Despite my reservations, I will stay true

I remember how sad it was for Melbourne when The Argus folded, never to be seen again, just the wonderful building in Elizabeth Street.

It is sad again today with Fairfax but this time there is a commitment to keep The Age's charter of journalistic independence from its new masters. After seeing the headlines that Nine will acquire Fairfax, my first impulse was to cancel my subscription. Then I thought of all the journalists whose articles I have admired for decades. Commonsense prevails and this subscriber stays true.

Margaret Raffle, Keilor East

A verbal commitment is not good enough

As a long-time Age subscriber, I would feel more reassured about the proposed merger if the new board's verbal commitment to honour the charter of independence was in writing. This commitment should be explicitly stated in an open letter in The Age and the other mastheads. Let us be true to the motto "Independent.Always".

Les Garrad, Chelsea

Please, let us get our priorities right

I would happily stop delivery of The Age and support the war on waste by using less paper and, even worse, the plastic it comes wrapped in, if only I could do the crossword interactively. Will Nine CEO Hugh Marks and Greg Hywood facilitate this before hard copy is history?

Gina Brotchie, Murrumbeena

Costello, the chairman that I do not want

I bought my shares in Fairfax to try to gain some say in the attempt by Conrad Black to acquire it. I am not happy to find that its new chairman will be Peter Costello, the man who squandered our last minerals boom on tax breaks for the already wealthy.

John Poppins, Mount Waverley

Recognising our country's great newspapers

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield could hardly contain his elation when commenting on the Nine-Fairfax merger. Not a peep that Fairfax publishes the oldest continuous newspapers in the country, the Sydney Morning Herald (founded 1831) and The Age (1854).

No sense of history, Senator Fifield, just a good news story for your conservative mates who want to reduce media diversity of opinion and control public debate in this country. Former prime minister Paul Keating summed it up best when he said, " Channel Nine, for over half a century, has never other than displayed the opportunism and ethics of an alley cat".

Neil Hudson, East Melbourne

The bottom line: freedom of the press

Mergers, for whatever reason, must never threaten or interfere with the independence and freedom of the press.

Bill Pugh, Sandringham

THE FORUM

Please, don't cut Zits

The world as we know it is about to end and Australians are holding their collective breaths in anticipation of dread now that Fairfax Media and Nine will become partners. I will wait and see whether much changes after the merger. However, if the cartoon strip Zits, by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgen, is removed from The Age, I will cancel my subscription. I tolerate a lot of foolishness but I will not tolerate the absence of Zits. So there, be warned.

Sigbert Muysers, Ballarat East

A long wait for help

A fraud squad of 100 officers is being created to catch people ripping off the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The NDIS is already severely understaffed, leaving people with a disability waiting months for support. This includes children who have been left without equipment. Malcolm Turnbull, reduce the waiting time by hiring more staff and investing in staff training for the NDIS.

Shirley Humphris, Geelong

Yet another long wait

Centrelink should serve our pensioners rather than tell them to "go online" to avoid delays. Australian taxpayers and pensioners deserve a better performance from Centrelink.

Murray McInnis, Melbourne

It's time to grow up

Isn't it pathetic to have even New Zealand's acting prime minister say Australia needs its own flag? Some of us been saying that for years. Our current flag was only given official status in 1954: before that, it had a red background but Bob Menzies thought it looked too "bolshie".

Look at Canada – a great, distinctive flag, adopted in 1965. And the country is still part of the Commonwealth. As for New Zealand, it voted recently not to change its flag. Grow up, Australia. A new flag. Now.

Jack Burchall, Carlton North

The latest in water

Evidence of a lake, filled with salt, on Mars (The Age, 26/7)? I see an export opportunity for our barely used desalination plant in Victoria. It would be easy to market: "New Martian water, it's out of this world. You've had the bar, try the bottle".

Steve Haylock, Mount Waverley

Civility in the Senate

If David Leyonhjelm wants to fights wars of conquest (Comment, 26/7) let him find one on another part of the planet.

He and Sarah Hanson-Young are both elected senators and, thus, professional colleagues, whether they like it, and each other, or not. I expect my elected representatives to behave with at least professional civility to one another, however much they might disagree.

Senator Hanson-Young may be an opponent, but she is not an enemy, and Senator Leyonhjelm should fight his little wars of conquest in places other than the nation's law-making chamber. Perhaps the nation would be served by him returning to the schoolyard sandpit and leaving the business of making our laws to the grown ups.

Kris Hansen, Ringwood

End the suffering

The plight of the mainly Australian greyhounds rescued from Macau's notorious Canindrome racetrack (The Age, 25/7) mirrors that of farm animals that are exported live.

Once they leave Australia and the profits from their sale are pocketed, no thought is given to the abuse and painful deaths that they suffer in countries which lack animal welfare protection. It makes a mockery of the claims of our Prime Minister and his government that Australia has the best welfare laws and practices in the world. They count for nothing once animals leave our shores.

Jan Kendall, Hawthorn

Plastic everywhere

I am always angered to see McDonald's' plastic packaging flying in the wind, stuck in a tree or floating down river where it is bound to endanger our wildlife. My friends and I have organised regular clean-ups of the Merri Creek but no matter how much plastic we pull out of it, more keeps on coming. The majority of the plastic cups, lids, straws and cutlery has the McDonald's logo on it.

Yes, it is the responsibility of customers to dispose of their rubbish correctly. But when the amount of waste that is coming from one business is so visible, it is that business' responsibility to take action. I want McDonald's to reduce and, eventually, eliminate its plastic packaging. Its participation in Clean Up Australia Day is not enough.

Carly Robertson, Northcote

The match we want

This afternoon: top of the ladder clash between Richmond and Collingwood. A full house at the MCG. Channel 7's offering? Sandringham versus Box Hill. Not good enough on a cold winter's day.

Don Grimes, Bright

A two-week suspension?

For his attack on the integrity of the game, in his "trial rule" proposals for this season, and for the rush to judgment on new rules more generally, I charge Steven Hocking with "bringing the game into disrepute".

Richard Rawson, Mount Waverley

In spirit, if not in body

One Nation will use life-size cardboard cut-outs of Pauline Hanson to stand in for her at polling booths. Fact check: it is true that they are as good as her.

April Baragwanath, Geelong

Cameras for safety

Helen Goodman says "5km/h can mean the difference between a serious and minor injury in a collision" (Letters, 26/7). I would believe the research if the United Kingdom and much of Europe – which have considerably higher motorway speed limits than Victoria – had considerably higher rates of carnage than Victoria, but they do not. Also, if the speed cameras are there to save lives, why not locate them in the most dangerous places for accidents instead of safe places to raise money?

Laurens Meyer, Richmond

It's simple: more toilets

Thank you, Monica Dux (Spectrum, 23/7). I too, have had many frustrated conversations with women in "loo" queues and wondered why, in this post-feminist and "me too" age, we still put up with it.

My worst experience, with my 10-year-old granddaughter, was at the Regent Theatre. The queue came up the stairs and snaked around the foyer. Upon eventually reaching the toilets, my granddaughter was struck by the large space in front of a handful of toilets. "Couldn't there be more here?" she asked.

Why, in extreme circumstances, can't an usher control the use of disabled toilets – certainly prioritising them for those with a disability, but also allowing distressed children access? I agree, Monica. If men had to queue in this demeaning fashion, the required changes would have been made long ago. Let us make it happen for our granddaughters.

Toni Holdstock, Glenroy

Come clean on 'stacking'

Wesa Chau says that "some in the ALP persist in assuming that members from ethnic and culturally diverse backgrounds are nothing but stacks" (Comment, 24/7). Labor's administration needs to examine all cases of alleged branch stacking, enforce the party's rules and expel those involved.

It has shown little appetite for such an exercise. The consequence is that "stacked" members survive in large numbers, most commonly in safe ALP electorates. In these circumstances, it is no surprise the party has trouble attracting new members. The denial of member participation in decision making – such as the current pre-selection of federal parliamentary candidates – also saps the members' enthusiasm and commitment.

Ian Hundley, Balwyn North

Givers and takers

The letter from Tom Daunt, Aldi Australia's CEO, to Dick Smith says it all (The Age, 27/7). He says: "We proudly support an Australian first buying policy and have shared our growth with hundreds of Australian manufacturers and thousands of staff who have been direct benefactors of our business growth". He obviously misunderstands the meaning of the word "benefactors".

Tony O'Shea, Avoca

Easing the congestion

Melbourne City Council's proposed congestion charge for motorists (The Age, 25/7)' would not be ideal. Peak hour congestion is often the result of private cars having one occupant. If they carried three or four people, including through ride sharing, traffic would reduce significantly.

We also need more "park and ride" facilities serviced by public transport, taxis, and Uber or private vehicles. The under-utilised parking at Flemington, Sandown and Pakenham racecourses, all served by rail, would be a good start. Werribee racecourse is about one kilometre from the railway station. Other sites of up to 200 car spaces could be found or created in the middle and outer suburbs.

Des Grogan, Sorrento

AND ANOTHER THING

Fairfax/Nine merger

Maybe we would be reassured if the merged company were named NineFair.

Robyn Hewitt, Carlton North

A merger of fact and fiction.

Ann Shephard, North Fitzroy

Malcolm Turnbull "welcomes" the takeover. Would he be so welcoming if the ABC took a 51.1per cent share of News Corp?

Chris Braden, Spring Gully

Another compelling reason to vigorously defend the independent ABC.

Ian Maddison, Parkdale

I'm looking forward to Sam Newman's incisive weekly columns on federal politics.

Kevin Summers, Bentleigh

Nine gives Fairfax a new life, perhaps heralding a new age.

Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook, NSW

Say it ain't so.

David Baylis, Mentone

Will the Fairfax Theatre keep its name? I hope so.

Elaine O'Shannessy, Wandin North

The corks can be heard popping at the IPA. The Age, next our ABC.

Thomas Marshall-Wood, Stratford

Save The Age.

Liz Utting, East Geelong

David Syme just rolled in his grave.

Keith Remington, Travancore

Politics

Abbott must realise by now that there is no God. He hasn't been struck down for his nastiness and racism. Plus the sin of pride.

Heather D'Cruz, Geelong West

The solution to Centrelink's delays in processing applications for benefits and pensions: MPs' expense claims to go through the same system.

Mark Brooks, Benalla

Keating's rapier-like responses may have lost a millisecond but his vocabulary is as apposite as ever.

John Walsh, Watsonia

Paul Keating is the love of my life.

Jean Tansey, Berwick

Come back, Paul Keating. Please.

Bill Davis, Ballarat

Thanks, David Leyonhjelm, for reminding me to vote Green.