There were two things Matt Wade didn't mention in his article ("House boom remade us", October 12, p16).
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Firstly, that correlation does not equate to causation in the rising property values occurring at the same time as an apparent cut-back in family working hours during the formative stage of family life.
I would suspect the cause would be more necessity of increasing practical responsibilities rather than any incidental association with property prices.
Secondly, there is no mention of the move from single income households to dual-income households – that's a profound behavioural change, with significant implications, including for property prices, for Australians over the last generation, and yet was completely missed.
It is now almost impossible to buy property without two incomes, and in its pursuit, we have made it that way.
J. Coleman, Chisholm
Secure systems
Recent disclosures about the Bureau of Meteorology hack mean Malcolm Turnbull knows full well that governments and individuals break into cyber systems.
So why do he and his ministers use a messaging system that their security advisors recommend against ("Use of message app by Turnbull, ministers poses security risk", October 13, p13)?
Are they are exchanging trivialities? If so, why are we paying them?
Or are they just lazy and arrogant like the probably soon-to-be US president, Hillary Clinton?
John Rogers, Cook
Answer yes/no
If Coalition MPs are so unsure of what the people they were elected to represent want that they need a plebiscite, perhaps they should be calling for one that asks for a simple yes/no answer to each of four simple questions: Do you support same sex marriage?; do you support voluntary euthanasia for the terminally ill?; do you support Australia becoming a republic?, and, do you support a royal commission into the banks and financial system?
Mick March, Page
Having a say
Thank you, Bill Shorten for reinforcing the growing perception that we do not live in a democracy. Sure, we vote for a local candidate at elections, but after that, those elected simply vote along party lines, irrespective of what their constituents want.
You only have to look at the recent greyhound ban in NSW. Katrina Hodgkinson voted against the greyhound ban, in line with her constituents but against her party, and was demoted in NSW parliament.
Is that democracy? Instead of blaming the cost and potential harm to members of the LGBT community (something that was not a factor in the recent Ireland vote), Bill Shorten and co should let Australians have a say so we can get this issue resolved.
We are now living in the 21st century, how easy would it be to issue every voter a password and allow them to vote on issues which their elected member could then take to parliament?
At the very least, every time there is a Federal election there should be a plebiscite or referendum on a major issue so Australians can actually have a say in their future.
Topics could include: legalising euthanasia; abolishing state governments; reintroducing capital punishment (for offenders like Vincent Stanford); becoming a republic, etc.
Anthony Reid, Murrumbateman, NSW
Whitlam story
Harold Mitchell's wonderful story about the aged Gough Whitlam almost driving an electric scooter into Blue Poles at the National Gallery, which was part of Mitchell's excellent defence of arts and sport funding, ("Young Liberal Senator misguided on true value of arts to the community", BusinessDay, October 14, p35) made me laugh out loud.
Thank you.
Greg Ellis, Murrumbateman, NSW
Israeli aggression
Alan Shroot (Letters, October 13) accuses Geoff Barker of a "poisonous diatribe" about the Jewish connection with Palestine/Israel and then goes on to say that 95 per cent of Palestinians living in the West Bank are ruled by their own elected officials.
What an outlandish statement! Palestinian residents of the West Bank are completely at the mercy of the Israeli Government.
There are hundreds of Israeli settlements, with over 800,000 Israeli Jews, in the West Bank, built on land stolen from Palestinians, Israeli only roads snaking through the area, check points through which Palestinians must pass to move around what is supposedly their own land and a massive separation wall, built on more stolen land, keeping farmers from their land and the population from basic services.
Gwenyth Bray, Belconnen
View on homosexuals
I suggest that John Casey (Letters, October 12) viewed too many frescoes at Pompeii. Although Romans weren't prudes, they regarded homosexual behaviour as deviant, especially in the military legions.
In fact, the western world has been influenced by these views as much as any from Judeo-Christian morality, since we are partly a product of Roman civilisation. That's not to say it wasn't practiced though.
In contrast, in contemporary Macedonia, Greece, Syria and Anatolia, known as the Orient, homosexuality was accepted as a norm.
Gerry Murphy, Braddon
10 Commandments
I did as Howard Hutchins suggested (Letters, October 9) and "chewed" on his simplistic claim that "Australia's Western society was founded on the laws and principles of the 10 commandments".
It appears to me that it falls at the very first hurdle: the colonisation by the British.
There was plenty of killing and stealing and an enormous amount of coveting involved in that little escapade.
After even more ruminating on the issue, I can only assume that Moses accidentally broke off the fine print about coveting your neighbour's marital status.
Jon Stirzaker, Latham
Another shot for Coalition
What are they putting into the water in Canberra? It's hard to comprehend that the electorate is happy to have another four years of a Labor-Greens coalition which has an enormous debt and is willing to spend another $1billion approximately, probably more, on light rail, which will never show a profit.
Consequently, the ratepayers of my beautiful city of birth will be burdened for many years with large increases in rates and taxes, including huge costs in electricity to pay for the dubious policy of renewables.
Ironically, the Greens, likely to have the balance of power, will allow the destruction of the beautiful trees along Northbourne Avenue. For what?
There is nothing inconvenient or wrong with using a Canberra bus. Thousands of passengers in Sydney go to work every day in a bus and they prefer that to driving a car.
Your editorial ("In vital poll, Liberals are better choice", October 14, p18) argued for a change of government. Thank you for that advice, but the voters obviously don't read newspapers!
Lesley Beckhouse, Queanbeyan, NSW
I had at least two satisfying moments out of the ACT election, and these were that the self-interested campaign of the highly paid executives of the ACT clubs union failed as did the recommendation of the Canberra Times editor that I vote for a particular party.
Roger Terry, Kingston
There are many reasons why people in this city vote Labor, and a well placed lack of confidence in, or respect for, the Canberra Liberals is one of them. If I were an ACT public servant, I would be afraid of losing my job in an Abbott style clean-out of the public service, and that was probably enough to get Labor back.
Had the Liberals won, that would have been an endorsement of their views on light rail because they didn't have much else in what was a very negative campaign.
Except in Gungahlin where the Labor vote was well up, the best that Labor can say is that people voted for them in spite of light rail.
J.J. Marr, Hawker
Highly educated Canberrans have opted for the 19th century technology of trams and windmills and have thus sentenced us to higher rates and power bills. George Orwell said something to the effect that some things are so stupid only highly educated people can believe them, and Canberra has proved him right.
Doug Hurst, Chapman
I fervently hope Labor can govern in its own right this time, as the Greens are economic illiterates, and have cost Canberrans dearly to date.
Mario Stivala, Spence
Given that the Parliament House is located within the ACT and so many of its voters are current or ex-public servants it is natural that when voting for the Legislative Assembly they have one eye on the current occupant of the Lodge.
On Sunday morning, after his defeat, I am sure Jeremy Hanson was wondering if his party might have done a bit better if Malcolm Turnbull was pursuing a more progressive agenda and not a captive to the extreme right of the Coalition.
Mr Turnbull has run away from his commitment to the Republic, real action on climate change and gay marriage, causes that a majority of Canberrans support.
Mike Reddy, Curtin
Mowing madness
I know it has been really wet, but I am dismayed by the behaviour of the current mowing contractors around Gungahlin, who recently decided to mow thoroughly soaked and very long grassy areas, in the rain, and in doing so churned up sodden ground, turning it to mud and leaving unsightly tracks.
The areas were not mown, in fact the grass was torn out and great clumps were left in between scattered masses of brown flattened still waterlogged piles of dead grass. Why couldn't the contractors have waited?
Most of the areas will have to be done again, and in the meantime the ovals and fields and median strips look just plain terrible.
Barb Mitchell, Ngunnawal
Wonderful project
Your article "Deakin house sales tipped to raise $1m for charity (October 11, p7)" tells the story of a wonderful project showing the strength of support of Canberra's very dedicated builders to worthwhile charitable projects.
However, Master Builders Association executive director Kirk Coningham, is perhaps a little misguided in his claim in the article that this could be the largest single charity donation Canberra has ever seen. He may have overlooked some of his own award-winning members, Project Co-ordination's Paul Murphy and Gavin Murphy, who have recently completed John James Village. This is an even more inspirational project funded by the John James Foundation as a $7million project which has now been handed over to the Leukaemia Foundation to provide free accommodation for the benefit of people undergoing blood cancer and other treatment in Canberra. Well done, Project Co-ordination on a significant charity donation!
Phil Greenwood, Deakin
Smiles down south
I have travelled to South Australia and Tasmania and been surprised by how much friendlier people seem to be compared to Canberra. Strangers smile at you and say hello.
Hospitality staff seem a lot more helpful and cheerful. While I may have been sending more positive vibes on the account I was on holidays, I get the feeling the cold climate combined with the toxic political environment affects us locals.
Gordon Williams, Watson
TO THE POINT
TIMES A CHANGING
Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Literature Prize because he is "a great poet in the English speaking tradition". Could someone please alert our former prime minister John Howard, who apparently likes Dylan's music, but not his lyrics!
Felicity Chivas, Scullin
To quote the words of the Nobel Laureate, "there's no success like failure and failure's no success at all".
Peter Crossing, Curtin
Perhaps other recipients of the Nobel Prize for literature should include Allen Ginsberg, Hunter S. Thompson and Bozo, my neighbour's dog. Although I believe the latter would hand his back.
John K. Layton, Holt
KYRGIOS CURSE
Nick Kyrgios has been blessed with great natural athletic ability. Regrettably, as his latest antics again demonstrate, he is cursed with a volatile temperament. Let's hope he is able to maximise his undoubtedly great potential by learning how to modify his on and off-court antics.
Ian De Landelles, Murrays Beach, NSW
WAR'S VICTIMS
Whilst agreeing "history is not going to look kindly on our current treatment of refugees", I wonder whether K. Payne (Letters, October 12), feels compassion for the 2 million-plus South Sudanese forced to become refugees, some in South Sudan and others in neighbouring countries, because of warfare in the region.
Ken McPhan, Spence
JUDGMENT FLAWED
Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have admitted to "errors of judgment" surely the worst possible recommendation for the president of the US.
Glenys Hammer, Narrabundah
FANTASYLAND
There was an interesting glimpse into the mind-set of the US media last week when a journalist of a major television news outlet described the putative winner as, "the next president of free world". I suppose having to cover the antics of all the neurotic contenders for the last 18 months is enough to drive anybody into the realms of fantasy.
David Hewett-Lacon, Gowrie
TIME TO STEP UP
Let's see all those who voted for the tram leave their cars at the park and ride and catch the bus, to get the feel of letting someone else do the driving until the tram is delivered. You wanted it, you got it, now support and use it as often as possible and perhaps those rate rises will be minuscule!
R. Morison, Theodore
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