Public transport's time has come

Nick Lewocki Nearly 50 years ago, I started working on the NSW Railways as a station attendant at Glenfield Station.

Australia the postcard

Simon Caterson Economists may differ on the so-called two-speed economy, but there seems little doubt we have a two-speed culture.

The cost in blood of your new gadget

Elizabeth Flock As you try out your new Christmas-induced electronic gifts, you probably will not think about the minerals your new mobile phone, laptop or digital camera run on.

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Christmas: it's the turkey of holidays

Michael Coulter The worst thing about the festive season is the whingers. Bah, we say, and humbug too. Santa Claus is coming to town, and with him travel all the horrors of the season.

Last post for something we rely on

Heckler SO THE powers that be are closing my post office. They can't justify it being there any more and they say it's unprofitable. Well, of course it's bloody unprofitable, it's a post office.

Hop on a tram for one hell of a scary ride

Chris Middendorp As they take off, so do you, propelled down the aisle into all and sundry.

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Be kind to cabbies, they're smarter than you think

Ross Cameron Just for a change of pace, and in the season of goodwill to all mankind, I'd like to make a few remarks in defence of the taxi industry.

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Oh light rail, where art thou?

Chalpat Sonti On the horizon, says Colin Barnett, but will anyone use it?

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We'll all be marooned, says Hanrahan

Jessica Irvine PERHAPS one good thing to come out of the floods is that we're all officially allowed to complain about the rain again.

Officials oblivious to severe disability

Lindy Alexander Bureaucratic nonsense insists on annual proof of a hard, unchangeable fact.

Aunty's state of neglect

Bruce Guthrie The ABC needs to find a way to make The 7.30 Report relevant to Victorians.

Dignified way to give the poor a hand up

Michelle Sainsbery Imagine not being able to relate to your peers or research an assignment because you're the only child in school without a computer.

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Pooch pie on the menu if we don't cut ecological pawprint

Matt Smith Family pets are a big contributor to Australia's greedy use of resources.

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Retracing the lines of the past makes for a read-letter day

Warwick McFadyen Longhand may be increasingly passe in the digital age but revisiting missives from loved ones imparts a journey of the heart.

Spreading ourselves too thin

Robert Nelson We shouldn't blame public transport for the unwieldy mess of our cities. The failure is stultified thinking on density.

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Let's set our My School sights to above average

Paul Kidson IT'S great to see the ''clever country'' and the ''knowledge nation'' choosing to publicise its commitment to being ''average''. That is a reasonable conclusion if the public debate is to be believed.

Cloistered kids make terrible adults

Julie Rudner If my parents had raised me the same way now as they did in the 1970s and '80s, I'm sure they would attract the ire of other parents.

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The power of prose

Jane Sullivan When she was on a drip undergoing chemotherapy, Judith Graley sought comfort in Jane Austen's world.

Indonesia's reforms hit a roadblock

Tim Colebatch Both Australia and its giant northern neighbour are drifting, with leaders whose big ideas for change have been shelved.

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