Drone debate drags on as public anger drowned out

The fact remains the people who have been subjected to these drone ‘‘trials’’ have rejected them. The fact is that anyone who hasn’t been subjected to the drones is not qualified to comment. The people of Royalla rejected the drones. The people of Bonython have rejected the drones (80 per cent).

The people of Gungahlin will decide for themselves about the drones.

The people of Bonython feel unsafe, violated and angry. They were not asked how they felt about this.

No one is responsible for regulation/compliance enforcement of the noise of the drones. Drone noise has been measured at 80 decibels during a neighbourhood delivery on a weekend.

EPA regulations disallow weekend residential noise over 35 decibels. There is documented evidence of regulatory loopholes and lack of proper government oversight and due diligence in regards to the Project Wing Bonython drone ‘‘trial’’.

The enabling of Project Wing suburban drone delivery operations in the ACT smacks of business and governments running roughshod over the people. Sound familiar?

We live in a democracy: ‘‘government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly.’’

That is why there is now an ACT Legislative Assembly Inquiry into Drone Delivery Systems in the ACT. Because the people have spoken.

Robyn McIntyre, Bonython

The latest near-miss involving the Canberra building industry (‘‘Concrete panel falls from building site crushing Braddon toilet block’’, January 31, p1) is very concerning particularly when considered with recent evidence that building standards in the ACT are falling.

The 3.7 tonne slab that fell 17 metres from an apartment complex being built onto adjoining property did not kill anyone this time.

It is easy, however, to conceive of a scenario in which people were killed or maimed.

Canberra’s love affair with high-rise construction should be accompanied with higher safety regulation and compliance, not less.

A window falling off a one-storey bungalow is an annoyance. When a window falls off a 12-storey building (as happened earlier this month) it is potentially lethal.

In the reporting of both of these incidents the words ‘‘it was lucky no one was killed’’ were used.

Constructing buildings safely should not rely on luck.

I suspect, unfortunately, that it will take a fatality before the ACT government and its instrumentalities take the safety issue in high-rise buildings seriously.

When this happens, I hope the coroner calls Ben Ponton (chief planning executive) and Mick Gentleman (Planning Minister) to explain their failure to deliver a safe working environment and safe buildings.

Mike Reddy, Curtin

Re: ‘‘Jet jockey’s dive over Bungendore goes over like a lead balloon’’, Letters, January 31.

So, who was the RAAF jet jockey who dived on Bungendore last Saturday morning?

Not only did one of my neighbours find it totally unwelcome, extremely frightening and overbearingly noisy, it came without warning.

I would find it appropriate for neighbours like mine if, in future, the RAAF would place a sock or other sound deadening device over the exhaust of their jet fighters, and equip them with a bell or kangaroo whistle like you see on some cars that negotiate rural motorways to warn us of their pending dive-bombing attacks.

Something audible from about 10km would be quite satisfactory.

I know the collateral damage is low in a country village, but does that make it right to perform bombing attacks on populations less than 12,000? Surely not.

My household did not remain unaffected. During the raucous evacuation of every cockatoo, parrot and other assorted birdlife of Bungendore my budgerigar, who had never uttered a word, until this event, rolled about his cage screaming ‘‘meine ohren!’’ Which, I found out later from a kindly gentleman in a neighbouring village who could still hear my questions, meant ‘‘my ears’’ in German.

I am forced to ask you, what kind of disruption makes an Australian ground parrot wail in German?

Oh, the humanity.

In the pursuit of fairness in reporting, the incident has startled my jacaranda tree into bloom, which it has not previously done, and it looks quite stunning.

Dai Buckley, Bungendore

Referring to your article “Environment Yass council warned on dumping of fill” (Monday, January 28).
The exportation of ACT building waste has been an escalating cause of concern for at least 10 years.

Observations at the border on a daily basis will see large numbers of laden trucks leaving the ACT and returning empty.

Local rural roads weren’t built to cope with 48-tonne laden heavy vehicles. Road damage, noise, dust and road safety issues combine to destroy rural character.

The cost of repairing damage from trucks is an increasing burden on councils.

Canberra prides itself as a sustainable, ‘green, no-waste’ city. This is far from the truth when the ACT government is simply disposing of its waste over the border.

It has been suggested that the waste is better off in a NSW erosion gully rather than an ACT landfill. If not done correctly this waste could well end up in the Murrumbidgee River. This attitude trivialises the issue, with no regard to the environment.

Recently the ACT government completed an erosion gully restoration project at Halls Creek without the need for vast gully filling, producing a sustainable solution to the erosion problem through water management and revegetation.

It is time that the ACT became a responsible neighbour, big enough to acknowledge this problem, take control and manage it appropriately.

Jan Peelgrane, Springrange

When focussing on the history of Australia we all should be mindful that the British Invasion was carried out under the lie of terra nullius (empty land) which required the Mabo Case in the High Court of Australia to rectify.

Over time, politicians, fearing the loss of votes, have failed to act. A treaty between the old and new Australians, similar to that signed between former colonial rulers and the original people of New Zealand, is long overdue. As we warmly embrace the arrival of newcomers to our country, and they develop harmonious relations with the current occupants, the original Australians are seeking a treaty, so that they are rightfully accepted as proud Australians.

Keith McEwan, Gordon

When I was a child attending a Catholic school in the 1950s we were frequently given small cardboard boxes that we were required to return full of coins two weeks later, to help the poor starving children in Africa.

If the sacrifices made by our poor parents made any difference to world poverty, it is not evident.

But in the 1960s and 1970s we were given fresh hope that the United Nations would focus professional and financial resources on alleviating poverty around the globe, partly by raising educational facilities and standards. Ho hum!

I read recently that, since 1978, China has reduced poverty from 88 per cent of its citizens to just 6 per cent.

This surely surpasses anything the UN and the multitude of aid agencies could dream of.

We give China little credit for such a fantastic achievement and stand back, with deep reservations, from the Belt and Road Initiative. We fear this initiative has a sinister motivation.

But at least it is an initiative that promises advancement for parts of our world that have struggled for centuries with poverty and strife.

Our politicians are too preoccupied with petty internal disputes to map an intelligent or independent contribution to world issues. But does the free world have a better plan than the Chinese?

Don Burns, Mawson

My tennis-loving friends and I were disgusted and astonished that Nick Kyrgios was invited to commentate on the tennis for Channel Nine.

He is the bad boy and bully of Australian tennis who has been disrespectful to umpires, crowds, journalists, fellow players and generally the Australian tennis-loving community.

There are numerous newspaper reports and articles to verify his continuing bad behaviour.

For these reasons he cannot be considered a good role model or mentor for Australian tennis. So why was he commentating on the tennis for Channel Nine? I asked this question to both Channel Nine and Australian Open officials but did not receive a response from either of them.

Unbelievable decision.

Tony Falla, Ngunnawal

The rally around Isis member Neil Prakash continues — spurred on by a sorry level of commitment to social diversity and leftist politics.

As if drooling over other cultures or radical ideas wasn’t enough, we now go nuts for the rights of a terrorist who’d give it to us in the neck, if he could.

Tolerance must have its limits (lest it tolerate the intolerance of itself) and the Liberals can’t be that bad. I’m drawing the line at Prakash.

What happens to him from here should go on in private.

Vasily Martin, Queanbeyan, NSW

The federal Coalition government has eagerly grasped the valuable advertising opportunity afforded by the commercial TV coverage of the Australian Open tennis and the cricket to run ads extolling their claimed record and policies on taxation, infrastructure development and education.

As these frequent ads are said to be ‘‘Authorised by the Australian Government, Canberra’’ it is sure that they were also paid for by the same – which in reality are the Australian taxpayers.

As the election expenses of the major parties in the forthcoming federal elections will be heavily subsidised by these same taxpayers, does it mean we taxpayers are paying twice for these advertising expenses of the incumbent parties?

Such advertising as the TV viewer has been confronted with should be paid for by the relevant political party(s) and in this case by the coalition parties.

For the future, such unconscionable misuse of incumbency should by law be exposed and punished.

Can anyone see that happening if the present government is re-elected?

Brian Cox, Bruce

The prescriptions for water controls set out by Dr Peter Main (‘‘Source of water problem obvious and solutions just as clear to locals’’, Letters, January 23) appear to this layman as sound but lacking in a particular aspect.

The use of water for cotton crops is understood to be an important factor in water consumption, and in some instances, in water retention by cotton farmers.

The remedy I have heard about over many years is to substitute hemp growing and abandon Australian effort at growing cotton.

At least one variety of hemp produces zero hallucinogenic material.

Hemp also has these attributes: hemp can be grown without the use of chemicals, needed in significant quantities to grow cotton; growing hemp will consume much less water than cotton; hemp can substitute for cotton in at least major uses such as fabrics, paper making and the fibre in fibreglass; hemp grows more productively than cotton (more plant product per acre).

It is also the case that our cotton industry competes with those of other nations with more readily available water to grow cotton.

The most significant obstacle to hemp growing will be found to be the effort made by the chemicals industry to foment hysteria about hemp being necessarily hallucinogenic. The hysteria takes hold most emphatically among members of Parliament, some of whom are not known for their science.

Warwick Davis, Isaacs

The current Australian Prime Minister’s plans to send the replica of the Endeavour sailing around Australia for a year has been rightly criticised on account of the huge expense.

It should also be criticised because the Dutch actually had more to do with mapping the Australian coastline than the Brits.

This was well understood by James Cook himself, as well as by Matthew Flinders.

By 1644 the Dutch had mapped about 65 per cent of the Australian mainland coastline, southern Tasmania, as well as parts of the west coast of New Zealand.

If the PM persists with this idea it would be most appropriate for the existing replica of the Duyfken to accompany the existing replica of the Endeavour on that trip (both built in Perth).

The Duyfken actually did that in 2006 to commemorate the landing on the West Coast of Cape York in 1606.

However, the money could be spent much better of course.

Klaas Woldring, Dutch Australian Cultural Centre, Smithfield, NSW

Cultural superiority

Bill Dean’s letter (‘‘Advance Australia’’, Jan 30) had a whiff of cultural superiority about it that was completely unjustified.

I strongly suspect that if Bill were plonked down in Australia without the advantages that geography bestowed upon Europe, such as domesticable animals and heavily cropping grains from the fertile crescent, he’d struggle to last a week, let alone build a culture that could thrive for over 50,000 years.

Let me suggest a read of Bruce Pascoe’s recent Dark Emu or Jared Diamond’s Guns, germs and steel to get some perspective here.

Andrew Davies, Macquarie

I welcome the news that Michael Keenan will resign as Minister for Human Services and Digital Transformation.

His department took nine months to determine I was eligible for a pension.

Then, even before it told me to report fortnightly, it cancelled my eligibility, because I had not reported.

The department’s document upload system still does not work.

I hope that his successor can produce the ‘‘digital transformation’’ of a pension system that actually works.

Leon Arundell, Downer