Michael Gordon's article, "Shorten offers hope to 2000 asylum seekers" (May 28, p4), is a welcome reversal of policy, arising, it seems, now that "the Coalition is pushing asylum seeker policy as an election issue". Bill Shorten states that he cannot believe " we were so inept" as "not to have negotiated resettlement arrangements in the last three years". He echoes public sentiment here.
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Happily, both Labor and the Coalition now see the urgency of the matter, as settlements on Manus and Nauru are untenable. Peter Dutton sees only Cambodia as an alternative to forced return to their homelands. After all, the Coalition has committed $55million to Cambodia, though with only one taker.
Mr Shorten's proposal to increase funding to the UNHCR is a positive step but ignores the need to work more closely with our neighbours. One of the first priorities would be setting up properly funded centres. Legal frameworks should be established in collaboration with the UNHCR and other refugee communities to protect the refugees. Malaysia and Thailand are now, I understand, net importers of labour, and could possibly provide opportunities for refugees seeking work.
It is, moreover, a major priority for all members of the government to handle our relations with our neighbours with greater diplomacy, as witnessed by Mr Barnaby Joyce's faux pas in the past week. Constructive dialogue with the governments of our neighbouring countries would be a very welcome first step, in collaboration with the UNHCR and other refugee communities.
Helen Margaret Reid, Acton
Mantra reality check
The federal government's election mantra is "jobs and growth". We are assured that these have to be its priority.
In a recent interview on ABC's One Plus One program successful businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist Dick Smith made the statement: "I'm not an academic, but common sense tells me that a finite world cannot sustain perpetual growth. We are consuming the world's resources one-and-a-half times faster than the world's capacity to restore them." Isn't it time for a more intelligent assessment of our priorities? Food for thought maybe?
J. Shaw, Macquarie
First-rate candidate
What a fine article about freedom of choice and voluntary assisted dying ("We all deserve right to assisted death", Times2, May 30, p5). And what a wonderful fit – Professor Fitzgerald to stand for the Australian Sex Party as their lead candidate for the Senate in NSW with the slogan "Your Life, Your Choice!"
In his salad days Ross was a cricketer of note and it's worth noting that, as there are 12 senators to be elected in NSW, Ross has a good chance of making the first 11.
Richard Whitaker, St Ives, NSW
Allow Dad to choose
Ross Fitzgerald goes to the core of a real dilemma. My Dad, like all Australians with an incurable cancer, is barred from choosing an assisted death at a time of his choosing. We are told that this is to protect him from greedy family who will force him to accept an early death so that they can inherit or be rid of him as a burden.
The reality is that the current outdated laws force him to protect us by choosing between a lonely suicide or a pain-filled hospital death.
As I share the last precious weeks of Dad's life with him, I want my Dad to be reassured that when he is ready he can die peacefully surrounded by his loving family. Is that too much to ask?
Sophia Yates, Parkville, Vic
Growth and housing
The debate about the fairness of tax concessions for borrowing to invest in property should take into account that borrowing to invest in existing homes provides gain for the investor at the expense of the taxation system, but creates no more housing, nor "jobs and growth" (to borrow the Coalition's slogan). Conversely, borrowing to invest in new homes creates jobs, increases the available pool of housing, and helps keep a lid on escalating prices to the benefit of young home-seekers, and certainly merits the incentive of tax concessions.
One could argue similarly re the tax concessions for negative gearing to purchase existing shares. Where is the benefit to society, as only investment in new enterprises increases the opportunity of growth, and should be rewarded.
Michael Adler, Gungahlin
Guns policy for drugs
Anthea McCarthy-Jones's article ("Drug cartels a new danger", Times2, May 23, p1) was excellent. However, it dealt purposefully with law enforcement, with scant mention of the important role of health and social policy aspects of illicit drugs. A larger demand for illegal drugs in Australia reflects not only increased affluence but also an ineffective policy.
Overall, anti-gun laws in America have been weakened in the past 30 years despite a simmering national resentment against a gun death toll of about 30,000 annually. The National Rifle Association's support for Donald Trump will certainly exacerbate the problem. Australia's story with drugs (and many would say with guns) has been much the same. Drugs and drug use are shunned as a NIMBY, but if that's the case, they are virtually everywhere else. Every kilogram of toxic drugs can be likened to an illegal firearm. Very few in this country want laws against guns eased, so why are drug elites pushing governments and politicians to do that with prohibiting laws on drugs, and their use?
Colliss Parrett, Drug Advisory Council Australia
Wrong target
The ongoing barrage of anti-Assad and anti-Iranian propaganda from Colin Rubenstein, executive director of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, is ever more ridiculous ("There is more to do in Iran", Times2, May 30, p4).
How can any sensible person look at the situation in the Middle East – and Europe –where the Sunni Wahhabi extremist group IS has caused such terror, then blame the forces opposing that terror and that ideology, the Shia states of Iran and Syria, for theterrorism? The source for the financial backing and training of IS is well documented and it is not Iran nor Syria!
Greg Ellis, Murrumbateman, NSW
Plan departure fears
Recent letter writers have lamented the lack of transparency around proposals to redevelop the heritage-listed Manuka Oval and the proposal for the new suburb of Thompson in Tuggeranong.
The way our planning system is supposed to work is that any departures from adopted public policy should demonstrate the overriding community need for that change.
In the case of Thompson, the developer is running the consultation process, and the communication material misappropriates the term "urban renewal" for what is in fact "urban sprawl" into the Murrumbidgee buffer. No justification that withstands scrutiny has been presented to amend the Town Centre Master Plan – Tuggeranong has some of the most affordable housing in Canberra and a good mix of housing types.
Where are the public policy-makers, the strategic planners, in these debates? As a community lucky enough to live in one of the world's few planned cities, we need to be vigilant about erosion of planning process. Do we want to live in a city where planning decisions are made for the benefit of those with the big bucks and cranes and not on community need and our intergenerational responsibilities to protect natural and cultural heritage?
Kathy Eyles, Chifley
Kicking a down area
The process of DA approval in Giralang has been corrupted. Mick Gentleman's attitude towards the Giralang community is amazing, as he has stated that he will consult the Giralang residents after the deal is finalised. The offices of Mr Gentleman and Andrew Barr refuse to answer basic questions sent by Giralang residents via emails, calls and letters. It appears the only possible way to get answers will be through FOI requests.
So why is the ACT government knee-deep in a secret deal to undermine the DA for 1500-square-metre shops which it used special call-in powers to approve? Is this working in the best interests of Giralang residents? Twelve years of neglect is obvious in Giralang, if you walk around it can't be missed. It would be great if the government would just stop kicking Giralang residents' heads and let us get up off the ground.
Spending some of the money that's been skimped on would be great, too.
Andrew Zed, Giralang
Roo cull humane
It amazes me that so many people want to stop the annual cull of kangaroos. if they are allowed to breed up around Canberra, instead of about 100 accidents with cars hitting them each year which happens now, we will have 200 to 300 accidents. Not all are killed outright, so a lot of injured roos will struggle back into the bush and have a long and painful death. Is that what they want?
Also, a few years ago in a very dry season when feed was very scarce I was shooting roos for property owners after they applied for tags to shoot a limited number of kangaroos on their property. We approached one roo and got to about 30 metres from him and he did not move (very unusual); I shot him and trying to find why he did not move I slit his belly open and opened his stomach. To my amazement – and this is not exaggerated – his stomach was completely full of three centimetre- to seven centimetre-long white worms. This happens when feed is very scarce to sheep also, and you have to drench them regularly. This roo would have had a long and painful death after a week or so.
Seeing as there is a lot of talk about climate change, we are probably going to have some severe droughts in the near future.
So please, let the government do the humane killing of the roos so as to reduce the number of the painful deaths you are trying to enforce.
Arthur Schuster, Chapman
Capital Metro on track
Kent Fitch (Letters, May 26) presents his personal, and incorrect, financial analysis of the light rail project. It is not an analysis which conforms with the Australian Government's National Public Private Partnership Guidelines, nor is it consistent with the analytical approach adopted by other jurisdictions for PPP projects in Australia. In comparison, the figures released by the Capital Metro Agency following financial close on May 24 are derived using methodology that follows national guidelines, which has been applied by the Territory's specialist commercial advisers (Ernst & Young), utilised in financial models prepared by bidders to the project, assessed by ACT Treasury and reviewed and endorsed by the project board (which includes independent members with many years of PPP experience).
Furthermore, the project's net present cost figure of $939million includes the present value of the 20-year availability stream, the contribution the Territory will make to the project once services commence, and a prudent contingency amount. Adjusted to a 2016 measurement date, this represents a project cost which is more than 10 per cent better than the public sector comparator figures reported in the business case. Contrary to there being a "cost blowout" as suggested by Mr Fitch, the project's cost is lower than the corresponding benchmark figure in the business case. This is testament to the successful, professional and competitive procurement process conducted by the ACT government and the conservative nature of the project's business case.
The Capital Metro project has been one of the most transparent projects in the ACT's history and the release of the financial information continues this commitment to the Canberra community. The fact that the project will now be delivered at an overall lower cost than originally estimated is a positive outcome, and one that bodes well for the future of the project. It is a reflection of the expertise and the meticulous attention to detail of those working on the project on behalf of the ACT government, and those in our contracted consortium, Canberra Metro.
Simon Corbell, Minister for Capital Metro
Hippocratic hypocrisy
Following Four Corners on Monday night, we see yet another example of unregulated commercial medicine from an industry that receives no oversight by the government or even serious peer group assessment and certainly not a sound from the AMA, the untouchable marketing arm of the medical industry.
Yes, it's the IVF racketeers and what a disgrace. Yet another example of mercenary medical practices in a country which struggles to pay a worker a decent wage. Not so the crass medical industry, where the sky's the limit, and where the Hippocratic Oath is trashed daily.
Rex Williams, Ainslie
Leaders fail to grasp enormity of issue
The contrast between Ian Dunlop's excellent article ("Citizens awake – we are being taken for fools", Times2, May 25, p5) and the disheartening shallowness of the Leaders Debate on ABC TV could not have been more worrying. Added to this the questions asked of the leaders by the panel of journalists illustrated how woefully, perhaps wilfully, ignorant so many of our journalists are regarding the existential threat to civilisation posed by the press for ever more growth. Mr Shorten even used the oxymoron "sustainable growth". It seems only The Canberra Times is prepared to run articles challenging the unsustainable path chosen by all our political parties.
John R. Coulter, Bradbury, SA
Cyclists scuppered
Not content with accepting unsolicited bids to redevelop Manuka Oval, the Chief Minister was happy to sacrifice his government's active transport strategies at the weekend by closing the main cycle path between Civic and South Canberra to enable rally cars to drive at 100km/h in Acton Park.
On Friday night, cyclists going home from work were prevented from using the cycle path and told by officials that they could ride around via Scrivener Dam – a diversion of nearly 20km. If the Chief Minister expects us to believe he is committed to more active forms of commuting he will need to do a lot better than this. Surely EPIC is a better venue for rally cars anyway!
Tony Bartlett, Deakin
IED explained
The term IED, following several letters to the editor on this matter, comes from the British Army in the 1970s, after the Provisional Irish Republican Army used bombs made from agricultural fertiliser and Semtex smuggled from Libya make highly effective boobytrap devices or remote-controlled bombs.
Vic Robertson, Page
TO THE POINT
The Canberra Times wants to hear from you in short bursts. Email views in 50 words or fewer to
letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au
DOUBLE STANDARD
Bill Shorten should stop bleating (ineffectually and too late) about the Great Barrier Reef while at the same time approving of the Adani mine. That coal, wherever it is burnt, will release millions of tons of CO2 to heat the planet and acidify the oceans. Hypocrisy, thy name is "politician".
James Gralton, Garran
COUNTRY LOSING OUT
Barnaby Joyce confirmed recently that NBN wholesale prices in country areas that rely on satellites will be much, much dearer than city prices based on fibre. This means that country areas will be at a huge disadvantage in our new "agile" and "innovation" economy. Yet all the media reported on the regional leaders debate was boat turn backs and live cattle trade.
Philida Sturgiss-Hoy, Downer
SPORTING CHANCE
Throw away the hockey stick, Anna Flanagan ("Booze bust shock", May 29, p48) . Take up professional tennis. Then you can say what you like, do what you like and still get to Rio.
Tony May, Pearce
ADS A SIGN?
I have noted a huge spike in the number of ads spruiking the need for vigilance against terrorism being aired through all media outlets. Can we therefore assume that former prime minister John Howard is an active campaign adviser for the government?
Linus Cole, Palmerston
WRONG WORD
Wendy Squires ("Cock-a-hoop for TV flesh flashing", Forum, May 28, p3), is right to believe naked men should be seen on the TV screen as frankly as women are. But she apparently thinks "vagina" is the word for a woman's external genitalia. This is the vulva, the visible part on a naked woman.
Michael Travis, Bruce
SUPPORTIVE LINE
I write to support Ian Jannaway (Letters, May 26). It seems to me his critics have missed his point. He was saying, was he not, that neither he, nor Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, nor anyone should have to apologise for a wrong committed by another person?
Tom Middlemiss, Deakin
MAGGIE ALERT
Is the following incident the earliest on record? On Sunday, May 22 my wife and I were subjected to a relentless aerial assault by a squawking and clearly psychopathic magpie outside John James Hospital in Deakin. With the mild weather we have been experiencing lately, poor sod probably thought it was spring!
Colin Neave, Lyneham
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