Mental health boost

At present, a number of people with unstable mental illness are held in correctional facilities, which do not provide an appropriate environment for their treatment and rehabilitation.

They are also unable to access treatment through the current range of mental health facilities, which do not provide a sufficiently secure environment for the intensive treatment they require.

The secure mental health unit will provide a secure environment for treatment and rehabilitation of these vulnerable people. Mental illness is never politically glamorous. It is even less glamorous when it relates to people who may have committed crimes while they are ill.

However, despite budget constraints, the ACT government has pressed ahead with an initiative that will provide a facility where people with a serious need can be treated and offered hope.

It is an example of genuine compassion and a commitment by government to do the right thing, even when there is little or no political gain. Katy Gallagher and her government are to be applauded for this important initiative.

Tony Judge, Belconnen

If every state and territory had a leader of Katy Gallagher's calibre, this country would be in far better shape than it is.

Lotte Beaupipe, Dickson

It is becoming self-evident that during Canberra's peak hours it is not feasible for most people to travel alone in their car. However, the Greens' policy of building a light rail at a cost of around $600 million looks far too costly. This view is consistent with the negative response from ratepayers potentially liable for increased rates under the recently floated proposal. When it is not other people's money that might be spent, people have started to focus on the cost-benefit of the light rail.

Let's have a transparent cost-benefit study into the light rail and alternatives - for example, using one lane of Northbourne Avenue as a peak hour bus lane - before $600 million is spent construction a light rail that might only have a benefit of $100 million or less.

The Canberra community is suffering enough from federal government cutbacks without shooting ourselves in the hip-pocket.

Bruce Paine, Red Hill

John Dunn (Letters, May 23) makes some good points in identifying areas where the Raiders need to improve but all these points can be summarised under ''mental toughness''.

For over a decade the Raiders have failed to address their lack of mental toughness. As a result, as players tire physically, they also tire mentally and so they make what appear to be simple mistakes. Similarly, if they fall behind on the scoreboard they lose confidence and desire and rarely recover.

The Raiders can recruit as many new players to their roster as they wish but until they engage a full-time sports scientist who can instil mental toughness into the culture of the club and the players, the poor results will continue.

Peter Ward, Chapman

The imprisonment of David Eastman must surely be coming to an end (''Eastman inquiry: blow for prosecutors'', May 23, p1).

There have been two victims. One was Colin Winchester, the other was Eastman. The shoddy investigation into Winchester's death was a disgrace.The shoddy prosecution of Eastman equally so.

Over the last two decades the police, allied with the Department of Public Prosecutions, have brought many people to trial on charges of murder. The conviction rate has been abysmal. Flaws in the investigation and flaws in prosecution have made the ACT the laughing stock of the Australian legal world.

Reading in the Canberra Times how our learned judges thought there should never have been an inquiry but now there has been, it would be unconscionable to stop it, leaves the average Canberran shaking his head.

Howard Carew, Isaacs

I am astonished that Bill Stefaniak chose not to stand aside as president of the tribunal which is hearing Animal Liberation's challenge to this year's kangaroo cull (''Another stay for kangaroo cull activists'', May 21, p7). The moment he was alerted to the public perception that he is biased, he should have disqualified himself.

It does not matter where a perception of bias comes from, or whether it is justified. What matters is that the perception is real. To protect the judicial process from the taint of bias, a decision maker who is perceived to be biased must always stand aside. Judicial and quasi-judicial systems in all democratic countries recognise this.

It is even more unbelievable that Stefaniak would use parliamentary privilege as his reason for refusing to stand aside. In doing so, he has surely just strengthened the public perception of bias. The purpose of parliamentary privilege is to protect democracy, not to undermine justice.

Stefaniak must step aside. It is the right thing to do, for his own credibility and the credibility of the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

David Walker, Ainslie

Bill Stefaniak's use of parliamentary privilege as an excuse for not stepping down as president of the tribunal hearing the latest challenge to the kangaroo cull is worth closer examination.

Imagine if a government minister admitted in Parliament that he had committed rape and believed that women who are raped deserve it. Imagine that same government minister, protected from his admission by parliamentary privilege, is now a judge in the criminal courts. Imagine him sitting in judgment on a rape case. Would the rape victim's fear that the judge was biased be any less real because he had admitted it under parliamentary privilege? Would anyone question the victim's right to demand another judge?

How is this hypothetical injustice in any way different in principle from this current situation with Bill Stefaniak? I cannot believe the Parliamentary Privileges Act was ever intended to be used in such a wrongful and cynical way.

Lydia Steele, Narrabundah

The 2014 budget reveals the intellectual poverty and deceitful mean-spiritedness of our neoconservative government. No one disputes that a long-term structural budget deficit has emerged from past tax cuts that had curried favour with electors by promoting personal greed, but what is the point in replacing it with a long-term structural deficit of knowledge and skills by disabling science and education?

Creeping monetisation of everything, except, presumably, Parliament and the armed forces, is not the answer, nor a tax review that is as ideologically driven and narrowly focused as the Commission of Audit. A good start would be a long-overdue national discussion on what is essential infrastructure requiring full taxpayer funding. It is not just roads.

Many of us would start by including all education to the bachelor university level as well as healthcare. Why should we introduce, by stealth, American health and education standards just so that the government can buy second-rate American aircraft, and line further the pockets of the wealthy?

Adrian Gibbs, Yarralumla

It is now obvious that the government's story about the budget and debt is no more than that, a story to provide an excuse to cut welfare, education and universal healthcare.

The extravagant cutting of services has not substantially reduced the overall level of government debt. The Coalition government has not curtailed expenditure on its own pet schemes or the military. What it has done is significantly reduce services available to average Australians and it is now setting about creating an under class, which can then be kept in economic subjection. So much for the clever country! It will quickly become the stupid, unhealthy country. We will have a privileged aristocracy with access to services and an under class with no such access. It is clear that this budget is an ideological, rather than an economic, document.

Dr Simon Rose, Downer

I have owned and managed private enterprises, along with my brothers, for 48 years, creating employment for hundreds of people in this region and sometimes not known whether there was enough money in the bank at the end of the week to pay the wages. Our homes have been mortgaged to keep our business and employment growing. I am sick to the stomach of these whiners who have lived in a cocoon in this privileged city and, when they are asked to help repair the damage done by their favoured party, all they can do is whinge and whine!

Brendan Ryan, O'Malley

Commission of Audit chairman Tony Shepherd, in his criticism of reaction to the budget (''Budget hostility sad, says auditor'', May 23, p1) says ''it is a sad reflection on the modern Australian attitude they cannot see that all areas have to make a contribution.''

I suggest it is a sad reflection on Mr Shepherd, the Commission of Audit and on the government that they seem to take the view that the poor, the needy, health, education and welfare are the sectors to make the ''contribution''.

They fail to explain why those who have convinced themselves, by their own ''debt and deficit'' rhetoric, of the need to balance the budget, fail to look at a ''contribution'' from revenue sources, such as higher taxes on resource companies, elimination of costly tax write-offs, tax lurks for private motor vehicles, negative gearing, family trusts, the diesel fuel rebate etc. ''Contributions'' from the revenue side of the budget would enable the retention rather than the diminution of essential services.

Ernst Willheim, Forrest

Former Senator Humphries suggests divorce as the best option for the Defence diarchy to better achieve strategic direction for Defence (''Defence failures start at top'', Times2, May 23, p1).

Since the early 1990s, Defence has seen: the number of ''workers'' halve, the number of Defence groups (more than) triple, the number of senior leaders triple and remuneration of senior leaders has consistently outstripped workers.

In lieu of commissioning a high-powered, (read: highly remunerated), independent body to advise intelligent, skilled and experienced leaders on Defence strategy, why don't we eliminate the number of Defence groups and sheath responsibility for their functions to a reduced number of senior leaders who are being handsomely remunerated for their positions?

Simply put: there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

G. Gough, Dunlop

I see that Defence Minister David Johnston (Letters, May 24) is attempting to defend his silly remark that ''there are about 20,500 public servants running about 56,000 uniform personnel, and I still think that is a little bit fat and happy'' .

It has always been my understanding that civilian staff are employed because there are many jobs which do not require highly trained military personnel and also that civilian staff cost about half that of uniformed personnel in the long run. Does he really think that half a public servant is waiting on one uniform member?

V.L. Quigley, Ngunnawal

Let me observe, with irony, that anyone reading Saturday's edition of our city's always independent newspaper could be forgiven for thinking that it has turned into a raving lefty rag. All that innuendo about Hockey's appointment of a billionaire British tax dodger to advise him on financial regulations (''Hockey appointed regulations adviser who admitted to using tax loopholes'', May 24, p5) and then the bit about the ''Mystery scholarship for Abbott's daughter'' (May 24, p5), how unfair! But, wait, there was more! ''Uncovering the Hockey millions'' (Forum, May 24, p3). Is there no end to this smear campaign?

Give these poor men a fair go, they are only trying to help themselves and their mates.

John Rodriguez, Florey

I am not a social-media user. However, in my present business (export golf oriented) I was invited by a good customer to join their social-media network and, after a couple of seconds contemplation, I clicked on ''accept''.

Some time later I received a message from that provider asking about my area of expertise and my tertiary education. I replied that my area of expertise was ''commonsense'' and to obtain that I attended the ''University of Hard Knocks''.

After many recent media reports and viewing of so-called mainstream university students behaving in a mindless, immature and herd-like hysterical manner, I can only advocate the down-to-earth, commonsense teaching of my University of Hard Knocks.

Paul Donaghue, Deakin

I commend the Federal Minister for Education to at least some reading on the French student protests of 2007-10 apropos the disruption that can take place when students, and those who sympathise with them, feel strongly enough. The contempt displayed by French politicians at the time didn't help - nor may the same do here nor the editor of a paper purporting to call itself a national newspaper referring so derogatively to those who dare to hold different views to the stable of Rupert Murdoch. Has the government also planned for the possibility that student-fee increases may affect the skills shortages in the trades and professions throughout the country now and in future, or will it be solving them through immigration?

Athene Anderson, Fisher

BUDGET FAIR … FOR SOME

I don't understand the complaints. It is a very fair budget for a millionaire with a mining business.

Ian Lowe, Marcoola, Qld

MOTHER KNOWS BEST

Maurine Wearne's comment (Letters, May 22) regarding the office of Prime Minister made me recall my mother's usual utterance on the same subject. My mother (b. 1911) said that respect had to be earned. I believe that respect should be given to all people, until they show they haven't earned that respect. Keep up the good work Pope!

Chris Woodland, Termeil, NSW

JASMINE ON THE NOSE

Anthony Toms' jasmine must be rampant to have room for four possums to make their homes between it and his fence (''Treasurer's partner in battle over possums'', May 22, p3). Sounds as though it was overdue a good prune. I don't suppose he gives any thought to how far his ''prized'' jasmine is going on the other side of that fence or whether he has neighbours who don't like the scent or are allergic to it.

Ruth Wilson, Weetangera

ESCAPING THE BLUES

Happiness is listening to Beethoven's fourth piano concerto atop Oakey Hill on a clear autumn morning surrounded by kangaroos, far from budget blues with splendid views!

Dan Buchler, Waramanga

IN SUPPORT OF DEBT

I support Mark Boscawen's view (Letters, May 24) that not all debt is bad. In business a successful company carrying no debt is regarded as having a ''lazy balance sheet'' and is ripe for takeover by suitors who rarely use their own money to finance their bids.

Bruce Pittard, Fadden

LIGHT RAIL RETHINK

In the article ''How far should you walk for transport'' (May 23, p11) the project director of Capital Metro is reported as saying that a fast journey meant rethinking the traffic lights in the Northbourne Avenue corridor.

Has it occurred to the government that such rethinking, applied now, would possibly speed up the present road traffic to such an extent that a light rail system wouldn't be required?

Geoff Nickols, Griffith

MORALS LOST AT SEA

I empathise with Judy Aulich's views (Letters, May 23) on asylum seekers being sent to Cambodia: our moral responsibilities don't stop at our borders. But my conscience still has a twinge that since the loss of about 1000 boat people in the Rudd and Gillard years, I'm not aware of any attempted form of modest compensation to their relatives by the ALP or Greens, and certainly not the Liberals.

Geoffrey Fitzgibbon, Higgins

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