The ACT would not want a five-square-kilometre or so plot of vacant land with around 2000 unruly citizens to look after.

After all, many of the residents are descendants of mutineers and are probably difficult to control .

They may even wish to secede to New Zealand or worse, China.

The Chinese like islands in the Pacific .

There is an answer, of course. At great personal expense to the ACT government and its bureaucrats.

Firstly, Norfolk would need a tram to relieve the residents of car ownership and registration costs.

Next the ACT Parliament would need one, no probably two, extra members, with an appropriate increase in the ACT public service.

Only persons who do not suffer from air sickness or mind being away from loved ones for weeks at a time in a subtropical paradise should apply and a direct (chartered jet, of course) flight would be required to connect Canberra and Norfolk.

Travel and length of time over there in the freezing winter months in Canberra would be also quite arduous and emotionally draining .

Also, our politicians would need to be willing to preserve the pristine countryside of Norfolk from any rapacious developers who so far have been excluded.

Although there is the thought of extra stamp duty, rates and land taxes to be taken into consideration.

No, I do not think the current ACT government will fall into the trap.

Paul O’Connor, Hawker

The ACT government has enough to do and catch up on in relation to its resource-strapped administration and delivery of services here without the distraction of taking on services management for Norfolk Island, especially given that community’s ongoing problem-ridden governance and financial arrangements (‘‘ACT called on to deliver services to Norfolk Island’’, canberratimes.com.au, September 29).

The federal government’s funding support for the added administrative responsibility is sure to be inadequate for the major challenges that would be faced over time.

Sue Dyer, Downer

C. Stephens, Barton (Letters, September 21) has got it wrong.

Taxi plate owners and operators have always been, as they still are, competing against each other for work.

The monopoly has, up to recent times, always been with Canberra Cabs (Aerial) the taxi booking service.

Their sole existence in the past, (pre-APS times) was because of excessive set-up and running costs as well as our small market place.

Any communication failures, now or in the past, are and have been, as much of a disappointment to taxi owners and operators, as they are and have been to the travelling public.

P. M. Button, Cook

Congratulations on your article ‘‘Big names light rail winners’’ (October 1, p1).

But it was no surprise to most of Canberra ratepayers that this was a money-making exercise whose beneficiaries included Labor government, building companies and the union movement – especially the CFMEU.

While the ratepayers of Canberra bear most of the cost of all these projects, the other parties are reaping in the benefits.

Union members and local people may be walking around with patches in the seat of their pants and trying to survive, but the three elites will still put their hands out and take your last dollar.

If our local government had any gumption they would have taken the Parramatta or Gold Coast option and saved us a lot of money, which could have been spent on tidying up some of streets and parks.

All I can say to our Commonwealth government, you stick to your guns and refuse entry across Commonwealth Avenue bridge and advise Mr Barr where he can shove his second stage of the light rail.

Errol Good, Macgregor

My family moved into a newly built home in Stirling on the October long weekend in 1974.

Forty-four years later we still live there.

We love Weston Creek. In general, shopping, medical, cafes and various retail outlets operate pretty successfully in Cooleman Court and in our Creek suburbs.

However, it made me wonder what had been achieved, when, on this recent long weekend, our only petrol outlet was open, but had no petrol available on Sunday (can you believe that?).

Maybe the clubs had no beer. I didn’t check the beer supply but I did check the Molonglo Valley.

Still no cafes, retail, restaurants, or petrol there.

The Coombs Shops, ‘‘established’’ in 2015, still empty, dead and useless.

I remember there used to be about five servos in the Creek. Food for thought.

John Mungoven, Stirling

Waleed Aly commented moderately in ‘‘Issues go beyond the ABC’’ (September 28, p24), ‘‘It’s about a civic culture that is slowly falling apart.’’

What is happening is going way beyond collapse. It’s insurrection.

I recall a comment in this paper in recent years that doubt in the viability of democracy was rising.

I patiently awaited disclosure of the core of this discontent.

The unpleasant realisation has at last emerged that the core of this insurrection is our government.
I’ve just checked my files and find that since the year 2000 I have submitted 69 letters containing the word ‘‘totalitarianism’’ to the editor.

Five were published.

The indicators mentioned by Mr Aly, such as the government’s release of personal details to the press to discredit a critic at the height of the robot-debt scandal, or the AFP raids on the homes and offices of labour politicians after another (leaked) disclosure of NBN costs and delays, are far from solitary.

Meanwhile three royal commissions precipitated by Aunty’s and Fairfax’s investigative journalism were running concurrently in 2017 and the financial services commission continues.

The government has not only been seeking to nobble individual ABC journalists.

It has been seeking to destroy it with budget cuts and the ultimate threat to sell it off. as it did Radio Australia.

Michelle Guthrie, ever a square peg in a round hole at Aunty, was undoubtedly placed there with the expectation that her isolation would render her compliant.

Fortunately, she wasn’t.

G. Wilson, Macgregor

I do not support the assertions by Philip Machin (Letters, October 1) that driving slowly will avert collisions with kangaroos and wallabies.

In 57 years and about 2 million kilometres I have only damaged a car once on the road; when a wallaby jumped in front of me. I was significantly below the speed limit at the time.

The nature of animals on the road at night is such that those that are on the road or immediately adjacent can easily be seen in the headlights and avoided however those that bound out from the darkness on a collision course with your vehicle move so fast that, no matter how good your reactions or how slowly you are travelling, an impact cannot be avoided. Low speed could minimize damage to the vehicle and animal but to be effective this would mean travelling at about 10 km/h which is ridiculously slow on a country road.

Certainly a lower speed impact will reduce the injuries suffered by an animal however, unlike humans, they have no understanding of the availability or benefits of medical treatment and thus go off into the bush where they are likely to die an agonizing death. The ones that you see at the side of the roads are the fortunate ones — they were killed instantly with minimal suffering.

The best thing is to drive normally, be alert and never swerve to avoid an animal.

Michael Lane, St Ives, NSW

With the frantic footy season over and the ‘‘I’d sooner watch paint dry’’ cricket season on its way, I’m wondering if sport lovers around Australia have ever considered having a rest for a while. You know, similar to farmers leaving a paddock fallow for a year.

Just think of all the sports fields around Australia devoid of marauding monsters and sledging, spinners and sixes.

Sports field curators could turn their mowers into ploughs and feed the nation. The empty grandstands and car parks could house the homeless.

Corporate advertisers could donate to their chosen charity and TV time devoted to programs with meaning, substance or even educational.

The reduction in carbon dioxide on our already choked cities would be considerable.

Weekend congestion around venues would be eliminated.

And most importantly, Australians might become a nation of active participants in life rather than weekend watchers.

John Sandilands, St Marys, Tas

The new minister for decentralisation, the National Party’s deputy leader Bridget McKenzie, wants companies in the business and industry sectors to consider moving away from the major cities and into regional towns and cities (‘‘Minister wants companies to spread wings’’, October 1, p2).

This is probably a good idea.

However, Ms McKenzie also wants to continue with the shifting of some government agencies to regional centres.

The decision by Barnaby Joyce to shift the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority from Canberra to Armidale was hardly a roaring success, and led to 40 of its staff remaining in Canberra. This had the undesirable effect of fragmenting the agency and could easily be repeated if the Ms McKenzie were to decide to shift other statutory authorities into regional centres.

According to the October 1 article, Canberra has lost 6700 public service jobs in the past four years under the Coalition government’s watch, while, in the reverse of the desired result, inner-city Sydney gained 2000 and inner Melbourne 850.

This shows clearly that the government’s efforts at decentralisation have so far failed dismally – unless one regards punishing Canberra as a success.

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

There is not a lot of good to come out of a drought, but apart from finding tools lost in the grass there is one thing that should focus minds.

The push to ease the population pressure on our cities by directing migrants and public servants to country towns needs to be tempered by the need to provide water to the proportionately large number of people who would need to be provided for with the level of water usage they are used to in the cities. National’s deputy leader Bridget McKenzie (‘‘Minister wants companies to spread wings’’, October 1, p2) is well aware of the drought across much of the country.

The average rainfall counts for little when town water supplies are threatened.

In her enthusiasm to develop the regions on the eastern seaboard (there is not much talk about WA or the NT) she will need to consider more than a drought being a lack of stock feed.

Steve Thomas, Yarralumla

In recent days a former banking and finance regulator naively expressed disbelief at the searing interim findings of the Hayne royal commission, lamely citing offender ‘‘culture’’ (i.e. turning a profit at any cost — unethical or criminal, whatever) as the problem.

Cultural failure is even more prominent inside our spineless, tremulous regulators. Their staff comprise either industry poachers-turned-gatekeepers or recruited ‘‘investigators’’ with no background, training and experience – or, critically, stomach – for taking the fight to the big end of town, without fear or favour. The law is supposed to be independent and impartial and as vigorous and impartial as it needs to be. Except, apparently, in banking-finance white collar crime cases when the going gets tough, especially in the case of connected, cashed-up litigants.

I am reminded of the witticism of Anatole France: ‘‘Our laws, in their majestic impartiality, treat rich and poor alike for stealing bread, begging and living under bridges.’’

Our federal government also needs to relearn the well-worn lesson that self-regulation is a synonym for self-interest, and that to police and prosecute greedy criminal corporates you have to ensure our regulators are well resourced to do the job.

Otherwise, schedule yet another expensive royal commission in less than 10 years’ time.

A Whiddett, Forrest

Big business is motivated by greed? Who would ever have thought?

N. Ellis, Belconnen

INCREASE SPEED

Note to New Gen PM: If Australia is going to reach the Paris climate change targets ‘‘in a canter’’, maybe we could pull our collective fingers out and speed up to a gallop.

Things are getting very hot and very dry very quickly and the time has come to listen to the scientists, the farmers, the firefighters and just about everyone else who doesn’t have a vested interest in the coal industry.
Our kids’ future depends on it.

Like most ‘‘hard-working Australian families’’, I don’t want my child to have to pay tomorrow for my cheaper power bills today.

S. Gerrard, Dunlop

DATE TO RESPECT

In the mix for an alternative to Australia Day I suggest June 3, the day in 1992 when Eddie Mabo won title to land.

Ken McPhan, Spence

DAY OFF

‘‘You don’t pretend your birthday was on another day,’’ said Scott Morrison in respect of Australia Day. The Queen does. Is he better than her?

H. Simon, Watson

ILL JUDGED

I am really bemused about the amount of coverage that the selection of the next US Supreme Court judge is getting in the Australian media. Why do we need to take so much interest in someone else’s judicial system?

How does it affect us directly? As far as I can see it does not.

Our own judicial system is not that perfect that we cannot spend more time looking at it.

Ian Jannaway, Monash

YES BUT NO

Re reports that ‘‘You can now buy Malcolm Turnbull’s Canberra penthouse’’. At $2.5 million plus, no, I can’t.

Bruce Wright, Latham

FOOL SPEED

The farcical 40km/h zones in Giles and Eyre streets, between Howitt and Kennedy streets, Kingston, might as well be decommissioned. Most motorists take no notice. The government couldn’t care less, as shown by its failure to install speed humps.

D. Callaghan, Kingston

NEEDED CORRECTION

Barry Schwarzer (Letters, September 29) gets it right. In a nutshell, ACT schools need a range of quality controls to give kids and teachers a fair go. Classroom visits by truly helpful experts would be a start.

B. Smillie, Duffy

AT A CRAWL

I know it is not April Fools’ Day but surely this is a joke. I am lucky to get more than 4.5Mbps internet speed. I suspect the internet survey was confined to those areas that have NBN and conveniently left out the parts of Tuggeranong that are still waiting for an internet upgrade.

Toni Hogan, Bonython

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