The racism being protested around the world plays out in various ways, which we have an opportunity to amend.

Post-pandemic economic recovery needs to deliver for people and planet, to be sure we address these inequalities.

Economic recovery should not look like business as usual.

Rio Tinto blowing up a 46,000 year-old sacred Indigenous site the day before Reconciliation Week shows the cruel disrespect for Indigenous Australians.

We know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are among the first, and worst, to be affected by the climate crisis.

This is on top of ongoing systemic racism faced by people of colour.

All forms of justice are interdependent; there can be no environmental or social justice without racial justice.

Let's take this opportunity to change direction, to bounce forward, rather than back, and create a better future - a future where we all thrive together.

The local petition to remove the statue of Captain Cook is unnecessary.

It is simply a spontaneous "flow on" from events occurring in America.

The statue has stood there unmolested for 114 years, built by the legacy of Church leader John Emery.

I believe that the vast majority of Australians do respect Cook for the great explorer and navigator that he was.

Comments by the Anglican Bishop do not surprise, as it was only several years ago that the Church was adorning the statue in an increasingly ridiculous assortment of outer garments in order to make social comment in relation to refugees.

If Cook had not landed at Botany Bay, someone else eventually would have, and someone else after that.

We can remember the past, and hopefully learn from it, but we can never change it.

To remove the statue would simply be providing an unnecessary concession to some who will then demand another concession, and then another, ad infinitum. Let this madness end.

To those apolitical centrists who believe it makes sense to eliminate colonial statues, know this: once these statues come down the people calling for their removal will simply move onto their next target.

It will never end. The slippery slope is real.

Removing statues won't close the gap or produce a more equitable society.

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