Congratulations on highlighting the disgraceful environmental disaster that is unfolding in the beautiful bush to the east of Queanbeyan ("The road that's causing an uproar in Queanbeyan", January 13, pp8-9), making a complete mockery of the "Country Living – City Benefits" slogan used by the council.
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Almost every day in the 29 years I've lived in Queanbeyan, I have taken myself for a run through this bushland. Every single one of the routes I take will soon be destroyed — I will be breathing diesel fumes and counting road kill, instead of enjoying the fresh air and the wildlife.
Queanbeyan has benefited in recent years from some very good council decisions (Crawford Street, the new Riverside park), but no benefits will come from this disgraceful project — a 1950s-style engineer's solution to a non-existent problem!
John Walker, Queanbeyan, NSW
Greens should step in
The controversy over the redevelopment of the Curtin shops, in particular whether the provisions of the draft master plan should be adhered to ("Curtin call to reduce size of development", January 11, p1), seems to be tailor-made for the intervention of Caroline Le Couteur as Greens MLA and chairperson of the ACT parliament's planning committee.
The Greens certainly need some good press because the citizens of Canberra will never forget that it is with the Greens' collaboration that the ACT government has been able to turn Northbourne from a welcoming avenue of stately green trees into something dry, barren and sterile.
David Pederson, O'Connor
Lucky country – for some
The big question about demolishing duplex homes ("Heritage lost or progress?", January 12, p1) is what happens to the land?
Is it government policy that inner-city land is too valuable for public housing tenants? So house them in dreary outer suburbs.
Will the government sell valuable inner-city land to developers who will offer million-dollar apartments to rich investors?
Once a city is founded either it grows (and housing prices go up) or the city stagnates and social problems multiply.
Over half Earth's population of seven billion people now live in cities. Many live in multi-storey human filing cabinets.
In the big scheme of things, my wife and I are a tiny minority. We own a Canberra house and it's debt-free.
Australia is the lucky country – for some.
Graham Macafee, Latham
Dormitory strategy
You say in your editorial "Destroying Canberra to save it" (January 12, p16) that "there is a debate that Canberra needs to have ... and the sooner we pause and reassess the better". Hear, hear!
While the Griffin legacy would undoubtedly shape the debate the ultimate determinant is likely to be the attitude of the community and the planners towards Canberra's towns.
The form of infill that has been chosen by the government treats the towns as dormitories, complemented by infill along the light rail network that is to be developed to bring workers to the centre of the city. This strategy inevitably puts more emphasis on development near the centre thus threatening the Griffin legacy.
Griffin said "I have planned a city that is not like any other in the world". Our challenge is to stop this government making it like every other city in the world.
A. Smith, Farrer
We are all custodians
The Canberra Times editorial "Destroying Canberra to save it" is a timely reminder of the need for all Canberrans to engage more keenly with the planning and heritage issues they face as custodians of the future of this unique city and National Capital.
Governments today are generally more attentive to public opinion, especially when it represents a broad demographic and is well informed.
Besides residents' associations and community councils there are many community organisations quietly working to inform planning debate and protect Canberra's amenity and heritage.
Examples are National Trust (ACT), Friends of ACT Trees, Lake Burley Griffin Guardians, Canberra Woodland and Wetlands Trust and The Walter Burley Griffin Society.
Inevitably perhaps, many of those best informed about these issues, and most actively engaged, are time-rich retirees.
There is a special need for time-poor younger Canberrans, the future guardians of their city, now busy with careers and family, to consider joining and supporting such organisations, and becoming better informed.
One easy and enjoyable way would be through the many heritage walks and events during the Canberra and Region Heritage Festival from April 18 to May 7. This year's theme is "Questions and Change", a timely one indeed.
Trevor Lipscombe, Campbell
Urban street space
Currently, Cooyong Street in Civic is treated as an "urban street" but it only has a three-metre verge between the road curb and property boundaries.
As there is no building setback on urban streets, any new buildings are being planned right up to the site boundary. This does not leave enough room for pedestrians, cyclists and street trees.
The rest of the CBD and the new Braddon Precinct has a six-metre verge for these "active living" activities.
The Precinct Code for Braddon also requires a "trunk cycle path" along Cooyong Street, which has been ignored in the current Development Application for Stage 1 of the of the ABC Flats (DA 201630648 Braddon).
The replacement of the ABC Flats is an excellent opportunity to fix this "active living" problem in one portion of the street, by increasing the verge to six metres.
The developer's solution for the narrow verge problem is to remove all of the mature street trees in Cooyong Street.
Public comments on the DA need to be made by January 19.
Chris Emery, Reid
Defence informing the public? Pull the other one
Even for the silly season, it is risible to read that the Department of Defence is seeking consultants to give its senior officers the ability to "inform the community or explain Defence's position confidently or competently in a believable, reliable manner" ("Defence adds social media to arsenal', January 4, p1).
This is the Department of Defence? The Great Wall of Silence? The outfit that always has a reason for not providing information? From "operational matters", via "commercial-in-confidence" to "subject of an ongoing investigation"?
Pull the other one!
Stephen Brown, Forrest
Centrelink flaws
One would have hoped that once Human Services Minister Alan Tudge came back from holidays he would correct the inane claims by the acting minister that the Centrelink debt recovery system is working very well and act accordingly.
No such luck! He continues to make the same claims.
These guys are so intent on trying to convince us that black is white, beware when they start to offer a certain bridge for sale.
The true error rate is probably close to double the established rate of 20 per cent when one takes into account the cases in which people are too cowed or too indifferent to contest claims which are probably incorrect.
My own interaction with Centrelink IT management, admittedly not in the last 15 years, leads to little faith in the reliability of their systems.
T.J. Marks, Holt
Alan Tudge doesn't accept the system for recouping incorrect welfare payments is fundamentally flawed. The system apparently divides annual income by 26 to arrive at fortnightly income without taking account periods of no or lesser income during which recipients were eligible for support payments.
How is that not fundamentally flawed? Automating without oversight or actual people bothering to check what is being sent out indicates the malaise.
Does Mr Tudge or senior managers at Human Services actually care? Perhaps he should spend his valuable time "waiting" at a Centrelink office for face-to-face contact.
If he arrives incognito I am sure he will be waiting more than just a few minutes, probably much to his surprise.
Peter Dahler, Calwell
Great to see that our federal politicians are now telling us we can deal with a human at Centrelink. So why are Centrelink's executives still telling their staff to refer clients to the website? What happens if you do not have a computer or are not computer literate?
Roger Laws, Bonython
Ley and the pub test
If Benjamin Djung's soy latte analogy (Letters, January 12) was intended to apply to Sussan Ley's "impulse buy" of a Gold Coast apartment, I suggest his analogy begs the question of most relevance to the "pub test", ie, whether "ministerial business" was the primary rationale for Ms Ley's trip to Queensland on May 9-10, 2015.
I have subjected Ms Ley's travel "entitlement" claim to three separate "pub tests" in the last week (with three different groups of voters in three different establishments) and according to 19 out of 20 voters who participated in those "pub tests" her claim fails. In my view, Ms Ley's claim dismally fails the "pub test" for five important reasons.
Firstly, her announcement about the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme could have been made anywhere and, hence, there was no compelling "business" reason why she chose Brisbane as the venue for that announcement.
Secondly, even Ms Ley has admitted that travelling to the apartment auction by Comcar "changed the character of the occasion to one of a more personal nature".
Thirdly, Ms Ley's partner, who accompanied her on the relevant trip in May 2015, owned an apartment and a business on the Gold Coast. Fourthly, in September 2014, some nine months before her apartment purchase, Ms Ley made an unsuccessful offer to buy a house in the Gold Coast hinterland. Fifthly, since 2013 Ms Ley has claimed travel "entitlements" for 27 trips to the Gold Coast.
Bruce Taggart, Aranda
MPs' travel perks
While we are talking about federal parliamentarians' so-called "entitlements" there are other perks that need cancelling. Why do MPs fly home every week when parliament is sitting? The ADF and embassy staff deployed overseas don't get that luxury.
At election time why do taxpayers fund dozens of VIP flights for the party leaders to travel all over the country for that 10-second grab on TV and radio news including the cost of transporting a tribe of mostly Canberra press gallery journalists in the aeroplane too. After each election, candidates with 4 per cent or more of the primary vote get paid about $2.50 per vote, with the bulk of these millions of dollars in taxpayer funds going to the two major parties. The entitlement mentality has to stop.
Adrian Jackson, Middle Park, Vic
Costs of immigration
I am curious to know why Lesley Beckhouse (Letters, January 6) thinks Tony Abbott would reduce immigration, as he certainly didn't in his period as prime minister.
I think Labor and the Coalition rely on immigration to artificially inflate economic growth statistics.
Providing the necessary infrastructure for the growing population largely falls to state and territory and local governments.
It's debatable whether the federal government passes on enough of their increased revenue to the other levels for that purpose, rather than spending it on pet projects like tax breaks for the wealthy and businesses.
Peter Marshall, Captains Flat, NSW
Cold comfort
Why is it, when we're experiencing hot weather (and appropriately wearing light clothes), that shopping centres and other public places turn down their air conditioning so low that we feel cold?
How often do you hear someone say they need to take a jacket on a hot day to feel comfortable while watching a great movie, or going on a long flight?
If thermostats were set slightly higher, power bills would reduce, and we wouldn't feel temperature shock when entering public buildings.
Jenny Welsh, Kambah
TO THE POINT
KEEP SPEECH SIMPLE
Donald Trump claims his inaugural speech will rival that of JFK in 1960. I would suggest he lifts only two words "ask not" and leaves it at that.
Linus Cole, Palmerston
LESS POPULAR CHOICE
Mokhles Sidden (Letters, January 12) can be reassured that most Americans who voted for Donald Trump are not "that dumb". Actually, quite a large majority voted for Hillary Clinton.
Trump won a majority of electoral college votes but lost the popular vote. Democracy in action?
Shane Mawer, Kingston
AUDIT NEEDS ATTENTION
What happened to President-elect Trump's tax audit? Is it still in progress? If it is, and if eventually the audit results in a finding of tax evasion, will he be prosecuted? If he is prosecuted and convicted of tax evasion, can he remain in office?
These questions, surely they deserve some attention.
Thomas Mautner, Griffith
TALKING POLITICS
How dare the media criticise Julie Bishop's decision to use taxpayers' dollars to attend the polo at Portsea! Her claim that she attended in her official capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs and deputy leader of the Liberal Party should not be questioned. After all, whenever the ruling class gathers, the business of government is bound to be discussed.
Nigel Thompson, Queanbeyan, NSW
MORALLY BANKRUPT
The disqualification of Rod Culleton from parliament ("Bankruptcy costs Culleton Senate seat", January 12, p4) is all well and good but what about those other MPs, eg, Sussan Ley and Julie Bishop, who will, in all probability, remain in parliament despite being morally bankrupt?
Wendy Rattigan, Weston
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