Labor and the Greens have a deal. A deal what would seem to offer certain advantages, including the presence of a possibly extremely weak opposition, to ACT government policies for the next four years.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Greens seem willing to continue being no more than an extension of ACT Labor. Why have they bothered to spend volunteer time and dollars for such a result?
Why have they bothered to put forth policies when Mr Rattenbury will be a member of Cabinet (not Ms Le Couteur, she's on the cross bench) and all that that implies.
Why isn't Ms Le Couteur, instead, in Cabinet?
She would bring a freshness into the assembly and break the "boys" leadership club that seems to entrenched between Mr Barr and Mr Rattenbury.
Yes, Ms Berry is the deputy chief minister and yes, Ms Burch is the parliamentary speaker.
But if the last four years are any indication for what we can expect, it will be Mr Barr and Mr Ratternbury whose voices will be loudest and whose faces we will see most frequently.
Gerdina Bryant, Watson
Poor planting
Fascinating to see the Yarralumla nursery taking delivery of Eucalyptus mannifera destined for Northbourne Avenue .
Apparently the plan is to hold them till they are 5 or 6 metres high, by which time they will be completely pot bound .
The roots will spiral round andround , strangling the tree asitgrows.
They will then be planted into a high nutrient, high irrigation site frequently compacted by mowers .
Precisely the wrong environment for a self-shedding gum. Expect a scandal in 10 years' time when a tree with compromised root architecture falls on a tram.
P. Marshall, Braidwood
Time for train that works
Politicians who criticise the lack of road funding for the national capital (front page, Oct 30) have missed the glaringly obvious: the totally inadequate rail access to Canberra from New South Wales.
The train from Sydney would average a pathetic 70km/h if it were ever on-time.
It must be a shock or a joke for international visitors, who are delivered to Kingston, a suburb 6km from the city often with no buses to take them to their destination.
We have dreamed of a very fast train for decades, but why can't we have an ordinary train that works properly?
Wouldn't this be a better use of "nation-building" funds than residential streets in country towns?
Dave Kelly, Aranda
No justification
Rory McElligot attempts to justify the slaughter of billions of farmed animals by saying they are killed "for our sustenance" (Animal concerns, 30/10).
But, given that we have absolutely no requirement for animal products in our diet – as a vegan of 37 years I can vouch for this – this argument is meaningless.
Farmers don't raise animals as a "service" to mankind.
They raise animals because it is a lucrative business.
Rory says farmed animals are treated "as humanely as possible".
Not so.
Is it "humane" to deliberately breed chickens in a manner known to cause them enormous health problems?
This is what broiler farmers do.
By breeding birds to balloon to adult size in just six weeks farmers can make more money.
They don't care that this unnatural growth causes painful leg deformities and crippling and that most birds will be in chronic pain by the time they reach slaughter weight.
Other pigs and laying hens are tightly packed into pens and cages for the same reason – maximum profit. Since quotes are in fashion I'll end with one myself by Thomas Edison: "Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution.
"Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
Veganism is about embracing nonviolence and refusing to participate in the heartless and needless exploitation of the vulnerable.
J Moxham, Monbulk, Vic
Committee concern
Just like Robespierre's Committee for Public Safety was the greatest threat to public safety during the French Revolution, Tim Soutphommasane's Human Rights Commission is the greatest threat to human rights.
"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties" said John Milton. Above all liberties, meaning, above the liberty to go through life without ever being offended in any way.
John Coleman, Chisholm
Where is the land?
The speed of land release has been criticised in Canberra since its beginning in 1924, "Time to hold government to account", Editorial, November 4, p18).
What is different 92 years later is the emphasis by economists and developers for continual, never-ending growth.
Where is the land for continual development going to come from within the ACT?
Will we start encroaching on the water catchment after we have destroyed the river corridors?
Robyn Coghlan, Hawker
Driverless utopia
Chris Carder (Letters, November 4) is correct with the observation that the transition to a future with autonomous vehicles won't be smooth.
Some drivers have already worked out that a semi-AV's collision avoidance system can be turned against it. Instead of merging one for one like a zipper, a conga line of drivers in the adjacent lane bully the vehicle into submission, requiring the driver to turn the system off.
Myriad privately owned AVs also have the potential to gridlock our roads. Rather than look for a paid parking spot, owners will more than likely tell their AV to circle the block.
If going to work, the owner of the AV will program it to return home, or trawl through the surrounding suburbs to park, to avoid high parking costs. These extra traffic movements will bring city centres to a standstill and destroy the amenity of near suburbs.
The utopia of Messrs Bradly, Fitch and Smith (Letters, October 31), where privately and publicly owned AVs are seamlessly integrated with a legacy fleet, is a long way off, if ever. More than 150 years since the invention of the motor carriage, we are still trying to have bicycles and cars share the streets.
Mark Boscawen, Banks
Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.
Keep your letter to 250 words or less. References to Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).