Housing sales immoral

All of the community groups that help the homeless would have welcomed it. Both our major parties turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the problem.

There have been three huge disposals of ageing public housing in the last two decades. The money from the sales has, in the case of the first two, been reserved to build more public housing. The money from the third sale, which is the biggest to date, is to be put aside for light rail and a convention centre. This is immoral. With over 2300 people on the waiting list for housing, the priority should be to build at least 1000 public accommodation places before you sell one ageing piece of housing.

The present ACT government looks more like a glorified land sales agency than it does a Labor government. It is a fact that 600 houses are being built with government assistance. They are a mix of public housing and affordable housing, but will be used to house people from condemned existing public housing. They will not reduce the waiting list.

The developers who build accommodation on the newly available sites have no obligation to build low-cost housing on the building sites they purchase.

A member of my family wanted to rent a house. I took her round the small number of available houses listed. At each one, there were people waiting to inspect. The lucky renter had to provide financial details before they were even considered as tenants.

For the capital of Australia, it is a truly shameful example of a ACT government with the wrong priorities.

In fairness, I have to acknowledge the new Housing Minister, Yvette Berry, did put a sausage sizzle on for public housing tenants who were being relocated.

Howard Carew, Isaacs

Help for the poor

At least Sheriden Rhodes ("Exclusively yours", Travel, September 26, p10) is honest: "smug in the knowledge that we have Parihoa's glorious seclusion all to ourselves' – except for the "house manager/chef"" –and all this your paying customer can have exclusively for a mere $2660 a night. Ironically, this sits awkwardly with your story ("Tragedy of capital's unseen homeless children", September 26, p6) about youth homelessness, a national problem exacerbated by insufficient cheap housing.

Elsewhere in Saturday's edition we learn of an "astonishing" reduction to 836million people around the world living on less than $1.25 a day, and new Treasurer Scott Morrison's intention to cut government spending.

I am not a politician having to soothe voters discomforted by sensitive hip-pocket nerves, but surely people even contemplating self-indulgent luxury holidays should be taxed adequately to help improve life for Australia's and the world's poor. Let's bring back the idea that taxation is not something to be reduced, scorned or evaded.

C. C. Kenna, Murrumbateman

Move undemocratic

As the vice-president of the Norfolk Island Chamber of Commerce, I must correct Jamie Briggs' rather colourful statements on "genuine democracy" in Norfolk Island ("New hope in Norfolk Is battle for self-rule", September 28, p5).

Norfolk Islanders will have state services delivered by NSW, a state we do not get a vote in.

This inherently undemocratic consultative arrangement is reflective of the practice of the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development and successive governments in the administration of the Indian Ocean Territories. Both major parties appear keen to ensure the residents of the external territories don't have full democratic rights, as well as ensuring we don't even have a right to be genuinely consulted or listened to.

What is now happening on Norfolk Island is entirely consistent with the complete disregard which the Federal Parliament has for the people of Christmas and Cocos Island.

Our democratically elected parliament was abolished this year. It is to be replaced by the undemocratic and over-costly IOTs model.

Briggs' assertion of votes being allocated to certain family groups in Norfolk Island is simply a product of his over-febrile mind.

Brett Sanderson, Norfolk Island

Word in general use

Further to Sue Sanders' criticism of Michael Thawley for his use of the word "schizophrenic" (Letter, September 28), there are two meanings of "schizophrenic", according to one dictionary. One refers to a long-term mental disorder and the second (a general-use meaning) a mentality or approach characterised by inconsistent or contradictory elements. An example of its second meaning is "the national schizophrenia that results from carrying out an unpopular war".

The general usage of this word may be a result of careless journalism. One commentator noted that "schizophrenic" is a word that should be used carefully and with precision and not misused as a synonym for "contradictory".

If offence is caused, the blame should be shared by many who use these words as metaphors.

Robyn Vincent, McKellar

Scaremongering?

The Business Council of Australia has warned the Canberra Liberals to change their strategy on the tram to avoid "sovereign risk" ("Libs warned not to cancel rail contract", September 28, p3). What twaddle!

For a start, sovereign risk is the risk that a country might encounter a financial crisis that results in it not paying its foreign debts. If Labor spending a billion dollars on a tram isn't going to bankrupt the ACT, then neither will the Liberals' payment of contract cancellation costs. Even the present smarts-challenged ACT government will see to it that the contract it signs has fair and reasonable cancellation provisions.

Secondly, there is no "East West Link disaster" in Victoria, nor was there any "tearing up of a legally binding contract". The project has been cancelled and the costs incurred by the contractors up to that point will be reimbursed by the Victorian government.

If the Business Council is genuinely worried about the possible consequences of the tram contract's cancellation, why is it not also writing to the ACT government urging it to delay contract signature until after next year's election? Wouldn't that be the responsible and sensible course to take? Or doesn't the Business Council's remit go any further than trying to frighten the horses?

Bronis Dudek, Calwell

I seek to raise issues that should be considered by those who have been carried away by emotion as a result of the refugee exodus. Germany and some other countries have increased the pull factor for refugees, with media attention on joyous arrivals no doubt being shown back in Syria and its neighbours.

Germany did this without prior consultation with its EU partners, which has further inflamed the situation. Germany's unilateral actions tempted even more people to undertake the perilous journey over water, with even more children washing up on beaches.

We also see many of the refugees dumping their identification papers so as to improve their prospects for being accepted. Welcoming countries have not developed the necessary infrastructure to cope with the sudden influx and the social security-type payments will be massive. This, in turn, will result in disharmony and conflict in those countries and fuel a rise of the far right.

I have already seen this in places I visited recently, such as Italy, France and Ireland. I was not bothered at all by gypsies in Italy, because they had been displaced by refugees from Africa. The people I spoke to thought things had gone from bad to worse. And I note that the two countries that opposed in the Security Council the UN's efforts to bring about peace in Syria (Russia and China) have done nothing for refugees displaced as a result of their actions.

We have seen only the tip of the iceberg with the problems that will result from all these unregulated arrivals from basically one race and one religion. The need for a good mix of refugees in the intake will never be achieved. As someone who hosted various refugee families out of UN camps, I fear for what is going to happen in the future.

Ric Hingee, Duffy

Pat Campbell's editorial cartoon (Times2, September 28, p1) is a good match for the article "Unions set for 'fierce' struggle" (September 28, p1) dealing with the looming penalty rates struggle. The community may enjoy the chocolate coating applied by Malcolm Turnbull to the Coalition's policies, but they will soon find the wormwood and gall of Tony Abbott and Eric Abetz's industrial class warfare inside. Too late now to stop the intended strife.

Meanwhile, the worst nasties of Joe Hockey's 2014 budget are still in place and set to erupt and suppurate in the coming years.

Campaigns will be waged against domestic terrorism now, but the serious cuts to women's refuges will strike in 2017 and mothers fleeing with their children from murderous men will find they have nowhere to go. The former PM and his former ministers may smile with satisfaction on the backbenches and in our embassy in Washington as the nation sleepwalks into the minefield they laid and left behind them. Meanwhile, our bombs will continue to shower down on Iraq and Syria, creating more refugees, while Abbott's vaunted Border Force are rebelling and striking against his contemptuous treatment of them. It's back to the 1960s for us as Hawke's legacy of industrial accord is dismembered, cremated and its ashes scattered.

A. Moore, Melba

Division part of plan

Lyn Craig ("Cutting penalty rates would have great social cost", canberratimes.com.au, September 27) is right. She says that the abolition of penalty rates will lead to destruction of social connectedness and the sense of community and belonging. Yet, she fails to articulate that this is exactly what the Coalition and other neoliberals in recent decades are seeking.

In contrast to the people united, the people divided are much less resilient and much more easily manipulated by those with more (economic) power.

Gillian King, Narrabundah

Leave work to others

Malcolm Turnbull recently engaged a coquettish Leigh Sales with well-burnished charm and won the applause of many of his supporters. Meanwhile, the real work was being done by others. Soon after, Treasurer Scott Morrison also met the left-leaning Sales in her more traditional role as the ABC's first line of attack and he managed to outpoint her at every turn, chiding Sales for her time management when she tried to move him on to another subject, batting away her speaking notes and insisting that he be allowed to finish his answers. In the frenetic fray, the clear-speaking Morrison also managed to convey a number of unpalatable truths, including that our main budgetary problem is excessive spending, not a shortage of revenue, which I am sure deflated many of the Turnbull glee club.

Later in the week, tyro Minister for Northern Australia and Resources Josh Frydenberg was interviewed by right-wing Andrew Bolt, who tried to get a headline from Frydenberg to use against Turnbull. Frydenberg resisted the ploy with a masterly performance where, among other things, he defended the importance of coal mining to the nation in terms of wealth, jobs and power generation and strongly supported the present climate-change settings, leaving few in doubt that a Turnbull government is not about to turn left on these issues any time soon.

If D.J.Taylor (Letters, September 28) is satisfied with the pap we witnessed in the Sales-Turnbull interview, that's fine by me. In fact, if Malcolm Caesar spends most of his time waving his arms around, schmoozing journalists and selling the big picture, while his eminently competent gladiators, such as Morrison and Frydenberg, continue the fight in the phalanx, we may yet be able to get this country moving.

H. Ronald, Jerrabomberra, NSW

Taxation essential

Good article, Josh Bornstein ("Take a bow taxpayers of Australia", canberratimes.com.au, September 26), but we still hear people and companies whinging about the rates and the taxes they have to pay.

It is a very short-sighted and selfish state of mind that has been produced by some of our politicians and parts of our private and corporate sector. The fact remains that all of us benefit from paying taxes. We all want, or even demand, the services provided by the taxes we pay.

Taxes provide the infrastructure upon which we all rely in order to function as a modern, progressive and equitable society. If we follow this constant mantra of lower taxes, the quality of life for all but the very rich will suffer. Bornstein's article is both refreshing and timely.

Patrick O'Hara, Isaacs

Technological gains

It is frequently observed that once an improved and potentially profitable technology is demonstrated, it usually takes 25 or more years before it is generally adopted by the relevant industry. Thank you, VW, and Elizabeth Knight ("Wages of sin mount up for Volkswagen", BusinessDay, September 25, p9), for stimulating my thoughts on this subject and its consequences for today's world. If there are no negative consequences from the slow adoption of new technologies, who cares? But if the consequences of "technological constipation of industrial development" are serious and urgently needed, as with the failure of multinational corporations to adopt the proven technologies of renewable electricity generation and and the adoption of battery-electric and fuel cell-electric transport, society needs to intervene.

Keith Helyar, Watson

VW owners cheated

C.Hirst's flippancy (Letters, September 28) in linking on-road cycling to the alleged Volkswagen emissions fraud would not be welcomed by the estimated 50,000 Australians who will be feeling robbed right now.

These people invested in what they were told was world-best technology only to now find their purchase never met the words contained in the glossy brochures, the likely solution to enable their vehicle to meet the emissions standards will reduce performance and increase fuel consumption, and the value of their vehicle has just plummeted.

A further risk these owners carry is their vehicle is probably unroadworthy due to the toxins being emitted. .

Bill Gemmell, Holder

JUST WHAT I NEED

I have been thinking for a while now how much I would like to purchase a F-35 type aircraft built and engineered with "unsurpassed vision". Thank goodness for the full-page ads lately in the Canberra Times; I now know who I need to contact.

Paddy O'Keeffe, Palmerston

DEFENSIVE POSITION

Hugh White's article "Payne treading a minefield" (Times2, September29, p4) was as illuminating as it was disturbing.

Peter Moran, Watson

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

While Jenny Moxham (Letters, September28) claims to be opposed to all animal cruelty, she chose only to comment about "ritual animal slaughter" within the Islamic tradition, arguing that her letter probably wouldn't have been published if it had addressed the practice across all faiths and cultures. Thanks for making my point, Jenny.

John Richardson, Wallagoot, NSW

A SLICE OF NOSTALGIA

What a thrill it was to see the 1936 Chevrolet Canberra pie cart again ("Cheerful pieman fondly farewelled", September25, p2). During the 1940s, my husband, Ron Bean, worked for the pie cart's original owner, Tom Wilkinson. Willkie, as he was known, drove the Chev, while Ron drove the older DeSoto to sell the cafe's pies.

Evelyn Bean, Ainslie

COAL'S HIDDEN COSTS

It's good to see a former oil, gas and coal industry executive as prominent as Ian Dunlop write that, if all related costs are taken into consideration, coal is not cheaper than wind power, but actually much more expensive ("Clean coal push will do nothing to halt global warming", Forum, September26, p6). Perhaps government will consider his opinion more seriously than they have been considering the green vote.

M. Pietersen, Kambah

MUSIC STILL RELEVANT

While on pacifist songs (Letters, September28) , it is appropriate to recall the near 50th aniversary of Joan Littlewood's historic musical, Oh! What a Lovely War. Today is an appropriate time for a revival of this perceptive and moving show, with many currently appropriate songs. A suitable antidote to the Merchants of Death posters to which we are continually exposed at the airport.

Jack Palmer, Watson

MINISTERIAL JAUNT

So, minister Joy Burch is off on a taxpayer-funded jaunt to India to share her education experience and knowledge. Mmh!

Heather Ponting, Greenway

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