Either way it was totally unwelcome – extremely frightening, over-bearingly noisy and came without warning.

A jet flyover is one thing, but this was a diving ‘‘bombing attack’’ on an otherwise quiet morning in a country village.

The Defence duty officer told me that an authorised flyover took place that morning over Lake Burley Griffin.

I was in the garden when the peace was shattered by the jet diving at high speed. I involuntarily dived to the ground.

Looking up I saw the fighter/bomber level out then climb at great speed almost vertically, eventually disappearing to a noisy horizon.

Every cockatoo, parrot and other startled birdlife flew off in raucous panic.

I don’t know how horses, dogs and other animals coped. As for myself, I cut my leg and one of my eyes sustained a broken blood vessel. I am sure other residents suffered physical and/or mental trauma.

I have submitted a complaint to the Defence Aircraft Noise website, but have received no acknowledgement that it has even been received.

Brian Voce, Bungendore

Re: ‘‘Feedback sought for ‘visually stunning’’ gateway to Canberra’’ (canberratimes.com.au, January 23).
This highlights the contradictory policy created by the ACT government, National Capital Authority and Transport Canberra and City Services.

Between their Northbourne Avenue Precinct Code, and City and Gateway Urban and Design Framework, no vehicle entry to the massive new development on Northbourne Avenue is allowed.

Currently two new development applications (SOHO and New Pavilion) on Northbourne between Dickson and Braddon have parking for 1600 cars generated by their proposal.

So all [will be] forced onto the narrow residential Dooring Street and most onto the already identified over-capacity Wakefield/Dooring Street intersection.

Commercial vehicles and daily removalist trucks are also sent to the back streets.

'By default the developments cannot be accepted as they break the traffic impact rules on Dooring Street and intersections, but the government, NCA and TCCS won’t accept their contradictory policy.

It might be a ‘‘visually stunning’’ gateway to Canberra’, but a back street disaster.

Geoff Davidson, member North Canberra Community Council

I can relate to Philida Sturgiss-Hoy, (Letters, January 26). The ActewAGL 20per cent offer is reduced by 6per cent if one continues to require a posted account instead of an emailed account. She says that equates to about $150 a year.

Now, if my figures are correct 12 mailed statements a year at $1 per statement equals $12. But if statements are sent out quarterly then it is only $4 a year. Where is the justification? I know a number of people who do not have the internet or an email address so they will also suffer this burden. My wife still receives monthly paper statements from her bank at no extra cost. It gave her the choice.

ActewAGL customers should also be given a choice. I recently was hit with a $15 late payment fee, ActewAGL is as bad as the banks in that it will do anything to maximise profits. The latest figures I have seen show ActewAGL made a $847million profit in 2016-17. The chief executive receives a salary that far exceeds that paid to most Australians but that is all kept under wraps.

As ActewAGL is a half-taxpayer-owned company should we not have the right to know what the executives’ salaries are? After all we know what salary our politicians receive, the Chief Minister’s salary is about $345,000 so why is the salary paid to these executives kept secret?

Phil Nicolls, Monash

Already 2019 is looking too much like 2018. The office of the ACT building quality minster (yes, we have one) lamely seeks to reassure us that the high level of flaws in Canberra’s new high-rise apartment buildings simply reflects building and construction ‘‘challenges’’ that are not unique to the ACT (‘‘Building defects a ‘crisis’’’, January 28, p1) .

Yet again the ACT government appears to have little empathy or helpful messaging for the increasing number of stressed-out ACT residents who are embroiled in this crisis. In view of the many tens of thousands of high-rise dwellings whose construction the government is prioritising and facilitating with developers in all our town centres and along Northbourne Avenue, the Chief Minister and his building quality, planning and city renewal ministers need to come clean on all action being taken and committed to in order to reduce greatly the incidence of deficient buildings across the ACT and the negative social and economic impacts that such a scourge creates.

Current and prospective residents of major new buildings would no doubt appreciate advice, too, about timeframes for some robust implementation, evidence of progress being made and practical assistance for pursuing remediation processes. Since an industry expert has suggested that consumers need to be able to tell the difference between a good and bad builder and developer, the building quality minister should produce helpful guidelines on this as a matter of priority.

Sue Dyer, Downer

The retirement of Cathy McGowan as MP for Indi will leave a huge hole in Parliament.

Ms McGowan has been one of very few true local members when most in Parliament are merely rewarded party functionaries. Australia desperately needs the current MP herd deeply culled.

With Ms McGowan’s agreement, CSIRO must immediately clone her 100 or more times to restore Parliament to its original purpose as representing the voters, not party machines.

She has proven that voters can come together to find and anoint someone to truly represent them in Parliament.

May the heavens forfend Australian elections from being ‘‘Americanised’’ in the manner of the US Republican Party – the party of Lincoln reduced to little more than a fundamentalist church personality cult.

I will not name ‘‘he who must not be named’’ (apologies to J. K. Rowling).

Instead I wish Ms McGowan a long and honoured retirement. The best way for Indi voters to thank her for her splendid service would be to elect, as her successor, Dr Helen Haines who has been selected by the Voices 4 Indi movement.

Rod Olsen, Flynn

I worked for 30 years on the research and management of native freshwater fish, including Murray cod.

The main causes of fish kills in freshwater rivers/streams in rural areas are: 1. deteriorating water quality resulting from or exacerbated by the excessive extraction of water from a river ...or/and 2. toxic chemicals (e.g. herbicides, pesticides) entering rivers, particularly in runoff after rain. Australian native fish have flourished in the Murray-Darling for millennia, and through countless droughts.

But to avoid mass fish kills and to have healthy rivers, the water extraction abuse, such as has occurred in the Darling River, has to stop. Letting the Darling get to this state, when the warnings have been coming for years is negligent and irresponsible.

For example, it beggars belief that most irrigation water use in the upper Darling is not even metered.

Australians place immense value on their rivers – including for sustenance (not least for drinking water) and for cultural, recreational and aesthetic reasons.

And no one wants to take the blame for destroying a river ... but in systems like the Darling, out-of-control irrigation has a lot to answer for. There now has to be a thorough and comprehensive inquiry examining all aspects of water management for the entire Murray-Darling Basin – a federal royal commission.

Bill O’Connor, Beechworth, Vic

Irrigators in the Riverina don’t understand why they have zero allocation.

The rivers are running high, forests are being flooded and there’s plenty of water in the system.

The Goulburn and Murray valleys have gone from being like the Garden of Eden to Death Valley.

You cannot farm in this area without water. Farming enterprises built up over generations will fail unless there is a change; that means a water allocation.

In the past, with current availability there would have had a substantial allocation, but the rules have been changed.

Irrigators believe they have been treated unreasonably. They hear they are unlikely to get an allocation next year.

Sound, reasoned argument from local leaders has been completely ignored. Apart from local people, nobody cares.

South Australia’s three big lies are now accepted as the truth.

These are: (1) The Coorong is in bad health and it’s caused by lack of flow in the Murray. Fact: Drainage schemes divert water out to sea; water that previously fed the Coorong.

(2) Lake Alexandrina was always fresh. Fact: Captain Sturt in 1830 recorded that the lake was undrinkable and new scientific evidence proves a history of a mostly saline state for 50,000 years.

(3) Salt in the Murray comes from the upstream states. Fact: Salinity levels at Morgan have been falling for 30 years.

These lies are the excuse South Australia has used to get a disproportionate share of a limited resource.

The NSW Liberal National government must be held accountable for allowing this mess to happen.

My advice to the powers that be is to set up a royal commission with sufficient scope to get to the bottom of this mess.

Ron McWhae,  Barham, NSW

G. Wilson (Letters, January 25) questions whether government has any standard criteria for the economic evaluation of proposals to subsidise the cost of new medicines via listing on the PBS. Proposals to list medicines are assessed by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. Its guideline recommends cost-utility analysis, where the cost to government of subsidising the medication is compared with the value of the expected outcome.

This comparison is expressed as the cost of each additional quality adjusted life year (or ‘‘quolly’’) expected to be gained by those with the condition targeted by the medication. A quality adjustment applies where the years of life gained would typically involve a lower quality of life. The adjustment is made by applying a percentage discount to the total years gained.

Some researchers have suggested that the pattern of approvals and rejections of PBS listing proposals equates to assigning an individual good quality life year a dollar value within a range around $50,000.

The use of quollies has been criticised for different reasons. Some see the yardstick of life years gained as having an inherent bias against medications targeting conditions affecting older patients. Some see the percentage quality adjustment as a blunt instrument that ignores individual patient differences. Some think that the whole idea of rationing healthcare resources in a way that leaves any effective treatment unsubsidised and out of reach for most people is fundamentally immoral.

As the population ages and more expensive treatments emerge, these tensions will increase.

Paul Feldman, Macquarie

We learn, yet again, that many apartment buildings in Canberra may have major defects according to industry experts (‘‘Building defects a ‘crisis’’’, January 28, p1). Just when can the Canberra community expect their government to actually do something to rectify this?

I wrote my first letter on this subject to minister Simon Corbell in 2006 and subsequently to minister Andrew Barr in 2009.

In 2010 minister Barr established a Building Quality Forum (of which this writer was a member) to deal with the issue. In May 2011, minister Corbell invited the public to tell the government about their experiences with poor building quality.

In November 2015 Minister Mick Gentleman wanted the community to have their say on building quality reform. In March 2018 Yvette Berry, as acting Chief Minister and Minister Gordon Ramsay ordered a review of building regulations.

My submissions to minister Ramsay and follow-up correspondence have gone unacknowledged.

No doubt my children will be writing similar letters in the years to come.

Murray Upton, Belconnen

COUNCILS KNOW BEST

Coalition governments have long outsourced citizenship ceremonies to institutions such as local councils.

They should not use the form of these local ceremonies as an excuse to cut their funding support. Local bodies can be relied on to know the best form and date and title for these ceremonies, reflecting any changes in community attitudes. Why does the Coalition fear adjusting citizenship to fit current community support?

Trevor Wilson, Chifley

OVER IT ALL

An Australia Day holiday is needed to recover from all the hoo-hah and angst that now attend the day itself.

M. F. Horton, Adelaide, SA

EQUALLY HUMBLED

It is somewhat disingenuous of your correspondent Mike Reddy to suggest that only ‘‘... a few crumbs (OAMs) fall to the deserving poor’’ (Letters, January 29). Despite the colour of the centrepiece of my lapel pin being different to others, I think of myself as being equally humbled that I should be nominated and then receive an honour bestowed upon me by my country.

Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook, NSW

OUT OF DATE

I can’t imagine why The Canberra Times chose to publish Bill Deane’s witless letter about Australia Day. Maybe it was as a public service, a warning to beware troglodytes.

Matt Gately, Rivett

SCULPTURES NEGLECTED

We have many beautiful and meaningful sculptures in the Parliamentary Triangle but they are much neglected.

Walking from the National Library to the High Court, the sculptures dedicated to our Aboriginals have been left to fall into disrepair.

All need a good clean and all the water features restored.

It is even difficult to read the plaques.

Margaret Ryan, Turner

RICE, COTTON MUST GO

The PM should ban the growing of rice and cotton on this barren rock of ours. Those crops are an absurdity given our permanent lack of abundant rain.

He should have courage and stop waffling. This is urgent.

Barrie Smillie, Duffy

A BIT SLOW MORRISON

I give credit to Scott Morrison for coming out of hibernation to write a letter to the Thai PM to say ‘‘the Australian government believed that returning the footballer [ Hakeem al-Araibi] to Bahrain will infringe his rights under international human rights law’’. Why has it taken him that long to realise that?

Rajend Naidu, Glenfield, NSW

PRIORITIES PLEASE

Forget about rights for bikie gangs; what about rights for ordinary Canberrans to live in safety?

M. Moore, Bonython

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