Canberra Times letters: Despite the alarm, schools are still the safest place for kids

Our 3750 members work every day to insulate schools as far as possible from the community problem of violence. Educators know that they are better supported than ever before. Reporting of verbal or physical abuse is increasing as a culture of non-acceptance of violence matures. Teachers and support staff know that processes are in place in schools to manage violence, that central office support and resources are readily available through specialised teams, and that if they are not satisfied with a particular response, our union is a phone call away and our expert intervention will occur on that day.

Rather than catastrophising and seeking to instil an unfounded sense of fear and panic, The Canberra Times should consider profiling the Australian Education Union's submission to the inquiry, which calmly sets out the principles that will underpin a further-enhanced and sophisticated approach to violence management in educational institutions. It can be a blueprint for the future management of violence.

Our members are proud of their work and proud of their workplaces. They are fed up with their local newspaper characterising schools in this way. The Canberra Times likes league tables and rankings, so I will put it in their language. A school is the No. 1 safest place for children and young people to be.

After watching Q&A last Monday night, which included a group of highly qualified panellists, including Professor Brian Cox, and noting the high standard of the discussion, I was left wondering why we accept low standards on other occasions. We don't require any educational standards of our politicians and when they are speaking this is frequently noticeable. Worse still are those with the description "former" before their previous job description. If they are now unemployable why are their views considered valuable or of interest?

Currently a huge number of our children are living below the poverty line. This means we are wrecking the chances of so many of the next generation yet our politicians don't seem to care or understand the implications of this for those who come after us. This is likely to be a huge disadvantage in a highly competitive world. Perhaps a prerequisite for seeking parliamentary preselection should be evidence of recent knowledge acquisition rather than of present factional loyalty.

The lift out feature "Lets's Talk About Disability" (June 20, p21) certainly was informative in letting the community know about all the services offered by companies who dedicate their energies to the disabled in our community. I wonder, as l have for some time now, who are actually delivering the services. The feature explained it very clearly. It is delivered by private enterprise companies who are in it to make money. If they don't make money they go out of business.

Spread through the section l counted no less than 19 "advertisements" from companies advertising their wonderful ability to make life easier for those with a disability. And l am sure in many cases that is true. Of the 19 companies, 14 of them openly stated they are "NDIS registered". In other words they receive assistance from the government, and the more clients they have the more assistance they receive.

No doubt about it, the disabled are simply measured by the amount of money they can make for "providers"!

It is no doubt far more pleasant for the National Capital Authority to be focusing on and hanging out for some very appealing and well-appointed Canberra land packages in non-densified locations for overseas missions, in order to meet its "international obligations", than to be labouring to ensure that unique national lake-bed land and adjacent parkland settings are preserved, maintained and improved in the national public interest and for public use ("'Held to ransom' over West Basin deal", June 21, p3).

Both the ACT government and the authority will probably shed many more crocodile tears before they formally enable intensive vertical development on the lake shores to proceed.

The founder of the development company Geocon has slammed politicians in Canberra as "unsophisticated" for not understanding his ambition to transform the city ("Developer blasts 'unsophisticated' ACT politicians', June 21, p5). Nick Georgalis plans to build a big hotel and entertainment complex at Garema Place and seems to be having problems with the city's current restrictions on noise levels. If airports and major international large cities can build hotels that are soundproofed, why can't Geocon do the same? No one staying at the proposed hotel would need to hear any noise from Garema Place, if the hotel was correctly built. Geocon claims that there is a country town mentality amongst many of the city's politicians. Judging by the ever growing number of skyscrapers that are already dominating the skyline of Canberra - many of which are Geocon buildings - it would appear that the developers and not the "unsophisticated" politicians are winning the battle.

Vale the Bush Capital.

Strange - I don't recall electing anyone at the developer Geocon to transform Canberra. Our politicians are there to represent the interests of this city and us residents of it, especially those who value Canberra as our nation's capital. Developers in this town have been responsible for some considerably unsophisticated buildings. Those bulky grey apartments along Constitution Avenue are just some examples.

The most recent example is the disruption sanctioned by the National Capital Authority to the design of Anzac Parade. The Anzac Park West and East buildings were designed as portal buildings to anchor that vista from the War Memorial to the lake. The east building is now to be demolished and yet more apartments to be built. Shame it will be with reference to Constitution Avenue, not the sophisticated design of Anzac Parade.

The writers (Letters, 21 June) who allege that wanting to restrict "free speech" is the sole preserve of the left should think again. No group is more intent in hounding those who disagree with their views than those who sit on the right. The sustained attacks on Yasmin Abdel-Mageid for her perfectly reasonable Lest We Forget comments and the reaction to Adam Goodes, ironically demonstrating his right to a symbolic expression of free speech, are just two obvious examples. Seeking to restrict freedoms is not the preserve of any single ideology. Sadly, it infects all of them.

Figures just released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for 2018 reveal that the ACT population was 423,800 in December, having grown by 7,600 over the year. This was the second highest growth rate, with Queensland at 1.8 per cent, trailing only Victoria at 2.2 per cent.

As the territory heads inexorably towards half a million, the question has to be asked: is it sustainable? Will there be enough water as climate change bears down on us and the southern continent continues to desertify? Will there be sufficient public transport to stop cars grinding to a halt on congested roads? Will enough housing be built such that it is affordable for all? Will enough quality schools be built to provide for all the extra children? Will waiting times in emergency departments get worse with so many extra people?

At a national level, Australia's annual growth in population soared past 400,000, meaning our population grows by a million every 2.5 years, or two million every five years. On a largely arid continent, do we really want this growth?

For Peter Dutton to be putting Home Affairs' limited resources into a legal and political battle to overturn the Medevac legislation shows a warped judgement of priorities. The argument that a few medical evacuations will encourage the return of seaborne people smuggling is highly questionable. Given the worldwide accessibility of news, who would knowingly choose years of detention and mental illness in the hope of, perhaps, being airlifted out after acquiring a life-threatening condition?

Meanwhile, there is a departmental backlog of at least 60,000 asylum seekers already in the country. These are people flown in from Malaysia and China by criminal syndicates to work for next to nothing in farms, restaurants and brothels. Ninety percent of them ultimately have their claims rejected, but departmental resources to shut down these operations are lacking, because Mr Dutton would rather play politics.

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