Having worked for the city that is Canberra some years ago, I am totally unconvinced by the argument of Bogey Musidlak (Letters, May 14), that we need 17, 21 or 25, elected people to manage roads, rates and rubbish for us. Because, after all, that's about the sum of their efforts. By the look of the place, they don't do that very well. I would like better.
At any one time, nearly half of those elected people are really doing nothing, just opposing most times, for the sake of opposing.
They can be dispensed with.
I recommend everyone take a look at what I might term the ''Portland model''. Portland, Oregon, in the United States is a city of nearly 600,000. It is managed by six commissioners, who seem more than able to cope. Portland is a clean, well-managed place, a credit to the commissioners.
It's a darn sight better run than Canberra.
There are two web sites worth visiting wikipedia (search for Portland, Oregon) is good for a general description of their sensible approach to governance, and www.portlandonline.com to see the official city site.
I suggest we look seriously at removing the obvious dead wood that we have in the Assembly, and let's get down to a serious discussion about a smaller, more efficient model.
Paul Blair, Holder
Kangaroo 'research'
Australia has, regrettably, a poor international reputation in regard to the conservation of native animals. It is incomprehensible to us that any native animal, such as the as eastern grey kangaroo, can be described as a ''pest'' and ''invasive'' and likened to feral animals. But that is how they are described in publications of the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre of the University of Canberra.
The argument that they are not native to the Canberra region cannot stand against the traditions of groups of Aboriginal people of the region, who take the name and totem of the kangaroo. It seems to us that the claims of a white researcher being given precedence over the accepted history of Aboriginal people borders on contempt for their cultural traditions and beliefs. We believe that native wildlife forms part of the heritage of all the peoples of the world. It is on these grounds that concerned people (rightly, in our view) protest against the killing of whales by the Japanese in the name of ''scientific research''.
Hence, though we are not citizens of your region, we feel that we are entitled as members of humanity to challenge the research of the university on moral grounds as it seems it is used to support so-called ''harvesting'' of kangaroos, mainly we suspect, for commercial purposes. We therefore publicly ask the following.
1. Whether research conducted at the University of Canberra is subject to ethical review by the wider community and, if so, the grounds on which the reviewers of ethics justify these actions against wildlife and the values of aboriginal people?
2. Whether the citizens of Canberra and the region are prepared to support the environment and a diversity of wildlife as it has developed?
3. Whether the people of Canberra will respect the long-held values and beliefs of local Aboriginal people in the context of publicly-funded support for a major tertiary institution?
Dr David Harrington, secretary, Nature Protection Trust of SW England
Modern kids are OK
Sam Nona (Letters, May 18) panics unnecessarily in claiming that today's binge-drinking young people are out of control. It's not the young people who are out of control, but an environment of drugs and alcohol that has swamped the Australian social scene in modern times. Australia's modern young people are OK.
They simply have far more problems to face today, and most are doing a darn good job of coping with it. I often wonder how well we baby boomers would have coped if faced with such problems. Not very well at all, I think.
Australia has always had a national youth culture of meat pies and fast Holden cars and binge-drinking, partying ways. Nothing much has changed, except that a more prolific availability of hard drugs has made the culture so much more visible.
The alcohol and drug-related behaviour of young people today receives far more media attention than in past times. In our efforts to address the problems facing today's youth, we must be careful not to be too judgmental about the kids themselves.
John Bell, Lyneham
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