Canberra Times Letters to the Editor: Climate strategy flawed

This strategy fails to take into account what the effect of a two-degree Celsius rise will be and ask the question would particular investments in renewables be better directed at redressing the effects of climate change, even if there would be a marginally higher resultant temperature rise.

Australia is the outstanding case in point. In the climate change scenario, the destiny of the Australian continentis in the hands of the other 99.7 per cent of the world's population.

On the other hand, Australia's cereal exports constitute 8 per cent of world cereal trade and only Australia can act to preserve and grow this important contribution to the world in these times of times of increasing world population.

Our cereal production regions are under serious threat from climate change. Let's stop this senseless rush to renewable energy and invest in dry climate agriculture and water management practices, and exploit the agricultural potential of the north.

John L Smith, Farrer

Norman Abjorensen stood calmly aside from the clamouring hordes of populist commentators who daily castigate the megalomaniacal outsider upstart with the crude mouth and disrespect for facts who bought his way into the presidency of the USA ("Genius outsider who rewrote the 'rules"', April 3, p13).

First he concentrated on the social class of Donald Trump supporters, their education and income. They weren't all poor, uneducated red-necks. I fear that Abjorensen missed the true genius of Trump's tactics. He wrote, "Trump's campaign had little to do with facts ... But he spoke a language they understood."

Immediately after he was elected, a couple of articles referred to the Trump policies with which he won the voters at his rallies. I never noticed any of this wealth of rational policies being reported during the campaign.

Trump knew they were not the stuff of headlines. He also knew that any publicity is good publicity and managed a throw-away line at every opportunity.

It is too early to dismiss Trump. He may yet rise against the raucous howls of his detractors. We should remember little details like his warning about Obamacare, very early in the action, that you don't just throw out a system on which millions of people rely without replacing it.

Abjorensen's final words are on the money, "Trump has really started something".

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

Thank you to Megan Doherty for again providing women like terminal metastatic breast cancer sufferer Vanessa Sutton a platform and voice after her sad passing ("Team Sutton stay united after loss of wife and mother", March 31, p10).

Like Vanessa, our daughter Melanie, a metastatic breast cancer sufferer who passed away six months ago and the subject of several of Megan's articles, also worked hard, despite coping with a debilitating illness, to raise awareness that breast cancer is not all pink ribbons and recovery stories.

Yet the allocation of funds raised for breast cancer seems not always to recognise the reality for many women with breast cancer is that it will metastasise, with a survival term at best of some five years.

This means ground-breaking research offering women in Vanessa's and Melanie's position better treatment options and less suffering being undertaken by researchers such as Professor Sudha Rao and her dedicated team at the University of Canberra must use events like the recent film night in our daughter's memory to raise funds for this research.

It is hoped those involved in cancer fund-raising events, like Sunday's Convoy for Cancer families, recognise that financial support for this research work at the University of Canberra can make a meaningful contribution to improving the treatment and easing the journey of sometimes the forgotten women with metastatic breast cancer and their families.

David Swan, Holder

Scott Morrison is right to identify that housing affordability is as much a concern for people who rent as those seeking to buy.

However, his approach to addressing the issue will be ineffective, as he has ruled out reducing negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions.

The concessions contribute to property speculation.

Their effectiveness in increasing housing supply relative to other measures such as the direct provision of social housing should be further evaluated.

A holistic approach to improve housing affordability requires the use of a wide range of levers.

These include increasing land and housing supply, particularly the provision of social housing and measures to increase the accessibility of outer urban areas to employment.

This should include investment in transport infrastructure and job decentralisation.

Consideration should also be given to reviewing the impact the level of migration has on property prices.

The growing inequality being generated by the housing market is a recipe for social disharmony.

It's time for a bipartisan approach by the major political parties which targets housing assistance to those genuinely in need. Whatever happened to the fair go?

Mike Quirk, Wanniassa

It's time to pull the plug early on Westside, Chief Minister Andrew Barr. It was always a dumb idea, poorly executed, and now it is just an embarrassment to the national capital, an ongoing nuisance to people living nearby and a reputational risk to your government.

Some DJ was going until midnight last night (Sunday) and there were about two cars in the car park. The hipsters have left. The locals are over it.

Somewhere there's a Skywhale missing its shipping container. It's time for you to call last drinks and salvage some dignity over this taxpayer funded misadventure.

Mike Lawson, New Acton South

I find it difficult to express how disappointed I am in Nick Xenophon over the dirty deal he has done to allow the Coalition to mostly have its way with company tax cuts.

Previous corporate tax cuts did not result in jobs and growth. They won't again.

I thought Xenophon was more on the side of doing the right thing for the country.

T. J. Marks, Holt

Funny how the Barr government's plan to replace the Northbourne Avenue flats does not seem to involve Gungahlin residents, the folks who voted in heaps for the tram.

There must be some community space in Gungahlin.

Instead the "salt and pepper" shakers seem to have most of the holes blocked — except for those located over south Canberra and Weston.

Most of the vocal support for the tram in The Canberra Times seemed to be sourced in old inner North Canberra, where co-incidentally, land values will increase with the closeness to the tram. Nothing like self-interest.

Those of us who will never benefit from the tram know we will pay for it in increased rates and charges for decades.

But I guess few who voted Labor last year thought some of those Lyneham and Dickson refugees would be plonked in their community green spaces in a mature suburb miles from Lyneham and Dickson, with no relief from the angst of Barr's poor planning .

Now comes the fun part — experiencing what passes for "community consultation" in the Barr lexicon.

Manuka Oval re-visited.

W. A. Brown, Holt

H. Ronald (letters April 2) appears to live in a bubble when he states that the reality is in Australia we live in a mature and enlightened society.

Public discourse is no longer polite H. Ronald.

Without 18c we will descend into the slanging match of all matches.

Social media has made this even more possible.

Just ask anyone who has a different opinion to the "mature and enlighten" people they encounter.

Jan Gulliver, Lyneham

Icon's general manager of finance Sam Sachse states ("$1200 charge sparks storm", April 3, p.1) that it would be decision by the developer if they passed on the cost of water levy charge to home buyers.

If that is not a bureaucratic answer then what is it? As Mr Sachse has already figured out, development is all about the bottom line, hence the hike in water prices.

With the proposed redevelopment of the Northbourne Ave corridor for the tram this will make it even harder for first-home buyers to get into the market.

Warwick Priestley, Amaroo

The Member for Monaro, John Barilaro, has spent months avoiding his constituents on the question of the future of the Snowy Water Initiative (SWI) and the remaining two jobs connected with the Snowy River — scientific study and cultural flows.

Not only has he given constituents the round around — essentially a series of dead ends – he has (also) overseen the loss of key personnel, the removal of the Snowy Scientific Committee from the Snowy Hydro Corporatisation Act and the unfulfilled promise to establish the long-awaited Snowy Advisory Committee.

There is no sign of the mandatory 10 Year Review of the Snowy Water Licence.

This is a critical process including Snowy Hydro, communities along the length of the Snowy River, scientists, Indigenous people and the many users who draw from the Snowy Lakes for their regional economies for irrigation, energy or tourism.

For Mr Barilaro, "representation" appears to be a byword for 'do as you want'.

To slash and burn jobs essential to established and well-tested programs — in this case, the $1.2 billion water recovery program for the Snowy, Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers funded from the public purse by three governments — is reprehensible.

Perhaps it is time to take away the Snowy Mountains catchments, rivers and Snowy Hydro from the NSW government and to establish a responsible entity free from political games and bureaucratic bungling.

Acacia Rose, Alpine Riverkeeper, Thredbo

Browsing through the LGBTIQ mag FUSE, I nearly fell over when I saw the headline 'ACT Labor reaffirms support for equality'; but alas, of course, only to continue supporting the patriarchal institution of marriage.

No mention of homelessness, low incomes and multiple jobs to keep the landlord happy, and not to mention the public housing demolished on Northbourne Avenue for the benefit of the "barrgeoisie".

Peter Curtis, Waramanga

Jenny Moxham (Letters, March 30) is right.

Milk and/or milk products are not an essential food for adult humans.

There is no food that is essential to a healthy human diet, which simply requires a balanced range of different food types. She is also quite right that milk is food which evolution has developed for baby cows (or babies of whatever mammal the milk is collected from,) but that does not imply that milk is not suitable for inclusion in a healthy diet for humans.

One wonders what foods Jenny does think are suitable for adult humans to consume – surely not whole grain wheat, being as it is, food for baby wheat plants.

Neil Porter, Hughes

FUNDS LACKING

In the 12 months to February 2017 1256 people died on our roads – 5.2 per 100,000 population. At the same time the death rate by suicide was 12.7 per 100,000.

Where are the multi-million education campaigns aimed at preventing what is the most common cause of death among our young people and our young men in particular.

George Morrow, Angledale, NSW

ABS DECISION FLAWED

It is a disgrace that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has abandoned its series "Measuring Australia's Progress"(Crispin Hull, Forum, April 1, p.2-3), a survey which measures the wellbeing of all Australians. Is this because we are not progressing in terms of living standards and social indicators; largely due to rising inequality?

Lorraine W. Ovington, Fisher

PRECIOUS INSIGHT

Evelyn Bean's contribution to my book Homes for the Workers - The History of the Narrabundah Pre-Fabs, about her family's life in the pre-fabs in the 1950s provided a wonderful and lasting insight into that unique part of Canberra's urban history and heritage.

Alan Foskett, Campbell

FREE SPEECH

Political bickering on freedom of speech in Australia gives credence to Dave Barry's definition of democracy as a system in which you say what you like and do what you're told.

M. F. Horton, Adelaide, SA

AN EYE ON POLLS

If Ross Gittins (April 3, p33) is actually correct and Turnbull and his advisors are trying to manipulate the opinion polls then their contempt for the people is almost palpable.

E. R. Moffat, Weston

DOGGED MOVE

The Turnbull government's tax victory is surely a pyrrhic victory, favouring as it does the top dog over the underdog.

John Davenport, Farrer

MINE ON THEIR MINDS

Thank goodness Cyclone Debbie's repair bill will only be a few billion dollars, so politicians will still be able to help fund the Adani coal mine.

Adrian Gibbs, Yarralumla

NATURE WINNING

Policy makers take note! If you mess with Mother Nature, she will mess with you and win always.

The evidence is here already.

Matilda Bonnerzwar, Chapman

PRIORITIES PLEASE

Who wants to hear about Mr Mehajer when we are all busy with Mr Turnbull's latest terrible poll results?

Mokhles K. Sidden, South Strathfield, NSW

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