Your say: week beginning October 26

From the Editors

Notes from The Conversation newsroom

Every day, we publish a selection of your emails in our newsletter. We’d love to hear from you, you can email us at yoursay@theconversation.edu.au.

Monday October 26

“Regarding your article ‘There’s a hidden bias affecting what we know – and don’t know – about nature’, as someone who has worked for many years with researchers of the natural world (including government bodies such as CSIRO), I applaud the authors and study in this area. The evidence is clear: the cute and awesome certainly attract people’s attention. However, the survival of our current species is undeniably dependent on ecosystems. The key is to find ways to deliver this message to people and have ecosystems and animal relationships better understood. The web of life is so much more interesting than a study of a single species.”

Euan Belson

In reference to your article ‘Politics reflects society, and our society is in poor shape on many fronts’, I think it’s the other way around. It is society reflecting poor politics. The two-party politics in Australia (and many other western democracies) has become far too tribal. There was a time when all pollies worked and collaborated together to develop better legislation. Nowadays, MPs barely even dine with each other. But when we are given the option to elect a quality independent MP who genuinely represents their electorate, we see great results. Wouldn’t it be great to have a parliament with many more MPs like Helen Haines? Character matters. Integrity is essential.