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From the Editors

Notes from The Conversation newsroom

Your say: week beginning February 16 Published: February 15, 2026 8.00pm GMT •Updated: February 16, 2026 7.14pm GMT Judy Ingham, The Conversation

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Judy Ingham
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A montage representing issues of real estate, inflation and whooping cough.

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Every day, we publish a selection of your emails in our newsletter. We’d love to hear from you, you can email us at [email protected].

Monday February 16

Rethinking inflation control

“Using interest rates as a means of controlling inflation seems to me to be a very blunt instrument, favouring one part of society while being very hard on the younger generation. Is there not a better way? Why not increase tax rates? Those on the higher incomes who are currently spending, causing inflation to rise, will have their spending curbed and the younger generation will have a little better chance to get established in life.”

Don Perkins

A warning about whooping cough

“I had whooping cough in my thirties. I thought I was going to die – and at times wished I could. Unbearable coughing, broken ribs, muscular agony, no sleep, breathlessness, and vomiting at the end of a coughing fit just when I thought I’d never inhale again. When I realised what I had it was too late for antibiotics. Recovery took a full six months. Initially I thought it was a bad cold so, unknowingly, I travelled by plane while I was highly contagious. I worry what harm that may have caused. Please, please if you can, get vaccinated, and save yourself and others from experiencing what I did.”

Kim Ter-Horst

Renters continue to pay the price

“As a colleague of mine once said: ‘You rarely increase the supply of anything by taxing it more heavily’. The Hawke Keating government quickly reversed moves to curb tax benefits for landlords because of rent rises. When New Zealand curbed tax benefits for landlords, demand for investment loans fell and rents went up. So, theory and admittedly imperfect evidence coincide. The conclusion is that reducing capital gains tax benefits to help home-buyers and the budget should be accompanied by support for renters.”

Graham Partington

Tuesday February 17

Trump’s Iran talks

“What is the basis, under International Law, for these talks? Under what international norm does a stronger power have the right to demand a weaker power to comply with certain conditions to avoid war? Where is the "rules based order” that was established to ensure civilized discussions between states when disputes arise? Or, are we, in the 21st Century, reverting to the laws of the jungle where the strong prevails over the weak?“

Ranjan Yagoda, Melbourne VIC

The collapse of academic peer-reviewing

"Why can’t academic publishing work the same way as book publishing? You submit your paper to a few publishers, the publishers weigh up the risks and benefits, they bid by offering an advance, you accept the best offer and you sign a contract for a share of the royalties. Royalties come to the universities involved with a proportion to the academics concerned. Scientists should not be undervalued as unpaid volunteers who undertake reviewing after-hours (or in retirement).”

Jennie Brand-Miller AO, FAA Professor Emeritus University of Sydney

New lib leadership

“I was disappointed listening to the first press conference of the new Liberal Party leadership team. My disquiet was with the members of the press gallery. Their questioning was so predictable and formulaic. Why not quiz Taylor or Hume with a few questions like this: Do you have a few early ideas about how you can boost housing affordability? What are three quick ways you would try to lower the cost of living?”

Richard Goodwin, Doubleview WA