SHIRLEY MCNAMARA: Not only was John McDouall Stuart the greatest of the Australian inland explorers – he was responsible for the Northern Territory to be annexed to South Australia and the South Australian/Western Australian border to be shifted west (Relic of SA history could be lost, InDaily, 14 November, 2013).

Without his finding a route from south to north across the continent, the Overland Telegraph Line would not have been constructed across Australia, facilitating development and carrying communication from around the world to and from Adelaide. It greatly benefited the community with world markets. Can you imagine Sydney and Melbourne getting all communications from Adelaide today, as they did then.

Stuart’s exploration party and their horses returned emaciated after their 7,000km journey. Stuart, gravely ill with scurvy, was carried the last 400 miles on a stretcher between two horses. After the fanfare of their return was over, Stuart was not treated well. Some politicians even said they believed the explorers never reached the northern coast.

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A lonely man, Stuart sailed to London to publish his journals. He died there, just four years after his epic journey.

Years later Patrick Auld, a member of the expedition, described his friend’s visit to Kensal Green Cemetery: standing by a polished marble obelisk, Stuart’s final resting place, he thought “Well done South Australia”, until he brushed away the snow on the base and read “Erected by his Sister”.

Let’s hope South Australia can do better now and retain this very important historic treasure, Stuart’s gold watch!

RICHARD NEAGLE, Dignity for Disability President: Dignity for Disability is a passionate defender of human rights, and some of the human rights enshrined by the United Nations are ‘the right to equal access to public service in their country”, and the “right to take part in genuine elections”.

With the few sitting days that remain before the South Australian election next year, it feels as though the voters are being railroaded into a reactionary change to our voting system that has the potential to disenfranchise small groups wishing to contest, as well as voters who will lose the voice provided by smaller parties (SA to block exotic preference deals, InDaily, 13 November 2013).

Our democratic rights are too important to be rushed through parliament in this way, and smaller parties are the way of the future as the support they have gained is due to widespread disenchantment with both Labor and Liberal. Smaller parties and independents have shouldered responsibility for legislation in the SA Parliament for many years now, and time has shown them to be both reasonable and responsible. People living with a disability, their family carers, support workers and many people employed in the wider disability sector have benefited from the strong voice of d4d’s MP Kelly Vincent. In the absence of widespread community rumblings against smaller parties, it seems the Labor government are barking up the wrong tree on this one and are actually trying to stitch it up all their own way.

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