COLES' chief operating officer, Mick McMahon, is to be applauded for his pledge to introduce unit pricing and his preference that the system be mandatory. However, his comment "our view is that unit pricing will benefit customers and we would prefer to see this adopted universally" ("Coles pledges clearer pricing", The Age, 27/5) is at odds with Coles' submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission grocery inquiry, signed by Mr McMahon and dated March 28, less than two months ago.

The submission, available on the ACCC's website, states that Coles expects that "competitive pressure will continue to ensure innovative and different approaches in marketing to customers that will deliver more benefit to customers than any mandated approach to unit pricing. In addition there are significant practical challenges in any mandated approach, including difficulties with definitions, different technology platforms and different approaches to marketing and innovation consistent with competing brand propositions. In short, customers will benefit most when retailers are allowed to compete and innovate."

One wonders what is behind the sudden about-face. Could it be that the ACCC is not the toothless tiger many thought it to be? Let's hope so.

Andrew Gigacz, Clifton Hill

Treat them like Telstra

MUCH has been written about the power of the big grocery retailers, and whether or not they are abusing their duopoly. Given the relatively high cost of food and recent food price inflation, there is probably a case to answer.

Clearly "Grocery Watch" is not practical, with hundreds, if not thousands, of stock items. But it prompted an idea: Telstra has to charge the same to all customers, regardless of location. Services to the country and the bush cost more, and Telstra is vulnerable to competitors who "cherry-pick" customers in metropolitan areas. That is the point. The only way to rein in dominant players is to make it easy for others to enter the market.

If this was introduced for groceries, Coles and Safeway could not afford to raise prices in metro areas without losing to Aldi, IGA and others. Customers in other areas would also benefit. The ability to charge higher prices due to a lack of local competition or artificially lower prices to punish existing or discourage future competitors would be gone.

Alan Dormer, South Yarra

Aim for the best possible

GROCERY shoppers should strongly support Coles' announcement that it is willing to display a checkout price and unit price for every product in its stores. Coles' support follows similar statements from Woolworths, also made in the context of the ACCC grocery inquiry. Aldi has already introduced a voluntary system. Consumer advocates are arguing for a mandatory, national, consistent scheme.

Under a voluntary system, unit prices are generally displayed in a small font that is hard to read. For the system to be effective, the unit price must be prominent enough to be easily read and understood by consumers. There should also be consistent levels of measurement. Without this, consumers would be unable to easily compare prices on loose products.

The cost of providing unit pricing is tiny compared with the benefits. The cost of a world's best practice system, which we need, will only be slightly more than a second-rate one. The ACCC should recommend the introduction of a compulsory, national, uniform, high quality unit-pricing system.

Gerard Brody, director — policy and campaigns, Consumer Action Law Centre, Melbourne

Keep human rights in sharp focus

ANDREW MacIntyre and Douglas Ramage (Opinion, 27/5) draw attention to the progress that has been made since the fall of Suharto, and the opportunities for Australian-Indonesian co-operation.

The ongoing reports from Papua of attacks and intimidation of Papuans by the ever-present Indonesian military, the recent arrests of Papuans during peaceful demonstrations calling attention to the legal and moral obligation to conduct the long-overdue genuine referendum on self-determination, the jailing of Papuans for displaying traditional symbols, and the handing over of ancestral Papuan land to a Malaysian oil palm company against the will of the Papuan landowners and with the involvement of the Indonesian military, are stark reminders that Australia's engagement with Indonesia should focus on the unresolved ethical and human rights issues that are so often swept under the carpet in the effort to protect economic and strategic interests.

Esther Anderson, Surrey Hills

A clear matter of age

SO A 13-year-old white girl is not old enough to consent to having her photo taken nude, but a 10-year-old black girl was quite capable of consenting to group sex with half a dozen males, including one aged 26 — technically old enough to be her father.

When will we realise that every child under 16 needs the full protection of the law?

Helen Woodall, Mitcham

Pardon us all

THE truth is that Colin Ross' pardon is more for us than it is for him. We can never make amends for the crime we perpetrated against Colin, his family and the family of Alma Tirtschke, the original victim in this horrible story. The reason this story still has relevance — why the pardon granted by the State Government is so terribly important — is that 86 years ago Colin Ross was murdered by a hysterical public. That public was spurred on by a media that whipped their passions to fever pitch because it knew it helped to sell newspapers.

The media of the day even printed the names, addresses and occupations of Colin's jury. Anyone reading the transcripts of the trial, printed in full on the front pages, could not help seeing there was little chance of Colin ever receiving a fair trial.

We still live in a world where media hyperbole, exaggeration and lies are a tempting way to increase circulation. The Colin Ross story is a gruesome reminder that sometimes much more is at stake than newspaper sales. The people of Victoria owe Kevin Morgan a debt of gratitude.

Trevor McCandless, Brighton

Robbing those who are in direst need

THE issue of deinstitutionalisation of people suffering from mental illness will not go away (Letters, 27/5). When, in the 1980s, the North-Eastern Alliance for the Mentally Ill and similar organisations gave this policy support, it was in the firm belief that thousands of mentally ill people were being kept institutionalised for years without any sign of their improvement — in fact, many were getting worse.

We believed that many patients, given adequate and suitable housing and social support, would do much better living independently in the wider community. For many this has been, and still is, the case. But for others, the policy has been a total disaster.

There just isn't enough public housing and social support for those who have been taken out of hospital and put back into the community long before they are well enough to cope — they would be better off in a suitable clinical setting. The bottom line is the reneging by former governments on an understanding that revenue from selling obsolete mental hospitals would go to providing public housing for those who had been deinstitutionalised.

This has not happened, with much of the money going into consolidated revenue. There is an urgent need to review and reassess the outcomes of this policy.

John Cohen, NEAMI foundation president and life member, Eltham

Time for heads to roll

IF VICTORIA were a company, and John Brumby and Lynne Kosky were on the board of directors, the ridiculous situation with myki would be a corporate disaster that would surely lead to a spill of the board or a call for their sacking at the next annual meeting. At this crucial time in our city's growth and with the shadow of global warming over us all, our public transport system is too important to be left in the hands of these reckless politicians. How much longer before real action is taken?

Paul Bugeja, Princes Hill

Put down the egos and get on with it

IF ONLY state Liberal members would put as much energy into developing effective policy in preparation for the 2010 election as they are into ripping each other apart, Ted Baillieu et al would romp home.

Labor policy and governance are sinking under the weight of a lack of understanding of the key issues, poor planning policy and implementation of it. This is coupled with appallingly bad and arrogant management of the state and the loss of any meaningful connection with the electorate at large.

For goodness sake, Liberal Party members, let go of your excessive egos and divisive, spiteful behaviour and start planning for government, along with the Nationals and Greens.

Such a party alliance would make for effective government, bringing together sound economic, rural and environmental management know-how — something we are badly lacking.

In the mean time, John Brumby should be renamed Premier Nero. After all, he is fiddling while Victoria burns.

Glenda Fisher, Woodend

Wasteful tit-for-tat

FOR years, experts have warned of the end of the age of cheap oil and the encroaching era of energy descent. We finally saw a public acknowledgement by governments and progressive industries that peak oil and global warming were scientific realities.

We then had a change of federal government in Australia, away from the blinkered Howard regime towards a Rudd alternative that said the right things about the ecological, economic and social crises that face us.

Today, sadly, we have a budget that fails to deal with any of these critical issues.

Unbelievably, the foremost political argument in the country at the minute is that the Liberals "stand" for cheaper petrol, and the ALP "stands" for stupidly following the Liberals into this pathetic and childish game of petrol tax tit-for-tat.

Patrick O'Neill, Blackburn

Bite-sized savings

HOW can the Government consider, even at a distance of a year, cutting the petrol tax to save "working families" the cost of an extra cappuccino a week, when that money could cover the cost of a means-tested dental plan for the real working families, who cannot afford proper care? For goodness sake, can we get our priorities right here?

Kath Brown, Ferntree Gully

Think of the children

I AM sure that the Child Support Agency is doing its best to investigate parents who are suspected of minimising their income in an attempt to avoid paying the right amount of child support, but there are probably many more parents than the "4186 parents — mainly fathers" ("Devious fathers dodging child payments", The Age, 26/5) who continue to misrepresent their income and are never investigated.

Unfortunately, it is often difficult to prove that a parent is avoiding child support liability, and pursuing payments through legal avenues is a lengthy and arduous process, beyond many parents' financial resources.

It is the children who should be the primary consideration for both parents but, unfortunately, this may not be the case due to creative accounting to reduce taxable income, and consequently, minimise child support.

Andrea Thursky, Wangaratta

Bagged for bragging

THE fisherman who caught the giant squid can talk only about how big it is ("Fishermen bag huge squid off Portland", theage.com.au, 26/5). Did anyone think to take a photo of the catch and throw it back into our decimated seas? What other wasteful loss of life did they bring up in their nets for the sake of a few dory? Our oceans are being plundered, species are being wiped out, and ecosystems are dying. This catch of the day is nothing to brag about.

Kae Norman, Armadale

Of culls and whales

IF THE "spin doctors" of whaling that Richard Gould mentions (Letters, 23/5) threw back the "little gem" of the Canberra kangaroo cull at us, they would be naive. There are too few whales and too many kangaroos. We have a duty to protect all animals where possible, but the method by which we do so differs by necessity. Whales are endangered, while kangaroos are breeding beyond the capacity of the land to sustain them.

Kangaroos are not the only animals to inhabit this land. Overpopulation threatens their own livelihood and that of other species as well.

Jennifer Hewlett, Bundoora

Definition of 'train'

LET me clarify the meaning of the word "express" to Connex and our parliamentary overlords.

"Express" as in "train" means "fast". Not to be confused with "farce", the result of my attempt to travel from Flinders Street to Heidelberg. I arrived at platform 14 at 9.20am for the 9.24am express train and waited. The non-express 9.30am and 9.35am trains arrived and departed platform 1. After dashing to platform 1, I watched the 9.24am express roll in at 9.40am, so sprinted back to platform 14, not wanting to miss my now-late train.

"Express" means "swift" or "non-stop". The only "express" was my dashing between platforms. Might I also remind Connex that when the schedule states the express train will make a single stop between origin and destination, it is implicit that it does not come to multiple standstills halfway between stations not listed as stops.

Tomorrow's clarification will be on the word "sufferance".

Irwin Lowe, Heidelberg