Overt disrespect of women given full rein in unattractive cabaret

One has to wonder whether the Capital Planning Authority, the Minister for Roads and the Chief Minister are aware of the grief and frustration they have caused residents who live and shop in and around the Gunghalin area.
With almost daily changing road detours the situation is ideally created for accidents to happen.
Hardly a day goes by without detours one day being altered overnight. It also seems extraordinary that what was once a perfectly good dual- carriageway road between Gunghalin Lakes and the Shell and Caltex garages is now seemingly being redeveloped into a dual carriageway road.
Trees have been uprooted, single-lane traffic introduced and accidents waiting to happen, all for no apparent reason.
The Chief Minister and Ms FitzHarris should hold a public seminar within Gunghalin and explain what they are trying to achieve. At the moment all they are doing is making the life of the locals an absolute misery.
N. Bailey, Nicholls

Professor Greg Clark (‘‘Work on branding’’, May 24, p3) identified Australian cities as increasingly difficult places to live, work, travel around and obtain affordable housing. The responses in his co-authored report Creating Great Australian Cities, include the development of polycentric cities, high amenity, higher density housing areas, infrastructure provision based on merit rather than politics, improved metropolitan governance and high-quality public transport.
The valuable report needs to be complemented by discussion of several issues.
The advocacy of polycentric cities (to reduce travel) needs to consider mechanisms to decentralise employment. In Canberra, this requires re-invigorating the new towns policy.
The current laissez-faire approach where employers locate regardless of the congestion and other costs they impose is clearly inadequate.
The provision of housing cannot be adequately considered without discussion of whether capital gains and negative gearing concessions (rewarding speculation) are superior to alternatives such as developing social housing. Population growth is identified as a major contributing factor to city problems.
A debate is needed on whether reducing migrant intake, even temporarily, is an appropriate strategy to overcome infrastructure and housing backlogs.
To use limited infrastructure funding effectively, the advocacy for infrastructure provision based on merit rather than politics (the dubious light rail provision in Canberra comes to mind) is timely.
Along with addressing the above issues, strong metropolitan governance with decisions based on evidence rather than ideology is needed for Canberra and other cities to avoid a low-amenity, low-liveability future.
Mike Quirk, Garran

Ken Helm (‘‘Horses not the real enemies’’, p9 Forum, May 26) is on the ball, providing a litany of pests damaging Kosciuszko National Park, human activity included.
But then he plonks the ball into his own goal by noting his years as an entomologist in the park were during his time with CSIRO.
That was about four decades ago. As the CT editor on the opposite page notes: ‘‘(brumbies) increased from 4200 in 2009 to about 6000 (currently)’’.
Further, horses were a serious pest in 2009.
At that time they had become an increasingly serious pest over the seven decades since Neville Gare commenced his tenure as ecological custodian of the park.
Horses’ impacts, as they are with all other factors (rabbits, pigs, humans) wherever the location, is a factor of numbers multiplied by individual impact.
All ecological players need attention, horses especially: apart from the humans, their present numbers surely makes them top predator of the whole suite of Kosciuszko National Park’s ecological integrity.
Colin Samundsett, Farrer

I’m crocheting a blanket for a baby whose parents are citizens of China, the Netherlands, and Australia, with Chinese and Dutch grandparents.
I finally decided the design and colour scheme: granny squares based on the colours of the multinational flags.
I complained to a friend about the preponderance of red, white, and blue squares (Netherlands, Australia).
My friend immediately said, ‘‘Well you are counting the yellow, black, and red of the Indigenous Australian flag, right?’’
I was caught out and embarrassed that I hadn’t planned that myself!
Me, who embraces reconciliation and multiculturalism, was blind to my very own blindness.
Until we acknowledge the symbols of Indigenous Australians as natural, true reconciliation remains distant.
With my sudden awakening, I will do my bit to bring true reconciliation that little bit closer.
Judy Bamberger, O’Connor

Now that we are about to embark on a debate/conversation about freedom of religion let us not lose sight of the fact that as individuals we also have a right to freedom from religion.
Warwick Budd, Nicholls

Speaking on ABC radio ahead of the airing of the 4 Corners investigation of surgeon billing, Dr Norman Swan of the ABC’s ‘‘Health Report’’ described the situation in Canberra as ‘‘terrible’’ and ‘‘highway robbery’’.
In his view, some Canberra specialists regard us as a ‘‘wealthy market’’ — apparently with deep pockets ripe for the picking. Oh, lucky us!
Dr Swan said there was no reason to assume that expensive doctors were better doctors, and went as far as to say we might seriously consider medical tourism to Adelaide, where out-of-pocket expenses are very moderate.
When out-of-pocket gaps can extend well into five figures, Dr Swan’s suggestion to seek specialist surgical services elsewhere would make sense in some cases; and I would recommend the idea for no other reason than to avoid rewarding the ethically and morally challenged local specialists.
Why does it take one public spirited doctor and the national broadcaster to ‘‘out’’ the picaroons at the sharp end of their profession who calculate to enrich themselves from people at their most exquisitely vulnerable moments?
Why have our politicians — our elected champions — been missing in action for so many years?
Does everyone run in fear from that AMA medical lobby outfit?
Ross Kelly, Monash

The tragic last flight of MH370 was in March 2014, over four years ago. The sad reality is that the 239 people on board are gone, no matter what happened. Wild theories and conspiracies do not soften the sadness felt by so many.
The search has been extensive and expensive — about $200million and that is concerning. If the plane crashed in water people would have to be found within hours to survive and on land probably within a week and little more could be achieved in the next four years.
The need for answers is strong and there are only a few possible solutions, plane faults or pilot error – intentional or accidental. The likelihood of attack is minimal. Knowing the answer may provide some help for future flights but most possibilities have been examined and preventative solutions would have been developed.
As an outsider with no lost family or friends I wonder about the money spent so far. It seems massive although it is probably only a drop in a nation’s budget. What other uses are there for this amount of money — it could train many doctors or be used for medical research and even for a health campaign?
We have an obligation, both legal and moral, to help people who are hurt, lost or endangered although after a short time in this case we could do little and it would have been better to stop and let people move on.
Money needs to be committed to finding future solutions rather than solving past problems.
Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill, Vic

I was disappointed that The Canberra Times gave former Australian Border Force commissioner, Roman Quaedvlieg, so much space to try to justify the government’s inhumane refugee polices (‘‘Pacific Solution turns into complex problem’’, May 25, pages 24, 25).
The Times does not appear to have mentioned the suicide, last Tuesday, of Salim Kyawning, one of the victims of that policy.
Quaedvlieg does admit a man recently killed himself on Manus but does not mention his name, as it is government policy that inmates of our detention centres be stripped of all humanity, including their names. Quaedvlieg suggests that the victim was at least partly to blame due to his epilepsy and psychological disorders.
Does it occur to Quadvlieg that Salim’s psychological disorders could be due to his being locked up for five years in inhumane conditions and without any prospect of ever seeing his wife and three children again?
The government did not even bother to inform Salim’s wife of his death. It was only when someone from a refugee support organisation phoned to offer condolences that Salim’s wife learnt of his death.
Quaedvlieg expresses sympathy for ‘‘much-maligned’’ Peter Dutton’’.
If Dutton is maligned, he brought it on himself by suggestions lawyers who assist refugees are ‘‘unAustralian’’, unsubstantiated claims Melburnians are at risk of attack by African gangs, cuts to the small allowances paid to refugees and other actions too numerous to mention.
Charles Body, Kaleen

The federal and state governments are keen to expand defence manufacturing in Australia and would like to see the nation become a major exporter of military products . Why not include the creation of a new Australian tank manufacturer as part of the expansion of defence manufacturing in Australia?
Over the years, the Australian Army has bought imported tanks and one of those was the German Leopard tank.
In 1942 as part of Australia’s War effort, there was one Australian tank manufacturer — the Sentinel which was a cruiser tank. With the support from the federal and state governments and an Australian business consortium — why not create a new Australian Sentinel tank manufacturing company?
It would create hundreds of new manufacturing jobs and it could earn billions in exports.
Malcolm Webster, Boronia, Vic

The debate about s.44 of the constitution is getting to be like Yogi Berra’s ‘‘déjà vu all over again’’.
It does not need to change, Steve Thomas (Letters, May 21). All that is needed is for putative politicians, and their parties, to get their acts together and follow the rules in a timely way.
Katy Gallagher appears to have done that only to be rolled on a black-letter interpretation that the Brit bureaucrats didn’t get their act together fast enough.
In any event, it is a nonsense for others to argue that pollies who renounce citizenship of another country lose their culture. Of course they don’t.
We should not change the constitution to once again suit the privilege and lives of already cosseted politicians.
They should do the paperwork themselves and not leave it to staffers.
James Mahoney, McKellar