All men cannot be viewed as potential abusers of women. Equally, most families are not violent or threatening environments, but places of nurture, support and security.
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There is no easy solution to the problem of domestic violence. Its elimination requires changes in the very nature of our society. Until people develop agreater sense of respect for others and abetter recognition of the worth of each individual, violence will continue and the weaker members of the community will largely be thevictims.
As a society, we must break the cycle of violence that is inherent in Australia today. Inaddition to strategies directed to education, role models, including the role of themedia in depicting violence in news coverage and entertainment, and family counselling, a national review oflegal remedies should be undertaken. Such a review should include consultation withwomen's, men's and family interest groups, together with education, welfare and law-enforcement agencies.
Protection orders have become an important legal instrument in the management of domestic violence. The role of the police in making applications for interim orders on behalf of applicants at all hours and their immediate service should be expanded. When an order is issued by a court, it should be accompanied by information about counselling and court-controlled mediation. If an order is breached, in addition to any punitive sanctions imposed by a court, attendance at counselling or court-controlled mediation should be compulsory.
Uniform legislation and co-operation would ensure that anorder issued in one state or territory would be valid and enforceable in all the others, regardless of the jurisdiction under which it was issued and without the necessity of further registration requirements imposed on an applicant.
Don Malcolmson, Bywong
Earl forgotten
It was good to see The Canberra Times raising the case and profile of erstwhile Raiders rugby league player Sandor Earl ("Earl uncertain over current drugs case", Sport, April 6, p23), who accepted provisional suspension at the same time as the Essendon and Cronulla clubs were accused nearly two years ago.
Both Essendon and Cronulla club players are now back on the paddock following continuous prominent publicity in all forms of the media and, especially in the case of Essendon, massive legal and financial support behind the scenes.
No one seems to have given asecond thought to Earl, who Idoubt has any of that same support and whose only publicised error was to "traffic" (an emotive term) a still questioned "banned substance" by taking it from the supplier tohis own doctor while being treated for a severe shoulder injury. By his own admission, he would "love to play again", but his case seems to have been forgotten as his playing years quickly slip by.
Margaret Rowe, Hackett
Litter community issue
In response to Tony Pelling's complaints about the state of Gungahlin (Letters, April 13), the ACT government is responsible for the upkeep of more than 6000 hectares of public land andhas regular open-space maintenance programs in place.
In respect to concerns in Gungahlin, the shopping centres are cleaned daily, which includes litter collection, spot cleaning where required, leaf blowing (undertaken seasonally) and bin emptying. About 20 people are employed in Gungahlin to undertake these horticultural and cleaning duties daily.
I do share Mr Pelling's dismay when I see litter, but it is not solely an ACT government issue. Responsibility for litter rests with all the community and there is no magic bullet in terms of its management.
The solution is not just for government to engage more resources to pick up litter, but for all people and businesses tobe responsible for waste products.
While this is a long-term aspiration, I am happy to take up Mr Pelling's invitation to walk the areas with him to ensure clean-up efforts are correctly targeted.
Fleur Flanery, director, City Services, Territory and Municipal Services
All graffiti offensive
I refer to recent letters to the editor concerning litter, weeds and graffiti. It's good to see that at least three or four people are concerned about how shabby Canberra is looking. When referring to litter, one should include graffiti (aka vandalism), for it is simply another form of littering and is just as offensive.
In an attempt to engage our government, I spoke on radio recently with our Chief Minister, and was told only offensive graffiti needs to be reported and removed. Chief Minister, it is all offensive. Canberra is looking shabbier day by day and something needs to be done about it. It is, after all, the capital city of Australia. I can only wonder what visitors think of us.
B.J. Millar, Isabella Plains
I would like to join the chorus lamenting Canberra's litter problem. Tuggeranong Parkway is a disgrace. There is rubbish everywhere – it has been there solong that some of it requires carbon dating – along with large weeds, small trees growing from drains blocked with rubbish, illegible graffiti and huge chunks of slowly rotting grass clippings from the areas that have been lucky enough to be mowed (roughly, I might add), clogging the road guttering.
Remember when Canberra was clean and maintained? Remember the '80s?
Dale Fletcher, Kambah
Military mayhem
Anyone who "slept" in Campbell and Kingston Foreshore on Saturday night probably thought they were living in a war zone. From before midnight until about 2am, automatic gunfire and artillery could be heard.
Then, from just before dawn until 8am, someone with a megaphone was shouting incomprehensibly.
I reckon the megaphone hadsomething to do with the Canberra Running Festival, but military exercises in the nation's capital early on a Sunday morning? Tell me I was dreaming! Even better, tell me the government has fallen.
Rob Ewin, Campbell
Politicians' palaver
Can't serving politicians get their publicity fix in other ways apart from infesting the letters page? I refer to Christopher Pyne last week, Eric Abetz onWednesday and, on the sameday in the opinion pages, Barnaby Joyce.
Bob Gardiner, Kambah
Shame on Vanstone for her 'deliberate misinformation'
After reading Amanda Vanstone's column "Ignore Sam the Showman" (Times2, April 13, p4), my first reaction was to pen a short sharp reply – something along the lines of: "Shame on you, Amanda. How dare you misrepresent the tax conversation initiated by the Senate?" Then I thought that, given the extent of her bias and deliberate misinformation, her piece deserved a proper reply.
I agree with Amanda's concerns about naming and shaming. Indeed, if anyone, we should name and shame the succession of governments, treasurers and tax commissioners who have, and keep, presiding over very obviously flawed and biased tax legislation. Yep, I too recall a very senior officer of the ATO, about a third of a century ago, saying to a group of junior officers at the office's Christmas party that if you earned a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year, paying tax was an optional matter. There was a very good example at the time of a well-known TV journalist who had used one of the various devices available (in his case, creating a company owned by a family trust) to legally avoid a lot of tax. And what have we done since then? Absolutely nothing.
In 1983, the ATO's head office had just six middle-ranking officers looking into the profit-shifting arrangements of big Australian and multinational companies through a variety of simple devices, eg, "transfer pricing", which was and still is a blatant, but legal, tax-avoidance loophole.
Amanda wants to blame the unions' defence of our living standards for the mass desertion of manufacturing companies from Australia and wants us to compete with low wages in lowly taxed countries. What would be the result of this? Bringing misery and poverty to what is one of the richest and most egalitarian countries in the world.
If nothing else, Senator Sam Dastyari has brought to the public's attention to one of the most expensive, shameful and worst-kept secrets of our unfair taxation system.
John Rodriguez, Florey
Financial mess inherited
In an attempt to try to bring some political balance to a newspaper that seems hell-bent on destroying Tony Abbott and his democratically elected government through the persistent publishing of pernicious letters and editorials, I draw the attention of Valentine Deacon and Lyne Dobson (Letters, April 13) to a Canberra Times editorial "NSW Coalition has convincing mandate", (Times2, March 31, p2) wherein it stated that Mike Baird's emphatic victory in the NSW election "presented Shorten with a test of leadership that, so far, he has comprehensively failed".
Neither Deacon nor Dobson seem to appreciate the fiscal mess inherited by the Abbott government after six years of ALP government profligate expenditure of taxpayers' money. Continuing to live beyond our means is not an option which seems to be the requirement behind the criticisms levelled in the "Song For Labor". The land of the lotus-eater as enjoyed by Labor supporters of 2007-2013 is no more.
N. Bailey, Nicholls
Hold Israel to account
Glen Falkenstein ("Deal with Iran would risk nuclear nightmare", Times2, April 13, p5) refers to Australia's "long-standing interests in non-proliferation and a stable Middle East" . This will only happen when the only nuclear power in the region is held to account for its abuse of the international non-proliferation regime. Until Israel agrees to inspections of its nuclear arsenal, they stand condemned for hypocrisy. Israel's propagandists should be told their screeds will no longer be printed in Australian newspapers until such time as Israel agrees to inspections.
Chris Williams, Griffith
Lessons from Vietnam
Congratulations to Professor Hugh White on his article about the strategic thinking at the time of the Vietnam War ("Vietnam equally important", Times2, April 14, p4). He states that there is much we can learn from studying these circumstances and the decision-making processes involved. These are wise words, made all the more so with the Defence white paper being written. When troops were sent to Vietnam, there was insufficient capacity to sustain their operations; reinforcements had to be trained with limited resources. This raises the question of whether or not adequate contingency stocks will be made available in accordance with the 2015 threat assessment and associated lead times.
Troops were sent to Vietnam with equipment they were unfamiliar with, training having to be done after they arrived. Sometimes the equipment used by different components of the force was incompatible. This hampered their ability to provide mutual support and cost lives.
Pre-Vietnam budgetary constraints limited movement within Australia; this, in turn, limited the time that the components of the army could train with each other – this cost more lives.
Some of the items that troops were sent to Vietnam with were unsuited to the climatic conditions. Some were replaced; in other cases, they were expected to "just get on with it". All of the above matters are staff (as distinct to "field") responsibilities. The recent First Principles Review of Defence has recommended major changes to the staff. Can we be sure that these will improve the army's ability to train and sustain a force deployed on operations?
Bruce Cameron, Campbell
Soldiers must question
Anzac Day recalls that fatal combination: brave soldiers and careless commanders. If there is one message from the great military blunder at Gallipoli, it is "DO ask questions".
"Is this the right beach, Sir?" "What are the plans for post-Saddam Hussein Iraq?"
The price a soldier pays can be huge – a disabled body, distressed mind, tormented conscience and a broken family. Some battles are worth fighting, but some are hastily or even cynically conceived. Yes, soldiers are brave, but they should insist on answers before they throw their health away.
Rosemary Walters, Palmerston
Paying a mortgage better than super
Your superannuation is being scammed by the Reserve Bank and the federal government. When your money goes into your super account, it is taxed. Any investment earnings are taxed, and all of it is being devalued by inflation.
If you could use it to pay down your mortgage instead, you would be thousands of dollars better off. Say you and your employer put $100 into your super. The Feds take $15. The Reserve Bank inflicts an inflation rate of 2.5per cent andan interest rate on bank deposits of 2.25 per cent, but let's suppose you can actually earn 3 per cent. After 30 years, your original $100 has grown to $181, but adjusting for inflation, it is worth only $85 in terms ofthe dollars you deposited. What kind of scam is this?
Now suppose your mortgage rate is 5per cent and you use your $100 ($70 after tax) to pay down your mortgage. You are saving 5per cent a year on payments and you still have the$70 in equity in your house. After 30 years, your mortgage savings plus equity are nominally $2351, and inflation adjusted, $1595.
I would rather have my money now, instead of having itinflated and taxed away in mysuper account.
PS: Your super would need toearn at a rate of 15.4 per cent to equal, in inflation-adjusted dollars, the mortgage savings plus equity.
Bruce A. Peterson, Kambah
Kangaroo cull cruel
The ACT government's annual slaughter of kangaroo on public land is getting more like Japan's whale hunt every year.
Yet another such slaughter has just been announced ("ACTlifts kangaroo cull number to 2400", April 15, p2), still without any evaluation of the effectiveness of reducing kangaroo numbers, and in the face of evidence that culling kangaroos is cruel and can only harm our fragile reserves.
Frankie Seymour, Queanbeyan, NSW
TO THE POINT
POLICIES IN CONFLICT
The editorial cartoon by Pat Campbell commenting on the axing of 4400 at the Australian Tax Office (Times2, April 13, p1) sums up perfectly how little attention has been paid to the cavalier and poorly considered implementation of conflicting government policies so badly hurting the people of Canberra and beyond.
K. O'Connell, Farrer
BUS DRIVER BLUNDER
Unfortunately, on the regular route 60 bus service on Friday, March 27 a fill-in driver missed a diversion into Gleneagles to drop off school children. ACTION treats the safety of children very seriously and has apologised to the family concerned (Letters, April 10). A new procedure has been put in place to help ensure the correct diversion is taken in future.
James Roncon, director, Public Transport, Territory and Municipal Services
RISK REMAINS
Denying welfare payments to a parent who refuses to have a child vaccinated might help the federal budget but would not remove the risk to that child or the community at large ("Vaccinate children or lose benefits", April 11, p5).
Barry and Bea Evans, Kambah
PACKING GONE MAD
As a schoolboy counterhop I could re-pack a shirt in its original clear bag using one cunningly cut piece of cardboard and a few pins. A shirt I bought recently had four separate pieces of cardboard, two sheets of tissue paper, four plastic clips and two plastic collar inserts. Troppo!
Gary J. Wilson, MacGregor
LINE ON LIES AT LAST
In my letter to The Canberra Times, published May 20, 2013, I said that prospective public service employees should be advised that telling lies in order to secure employment constitutes fraud.
Nearly two years later, it has been reported that public servants have now been warned that lying on their CVs could result in them being prosecuted for fraud ("Fake CV claims", April 14, p1). Better late than never I guess.
Gordon Fyfe, Kambah
DETENTION VIOLENCE
It is duplicitous in the extreme that both major parties decry domestic violence yet engage in violence against women and children every day in detention centres.
Gerry Gillespie, Queanbeyan, NSW
CULPABLE COMEDY
Just when you think the old comedy act that broke up all that time ago over difference of opinion ... Abbott and Costello are at it again.
Linus Cole, Palmerston
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