Canberra Times letters: Changing radio stations is now bad driving?

There was no clarification or explanation of what this means.

Is changing radio stations while driving in that offending distraction category?

Is switching the radio to ABC 666 in an emergency, as the billboards recommend, in that category?

People have been listening to their radios in their cars for decades. It often involves changing radio stations at one's leisure, either to listen to music or hear news bulletins. And as one drives into a new city or jurisdiction, we sensibly and safely tune the radio to pick up their radio stations.

Is this now also considered a distraction that could result in a hefty fine and loss of merit points?

Where is the police evidence that changing or tuning radio stations while driving is a safety concern, particularly when it is easily done by the push of a button on the radio itself or by pressing the entertainment stalk near the steering wheel?

Wake up, Canberra: let's get rid of this nanny state mentality.

What next? Soon we may be fined and gain demerit points for briefly glancing at our loved one sitting in the passenger seat, or glancing down at the console to check our speed, or glancing at our petrol gauge, or glancing down to turn the air conditioning or heating on or off.

Let us not make the same mistake with a new stadium as was made with the tram - namely, a large amount of money spent to benefit a few, purely for political reasons. Given the low or very low number of supporters of the three codes of football that would play at a new venue, all that is needed is a boutique stadium of modest cost and sustainable design.

The reality is the main sports in Australia are cricket and Australian rules. Planning for the future should allow for the likelihood of more Test matches here and the relocation of a Melbourne AFL team to Canberra, which now has a catchment area with a half million population.

Manuka Oval is fine for now but it will not be able to meet these future needs.

It would make sense financially to consider building a new cricket/AFL ground (perhaps at the Bruce stadium site) and to modify Manuka Oval for use by rugby and soccer clubs.

Can Gryff Jamieson-Ballard (Letters, June 19) confirm when the Civic pool passed its use-by date?

Does s/he think we should get rid of our grandparents because they passed their use-by date or are too old?

Many other great cities in Australia and around the world don't get rid of buildings or public facilities because they are "getting old"; they preserve them and restore them, adding to the natural charm and character of the area.

Look what happened to Brisbane when Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson knocked down most of its historical buildings: it now has the title of Australia's ugliest city, with its bland new buildings with none of the character that Sydney and Hobart has, with their century-old establishments.

As for having an underground pool, what's the point? One of the joys of life in Canberra is enjoying the warmth of the sun on our clear, blue-sky days.

With so many people, especially children, spending more time indoors on their electronic devices, an indoor pool would deprive them of much-needed vitamin D.

Many of the nearby office workers that spend their whole day inside would also prefer a pool with areas where they can enjoy fresh air and sunshine.

Jamieson-Ballard also wants people to travel to a new stadium by public transport.

If the government put a stadium where the Civic pool is, it would be on the wrong side of the city for proximity to the bus and light-rail interchange.

The Canberra Raiders headquarters in Braddon is much closer, and a much better location for a new stadium. There is no need to get rid of a great, historic community facility that many Canberrans have enjoyed for decades.

Your touching and altruistic editorial should be heeded by all governments (June 21, p6).

However, there is a solution, but it will need a pragmatic and courageous federal government to implement it.

We have more than 115,000 homeless people in Australia. About one in 10 of those are returned servicemen and women.

They are our home-grown refugees and they must be housed, like the many thousands of overseas refugees we house every year.

If the government halted the refugee intake for a number of years, we could put our homeless in even basic housing to make them feel worthwhile.

There are families living in cars in Canberra and this is a disgrace, with temperatures plummeting this week and with worse to come.

These, however, are the lucky ones - they at least have a roof over their heads.

There will be accusations of racism if the refugee intake is halted, but we have already been a more than generous nation to the world's homeless.

Although a rich nation, we can only divide the economic cake so much.

Kathryn Kelly (Letters, June 19) and Paul Feldman (Letters, June 20) expose Labor's propensity for class warfare.

Kelly asserts the government's policies "would increase inequality in Australia"; Feldman asserts Coalition policies "hugely benefit the wealthiest 20 per cent at the expense of other households".

But this is the way it should be.

It is the government's responsibility to ensure that the well-off, the lifters, are given financial and other incentives to pursue their responsibilities to underpin all Australians' economic security.

It is important, in fact essential, that any wealth transfer within Australia is towards this cohort.

The government has a moral duty to pursue this "crusade".

Increasing economic inequality is not only good, it is essential for Australia's economic progress; it is only fair because the lifters deserve to be rewarded.

Policies designed to lessen economic inequality - namely, to attack negative gearing, to encourage progressive taxation, to restrict the use of franking credits - will undermine the capacity and readiness of lifters to keep Australia going.

They will condemn Australia to a new dark age.

Policies designed to transfer wealth to the less well-off amount to nothing less than class warfare. These policies must be called out as such.

While I totally support our new light-rail system and hope it is soon extended to Belconnen and beyond, I'm afraid the public transport planners totally missed the mark for the more vulnerable in our community - the elderly, disabled and young.

Bus stops are too far from peoples' homes, the constant need to change buses and the increased distance from the final tram stop to a final destination are all deterrents for those who would like to use buses/trams.

More intra-suburb services are needed. Perhaps the planners could take a look at some of the underutilised main roads and not just focus on Northbourne Avenue.

Also, a bit of park-and-ride consideration could have avoided the cars now parking along suburban streets - I assume so their drivers can catch the tram.

So Zali Steggall doesn't like Tony Abbott.

I have no problem with that, but I suspect she will not enjoy the Canberra experience.

She's in the House of Representatives, where her vote isn't crucial.

The Coalition doesn't need her, and I can't imagine any minister taking her calls.

So the good people of Warringah have voted for a non-event who cannot help them, who has no influence and no friends in the government's party room.

Canberra can be very cold and lonely.

I suspect that Abbott will continue to act as a surf lifesaver, fireman and also someone who raises lots of money for charities, while not being bothered by having to travel to Canberra.

He also has Scott Morrison's mobile number: I bet Steggall doesn't.

If anyone in Warringah needs some political action, eventually they'll work out that a phone call to Abbott will probably deliver better value than Steggall.

Nick Georgalis (aka Mr Geocon), I now know where the phrase "I came, I saw and I concreted" originated ("Hotel developer blasts 'unsophisticated' politicians", June 21, p5). Maybe, just maybe, not everyone shares your idea of sophistication.

In my next life, I want a hard hat, a flashing light on my ute, stop and slow signs, plenty of witches hats and a lanyard around my neck. This will allow me to park wherever I want, including in disabled spots and on nature strips where people are growing grass to protect older trees, on footpaths, in no stopping and no parking zones, or anywhere else I like. It will also allow me to close lanes of traffic for no particular reason. I've witnessed all these actions recently.

Jason de Rooy has it wrong (Letters, June 21). There is nothing more enjoyable than yelling at your companions over dinner, misconstruing conversations and finding yourself not just with a full belly, but also a little harder of hearing, after a good night out. Many of Canberra's restaurants go above and beyond to give their customers a full sensory experience. Embrace it, I say!

Pamela Collett has set a new standard for intolerance of views (Letters, June 19). What's next? Burning books? The ministry of truth? Perhaps a re-education camp? Perfervid proselytising of the global meltdown cult is no substitute for rational debate!

Lesley Beckhouse (Letters, June 19) is right about freedom of speech. However, the comment "when the globe did not warm" seems to claim as fact that there is no global warming. It is indisputable that the Earth has warmed at an ever-increasing rate since the beginning of the industrial revolution. It is now warming so rapidly that, in a graph covering the last 12,000 years, the temperature curve is indistinguishable from vertical over the last 50 years. A concerted global effort is needed if we are to have any chance of reversing this very dangerous trend. Scott Morrison and others who pay scant regard to that warning must reconsider their positions.

Robin Poke: Joe Biden is old, white and seems to have a problem with younger women (Letters, June 21). Sound like someone you know?

Google searches give 1.54am on Saturday, June 22, as the time for the winter solstice in eastern Australia. All of us, myself included, make mistakes, so maybe Friday's front page article ("Frosty outlook", June 21, p1) got it wrong in talking about "today's winter solstice". The article on page 6 quoted the Bureau of Meteorology's Rob Taggert as talking only about the longest night of the year. The solstice determines the shortest day of the year (always only by a few seconds). So maybe the page 1 writer was sort of right. Subtractions of sunrise and sunset times could show whether the longest night of the year (again, only by a matter of seconds) is the one that started on June 21 or the one that started on June 22.

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