treat fragile witnesses with great consideration for at least one good reason: to extract from them the best evidence possible. Baillieu and Clark's support for what they previously repeatedly rejected should be recognised for what it is: another exercise in hypocritical, self-serving spin. Bryan Keon-Cohen, QC, president, Commission of Inquiry Now Make it stop I AM horrified to read of the way Aboriginal Victorians are being treated and the understandable psychological distress that follows (''Study reveals racial abuse of Aboriginal Victorians'', The Age , 15/11). My thoughts are with the people who have been sworn at, spat on and demeaned. I only wish I knew how to make it stop. Kerry Janten, Moorabbin Values come first THAT Australia is geographically closer to Asia than the US has been known in Western society since the days of Captain Cook, but what is missing from Paul Keating's analysis (''Forget the West, our future is to the North'', Comment, 15/11) of our geopolitical relationships is that Australia and New Zealand are anachronisms in this region. The fundamental reason for our relationship with the US, and despite awful aberrations such as Guantanamo Bay, is that we share a deep commitment to an open and civilised society. In this context, we sit uncomfortably in this region. Despite the economic imperatives that argue for a deeper involvement in the region, there is a more compelling argument that economic intimacy should follow rather than precede a coincidence of values. West Papua is occupied against the will of