Simon Corbell's announcement over a year out from the next election of not running again was an unusual one ("Corbell leaves Labor looking for new energy", August15, p1) .
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It coincides with a strong view in the ACT Labor Party that he was going to lose the next election for Labor because of the light rail project.
Like most politicians, Mr Corbell will be remembered more for unpopular decisions on community and recreation land, in particular, than good decisions.
In particular, four decisions on public land that benefited large and wealthy clubs at the expense of the community.
If Mr Corbell's decision to quit is based even in part on health reasons, he would do well to consider moving to the backbench.
When he was demoted by Mr Stanhope, he admitted he had been not performing well because of depression. The ACT deserves a deputy chief minister who is at the top of his form.
Howard Carew, Isaacs
It is to be hoped that the retiring Minister for Capital Metro, Simon Corbell, will be respectfully remembered for being the minister who allowed the people to vote for the light rail, rather than for the devastation wrought on the city by what will be known as Corbell's Folly".
Murray Upton, Belconnen
All the plaudits accorded to minister Simon Corbell after the announcement of his pending retirement from politics are misguided. All he will be remembered for is his disgraceful use of "call-in"' powers during his term as attorney-general, and his legacy of the white-elephant light-rail project.
As far as ACT politics are concerned, he has been an absolute disaster during his 19 years in the Legislative Assembly.
A classic case of a rat leaving a sinking ship!
Mario Stivala, Spence
Abortion
I would like to inform Peter Robinson (Letters, August15) that our secular law is based on the divine law: "thou shalt not kill"; "thou shalt not steal"; "thou shall not bear false witness" etc. All animate life is endowed with two complementary genders to ensure the continuation of the species – the next generation. For a woman to procure an abortion is in direct contravention to this basic natural law.
Many women who have aborted a baby suffer lifelong post-abortion syndrome.
There is very good evidence that a procured abortion can elevate the risk of developing breast cancer.
If Marie Stopes was concerned about the quiet prayer vigil, it could advise its clients to use the side door of the health building, to avoid seeing or being seen by "religious zealots".
Philip Robinson, Holt
Dog attacks
As father of the three-year-old girl attacked by a dog, and as a dog owner myself, I must respond to Paul Recher's points (Letters, August15).
First, he comments that "people refuse to take any responsibility for their action" while neglecting to assign any responsibility to a dog owner who took his dog to a public place. Responsible dog owners I know would voluntarily take hsponsibility for their dog's actions, including euthanising the animal if it attacks and seriously injures someone.
Second, he claims that "no one is criminally culpable" for what was a tragic event. That is incorrect, because the Domestic Animals Act clearly assigns criminal culpability to the owner. This fact was not in question when the case was heard in the ACT Magistrates Court.
What is in question is that our real-life case has shown that the act has not lived up to the claims made last year when amendments were passed to increase penalties under the act.
This is due to a cascading succession of failings every step of the way, from the time of the attack through to sentencing of the dog owner.
My wife and I are working hard to address these failures, including involving the relevant ministers. With an average of 260 dog attack or harassment incidents in the ACT each year, we do not want any future dog attack victim (and parents, as in our case) to repeat our experience over the past eight months.
Mike Hettinger, O'Connor
I do hope that the views expressed by Paul Recher (Letters, August15) and L.Bentley (Letters, August17) on the recent dog attack on Phoebe Hettinger do not represent those of the community. The Hettinger family were innocent victims, in spite of what turned out to be the parents' lack of judgment. A huge price for them to pay.
It is cruel and shameful of Recher to accuse the Hettingers of "rampant narcissism".
The accusation of narcissism is more justly directed to Bentley, who does not acknowledge his/her responsibilities to other people as a dog owner, especially after admitting that animals are unpredictable.
Warwick Williams, Nicholls
The plight of Phoebe Hettinger, and her horrific experience and how it could have been avoided ("They failed us: parents of dog-bite victim slam new laws", August13, p1) has compelled me to write. I had the exact same "preventable" experience at the same age more than 40 years ago. Both of us share the same name, the same attack at the same age. I was also 3 when a neighbourhood dog jumped up and tore my lip and eye area apart.
Lightning does and has struck twice. A terrible analogy, but one that will be repeated again and again until children show awareness around unknown dogs.
Parents need to teach their children not to approach dogs they don't know. They need to explain to their kids to be cautious (at all times) around dogs they don't know.
My physical scars are nearly invisible, but the memory of having my face ripped apart is vivid.
Phoebe Zardo, 48, and son Sam, 6, Hughes
L.Bentley (Letters, August17) defends Magistrate Beth Campbell for fining David Mark Birnie "only" $1000 instead of a larger amount. L.Bentley's letter asserts that he/she will continue to take his/her dog to public places and allow people to pet the dog if they wish. As will I.
Where I disagree is that Mr Birnie was fined at all. He was approached by the parents of the three-year-old and asked if it was OK for the little girl to pat the dog. None of the adults, nor the child, would have had any idea that the dog would react like that.
Certainly, there was no evidence of carelessness or reckless indifference on Mr Birnie's part, so why the fine at all?
George Beaton, Greenway
The people will sit in judgment in the case of Heydon vs impartiality
If Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon is the wise, erudite, intelligent sage Senator George Brandis and others in the Coalition shrilly claim him to be, how didn't he know the Liberal Party's annual Sir Garfield Barwick address was a Liberal Party fundraiser? After all, it's not hard to suppose he may have attended a previous lecture.
That aside, the Coalition's innovative use of public funds to pursue political opponents (even after they've left office) by way of royal commissions sets an interesting precedent.
I look forward to a royal commission on just how the boats were stopped and the possible misuse of, and damage to, the Australian Defence Force and its reputation, breaches of International Law, UN Human Rights Agreements, etc.
And maybe one into Australia's efforts to combat climate change, including the link between the Coalition and big coal. A nice Canberra dinner party conversation these cold winter evenings might be drawing up a list of possible topics.
Dallas Stow, O'Connor
My wife has a Dyson. It's a very good and credible vacuum cleaner. If Tony Abbott's Dyson doesn't meet that standard he should look at changing brands.
Peter Harris, Evatt
Election the decider
Through silly politicking it looks like the Prime Minister, Liberal and National parties have lost the moral high ground on the same sex marriage issue.
It won't be necessary to wait for a plebiscite or referendum after the next election to decide what the government should do. The way ahead will be decided at the next election. And guess who is in the box seat with 70per cent of the population supporting same sex marriage equality. There is also an army of currently unregistered (mainly younger) voters who will come out and ensure a Labor/Greens coalition government gets across the line. If I were a Coalition MP, I reckon I would be concerned.
Philip Machin, Wamboin, NSW
What team?
Why is it this PM thinks the issue of same sex marriage is best decided by the people (by plebiscite or referendum), not by politicians? Yet, when it comes to expanding Australia's involvement in the War on Terror, including the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the war against Islamic State and now suggestions of the opening of a new front in Syria, the PM is comfortable to continue to exclude the Australian people (not "Team Australia") from the decision-making process.
Wolodja Dankiw, Holt
Money still talks
The government of New Zealand, once a sovereign nation, has delayed introducing public health legislation mandating plain cigarette packaging, because they fear being sued by Philip Morris under the terms of a so-called free trade agreement. In a recent demonstration against the Trans Pacific Partnership, an activist wears a placard reading: Trans Pacific Cancer: If we can't kill you, we'll sue you. A pithier version of this warning was used in olden times by bushrangers carrying out highway robbery: Your money or your life!
Pauline Westwood, Dickson
Profit warning
We are regularly being told Australia is the favourite Chinese destination, for investment, education-mediated migration and so on. The explosions in Tianjin and their universally acknowledged cause remind us why.
Self regulation is something contemporary China has become very comfortable with, and nowhere else in the West but Australia could the Chinese, in their wildest dreams, ever hope to see it so self-disadvantageously and short-sightedly applied for their profit and convenience.
Alex Mattea, Kingston
Hardly ship shape
Re Kevin Andrews's letter (August 14), there is no doubt a continuous shipbuilding program would give greater certainty to Australia's shipbuilding industry. There isn't a navy or a shipbuilder that would not welcome such a program, although a navy might find it necessary to vary the program from time to time.
But without contracts to back it up, without long term bipartisan support, without a strategic assessment good for the next 20 to 30 years, and a budget set in concrete to cover that period, such a program is a nothing more than an illusion based on capabilities the Navy and Defence have included in current Defence plans.
What I would like Mr Andrews to explain is how he intends to go about achieving or setting up this program in an integrated political and industry manner that will provide some at least of the opportunities of which he speaks in the term(s) of the current government. Unless the minister extends existing shipbuilding contracts, job losses in our shipyards now are inevitable in the near to mid term.
B.L. West, Yarralumla
In a state
I was one of those "civic-minded Australians" in Papua New Guinea during the 1970s and earlier referred to by John Garnaut ("More than a point on a star", Times2, August 14, p1). We believed we were working with PNG people to build a modern, democratic state. What we failed to realise was that transplanting Australian institutions of government to PNG was, like human organ donation, prone to rejection.
John Garnaut and others apply the term "failing state" to PNG. The assumption is PNG was ever an effective, post-independence, national entity opening development opportunities to its 8 million people. A state is only viable when it arises from its own social and cultural values. I encourage John Garnaut to write about how Australia can assist PNG people, communities, provincial and national governments to develop 21st century institutions which reflect the essentially democratic values of the many hundreds of disparate communities in PNG.
Citizen loyalty to a nation-state, and defence of the institutions of state, flow when the "state" is deeply rooted in home soil. Building a 21st-century nation state based on Melanesian values is a long term task. Forty years since PNG independence on September 16, 1975 is a well-overdue time to begin.
Greg Harris, Pearce
Rugby, league face some serious kicking
Brumbies chief executive Michael Jones ("Brumbies fight Anzac Day turf war", Sports, August 7, p32 ) has predicted the biggest turnaround in Canberra sport since the first survey team and the RMC cadets arrived on the Limestone Plain 104 years ago. Since that time the two rugby codes have had it all their own way. Now they are faced with competing with the top AFL clubs.
The GWS Giants, like the Sydney Swans and North Melbourne before them, played home games in Canberra against smaller clubs disguising the strength of support for the game in Canberra.
On July 25 this season, the Geelong v GWS match packed out Manuka Oval and broke GWS's home crowd attendance record. The Brumbies and the Raiders are now faced with competing with the big AFL clubs – Hawthorn, Collingwood, Richmond and Carlton.
Canberra can help GWS establish in Western Sydney by boosting home ground attendances at Manuka but in the long term GWS has to concentrate on Western Sydney. Eventually the two areas will become a liability to each other.
I would suggest that the best solution is for Canberra to eventually form an AFL club with the Riverina leagues playing home games in Canberra, Wagga, Junee, Narrandera and Albury.
Congratulations to David Polkinghorne for reporting on this extraordinary turn of events.
Fred Schwinghammer, Watson
Right on wrongs
A fine imposed by a court on a baker who declined to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, in the US, shows that at least in one jurisdiction, anti-discrimination legislation can combine with same sex marriage, so that personal conscience does not matter ('Wrong on rights', August 15, p13).
Arthur Connor, Weston
TO THE POINT
WORTH ANOTHER READ
Paul Monagle's views ("Gay marriage advocates have more explaining to do", Times2, August14, p5) merit our serious consideration.
John Rodriguez, Florey
E-TAX CONVENIENT
I agree with Robert Hancock (Letters, August14). Why spend millions creating and promoting e-tax, a system that worked, only to replace it with a very substandard system. I was told my only other option for my elderly relatives was tax pack.
Gail Boate, Gowrie
EVADING RESPONSIBILITY
Dear Mr Dallwitz (Letters, August14), I'm sure that Pontius Pilate felt the same therapeutic glow.
Barbara Fisher, Cook
RESILIENCE NEEDED
If only the Raiders could show the same resilience as their long-suffering fans.
Tony Pelling, Nicholls
BARBAROUS ABUSE
I await the expressions of loathing and revulsion by Pope Francis at the state-enforced caesarean birth inflicted on an 11-year-old rape victim in the very Catholic country of Paraguay ("Rape victim, 11, delivers baby girl by caesarean", August15, p11). This poor child is one of many who are first the victim of rape, then of the pitiless, medieval prescriptions of his church. Doubtless, the pontiff will be joined in his condemnation of this barbarity by those who conduct "prayer vigils" unnecessarily near the abortion clinic in Civic.
A.M. Whiddett, Yarralumla
OBJECT TO REZONING
We live adjacent to Red Hill Public Housing Estate. The estate is zoned RZ2 and so is our lease. Under draft variation 334, the ACT Planning andLand Authority proposes to rezone the estate's 50,000 square metres to high-density RZ5. Could we build six storeys with shops underneath on our block too? Object by August 31!
S. and J. Rogers, Red Hill
SHADY ACCOUNTANCY
Despite the presence of 26,000 rooftop solar panels, corporate tax paid in Australia by Sweden's IKEA will still not be exposed to the disinfectant effects of sunlight ("Out of the box: Canberra IKEA unlocks power of the sun", Forum, August15, p2). As a tax-exempt, not-for-profit, multinational, its accounting system is opaque.
Albert M. White, Queanbeyan, NSW
DESPOT AT THE HELM
When is Australia going to be governed, instead of being ruled by a despot with a closed mind?
S.G. Tracey, Hughes
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