While we might all be guilty of self-prescribing a myriad of multi-purpose herbs and spices (mostly doing ourselves no harm), one must be appalled by the most recent health utterances of China-loving former foreign minister Bob Carr as he enchants the Prime Minister with weird apothecary skills. (“Take a nausea pill”, Saturday Telegraph, 18/10). While his recent dialogue on Israel might make many throw up, the mocking advice to Albanese to falsely flatter US President Donald Trump is surely puerile and absurd. There is much that can be genuinely acclaimed about Dona Trump. Yet, the bonds formed in wartime across the battlefields of a century are sacred to the soul of our two nations. It extends beyond the tenure of a President, who values outcome above process or an Australian PM, who is out of his depth, imperilled by left ideologies and bereft of courage. Bob Carr might need to quell his own public flights of fantasy, before the nation’s chemists risk a laxative shortage. Alan Sexton, North Parramatta 20 Oct 2025