has undermined her populist appeal by attacking paid parental leave, and complaining about ″⁣lazy″⁣ workers. He argues these ideas are not fresh or expressing views many people are thinking but mainstream parties refuse to say.
However, those drawn to Hanson might not see things that way. They might regard an employee’s decision to have a child as something beyond their employer’s responsibility, let alone be required to pay for. And employees complaining about their fellow workers being lazy, as well as incompetent and overpaid, might resonate with many.
Hanson could be operating in a new Trump-like, post-logic world that rational analysts like Aly still struggle to understand.
Rod Wise, Surrey Hills

Trumpian logic
According to Donald Trump, after eight years of Democrat Barack Obama, the 2016 US election was all above board and a fair outcome. After four years of Trump the 2020 election was rigged, stolen, and unfair. Then after four years of Democrat Joe Biden, the results were all fair and wonderful again. Now it’s descending back into chaos. I think I see a pattern here, America. If you want fair and democratic elections, make sure there is a Democrat in the White House.
Greg Abramovitch, Portarlington

American history
Donald Trump would be well advised to look into the history of America’s interference, not only by vote rigging but encouraging and funding the overthrow of foreign governments, before accusing China of interference.
Mary Biggs, Yarraville

Look to the autobahn
I agree with your correspondent (Letters, 17/7) regarding potholes. This has been a problem in the making for decades. Road freight transport has never paid for the damage it causes, and was able to provide unfair competition to the railways, so that today only 6 per cent of freight goes on rail.
In driving regularly to the south-west of Victoria in the past 10 years we have seen only two freight trains, but the number and size of trucks has increased exponentially, especially the super-heavy logging trucks.
Continually fixing the potholes will not solve the problem unless the state has the money to build roads to the standard of an autobahn.
Margery Renwick, Brighton

Betting on AI
One interesting side effect of AI will be its impact on gambling. If everyone starts using AI to pick their teams, dogs, horses etc, with its access to all the past and present information and its ability to forecast based on that information, it means AI will be able to far more accurately pick the winners. Go AI!
Laurens Meyer, Richmond

Gold standard baristas
Most of my generation will have grown up drinking tea. The only coffee readily available was instant powdered yuk. While tea drinking has in some sense gone backwards (tea-bags!), coffee-drinking is exponentially better. It’s no wonder Sydney and Melbourne are proud of their present-day coffee culture. As your correspondent notes (Letters, 17/7), for serious coffee culture you do still need to go to Europe.
You can, of course, also find bad coffee anywhere: I remain grateful that it’s now possible to enjoy good coffee.
Good baristas are worth their weight in gold – you know who you are.
Jenifer Nicholls, Windsor

Deafening odyssey
Have we been so surrounded with noise that we’re going deaf? Recently, my wife and I treated ourselves to Gold Class tickets for a screening of The Odyssey at the Village Cinema, Werribee. We were so looking forward to it, but our experience was marred by the unbearable volume of the sound system. It was almost a physical assault and, in some scenes, the whole cinema seemed to reverberate. I still had a headache the following morning.
I’ve seen many letters to The Age bemoaning the constant bombardment from the screens at AFL games. Why are such high noise levels deemed necessary?
John Funnell, Truganina

A great leaves the field
The years 1961-64 were my high school years. I spent some of the best summers of my life sitting behind the pickets at Adelaide Oval, packed out in those days, with my friend Jenny watching Gary Sobers belt the opposition in the Sheffield Shield competition.
Undoubtedly, he was the greatest.
Kathy Keech, Beaumont, SA

A joy to watch
As a teen I had the privilege of seeing Gary Sobers play in Sir Frank Worrell’s great West Indies team. Watching Sobers batting, bowling or fielding was pure pleasure. He was, without doubt, the greatest all-round cricketer, a man who displayed skill and sportsmanship in equal measure. He may be gone but the joy he gave a young man lives on.
Peter Loney, Drumcondra

Age of inquiry
Why is it always The Age that finds the corruption on government projects and not the government?
Jeffrey Newman, East Ivanhoe