Why we shouldn't change the date of Australia Day

I believe she is wrong, because, quite simply, no other date better reflects both the origins of the country and the nation it has become.

Ms Gaia writes of her love of her adopted land and recognises the security and benefits Australian citizenship has given her.

But does she really think for one minute that this would be the nation it is today had it not been for the arrival of the First Fleet and the subsequent development of this land as a great democracy in the British tradition?

Sure, let's ensure appropriate recognition of the indigenous community and do what is necessary to right any wrongs which have occurred, but let's not lose sight of the fact that January 26 marks the beginning of the nation we all (indigenous, those born here and the more recent arrivals) call home.

Kym MacMillan, O'Malley

Born in Australia 88 years ago, I would like to endorse Ester Gaia's call for a change in the date when we celebrate our national day (CT, January 13).

Being the father of an indigenous man, now aged 54, whom we adopted when a baby, I have witnessed the many forms of racial discrimination he, along with his natural siblings, suffered over the decades while living in white communities.

A reading of Noel Pearson's eulogy for Gough Whitlam will reveal how our indigenous people were dispossessed as their land was seized under the falsehood of terra nullius and they were forced into Aboriginal reserves under the control of supervisors with vast powers.

Now in these more enlightened times, post Mabo and Bringing the Children Home, consideration should be given to the day on which we celebrate our nation, so that all Australians can wholeheartedly rejoice while doing so.

Keith McEwan, Bonython

Brendan O'Loughlin of Cook (Letters, January 13) might use one of his proposed extra four public holidays to work on his reading and comprehension skills.

The gist of my letter (January9) calling for a re-think of public holidays was that replacing four mandated days off with five extra days of annual leave might just benefit everyone.

Workers would have more days off and more choice about when they took them.

Business and consumers would have more options too.

How proposing an extra day off and more choice makes anyone a "holiday-hating curmudgeon" escapes me.

Bob Bennett, Gowrie

I moved to Canberra in 1962 when this town was referred to as "seven suburbs looking for a soul".

I have seen this wonderful village grow into a city of which we should all be very proud.

Almost 100 suburbs and each with a soul!

Let's not knock this proposed light rail project: 50 years from now, when all major centres are connected by light rail including the international airport and the fast rail interstate network, the rest of Australia will look at us with envy. I will never see it finished but will be glad I saw the start.

Build it and they will come.

Ken Pullen, Braddon

Crack down on all rorts The Prime Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Finance and Minister assisting the Prime Minister obviously have a lot to learn about fairness, a virtue that most Australians treasure.

For starters, if public servants are to be restricted to around 1.5per cent salary increases, is it fair to assume that the Remuneration Tribunal will follow suit with salaries of our political masters and not fiddle with allowances to muddy the waters?

Then, of course, with the standard for indexation for pensioners and ComSuper retirees tied to the CPI, is it fair to assume that the Parliamentary pension scheme will follow suit?

Then, by all means crack down on rorts related to social security but to be fair let's also crack down on rorts enjoyed by high-income earners – superannuation, negative gearing and trusts all come to mind.

John Landos, Ainslie

When I was a kid, camping holidays were the highlight of our year.

Your story on on Page 5 of Monday's Canberra Times lauding all the little luxuries also unfortunately highlights everything that has gone wrong.

Once upon a time you could reasonably expect a little peace, quiet and relaxation at a campground.

These days the places are overrun with TV sets, stereos, fridges and all sorts of other noise-making devices.

How much noise does a fridge make?

Not much, it's the generators that people bring to power all this stuff that are the cause of all the trouble.

Last time I went camping was at Wee Jasper. The generators, plenty of them, were started at 7am and turned off (if we were lucky) at 10 at night. Goodbye peace and quiet. All day long, the intrusive sound never stops.

Too many people forget that a tent is not a wall. Everyone can hear the TV. Everyone can hear the music. And far from everyone wants to.

Personally, if I want all mod cons I stay at home. It's getting harder and harder to find peace and quiet anywhere.

Dominic Stinziani, Higgins

As an expat from Europe I have been living in Canberra for more than two years now. I find that Canberra is generally a well- built and well-organised city, but there are things I do not understand.

Why for example are there no rubbish bins at bus stops? The average bus stop in Europe has a rubbish bin, and for good reason. People at bus stops smoke, they eat candy bars, they drink coffee or soft drinks, in short: they do things that generate rubbish.

When the bus comes, they don't take the rubbish with them. For lack of a bin they throw it on the ground.

Look at a bus stop near a school, office, cafe or shopping centre and you will see what I mean. Small wonder that some bus stops in Canberra look like pigsties.

Here is my request to ACTION. Please place rubbish bins at bus stops. Help us good-willing passengers to keep Canberra clean.

Edward Peet, Canberra City

It was nice to read Jack Waterford's more balanced and humanist appraisal (Times2, January 14) of the issues that surround the Charlie Hebdo incident.

The shift from highly institutionalised (ie imposed) values to a society with more individual (ie personally thought to be rational) assessments or judgements is probably what we think distinguishes 'us' from 'them'.

Australians were once 'them' in their reactions to satirical attacks on what were then considered to be sacred cows. It is likely that their institutions will weaken over time but that will take generations. We must be patient and be wary of deliberately insulting other cultures as this makes integration of recent immigrants more problematic.

Charlie Hebdo is a wrecking ball, in this respect, rather than a builder.

David Williams, Watson

The events of the past two weeks in France have, quite rightly, horrified and appalled. More importantly, the reaction (in France, Europe and elsewhere) to the massacres in Paris have proved beyond doubt the resilience and determination of the majority of ordinary citizens not to allow terror to rule the world.

The very fact that Benjamin Netanyahu (Prime Minister of Israel) and Mahmoud Abbas (President of the Palestinian Authority) marched in the same parade is a tribute, in itself, to the French concepts of brotherhood, liberty and equality.

Comments made, both in Europe and Australia, regarding the importance of ensuring all Muslims in France are an equal part of French society and enjoy these freedoms are equally important.

One can only hope that the practical application of this will be demonstrated by the French government revoking the current law banning of headscarves and female Muslim dress in public places thereby returning to Muslim women the liberty and equality to choose how they dress in accordance with their beliefs and preferences.

Penny Bowen, Chisholm

Referring to the cartoons published in Charlie Hebdo, Marguerite Castello asks how might we react to cartoons depicting Christians in a similarly offensive manner (CT, January 13).

If offended, there are a range of peaceful options, such as: a letter of complaint to the editor; never purchasing the publication again; a public demonstration in a nearby park; a boycott of companies advertising in the publication.

The list could go on, but no degree of offence to one's religious beliefs justifies slaughtering anyone — not the cartoonists, not police providing protection, and not people shopping in a supermarket.

These are the actions of barbarians. They cannot to be excused or mitigated in any way on the grounds of religion, anyone's religion.

Paul McMahon, Isaacs

Terrorists and the like, mainly gullible young men, feel free to behave badly with guns and bombs because they're sucked in by the teachings of the two major religions, Islam and Christianity.

Christianity's history of brutality, conducted in the name of a man of peace, is longer than and as nasty as Islam's but this is never mentioned.

Four-fifths of the US population identify as Christians and a goodly number of those take as literal truth Adam and Eve and the creation stories and other biblical fables. Such gullibility would be funny were it not so ominous in this powerful and warlike nation.

The major religions have always treated human time on Earth as a mere preparation for later when, in reality, it is highly likely that this is all there is — just as for the ants — and we should think and act accordingly.

Essentially, terrorist shooters and bombers are willing to be killed because their religions tell them that if they do the right thing then there is a wonderful life awaiting them after death — analogous to the wishful thinking of cargo cultists. That's the source of their power. It has always been thus.

Clive Banson, O'Connor

The Prime Minister is showing admirable leadership in his care for the words he uses when referring to the terrorists.

Some terrorist foot soldiers are no doubt exalted by a distorted understanding of their religion but their leaders are primarily pursuing political and often venal ends. Their strategy is to engineer and profit from hostility between Muslims and non-Muslims and between different sects of Islam.

It helps their aim to dignify murderers with terms such as Muslim fundamentalists, jihadis, Islamic State or any other words suggesting that the issue is "true believers" against the rest.

Far from playing into the hands of the terrorists by irresponsibly encouraging fear of Islam, the media and other commentators should follow Tony Abbott's example in this.

Ron Walker, Campbell

"Boost in patrons for Canberra's Nightrider bus service over Christmas", says The Canberra Times (January 11).

The hordes of Canberrans who were finally able to use public transport in Canberra at night using the ever-stingy ACTION buses were, according to Territory and Municipal Services Minister Shane Rattenbury, "well-behaved".

I say take a leaf out of their books, sir.

Your decision last year to cut back on route timetables, notably throwing out more than two hours of the Route 4 itinerary, from 11.10pm to the now feeble 9.05pm was, and still is, a total farce and you should be ashamed of your presumption.

By presuming not only that all Canberrans work 9-5 but also that Canberra is a city where good civilians are expected to be docilely tucked up in bed by 11pm, you are both perpetuating the negative reputation of Canberra as an inaccessible and dry city, undeserving of the title of capital, and refusing to extend public transport courtesies to those outside of a very particular working class.

Whereas all the other cities in Australia are extending and thriving on their night-time public transport services, you are economising.

The success and smooth functioning of the Nightrider services this Christmas demonstrates how in-demand such services could be on a regular basis, not only supporting growth in the local nightlife, but also civilians who work later.

I hope you are ashamed to have been part of such a regressive and pointless gesture.

A. Kim, Griffith

BRUISED FEELINGS

In Voltaire's Candide two armies camp near each other before battle and both ask the same God for victory. In the 18th century, this no doubt upset Christians; and maybe it even made them think critically, about war, faith, prayer. To make a satirical omelette you have to bruise some feelings.

Barrie Smillie, Duffy

SHARING THE CRIME

There is no excuse for the attack on Charlie Hedbo. However, when a publication is about Islamophobia, aided and abetted by gratuitously salacious, revolting, sexually explicit attacks on Muslims, then the crime is shared equally, particularly by those opportunists in the grand parade for their own aggrandisement.

Alan McNeil, Weetangera

I AM JULIAN

Je suis Julian Assange!

John Rodriguez Florey

RENT RELIEF CALL

Surely Westfield Retail could display some moral fibre by granting shop owners rent relief from the colossal sums it saves from avoiding Australian tax, as identified by the international Tax Justice Network and Uniting Church research (12 January)?

Albert M. White, Queanbeyan

TRAITORS ABROAD

I am not sure if treason is still a crime on the statute books. If not perhaps it should be, after all, those Australian nationals fighting against our way of life overseas and here, are surely traitors?

Ian Jannaway Monash

US AND THEM

Am I the only one who believes our politicians now see, us the electorate, as the enemy?

C. J. Johnston, Duffy

NO SHORT VISITS

I have never been able to book a short (A type) consultation when I have requested one. I have usually been told that even if I only wanted a new prescription, the practitioner would need to review my condition as well.

M. Aken, Holder

INCONSISTENCY

David Denham's measured tones (CT 14 February) bring in to sharp focus the consistent inconsistency of this ACT government.

Tom Middlemiss, Deakin

JUDDERY MOURNED

I was so sorry to read of Mark Juddery's death (CT. Jan. 13). As a follower of his column years ago, I have thought of him often since hearing of his illness. My sympathy and God's blessing to his grieving family.

Evelyn Bean, Ainslie

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au

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