Important recommendations by Education Minister Joy Burch were reported by Megan Gorrey ("Let's stop violence early, says minister", April1, p1).
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Ms Burch gets to the heart of the matter of domestic violence when she says that teaching respect between the sexes must begin early and in schools.
Sadly, we cannot always rely on families to pass on socially responsible attitudes and behaviours to their children and that is where schools must come in for the sake of a future that is safe for women and children.
Sex education is already part of most school curriculums but the issue of mutual respect between the sexes must be given its own particular emphasis.
As a former teacher, I am only too aware of how much is already demanded of teachers. One solution may be for the Education Department to finance the production of a series of high-quality videos on mutual respect between the sexes and sex roles, with accompanying discussion points. These videos could be shown at assemblies, after which small group discussions could take place.
Domestic violence is an increasing scourge on our society and solutions must be urgently sought and put into practice.
Glenda Naughten, Farrer
Guilty of same offence
Jenna Price's opinion piece ("Men should engage their brains before talking to women", Times 2, March 31, p5) highlights the discrimination women still face in the workplace. Her point, however, is undermined by her article's latent hypocrisy.
Sweeping generalisations are a fundamental element of prejudice. It's difficult to discriminate when one treats people based on their individual merits, as opposed to their race, sex, age or otherwise. Unfortunately, Jenna Price's denunciation is directed at men in general. By tarring all men with the brush of sexism, she falls victim to the same transgressions as those she seeks to criticise. Some men do think twice.
Moreover, by polarising the argument, Jenna Price unconsciously reinforces outdated stereotypes: only women should be offended by questions on child-rearing choices – it's their responsibility.
My children are in day care; this is a decision that my partner and I made together. Should not men be equally offended (or equally not offended) by criticisms of parenting decisions? Perhaps the workplace should be devoid of questions about personal choices. Yet, perhaps some people are genuinely interested in the lives of their colleagues.
In the workplace, people should be judged primarily on their ability to do their job. Women, there is no doubt, are more grievously affected by workplace discrimination than men. However, to address this issue, men must play a role. I'm not sure that Jenna Price's accusatory and aggressive approach is constructive.
Cameron McDonald, Higgins
Surely a joke?
Was the front-page lead story of the Canberra Times on April 1 ("First stop convention centre") an April Fool's joke? If it wasn't, it should have read: "First, stop the convention centre".
Tourism Industry Advisory Council chairman David Marshall said: "Canberra had the oldest convention centre of any state capital". It doesn't: Canberra isn't a state capital. Indeed, it isn't even like one. It is a medium-sized regional city similar to the Gold Coast, Newcastle and Wollongong. And all of those are better placed for a convention centre, because they are on the beach, thus providing an enticing holiday environment, and are closer to existing frequent-service international airports.
Canberra isn't even a business capital. Half of its workforce is in government, and much of the rest only exists to service the government workforce. Further, the convention centre would be very unprofitable. Even Andrew Barr admits that.
Barr also said it would not be built without federal funding. Why should the 98per cent of Australians who don't live in Canberra fund a convention centre that has the aim of taking jobs away from their own cities?
Barr should demand that the Canberra Business Council stop wasting his time with this ridiculous proposal. If the chamber wants a convention centre, it should prevail on its members to fund it — not expect governments to subsidise business so it fattens its profit margins.
Bob Salmond, Melba
Devoid of compassion
I cannot let H.Ronald's claim (Letters, April 7) that Australia has a "generous, safe and well-managed approach to refugees" pass without comment.
Australia's refugee policies seem to be based on three elements: first, punish anyone who arrives here to such an extent that they will go back to where they came from; second, discourage anyone else from trying to come here by convincing them that they will be subjected to the same treatment; and third, wash our hands of the issue on the heartless assumption that if we can keep asylum seekers away from Australia, then we can ignore them.
Those who have worked at or visited our refugee detention centres are almost unanimous in their condemnation of the conditions there. Save the Children workers at Manus Island were so horrified at the abuse of refugees that they made their concerns public. Their claims were completely vindicated by the independent inquiry by Philip Moss. The Human Rights Commission, the United Nations Committee Against Torture and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have reached similar conclusions.
Of course, we cannot help all refugees, but Malcolm Fraser showed after the Vietnam War that there is a better way, based on care and compassion, rather than cruelty and torture. I wish that a few of our current politicians would show similar compassion.
Charles Body, Kaleen
Although I agree with Jan Gulliver's characterisation of H.Ronald's latest communication as "utter tripe" (Letters, April 8), I defend and support the Canberra Times' right to publish all letters, no matter how foolish or abhorrent the views expressed in them might be to most folks of goodwill. I note that charges of bias against the Times seem to come mostly from those apparently on the conservative side of politics who level the charge against anyone who does not agree with their "correct" views. The publishing of letters, such as H.Ronald's April 7 effort, give the lie to these charges of bias. I congratulate the Canberra Times on its generally independent and unbiased editorial policy and I wonder if the Murdoch press would so readily publish the views of a far-left H.Ronald counterpart?
D. J. Taylor, Kambah
Separate pay agreements for military and civilian staff fair
I believe you are quite wrong in your assessment of the recent Peever Defence review ("Imbalance in base pay brings disharmony", April 5, p14) where you argue for equality in base pay between civilian and military members in Defence. Perhaps your editorial writer needs to think outside of the ACT borders before claiming that a pay imbalance is wrong and will cause disharmony between military and civilian staff.
Using the example of two officers working in the same "cubicle in Canberra" merely demonstrates that your writer does not understand the true nature of defence service. Working in a cubicle in Canberra is not the norm for ADF personnel, is certainly not why they serve, and should not be the basis for pay arrangements.
A navy lieutenant commander is trained and employed to command a multimillion-dollar frigate with over 150 crew, while an army major could be commanding an infantry company of over 120 soldiers, yet somehow you think their equivalent for base pay is an ASO6 in Canberra who (according to the review) likely has no direct reports and little executive authority. Similarly, pretending that the responsibilities of an EL1 in Canberra in any way equate to that of a lieutenant colonel or wing commander in a unit environment and that, therefore, their base pay should be equivalent, is just fanciful. The pay differential relates to what we expect of our ADF personnel in their real jobs, not the artificial and inflated world of the Canberra bureaucracy.
Service Allowance (not payable to those lieutenant colonels or wing commanders anyway) is intended to recompense members for their multiple moves, long working hours and other service demands, but does not address expected levels of responsibility and accountability.
The remuneration arrangements for military and civilian staff are separate for very good reasons. They have different roles, different employment conditions and deserve different pay arrangements. I suggest this is fully understood by all involved in the relatively few examples of staff in Canberra working side by side in their cubicles, and there is no disharmony at all.
Kym MacMillan, O'Malley
Disability loading in place
There are factual inaccuracies in the article concerning disability funding ("Parents' representative recalls his own learning struggles", April 7, p5) that need to be corrected.
Contrary to the claims in the article, Commonwealth school funding and support to students with disabilities is needs-based. There is a disability loading, introduced by the Coalition in January last year.
The disability loading applies to eligible students with a disability as determined by the state or territory in which they live. The Commonwealth is not the prime funder of schools or students with disabilities, as this is a state and territory responsibility, but the Commonwealth provides extra funding to support state and territories, exactly as we promised at the election. For students with disabilities, total Commonwealth and state spending is $16billion over 2014-2017, of which $10.9billion is provided by the states and territories and $5.1billion by the Commonwealth.
In 2015 alone, the Commonwealth's funding is $1.1billion and the states and territories $2.5billion for students with disabilities. The needs-based funding is provided to states and territories and they make the decisions on how it is distributed.
The claims the government cut More Support for Students with Disabilities are also wrong. In fact, we extended it with an additional $100million. This programme was a short-term initiative introduced by the previous government in 2012 to terminate in 2013 to build the capacity of teachers, principals and other school staff to better support the needs of students with disability and learning difficulties. Because of this one-year extension, the program will produce longer-term benefits to teachers and schools and ultimately students with disabilities, and now the disability loading is in place, there will be ongoing funding for students and support for teachers. The government is meeting all its obligations and promises in this vital area.
Christopher Pyne, Minister for Education and Training
GST abhorrent
Recent statements from politicians and business figures seem to indicate a decision to add to the extent and application of the GST.
The GST is the worst tax I, as a pensioner, have been subjected to, and also the most unfair. It is my intention not to vote for any party, at the next election, that introduces increases to the GST, or that supports such action.
Julia Cronin, Watson
Catastrophe looming
The lack of media coverage and analysis of the ongoing climate change crisis is appalling. Every now and again there is a brief report on a climate change-related matter, but compared to the ongoing trivia of the daily news cycle, climate change and what is happening to the planet barely rates a mention.
There is no attempt by the mainstream media to put together any coherent analysis and to report on a regular basis.
To do so would be quite simple. For example, the New York Times of April 2 reports that California for the first time ever has imposed mandatory water restrictions in the face of the state's worst drought on record.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere, a water crisis has been reached, with record-breaking droughts reducing storage in the main reservoir system to 5per cent of capacity.
As reported by the World Meteorological Organisation, 2014 was nominally the warmest year on record and 14 out of 15 of the hottest years on record have occurred this century, so something is very seriously wrong. But as far as the print and electronic media are concerned, everything is fine.
This media failure, together with the Abbott government's abolition of the Climate Commission, has left Australians blind as we approach climate catastrophe cliff.
Rod Holesgrove, O'Connor
City's streets would benefit from flowers
In response to the article "Uprooted ... Floriade set to look for new digs" (April 2, p1), if anyone visited Commonwealth Park today, they would see why Floriade should be moved. Ponds are drained and full of rubbish, trees have fallen across bridges.
Floriade might be spectacular one month a year, but the remaining 11 months, the park is disgusting.
So, if Floriade is being moved to another venue, where should it go? The streets of Canberra.
Along Northbourne Avenue, on the roundabouts of Canberra (there's more than one to choose). Canberra is supposed to be the capital of Australia, but if you drive around, you can clearly see the streets don't reflect it. Especially when a country town like Young has better flower gardens in their roundabouts than we do.
Andrew Kite, McKellar
Litter a disgrace
We have just returned to Canberra after 15 years in idyllic country Victoria. We have only one regret. Canberra is a wonderful city to live in, with tremendous amenities and supportive of a myriad of lifestyles. Our one regret?
Before we left Canberra 15 years ago, our greatest gripe about Canberra was the amount of litter one sees daily lying about public places.
In our view, Canberra is still the litter capital of the world. Surely it is not beyond the whit of the ACT government to place rubbish bins close to public open spaces.
I refer in particular to Ginninderra Ponds, where there is one rubbish bin to cover a large area and where there is a tremendous amount of litter lying around.
Not only is it ugly to look at, but it is surely a danger to the large number of waterfowl on the ponds.
Come on, you environmentalists and greenies. Do something practical for a change.
Richard and Krys Milner, Dunlop
TO THE POINT
BAD PLANNING
"Grandpa, would you build an airport next to Civic?"
"Of course not, my boy, that would be terrible town planning."
"Then why are they building a Civic next to the airport?"
"Because some people can make lots of money from it."
"Oh I see, Grandpa ..."
Hugh Dakin, Griffith
REASONS FOR VIOLENCE
All the suggested solutions to family violence put forward in your editorial "No easy fixes for family violence" (Times2, April 7, p2) fail to address the reasons people are violent. That will not change until we focus on the development of a society rather than an economy.
The economy is the means to an end not the end itself.
Greg Baker, Giralang
IBERIAN INSIGHTS
Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd is quoted as referring to the Spanish, Greeks and Irish as "Hibernians" ("Tangled web of defence pay deceptions", Public Sector Informant, April 7, pp8-9). He is right about the Irish, but for the Spanish (and Portuguese if he wants to include them) the word he needs is "Iberians", while for the Greeks I think the word he may be after is "Hellenes".
Michael McCarthy, Deakin
TRUTH ABOUT BOATS
H. Ronald's touching concern for safety of life at sea (Letters, April 7) would be just a little more moving had we not learned from WikiLeaks that the US Embassy, in a cable on November 13, 2009, entitled "Opposition smells blood", advised Washington that "A key Liberal Party strategist told us the issue was 'fantastic' and 'the more boats that come the better"'. It's not loss of boats, but loss of votes, that upsets this kind of politician.
(Dr) William Maley, Reid
GST RISE UNWISE
The softening-up efforts to increase the rate of GST continue. When it was first introduced it was to be fixed at 10per cent and replace many State taxes and charges. State taxes, charges and levies have in fact increased. It would be unwise to open the door to any further attempts to vary this tax.
Ric Hingee, Duffy
ENTRAPMENT EXPERT
Since bowing out of ACT political life, Jon Stanhope appears to have had two major issues on which to speak out.
Both of these revolve around containment – or the containment of cats. Where would he stand on a boatload of asylum-seeking cats?
T.J. Farquhar, Ainslie
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