NCA review is due, but praise must go with criticism

Your editorial (May 18) has finally given

some balance to the biased reporting

and inflammatory statements made

against the National Capital Authority

over the past two months.

Chief executive Annabelle Pegrum is

an outstanding Canberran and the very

personal attacks on anyone who holds

public office should be soundly condemned:

we have sadly seen the

consequences of such vindictiveness

before.

The chairman of the NCA, Michael

Ball, admitted at the recent inquiry,

and Pegrum concurred, that the NCA

had made mistakes. There has, however,

been much the NCA has produced

that deserves high praise, from the

brilliance of the Griffin Legacy Plan to

the running of the Australia Day

Concert each year.

Most people wouldn't deny a review

of the NCA's role was due, however,

many Canberrans have benefited from

the experience of its staff, the guidance

of an eminent board and the enthusiasm

of its chief executive.

Many decisions of the NCA in the

past have stimulated much debate, and

such animated discussions, particularly

in the area of planning, should be

encouraged. We now await the outcome

of the parliamentary inquiry into

the NCA with much anticipation.

David Marshall, chairman Canberra

Business Council Tourism Sports and Arts

Taskforce (briefly consulted to the NCA

previously)

Neil Savery (Letters, May 17) has finally

revealed the reason behind the poor

standard of building construction in

the ACT. Buildings that cannot stand a

good hailstorm, buildings that leak,

buildings that have constantly flooding

basements, buildings that crack and

become unsightly after a couple of

years, buildings in which the services

do not function as they should,

buildings that have been incorrectly

constructed and buildings that are

environmentally unsustainable.

These faults, none of which is mere

opinion or conjecture, are commonplace

in both residential, non-

residential and mixed-use buildings

throughout Canberra, and current

owners find that the planning rules are

so loose it is nearly impossible for any

redress to be taken against the builders

or developers. We now know why.

According to Savery, ''planning laws

are not always black and white and in

fact the development industry often

prefers it that way as it offers scope for

flexibility''.

What an indictment of the ACT

Planning and Land Authority. Of course

the developers like it that way, it allows

them almost free rein to do what they

want at the expense of ''all current and

future Canberrans'' the best interests

of whom Savery claims ACTPLA is

safeguarding.

The time has surely come for the ACT

Government to reinstate properly

qualified building certifiers employed

by the Government and not by the very

builders whose work they have to

certify. An admission that this system

was a genuine mistake would be a good

start.

Murray S. Upton, Kingston.

Reform and change

Hear! Hear! to David Bastin's letter

about the media's acceptance of government

jargon (Letters, May 16). I

have, for some time, wondered why the

media accepts unquestioningly that

government changes are ''reforms''

merely because the government of the

day deems them to be so.

Not only does the media's acceptance

of government terminology

inherently portray any changes with

the ''reforms'' label in a positive light,

regardless of the actual merits of those

changes, we now often witness the

farcical spectacle of the media debating

whether or not so-called ''reforms'' are

changes for the better.

Gordon Fyfe, Kambah

Hours dividend

The Community and Public Sector

Union my union is thinking of ways

to convince agencies to cut workloads

to counterbalance the 3.25per cent

''efficiency'' dividend.

It has asked agency heads and other

senior leaders to specify what work

will not be done in the light of

reducing staff levels by 3200 across the

public service. No agency head will tell

the union that the whole idea of the

dividend is to force us to do more work

with less staff.

I have a suggestion for the union.

Let's campaign to cut working hours

by 3.25per cent without loss of pay.

That guarantees less work out of us.

By my calculations, the normal day

would fall from 7 hours 21 minutes to

7hr 5min. Let's make it an even seven

hours to catch up for just one of John

Howard's ''efficiency'' dividends.

Then we can begin to move to a six-

hour day without loss of pay to catch

up with the rest of what we lost under

Howard and offset the marked

decrease in labour's share of gross

domestic product that has occurred

over the last 30 years.

John Passant, Kambah

Assembly absence

Zed Seselja has finally admitted he was

not in the Legislative Assembly

chamber on Thursday night, May 8 as

he was attending a Liberal Party fund-

raising dinner.

Apparently, despite the Assembly

only having to sit for three days this

month and having known for a number

of days that it would sit late that

night, Seselja made no attempt to

negotiate a pair, but simply absented

himself without explanation. It was

not until 10.30pm that Thursday that

the Opposition Whip, Jacqui Bourke,

advised the Government Whip, Karen

MacDonald, that the Opposition

Leader would not be returning.

What does it say about Seselja's

priorities that he considers having

dinner with influential business

people more important than

representing his constituents in the

Assembly?

Many might think, including his

colleagues, that it says a great deal

about Seselja's suitability to become

our next chief minister.

John Bonnett, Nicholls

Nurses' memorial

The Royal College of Nursing, having

been heavily involved with the fund-

raising and tender for the Australian

Service Nurses National Memorial, has

a vested interest in seeing it repaired

and taken care of in the future

(''Action call as nurses' war memorial

left in disrepair'', April 28, p5).

It is certainly distressing that the site

sustained such damage, and that it

was closed on Anzac Day this year.

However, the college maintains a

good working relationship with the

National Capital Authority and does

not in any way hold it responsible.

Both organisations continue to work

closely in ascertaining a solution for

the current issue affecting the site.

The memorial did not ''languish in

disrepair'' for two successive Anzac

Days. After being vandalised early last

year, temporary repairs were made to

the site so that it could be open for

Anzac Day 2007.

Further repairs were carried out

after the day.

If the investigation and repairs to

the current damage appear lengthy, it

is because both the college and the

NCA are seeking a long-term solution

to repair the memorial, not a quick fix.

Rosemary Bryant, executive director,

Royal College of Nursing, Australia

Room to move

I have attended concerts in the Llewellyn

Hall since the School of Music

opened in 1976 and I attended the very

first concert in the revamped hall on

May 4.

One's knees still touch the back of

the seat in front and most people still

have to stand to allow other audience

members to reach their seats.

There are no aisles with the much-

vaunted ''continental'' seating plan

and this increases the inconvenience.

Was the entire concrete tiering of

the hall demolished to allow for wider

tiers, more space between rows and

more leg room?

Suzanne Vidler, O'Malley

CSIRO funding bid

The article, ''CSIRO in grab for bigger

slice of funding'' (May 13, p3) and its

inappropriate and erroneous headline

is disappointing and, at best,

misrepresents the constructive spirit

of the submissions of both the CSIRO

and the Cooperative Research Council

Committee.

The CSIRO has proposed that the

CRC program should not continue in

its current form and the committee

has also argued that a number of

changes to the program are needed to

improve its impact and attractiveness

to all organisations.

Rosslyn Beeby failed to report that

CSIRO's submission also noted the

value of the centres in ''promoting

collaboration in the NIS'' and having

''produced fundamental change in the

way that Australian institutions,

including industry, interact''.

CSIRO's perspectives are based on

its extensive engagement with the CRC

program since its beginnings; CSIRO

has been involved in more than 120 of

the 167 centres.

The suggestion that ''the [CRC]

Committee has fired back ...'' is

wrong. Both submissions were written

and submitted independently without

knowledge of the content of the

respective submissions.

No shots have been fired by the

CSIRO or the committee, and our

submissions, while naturally having

differing points of view, provide

suggestions for the new Government

to improve the National Innovation

System, and the roles and

contributions of both the CSIRO and

the CRC program.

The article states that the CRC

Committee submission accuses the

CSIRO of being ''difficult, obstructive,

overly competitive, elitist and unwilling

to 'work as peers'''. These words

are not included in the submission nor

are they sentiments of the committee.

The committee, as stated in its

submission, believes the ''CSIRO has

developed a strong domestic and

international reputation over many

years''.

The current inquiry into Australia's

National Innovation System is crucial.

Through harnessing different

perspectives and experiences, the

CSIRO and the committee believe we

can greatly improve Australia's results

as an innovative nation. We are

committed to working together to

achieve the best possible outcomes.

Dr Geoff Garrett, chief executive, CSIRO,

Dr Peter Jonson, chairman, CRC Committee

Share role between home and school for better child health

Gwyneth Bray (Letters, May 15) makes

the point that primary school teachers

should not be expected to take over

parents' responsibilities to ensure

pupils have sufficient physical activity

and a sensible food intake.

I agree that they should not be taken

over, but feel that responsibilities for

our children's education and health are

best shared by home and school.

The Canberra Times reported on the

submission I made to the federal

parliamentary inquiry on obesity on

behalf of the Lifestyle of our Kids, or

LOOK, research project (''Veggie rebate

would fight fat'', May 13, p1).

That article's title, though, was one I

would not have used, as Bray and

others, I assume, would have got the

impression that my attention at the

inquiry was directed solely at removing

''childhood obesity''.

This was certainly not the case.

At the inquiry, I asked the 10 MPs to

adopt a paradigm shift in their thinking.

Rather than focusing on a perceived

widespread community problem of

childhood obesity, l suggested we focus

our attention on the main primary

causes of metabolic dysfunction and

Type 2 diabetes; these being physical

inactivity and poor quality of diet

(especially excessive intake of saturated

fats and concentrated sugars).

We have a normal distribution of

body types in the Australian community,

and there will always be

thinner and fatter children.

What's more, there is little evidence

that a child classified as overweight by

the commonly used body mass index,

or BMI, charts is at increased risk of

developing Type 2 diabetes, provided

the child is sufficiently physically

active.

Indeed, there is evidence that

''dieting'' in young children can evoke

negative physiological and psychological

effects, which may make it more

difficult for a child to control the

balance of energy intake and output

later in life.

In any case, the notion of children

attempting to achieve some sort of

''ideal body weight'' is even more

frivolous when we consider that the

commonly used body mass index-

based classification system is flawed

and potentially misleading.

Let's concentrate, instead, on positive

approaches that can be readily

achieved and enjoyed by children.

Let's develop physical activity

opportunities designed so that they are

fun for everyone, without exception,

and promote consumption of

nutritious food that also tastes really

good to children.

If we get this right for our growing

children, then it is very likely that the

largely symptomatic but visibly obvious

state we call overweight will take

care of itself.

Dick Telford, research director,

LOOK project

Praise for Pegrum

The National Capital Authority is not

perfect, but retiring chief executive

Annabelle Pegrum deserves high praise

for many things achieved for Canberra

during her almost 10 years.

Commonwealth Place, Magna Carta

Place, Reconciliation Place, Acton Peninsula

and the restoration of the beautiful

gardens of Old Parliament House

have all occurred under her leadership.

The redevelopment of the National

Capital Exhibition from an embarrassment

to a world-class interpretative

centre was also her doing.

Fair judges must accept the

constraints on ACT planning that the

unwieldy duplicated system imposes,

within which both the NCA and the

ACT Government must work.

But that is the fault of the laws, not

the professional planners. Hundreds of

thousands of people come to our

beautiful national capital each year,

and we should thank Pegrum and the

NCA for helping to make visitors

experience what it is.

Don Morris, South Hobart, Tas

As a volunteer guide for 20 years with

ex-service colleagues to ''Make the

mute monuments talk'' in Anzac Parade,

I had occasional discussions with

Annabelle Pegrum.

I feel I should thank her publicly for

her understanding and courtesy.

I found her extremely informative

and a great Canberra supporter.

Her departure is a loss to important

developments in the ACT.

Ron Metcalfe, Hughes