Let's clean up our ACT

Canberra has some of the filthiest waterways in Australia and much of the litter is cigarette butts. Whatever people think about smoking prohibitions, there is no excuse for littering.

There are numerous places where litterbugs are constantly throwing cigarette butts: including bus stations and outside the Waldorf Hotel where patrons of the nightclub across the road choose to sit and throw their litter. A few months ago a friend and I conservatively collected 2500 cigarette butts in just 15 minutes from Canberra Hospital. At $300 or more per littering offence, fining the offenders would have raised $750million.

Regrettably this is not the only location in Canberra where thick layers of butts can be found.

The ACT government does little to prevent littering – it has the teeth but fails to use them.

Terri Henderson, Holder

The ACT economy relies heavily on the Commonwealth government, be it in the form of government salaries or from tourists coming to Canberra to visit buildings and monuments. So it poses the question: what is the ACT government doing to generate income? They're certainly not being innovative and attracting business to Canberra, and they're not boosting tourism by developing ACT's natural assets, such as Namadgi National Park.

No, bereft of ideas, they're behaving like latter-day robber barons and treating the ACT as a feudal demesne, bleeding householders dry by imposing massive rate hikes and fees and other sundry charges.

Land profiteering is another good little earner for them, whereby they restrict the sale of house blocks, so pushing up prices, which then forces many first-home buyers into high-density apartment living, thus generating more rates per unit area of land. And they erroneously believe that having such a high concentration of humanity in such a small area will guarantee patronage of that vanity of vanities, the tram.

This ACT government exhibits a smug complacency common to all regimes that have been in power so long they believe they have a divine right to rule.

The question is, at the next election will ACT voters succumb to their ingrained masochistic love of Labor and vote for four more years of abuse, or will they finally utter the safe word: Change.

Lee Welling, Nicholls

Les Sullivan from Cook (Letters, September 27) claims a curfew is not necessary at Canberra Airport, because for example, Mount Majura protects inner-north residents.

I have lived in both Hackett and Cook and can report that aircraft noise adjacent to Hackett is very obvious at times during the day, but far less so in Cook most times.

The situation is worse at night for Hackett, as background noise is low. With only the sound of kangaroos chewing at the back of Hackett at night, some Hackett residents will likely have their sleep disturbed by jets such as the Boeing 777-200 in the early hours above the Majura Valley.

Freight planes would be worse, as overnight affected freight airports generally go over like a lead balloon with their associated populations.

To protect residents in vulnerable Canberra suburbs, as well as residents in rural areas surrounding Canberra, a curfew at Canberra Airport is the sensible way to go.

Murray May, Cook

All the noise from opponents of the light rail project is stealing valuable print and electronic media attention from a wide range of issues that should be ventilated in the current election campaign, with Kent Fitch, KymMacMillan and Brendan Halloran (Letters, September 27) being the latest offenders.

Issues such as the longer-term fiscal sustainability of the ACT self-government model, is the ACT on a credible path to achieving carbon neutrality and why recent road safety initiatives have not been effective are drowned out by the din.

I am sure these people could contribute on a wider range of topics. They just need to realise the current government made a decision to construct light rail after weighing up the competing views and has entered into binding contracts.

The notion that a sensible government would abandon a lawful contract on a whim is absurd.

Bill Gemmell, Holder

Jenna Price wrote of flexible and inflexible workplaces ("Getting to flexibility", September 27, p14). Typical of the inflexible workplace was the one that offered her acquaintance the job she had always wanted but refused her immediate request to job share. One wonders how badly the lady wanted that job.

As Dr Rae Cooper reported in her recent study on the subject, "flexible work can be challenging for managers and it can add workload". Cost-benefit analysis can limit alternatives.

Just like passports, flextime in the public service is a privilege, not a right. It is dependent on the manager's assessment of workplace requirements.

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

Interesting with all the cosmetic road repairs going on, drivers are probably wondering if the neglected collection of potholes at the intersection of Owen Dixon and Kuringa drives in Spence will ever get attention. While being messy enough to dangerously affect a small vehicle, these potholes are such a regular gig that one should consider naming them after the Ten Tenors.

Michael Doyle, Fraser

Senator Hanson invents numbers and statistics to endorse false arguments against a very specific religious group.

The bigger picture being by definition too big, it escapes her powers of analysis and those of her supporters, if they at all bother.

Many have rallied to defend her ignorant and highly divisive approach as an unalienable right under the "freedom of speech" banner. The first integrity-of-thought test I would propose is the following: would this support be equally granted, and by the same people, if her manipulative and blind hatred was directed at Christians or Jews? After all, the principle remains the same.

Then of course there is the context: demonise what here is in actual numbers a fraction of a minority, and make enough noise to paint it as the greatest challenge of our times. Ignore also that both the mainstream moderate currents within Western Islam and "us" face the common threat of radicalism (same context) and the only answer is to face it together.

This, however, does not seem to fit well with a survival-of-the-fittest, "white-folks- only" agenda, which may be the real issue on the table. Nor does it attract niche votes.

Luca Biason, Latham

What a surprise to see Malcolm Turnbull is now less popular than Tony Abbott, and who would have thought that Labor is now ahead in the polls?

Every time a member of the Liberal Party gets up to talk about one of their polices, they always remind everyone that anything that went wrong was Labor 's fault.

To hear Malcolm Turnbull speaking to the United Nations about how amazing they were in closing our borders, and keeping innocent people in places like Nauru and Manus is truly sickening. Once again blaming Labor the Rudd-Gillard government for opening the borders and letting people drown. Much nicer to put them in never-ending detention and leave them to suffer and some to commit suicide.

Mr Turnbull has made me ashamed to be an Australian. Do we really have to put up with this for another 2 years?

Rosalind Carew, Isaacs

Rob Westcott accuses a majority of Australians of being ignorant for wanting to "prevent the dilution of our racial and cultural identity", which he says is part of a "sadly pathetic, sanctimonious, self-righteous delusion", along with a desire "to keep Australia to ourselves, and to believe in our innate superiority over the rest of the human race" (Letters, September 27).

Westcott seems wholly ignorant of the fact that Australia's society and culture have been dramatically transformed over the past 70 years as the result of massive multi-cultural immigration program. Completely contrary to Westcott's defamatory fusillade, Australians have shown a remarkable tolerance for absorbing new elements into our racial and cultural identity, Pauline Hanson's judgment on multiculturalism notwithstanding. There is nothing either "pathetic", "sanctimonious" or "self-righteous" in further seeking to ensure that the multicultural society and culture so embraced does not fray at the edges by absorption of too many new elements too quickly or elements unwilling to be absorbed into the larger multicultural fabric.

Recent evidence of the appalling impact uncontrolled immigration has unleashed on the countries of Europe is a reality histrionic jeremiads like Westcott's never seem to acknowledge.

If Westcott wants to have a sensible debate about immigration and asylum seekers, he should stick to the facts and not invent slurs designed to give him an unjustified air of moral superiority.

Greg Ellis, Murrumbateman, NSW

The news that Tasers will be funded for all of Canberra's front-line police, by either political party, is troubling.

Some police forces require cameras to be fitted to a Taser ("Tasercam") to record what is happening – from the time it is powered up, to when it is fired. There is no word whether the AFP's new Tasers will be equipped with Tasercam.

Tasers are routinely misused by police in Australia and around the world. The most notable abuse of a Taser in Australia resulted in the death of Roberto Curti. Mr Curti died on March 18, 2012, in Sydney, after being Tasered 13 times by police. In her findings, NSW State Coroner Mary Jerram was critical of police evidence stating one officer's evidence "was so self-contradictory, self-serving and obscure that it hardly bears narrating".

Ms Jerram stated the officer was unable to explain the constant difference between his version of events and what was shown by Tasercam footage.

It seems inevitable that Tasers will be rolled out in the territory. Whichever party gets elected has the responsibility to ensure the police use Tasers responsibly and lawfully and should ensure all Tasers used in the ACT are fitted with a Tasercam.

Peter Woodhouse, partner Ben Aulich & Associates, Canberra

The concept that the general population should be allowed to put into law their prejudice via a plebiscite on gay marriage is mind boggling. Or on any other "moral" matter.

If the Turnbull government insists on plebiscites, may I suggest a much better topic would be: should bogans be allowed to marry and/or have children?

Chris Swinbank, Kingston,

Strange that Australia's always-helpful Foreign Minister Julie Bishop reacted to the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, that it had the jurisdiction to conduct a "conciliation" process dealing with Australia's maritime boundaries with East Timor, by immediately stating that the process "is not binding" ("East Timor appeals to Australia over border", September 27, p11)

After all, it was only a couple of months ago that Ms Bishop was publicly rebuking China for adopting the same position in response to the court's ruling on the South China Sea.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

John Richardson, Wallagoot, NSW

LIP SERVICE

Peter Stubbs (Letters, September 27) provides a very good explanation why Australian crowds don't sing at footy games.

But there is a further reason – if spectators have their mouths full of song, who is going to hurl obscenities at the referee?

Brian Smith, Conder

SHAME ON BLAME

Has Nev Ridge of Bowral (Letters, September 27) not heard of the saying you don't kick a man when he's down?

I'm sure Edrick Lee's harshest critic will be himself. There were many reasons the Raiders lost: poor refereeing decisions and injuries among them. All the players played their hearts out. So to blame Edrick for the loss is shameful of you.

Jan Gulliver, Lyneham

TIPPING POINT

Dear David and Elizabeth Teather ("All to ourselves", Letters, September 27), we were all joining in the community action at the Mugga Lane tip (sorry, the Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre).

James Walcott, Mawson

SHORT ON THOUGHT?

Bill Shorten apparently cannot see the advantages of having canvassed all our views on same-sex marriage. This is woolly thinking with a vengeance. Is Shorten really such an intellectual lightweight, or is he kidding?

Barrie Smillie, Duffy

ON RIGHT TRACK

I understand the point Bill Bowron is making about the risks of runaway costs with new ventures ("Bus cost mystery", Letters, September 26).

A multi-party genuine think tank approach is really the only way to proceed. This would de-politicise the important and costly issue of transport to everyone's benefit.

Noel Haberecht, Ainslie

EXPLANATION NEEDED

I'm sure I am not the only person in Canberra who would like an explanation of the $9million of "financial irregularities" revealed in the Auditor-General's report into Calvary Hospital's performance and budget. Is the money missing? Where did it go? Who is responsible? Why the silence on these issues? Those responsible should be held accountable.

E. Nelson, Wright

THE HOWARD LEGACY

John Howard's decision to amend the Marriage Act 1961 in 2004, without public consultation, is now costing us $200 million, a divisive plebiscite and much angst. Another of Howard's proud legacies?

Patricia Saunders, Chapman

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