Disabled care disgrace
It is reprehensible that a 41-year-old wheelchair-bound woman has been living in a room in Canberra Hospital for two years because she is unable to be provided with the necessary carer so she can return to her home. It is equally reprehensible that this woman is just one of many Canberra wheelchair-bound persons desperately in need of carers (''I want a life,'' Sunday Canberra Times, March 29, p1).
Where has the funding for the urgently needed carer program gone? Has this funding for carers ever been budgeted for? What is the Chief Minister and the Minister for Health going to do to redress what appears to be a scandalous situation?
The ACT Government has a duty of care with this woman, and also to others who are suffering because they too are unable to have carers looking to their needs and wellbeing. It is their right to expect this duty of care from their government as citizens of the ACT.
B. Legge-Wilkinson, Campbell
WHAT an uncaring, screwed up society we live in (''When agency faultlines trap hospital patients'', March 29, p4-5). We spend millions on fireworks, sculptures and sporting events but don't help our most disadvantaged folk. Come on ACT Government: more money for carers, pay nurses more and get them back in the system. And what about providing the 12 seater transporter for Connections volunteers.
Let's get the priorities right, think of yourself or family in one of the foregoing situations.
Denise Page, Yarralumla
Water scandal
FINALLY, buried on p28 of the Sunday Canberra Times (March 29) is the story that should have been regularly on the front page over the past three years and a central issue in the local election campaign last year that is the scandalous mismanagement of the water supply for the territory. Perhaps, now that Graham Downie has had the guts to say what most of us think, we can expect the paper and local politicians to give the issue the attention it has sorely needed and call to account those responsible for the shortcomings.
H. Burmester, O'Conner
Pool planning needed
DAVID CURRY and Jenna Hand (''Learn-to-swim classes dry up'', Sunday Canberra Times, March 29, p20) report that with the closure of the Deakin Pool, 1100 children in learn-to-swim classes will be looking for places in Canberra swim schools, now at, or close to, capacity.
The lack of learn-to-swim places, particularly on the southside, will be further exacerbated by the planned closure of the Erindale pool on April 12, while it undergoes a refurbishment.
A total lack of forward planning by the ACT Government in coordinating the management of its swimming pool facilities is largely to blame for the continuing shortage of learn-to-swim places in Canberra.
Planning and Land Authority Minister Andrew Barr seems to have learnt little following the fiasco in 2008, when the Tuggeranong and Civic pools were closed at the same time for nearly six months, while both underwent major refurbishment work. Some forward planning of when refurbishment work was to be carried out on both of these pools, so one pool was left open, would have helped to avert the acute shortage of learn-to-swim places in 2008.
If there had been some forward planning initiated after this fiasco, perhaps the closure of the Erindale and Deakin pools could have been averted.
It seems the Deakin pool has been allowed to deteriorate for several years while the ACT Government has been aware that this pool has barely been able to meet its own very stringent health and safety requirements.
Mr Barr plans to take legal action against the owner of the Deakin pool to ensure that the implementation of the existing lease conditions are adhered to.
This legal action will not address the closure of Deakin pool, nor will it in any way relieve the shortage of learn-to-swim class places in the immediate future.
If the minister had carried out some forward planning, this would have been a much better way of alleviating what is now an acute community problem.
James Banks, Fisher
Greens hoodwinked
IT WOULD appear that the Greens are more interested in retaining their ''power-sharing'' role in Jon Stanhope's dishonest government than in looking after the electorate that gave them this opportunity (''Proposals to amend units act collapse'', Sunday Canberra Times, March 29, p20).
What happened to Meredith Hunter's claim that the Greens would move to disallow the Act and their agreement with the Government that the Greens would ''work with owners and stakeholder on outstanding issues in the Unit Titles Act''? We are disgusted that, after all the discussions held recently regarding the faulty Unit Titles Act and the way in which it was rushed through the Assembly last year, the Greens have let themselves be hoodwinked yet again by Stanhope's spin. This Act should never have been passed in its present form.
Few if any benefits will be derived in the short term by the passing of this legislation and they will be heavily outweighed by the disadvantages. Perhaps Shane Rattenbury can explain the ''range of consumer protections'' he sees as having been added, most unit owners see very little.
Caroline LeCouteur's reason for withdrawing the amendment is unbelievable; clearly she has little, if any, understanding of the legislation or how owners' corporations function.
We trust the Greens will explain to unit owners how they are going to have the glaring faults in this ill-conceived Act rectified.
Can we now expect the Greens to similarly roll over in regard to their agreed promise to reestablish a library service in the inner south and see the restoration of Griffith library? Their record is not very encouraging. It is time they showed some gumption and kept faith with the people who elected them.
Murray Upton & Judith Erskine, Kingston
Armada travesty
I FOUND the consumer article on Armada Solar (''Armada sinks hopes'', Sunday Canberra Times, March 22, p13) to be a travesty of justice.
I also had a contract to install solar photovoltaic panels with Armada Solar and was also informed that due to the drop in the value of the dollar, I could have a slightly lower power system or pay about $1000 for the original set-up. The rapid dollar fall was outside of the control of the company and I chose to go for the lower power rating.
I found the company to be extremely helpful and run by enthusiastic young people keen to bring green energy to Canberra which was very refreshing.
The issue of not selling RECS is nonsense the whole purpose of RECS is to trade a green energy supplier to offset an emitter of carbon such as a power station. If that is not done then the industrial world will come to a standstill.
I would have expected Graham Downie to at least get views of other customers who were quite happy with the installation and performance of the company.
David Roberts, Dickson
Earth Hour call
CONGRATULATIONS on your editorial on Earth Hour (''Earth Hour reminds us action is ours to choose'', Sunday Canberra Times,, March 29) direct, reasonable, and not a little inspiring. May the power of one become the reduced power-usage of many, many hours.
What about a monthly Earth Hour instead of an annual one perhaps the last Saturday of each month? To signify the hope that there will never be a last day for humanity. It would also give us a more frequent boost to recharge our batteries of resolve.
Dennis Hale, Beecroft, NSW
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