One hesitates to disagree too sharply with Jack Waterford (''20 years on, Assembly still faces hurdles'', May 9, p7). But in discussing 20 years of self-government, he says the ACT Liberals are concentrated at the liberal end of their spectrum, and that is a bit much.
Regardless of any good qualities they may have, the ACT Liberals are concentrated at the desperate end of any spectrum, and in their desperation they can stoop to dreadful depths.
Trevor Kaine got into power by agreeing to defluoridate the water supply. Kate Carnell held on to power by giving in to the anti-abortion minority. And then there was the slanging match between the Jo(h)ns Howard and Stanhope over whether the ACT owned Googong Dam and was paying it off in instalments. Howard said the Commonwealth owned the dam and could give the water in it to Goulburn, to help his mate Pru Goward win a seat in the NSW election. Gary Humphries, Bill Stefaniak and Brendan Smyth were publicly challenged to decide the question by saying whether or not the ACT Liberal governments they had been part of had paid any money for Googong, but they bolted for cover. Howard pulled his head in and never took any water out of the dam.
Territorians were left to draw their own conclusions about how brave the ACT Liberals would ever be in defending the ACT's interests.
Zel Seselja was understandably upset last year when the ACT Greens decided to support a Labor minority government instead of a Liberal one. If he can purge the public memory of what the Liberals have to live down, in 2012 he may have a majority for himself.
G.T.W. Agnew, Page
I commend the recognition that The Canberra Times gave to the 20th anniversary of ACT self-government. However, I was most disappointed with the inaccurate time line of the road to self-government in the supplement.
The comments for 1974 about the Advisory Council are wrong. In September 1974, an election was held for the first ACT Legislative Assembly to replace the Advisory Council. While it was only advisory and its members only part-time, it established many of the forms of parliamentary practice that continue. Most notable was the formation of committees that prepare advice on important issues.
Subsequently, this first Legislative Assembly had its term extended from 1977 to 1979; it was then replaced by an elected House of Assembly.
Tim McGhie, former member, First ACT Legislative Assembly, Isabella Plains
Jon Stanhope should realise that he has the responsibility to govern Canberra in a manner which will enable all Australians, not just the residents of Canberra, to be proud of the place.
Many Australians now see Canberra as the sin capital of the country. Stanhope and his cronies not the least the Greens seem bent on giving Canberra a leading role in all manner of unrighteousness such as marriage rights of Adam and Steve or Eve and Evelyn, easy abortions and a steamrolling sex industry. I just hope and pray that Australia will continue to have prime ministers who maintain a watchful eye on the laws that our Canberra governments want to adopt.
Les Nebauer, Queanbeyan, NSW
Health hazard
What irony lies in the heading ''Prevention and primary care gain some positives'' (May 11, p11). In March my GP, who has saved my life more than once over the past 35 years, was unceremoniously locked out of his surgery by a company bizarrely named Primary Health Care.
Since then he has had no access to my medical records. PHC claims it owns my records, all written by my GP and the specialists I have been treated by. PHC sent the records to a medical centre it owns but where my GP does not work and which I have never, and will never, attend. I extracted copies of my records from PHC by writing in no uncertain terms to the chairman and executive director of the PHC Board but they have kept the originals! This company has no right to keep my records against my wishes, let alone deny my GP access to them.
What will Katy Gallagher do to put profiteering companies out of our misery and out of the ACT?
Frank McKone, Holt
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