Too few ACT senators

The measures proposed clearly need thorough debate, and probably substantial modification. The Senate (the states' and territories' house), being a vital part of the Parliament, is the one place where such thorough review can take place. For this to happen, the ACT clearly needs more senators.

Tasmania with a population slightly more than the ACT has 12. We have the stultifying self-neutralising two. An increase for the ACT (and the Northern Territory) doesn't require a referendum. A lot of poor planning and development has occurred here due to interference by developer-influenced federal politicians, and inadequate or perfunctory debate in the two chambers and in committees.

Odd numbers (25 MLAs with five in each electorate) are being promoted for fair and equitable electoral change in the ACT. We need at least three or preferably five or seven senators to temper the power and often collusive intransigence of the two major parties. Responsible independents are best placed to do that.

Meanwhile, the ACT could again be at risk of being significantly compromised.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

The word "reform" has become perhaps the most misused term in current public debate. Far from its true meaning of making better or removing fault, it has become a euphemism for ideology-driven change or the handout of benefits for favoured interest groups.

This is well illustrated by the National Capital Authority's proposals (in the guise of deregulation) to allow the self-assessment of development proposals by property owners ("Valley, corridors in ACT Authority, April 30, p1). Such a "reform" would pass beyond satire. It would also finally demonstrate that the ACT planning system exists to benefit developers and speculators, not the community.

Stephen Brown, Forrest

Your article "Canberra's aged-care centre with the lot" (May 2, p3) has a huge error. BaptistCare Griffith website's construction update of October 2014 clearly shows that the maximum refundable accommodation deposit for non-(government) supported residents for a single room ranges from $550,000 to $750,000 – one thousand times the amount quoted in your article.

An alternative offered is a daily accommodation payment ranging from $95.83 to $130.68, or a combination of the two. An addition "ESS Fee" of $40 to $48 is also mentioned (for some rooms) but not explained on the BaptistCare website. Occupants of a shared double room each pay about 60per cent of the refundable deposit or the daily payment. Welcome to the tortuous world of aged-care finance.

Dave Trail, Campbell

Based on 2014 FOI information from the ACT government, and adding in a range of other relevant direct and indirect costs it neglected to include, it's easy to calculate that the overall annual negative economic impact to the Canberra community of the annual kangaroo kill program would be well in excess of $1million every year.

The costs go well beyond the wages paid to ACT government staff and their usual consumables. It would also include the cost of parks rangers, security staff, veterinarians, contract shooters, legal advice, media exposure, transport, printing, insurance, hiring night-vision equipment and other costs. More than this, the opportunity cost of lost wildlife tourism, a significant Australian industry; and generally bad overseas and national press.

One has to ask where the sense is in this loss of income every year from a program that has never been shown to work when, at the same time, important health and cultural programs in the community are being axed in the name of austerity. A few interconnecting wildlife corridors would be a much more effective one-off approach to wildlife management and would save ACT ratepayers millions every year.

Professor Steve Garlick, Bungendore, NSW

The views expressed by Brendan Ryan (Letters, April 23), demonstrate how some people have been blinded to the institutionalised sexual abuse of children by the Marist Brothers. Mr Ryan's focus on the success of ex-students ignores the many other students who suffered at the hands of the brothers.

While Mr Ryan believes the brothers' reputation was tarnished by "a minority", it is actually the culture of the Marist Order to hide such abuse.

Several senior brothers (including headmasters) admitted to the Royal Commission that they had made conscious decisions not to report the abuse to police, preferring instead to move abusers to other positions. This is consistent with the broader church's concealment of paedophilia, in which tens of thousands of paedophiles have been "forgiven" and relocated worldwide. By wilfully ignoring state law and following cannon laws that (inexplicably) still exist, the Marist Brothers were able to forgive, conceal and relocate paedophiles.

These actions have directly resulted in the abuse, suicide and destruction of a staggering number of Marist students. The courage of a number of ex-students, such as Damian De Marco (ACT Local Hero 2015), and the dedication of several Canberra Times journalists has shone a bright light into some very dark corners of the Marist Order. With the Royal Commission yet to release its findings in relation to Marist, potential exists for the prosecution of more Marist brothers. The removal of the order before this occurs would be in the best interests of the school.

Mike Desmond, Monash

Ross Fitzgerald ("Universities need examination", Times2, May 4, p1) rightly concludes that the sector itself needs to change. Fewer more efficient publicly funded universities need to replace the current mishmash. Tiny fiefdoms cannot be expected to provide the efficiency and punching power needed to meet the 21st-century demands of the domestic and global markets for high-quality university education and research.

Dr Peter Smith, Lake Illawarra, NSW

Commissioner Andrew Colvin (right) explains the AFP's stance.

Claims by the Australian Federal Police that it could not apprehend members of the "Bali nine" group before they left for Indonesia because it lacked sufficient evidence are immaterial, if the primary purpose of effective policing is to prevent and reduce crime ("Bali nine executions: AFP defends its role in arrests", canberra times.com.au, May 4).

Given that the AFP believed a real conspiracy to import drugs was under way, why not simply bring the conspirators in and alert them to the fact the Indonesian authorities were going to be made aware of their plans? Mission accomplished. Crime prevented. No lives lost. And no "weasel words" from the AFP characterising themselves as the poor, put-upon victims of unjustified public condemnation.

Regrettably, the fact the AFP did not consider such an alternative says everything about its understanding and that of its political masters that its role is all about law enforcement, prosecutions and convictions, rather than the far less "sexy" business of crime prevention and reduction.

John Richardson, Wallagoot, NSW

Anyone who has ever flown into Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia will have seen writ large in arrival halls that the penalty for drug smuggling is the death penalty. All three are sovereign nations and those are their rules.

The Bali nine mule train would have been totally aware of the risks they were running, particularly as this particular "drug run" was not their first. Exchanges of intelligence between the military and police forces act almost on a quid pro quo basis, so the heads-up by the AFP was not out of the ordinary.

Tony Abbott, Julie Bishop and Bill Shorten (to a lesser extent) worked tirelessly to seek clemency on behalf of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran but, make no mistake, both young men were guilty in the eyes of Indonesian law. For the AFP to be accused of having "blood on their hands" is nonsensical. We would hope the interchange of information between our countries would be beneficial to both nations, particularly where the war on terrorism is concerned.

N. Bailey, Nicholls

Michel Meredith (Letters, May 1) weighs the death of our children, including the correspondent's daughter, against the Indonesian shooting of drug smugglers and comes down firmly on the side of the executions, but it is a call no human agency should have to make.

There may be a scintilla of justification for laws that define our kids who use drugs as criminals, and even for the death of those who supply them with drugs, if those laws were effective in keeping drugs beyond their reach, but they establish the very conditions that stimulate that supply. Their ineffectiveness is demonstrated by the economic indicators that show the drug trade is booming: their cost is stable or reducing; they remain easy to access; their purity and potency is on the rise; and a study commissioned by the Bureau of Statistics has estimated in 2010 the total value of illicit drugs used in Australia amounted to $7.6billion.

In the context of the Indonesian drug problem, one reads many smug comments about the level of corruption in that country, yet we are told that organised crime costs Australia up to $15billion a year. Australia could make no greater contribution to good governance in our region than by reforming its own drug laws.

Bill Bush, Turner

So now we get to read letters from people who, with the deed done, feel a need to claim such executions are just. They say, "What about the poor old Aussie heroin users dying from imported drugs? These importers took known risks, and lost." But isn't that equally true of the daredevil, heroin-using sons and daughters of our middle class too?

There's no supply-side solution.

Issues surrounding states killing people aside, supporters of the death penalty choose to ignore key objections, starkly highlighted this time around: its irreversibility and the fallibility of all judicial systems imposing it.

Note that a (probably innocent) woman walked away from the recent Indonesian executions at the 11th hour. If the system is reliable, what was that about?

Cuthbert Douglas Bonython

Gary Wilson (letters April 30) suggests Labor's hardline policy on keeping children in detention is tied to the party's "value" of "not paying ransoms or succumbing to blackmail by illegal immigrants who use their children as ransom". Really? Can we inject a little humanity and fact into this argument? Most would agree that humans overwhelmingly love and do everything in our power to protect our children. Unlikely that many humans would ransom their children don't you think? What are they ransoming them for and how exactly?

People seeking asylum are not doing anything illegal, despite our government falsely labelling them as "illegals".

Australia is the only one breaking laws, as we continue to contravene our international human rights obligations in our poor treatment of those seeking asylum here. Three independent reports say as much.

How much more compassion for each individual detainee/asylum seeker could we muster if we were allowed close enough to hear their stories?

Alison Coster, Karabar, NSW

I am astounded by Michael Stevenson's claim (Letters, April 27) that people wishing to commemorate Australia's frontier wars at this year's Anzac Day parade should not be surprised at being stopped because "at the time they [the marchers] were shouting 'shame"'.

From where I stood, the sequence of events was very clear and exactly the opposite: the people marching had done so very respectfully and calls of "shame" came only after police instigated assaults on some of those who had been stopped. Videos available online show this, and the attitudes of the police at this year's parade, very clearly.

I was very sad to have witnessed active racism, use ofsilencing and police overzealousness to control Australia's narrative.

Gillian King, Narrabundah

As an 86-year-old driver with a proud 65-year-driving record, I was less than impressed by a "health expert's" comments about geriatric drivers ("Elderly drivers as dangerous as hoons", May 4, p3). It is hardly surprising that 90-year-olds (or 86-year-olds) cause as many accidents as hoons, if both are licensed to drive freely on the open road.

A solution or two, rather than apparently superficial research results, would have been more helpful. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Licences should limit driving times to exclude night/peak/school hours.

2. Geriatric plates or notices could warn other drivers (for example, on a visit to New Zealand many years ago, my hire car firm provided a display sign, "Overseas driver – please extend the courtesy of the road").

3. Do some more research on hoons' dangerous driving habits.

Geoff Armstrong, Monash

I wholeheartedly agree with correspondent Helen Moore ("Foolish cyclists need saving from lunacy", Letters, May 4) that cyclists who are not appropriately clothed and illuminated do run the risk of serious injury on the road. But why stop there. We have a whole class of path user that takes a similar risk every evening: the humble pedestrian. Inappropriately dressed in dark clothing, not carrying any illumination, maybe walking a dog or kids similarly clad and unlit, these path users are invisible to the bike rider until it is perhaps too late.

And before all you pedestrians get fired up about lights on bikes, the law is quite clear that I am only required to carry lighting sufficient for you to see me, not the other way round.

So how about we all take some responsibility for our own safety and properly illuminate ourselves so everyone has a good evening.

Joe Murphy, Bonython

FRONTIER WARS

What reference book(s) did Michael Nelmes (Letters, May 2) consult to back up his statement that tens of thousands of First Australians were killed in the frontier wars?

Ken McPhan, Spence

HYPOCRISY AT PLAY

I despair at the hypocrisy of some in the ALP in pushing for the federal Coalition to allow its members a conscience vote on same-sex marriage, whilst advocating for a binding "yes" vote for all ALP parliamentarians.

Graeme Rankin, Holder

BACKGROUND NOISE

I was amused to see H.Ronald's reference to "background noise" in my accidental reading of his letter of May3. H.Ronald would be in a prime position to recognise background noise. In fact, he/she is a master at producing it.

Ray O'Brien, Wavell Heights, Qld

CHEQUE IN THE MAIL?

The report on David Thodey who said he could not defend his high salary as Telstra chief executive ("I can't defend my high salary", Times2, May 1, p10) captured my interest, but seemed incomplete. I look forward to a part II in which we learn how some of his wealth was directed to philanthropic causes.

Noel Haberecht, Ainslie

DRUG BOSSES EXALTED

It warms the cockles of my heart to learn that there is honour among thieves, and drug runners ("Sukumaran helped rather than flee, says Bali courier", May 4, p6). I half-expect the government to announce a state funeral for the pair as they assume "Digger" status. We've had enough and are all desperately seeking closure on this issue.

W. Book, Hackett

ROYAL EXCESS

What a relief from the Nepal tragedy etc to get half of the front page and a quarter of page 2 to welcome one baby of no relevance to Australia whatsoever ("Princess makes entrance with little fuss", May 4, p1 and 2). Some perspective, please.

Eric Hodge, Pearce

PLEASE EXPLAIN

I am wondering if there is an International Court where Joko Widodo, H.M.Prasetyo and team could be required to explain exactly how their legal system works and the benefits of execution?

Matt Ford, Crookwell, NSW

LET THE BACKS LOOSE

Here's an idea for the Brumbies: stop the infatuation with the blind side. The team has some of the best backs in the world. They are not allowed to run enough.

Ian Morison, Forrest

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