IT IS no surprise to the forest and forest-products industries that some researchers seek to use narrowly defined research to support their aim of destroying forestry and the 40,000 regional jobs it sustains; but it is rather more disappointing that The Canberra Times fails to provide readers with any counter view. (''Young forests threatened by fires, logging'', February 23, p9). Had the reporter made an effort to contact the Canberra-based peak industry group for forestry, I could have provided any number of eminent scientists to show that forestry is helping save our bush. For example, readers would be interested to read that the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel and Climate Change) says a working forest (which includes timber harvesting) provides the best carbon store over time. While it's reported that the forum's organiser said he brought together forestry experts to push for evidence-based forestry policy, it is a shame that The Canberra Times chose to print only one side of the debate.
Ross Hampton, Deakin
Hold her hand
COULD some kind person gently take MLA Giulia Jones by the hand and explain why anyone involved in a show ridiculing Hitler must surely be pro-Semitic and not anti-Semitic. (''Mein kampf! They're out of touch'', February 22, p13).
Bill Deane, Chapman
Some free advice
IT WAS reported in The Canberra Times (''Labor advisers leave with $4.8m'', February 23, p11) that Labor's political advisers walked away with a combined severance pay, after two leadership shocks last year, of $4.8 million. Given Labor's record of bad or failed policies, resulting from poor research, design, implementation and management, one must question whether its advisers deserved their salaries, let alone severance payment.
At one time most government advisers were seconded from the Public Service and the people provided had extensive experience in the areas on which they were expected to advise. They were paid their standard PS salary and allowances. On termination of their advisory role, they returned to their PS positions.
All adviser appointments should undergo a parliamentary procedure to ensure they are not ''jobs for the boys'' and that their experience warrants the salaries proposed.
Ed Dobson, Hughes
Winds of change
AUSTRALIANS appear to have far greater concerns about wind farms and poor health than the US or northern Europe (Letters, February 28). I live in an area of NSW where wind farms have been working successfully for many years without any medical problems. I have also observed wind farms in the US and northern Europe where the residents I have talked to are really surprised how far Australians are behind the times in their attitude and availability of wind farms.
Campaigners against wind farms, who claim to be suffering from various medical conditions wind farms cause, have one symptom in common - an envy of the income landholders with wind farms are receiving for allowing windmills on their farms.
Robyn Lewis, Raglan, NSW
Wrong comparison
I REFER to the letter from Janne Blunden (February 23, page 18) and point out that while dogs are domesticated and generally trained and controlled by humans, sharks and crocodiles are not. There can be no meaningful comparison between domestic dogs and sharks or crocodiles regarding their respective habits.
Juha Turunen, Queanbeyan
What, no outrage?
WHERE was the usual ''outrage'' from business lobby groups and interests when the Abbott government unilaterally decided to move some 1500 public servants (and their associated spending power) out of Civic to the retail capital of the ACT - Barton?
Roger Terry, Kingston
So many to blame
FINDING a scapegoat for some disaster is always satisfying and Gary Humphries (''Spare us Greens carping'', Times2, February 28, p4) seems suitably pleased with blaming the Greens for the deaths of a thousand or so refugees at sea.
Unfortunately his attribution of responsibility is myopic in its narrow framing of assessment of responsibility for these deaths.
Why were there asylum seekers in the first place? Primary responsibility lies in the hands of governments whose activities forced their nationals to flee and seek asylum out of fear for their life, livelihood and family safety.
Australian intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, adds another layer of responsibility and implication in this flow of refugees.
Why were asylum seekers getting on the boats? Governments in this region, including Australia, have failed to develop a humane, timely and effective process for dealing with the flow of asylum seekers, creating a situation in which people are prepared to take substantial risks because they see no other option.
Finally, everyone's favourite scapegoat, the inappropriately named ''people smugglers'' who are clearly morally culpable for deaths that result from sending people to sea in manifestly unseaworthy vessels. They should be subject to criminal prosecution.
Beyond those above, as Australians we are all morally implicated in these deaths through our acceptance of over 15 years of governments treating this issue as a political football.
Doug Hynd, Stirling Brasilia
Building respect
NEW Delhi, Islamabad, and Dhaka all have sublime buildings designed by great architects (Niemeyer, Lutyens, Le Corbusier, Kahn). Marion Mahony Griffin brilliantly depicted the architecture of renowned US architect Walter Burley Griffin in his winning competition entry for the design of Canberra.
And yet he did not build one prominent building here. Establishment figures such as Sir John Sulman, a mildly notable British architect, were behind that. He treated Marion and other female architects in a sexist way. He became chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and lobbied for Canberra's town centre to be established in Kingston. He wrote in 1922: ''If erected now at the City Centre (Civic), banks and other semi-public buildings would have to pulled down and rebuilt later.'' Nevertheless, he then accepted a commission for Civic's matching Sydney and Melbourne buildings, whose design many regard as anachronistic. Griffin successfully completed major buildings elsewhere, notably Melbourne University's distinctive Newman College. The Sydney and Melbourne buildings should be replaced with say, a performing arts centre and a hotel. Maybe we could get Frank Gehry to design them as tributes to the shockingly treated Griffin's.
Jack Kershaw, Kambah
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