Why are we still paying stamp duty on property?

Well the many years are nearly up chief minister and all you and your government have done is increase our rates by hundreds of dollars for less services, but have kept the stamp duty on buying and selling homes.

I was checking the concession rates for senior citizens if they wanted to downsize from their large home to a smaller home so they could manage, and found that your government had increased a nominal fee of $20 for seniors downsizing to the following:

Less than $420,000: $0

More than $420,000 but less than $530,000: $11.55 for every $100 or part of $100, by which the dutiable value exceeds $420,000

$530,000 or more: No concession.

Now chief minister, please tell me how many places you can buy in the ACT for $420,000 or less? Maybe you could sell your home for that price seeing you consider yourself a generous person? That would let a senior person move in at no extra cost.

The quiet online information delivery last Friday afternoon about what will be the worst weekend servicing of local bus users this century has been side-stepped to date by the transport minister.

It is also well hidden away in the fog of Utopia administrative spin from a senior official on the Transport Canberra site. More big-sounding "boarding" statistics and the talked-up existence of more services overall on weekends compared to pre April 29 are waved around to suggest things must be working well.

In reality the servicing of current and potential local bus users is being sacrificed to ensure the far more frequent "Rapid" bus and rail network keeps running 100 per cent as planned originally.

This is to ensure it will appeal to those who are lucky enough to live near a Rapid route. For many others, making journeys and connections around services that will run only once every two hours on weekends will be even less encouraging, convenient and safe.

Hopefully before October 2020 the ACT Auditor General can review and report on all the risk management processes, assessments and decision-making from the last few years that led the ACT government simply "winging it" from April 29 onwards.

It promised new timetabling it knew it had no hope of implementing reliably. Hapless local bus users deserve to know the real internal causes of this major mismanagement, as well as insights into the focus and efficacy of the new network's performance indicators and the government's plans to learn more about the rising number of "unintended consequences" that are impacting on a wide range of network users, outside of weekends too.

What a pity Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada could lose his leadership in Canada because he dressed up as Aladdin with a dark face. Aladdin was Arabian not European.

Dressing up and colouring your face to match the character is very common in theatrical costume and never thought of as racist.

In classic opera, European singers darken their face to play for example Othello and European women opera singers dress up as a Japanese lady in Madam Butterfly and Japanese maidens in The Mikado.

Europeans love darkening their skin and bask in the sun to do so, risking skin cancers.

The minister responsible for reducing Australia 's pollution levels, Angus Taylor, thinks that the thousands of students attending the climate change rally, did so at "the expense of their education".

As secondary teacher with over 50 years experience in three states, I believe such an activity enhances the students' education.

His misguided statement demonstrates the minister's lack of knowledge about how people learn.

Would he wish to stop all excursions from the classroom such as sport, visits to Parliament House and so forth?

How many excursions did the Minister not attend as a student, because it would have been "at the expense" of his education?

Gatherings such as the climate strike demonstrate a very important aspect of democracy which presumably the minister supports !

The clever use of metaphors, alliteration, similes and personification in the colourful and artistic placards, demonstrated their language skills and knowledge of science, geography, psychology and advertising.

I suggest he check his facts before making sweeping statements.

I was wearing a couple of lapel pins the other day: one for Legacy and one for Extinction Rebellion.

Someone asked about the apparent political contradiction. Given the over-simplified and polarised way these matters get constructed and presented, I understood his question.

I explained that, for me, one was to honour the past and one to hope for the future: Legacy for my grandfathers and Extinction Rebellion for all our grandchildren.

Imperialistic tyranny and climate change are different enemies, so the fight has to be different.

But the common factor is the thing we are all trying to defend: the ability to leave our grandkids a world in which they have a fair go at a decent life.

For anyone with a real interest in what is likely to happen to our climate, a report in May this year, Existential Climate-Related Security Risk, by David Spratt and Ian Dunlop is rewarding, though disturbing, reading.

The report is produced by Breakthrough - National Centre for Climate Restoration, based in Melbourne.

David Spratt is research director, and Ian Dunlop is the former Chair of the Australian Coal Association. The foreword by retired admiral Chris Barrie explains the security implications of our worsening climate.

Visit breakthroughonline.org.au for the latest science. You will need a strong stomach.

New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, will be giving the opening address to the UN General Assembly on Climate Change. Meanwhile, our PM is trailing around the US helping President Trump in his election campaign.

Who do you think that Pacific nations will see as a real leader?

Angus Taylor, officially the Minister for Emissions Reductions, is acting more like a minister for emissions increases by ignoring calls from the School Strike for Climate protesters last Friday.

Mr Taylor argues that Australia is already doing its fair share by reducing emissions by 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. However Dr Pep Canadell, chief research scientist at the CSIRO Climate Science Centre, has said that the level of emission cuts must be roughly tripled to keep global warming below two degrees.

The Emissions Reductions Minister also claims that Australia's emissions have been increasing because of rising exports of LNG rather than coal.

Firstly, emissions have been increasing since the Abbott government scrapped Labor's carbon price in 2014.

Secondly, the Coalition is pushing for more coal exports to Bangladesh and is being urged by bureaucrats to export more coal to Vietnam.

Meanwhile, it seems that Scott Morrison, by snubbing the UN climate change summit this week, regards global warming as a second-order concern.

Last Friday three generations of my family joined thousands of others to call on the Federal government for climate action.

Our demands were reported on the ABC website as follows:

* No new coal, oil or gas projects;

* 100 per cent renewable energy generation and exports by 2030;

* Funding for "a just transition and job creation for all fossil fuel industry workers and communities".

Later that day I listened to an extended interview on ABC Radio by Professor Ross Garnaut, author of The Garnaut Climate Change Review.

He spoke of the opportunities for Australia if we develop our abundant sources of renewable energy. With a zero carbon economy we would be in the box seat to export renewable energy, and things that we could produce using renewable energy, to the world.

The government should phase out its massive subsidies for fossil fuels. Instead, declare a climate emergency and fund the future.

Our relationship with the US has progressed. In 1971 they said our Prime Minister was "McMann". In 1977 it was "John" Fraser. Then we had Malcolm "Trunbull". Now ScoMo is the the "Man of Titanium". What's next? "Albo the Almighty".

It's great to see Anthony Albanese adopting the small target strategy that worked so well for Bill Shorten. Invisibility is a rare art and that is notoriously hard to master. Just ask Bilbo and Frodo.

Can someone please rush Morrison onto his new fancy jet for a fast trip home? I don't think we can stand the dyspepsia caused by all the syrupy rubbish he and Trump are saying about each other for much longer. Nor the smirks.

The PM's post Trumpian comments seem to show a cavalier attitude to the international rules of trade monitored by the World Trade Organisation. Would Australia really make a deal with the US over trade with China, regardless of what other nations think? It is time our government took the importance of a global approach to trade seriously.

Roger Dace (Letters, September 23) suggests climate strike could have been held on a Saturday. Students and teachers should strike in their own time. The idea of any strike or any protest is to make an impact, to be seen and heard. Such actions are pointless otherwise.

Millions did march last Friday, but did they all know why? According to media reports many of the children, and I suspect adults, had no idea about climate change.

It's a shame Roger Dace (Letters, September 23) and others like him get agitated about which day students and their supporters march against climate change. After all, the focus of the protests is on a global emergency that doesn't just happen on weekends.

With prudent management, Australia's $150 million contribution to the Moon-Mars mission should just cover the cost of the astronauts' lollies.

We so thoroughly subsidise and support the American military and America's military imperialism it shouldn't be any surprise we'd subsidise NASA with the customary corporate welfare to companies on the pretext of helping them implement their own business models.

Am I the only one worried about the state dinner for Mr Morrison? The last time such an honor was bestowed on an Australian PM was Mr Howard back in 2001. Mr Howard then took us into the war in Iraq without consulting the Australian people.

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