While it is sad to hear of the potential demise of Tenants ACT ("Union wrath on tender", November 11), I can't say I am particularly surprised.
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What has Tenants ACT done to contribute to the coffers of the ACT Government or property developers or the ACT Labor Party?
What have they done in terms of creating strategically gritty pop-ups or hip music events in Braddon? Have they spent time considering the bond rights of pets in rental accommodation since pets were classified as sentient beings?
And where were Tenants ACT when Bec Cody announced her grand moniker-makeover project? Surely, the term "landlord" is bordering on feudal in its offensiveness?
Yes, while all these important progressive decisions were taking place, Tenants ACT were just quietly doing their job helping disadvantaged tenants when they should have been out there rustling up exciting photo opportunities for Andrew Barr.
Shame Tenants ACT, shame. But it's not too late to remedy things.
Tenants ACT could blow whatever money they have left in their budget on an urgent re-branding campaign.
Something to sweep away the workaday boredom of all that tenancy stuff and make people really choke on their activated-almond-milk macchiatos.
For example, the tedious old "Tenants ACT" could be repositioned as the more modish "Renters Now!!!"
And before I get shouted down as reckless, yes, you would obviously need community consultation on the exact number of exclamation marks before you launched.
Or maybe simply removing letters could work like 'CBR' and 'DKSN'. How cool a head-scratcher would TACT be?
Anyway, just a few thought bubbles in the spirit of how things get done in the ACT.
If Tenants ACT are serious about their future, they need to shift focus to this sort of stuff rather than whatever else they currently do.
Simon Cobcroft, Lyneham
Tendering a proper process
Joel Dignam's opinion piece (Sunday CT, November 10) argues against the ACT government's decision to put out to tender the tenants' advice service, currently provided by the ACT Tenants' Union.
Along the way, for some reason, he suggests that Uber is cheaper than taxis because it pays drivers less than traditional taxi drivers.
It seems to me that the real reason Uber is cheaper is that its drivers don't have to recover the high capital costs taxi owners do.
Uber drivers don't have to buy a car because they already own one for their private use. And they don't need to charge monopoly rents to recover the cost of a taxi licence (previously worth hundreds of thousands of dollars) because Uber drivers don't need a taxi licence.
Back on the tenants' advice service, I believe tendering is the proper process for governments seeking goods and services from external providers.
Governments that always deal with the same supplier without seeking tenders are guilty either of favouritism or of taking the easy (and usually more costly) path.
If the ACT Tenants' Union really does provide the best value for money, a proper process will choose it as the preferred tenderer. Honestly, I can't see the problem.
Greg Pinder, Charnwood
Wighton needs a dose of humility
It is reported that Jack Wighton has put his hand up for a new contract at $1m per season. This is outrageous.
Wighton needs to remember that, while he might be at the top of his game right now, it wasn't so very long ago that he was near to rock bottom - both personally and as far as his football stocks were concerned - following a public act of indecency that warranted a court appearance and conviction.
The Raiders stood by Wighton even though there was a case for dumping him.
A little humility on Wighton's part would go a long way and that would perhaps best be exemplified by acknowledging what the Raiders did for him and seeking a new contract on very much more modest terms than have been offered.
Don Sephton, Greenway
McCormack clearly out of touch
Deputy PM, Michael McCormack's interview on ABC's Radio National, (November 11) was further proof of how completely out of touch he and the federal government really are as they waffle on ignoring the science and climate change reality facing Australia.
His response to other parliamentarians calling out the stark evidence surrounding us all, protesters looking for climate action, the group of ex-SES leaders who have fought bushfires for years, who are concerned about long term planning for Australia's climate future and who are denied meetings with the Federal Government, is to use language like "green lunatics". Minister McCormack also refused when asked twice, to acknowledge the views of the Mayor of Northern NSW, Carol Sparks, who was personally affected by the recent fires and who has commented about the obvious effect climate change is having on the bushfire risk in her area.
Australians are crying out for acknowledgement and long term planning around our changing climate future.
To say these fires are just part of Australia's normal bushfire history and throwing cheap insults on live radio, only proves that we have a government utterly incapable of accepting reality and planning properly for Australia's future.
Alison Chapple, Macquarie
Not all Greens 'inner city'
Michael McCormack has told us that the Greens are "inner city raving lunatics" for daring to reiterate what thousands of scientists have already said - that we can only expect worse bushfires as the climate changes.
That insult is of no consequence to me, a Greens member since 1992 who has lived in a rural area for even longer.
I've heard much worse during the many times I've been a candidate speaking out on social justice, environmental, democracy and peace issues, and as a Greens councillor calling out the corruption of those who were there to influence policy in order to line their own pockets.
There were roadside signs erected to taunt me and I even received human faeces in the mail simply for being a Green.
No, McCormack is not insulting the Greens, but the tens of thousands of scientists around the world who have dedicated their lives to try to tell us what is happening and what we need to do, and the millions of people who have listened and looked at the graphs showing an indisputable correlation between the heating of the planet and the increase in human-generated emissions.
He insults the multitude of farmers and others who can see the link between climate change and worsening droughts, loss of insects, decline in bird numbers etc; and he insults the young people whose future this man and all those like him are threatening by their dogged refusal to give up business as usual.
The Prime Minister, a man with similar levels of denial, talks of the dignity of coal miners.
None of us will have any dignity when the oceans rise above our homes, when the temperatures soar to unimaginable levels making it impossible to live in many of the places we currently inhabit, and when fires have ravaged more and more of this continent to the point that there will be little native vegetation left.
Get a grip people! There is no room for you in government if you are not willing to act now.
Catherine Moore, Braidwood
Better buses needed for Fyshwick
Instead of seeking the relocation of Canberra's railway station to its precinct ("Calls for capital train station move to Fyshwick", November 5) the Fyshwick Business Association should urge Canberra's completely out-of-touch transport planners and government to restore a more functional bus service to Fyshwick.
The longest distance between two points is a Canberra bus route.
- Graham Downie, O'Connor
The aphorism, "The longest distance between two points is a Canberra bus route" is well demonstrated by the meandering route 56 takes hapless Fyshwick shoppers and workers on a tour of south Canberra before entering Fyshwick. Civic to Barrier Street alone takes 42 minutes, with another 10 minutes to orbit the suburb.
Route 2, which operates on a 15-minute frequency, takes only about 24 minutes from Civic to Fyshwick DFO, but it is largely confined to Canberra Avenue.
Recently, leaving Fyshwick on a route 56, I was advised by the driver to alight in Canberra Avenue to catch the faster route 2. This saved little time because of the 15-minute wait for the route 2 to arrive.
This is simply an illustration of the lack of coordination which has plagued Canberra bus services for years. The present service to Fyshwick, particularly by folk who must use it daily, is quite inadequate.
So, apparently, is the service to Mitchell which does not have reasonable connections with the tram.
Still, we have a Labor-Green government, obsessed with pandering to latte-sipping, chardonnay-swilling, solar panel subsidised folk. What would it care for actual workers?
Graham Downie, O'Connor
Banner sends a message
Bravo! A banner on top of Parliament House is worth a thousand letters to the PM or the newspapers. Yes, free (Julian) Assange.
John Rodriguez, Florey
TO THE POINT
LAST RITES FOR EQUALITY
I can understand the frustration of Alan Tutt President of the Canberra Greyhound Club (Sunday CT, November 10) after experiencing governments in all jurisdictions falling over themselves to ban greyhound racing but then remaining silent about "the sport of kings".
Unfortunately, this is just another example of the inequality of treatment where huge financial interests are involved, and why we can now safely administer the last rites to Australia's once-egalitarian society.
Brian Smith, Conder
A CUNNING PLOT?
Rolfe Hartley complains about unkempt green spaces in Bruce, while J. Smith laments the loss of green space in Kambah (Letters November 11).
Perhaps your Government has taken a tip from the Developers Playbook: 'let a site degenerate into an ugly eyesore and eventually the community will be begging you to built that apartment tower'.
Is a batch of townhouses the intended solution to the bushfire and snake risk from long grass?
Ian Douglas, Jerrabomberra
OVERGROWN ACT OKAY
Unlike Rolfe Hartley "ACT lacks civil pride (CT, November 11) I rather like Canberra's current "unkempt and overgrown" look.
It reminds me of a recent walking trip around the Isle of Wight. Here small pieces of open ground are left to provide habitat for insects and butterflies, so necessary to pollinate gardens and commercial crops and allow the production of honey.
Do we really need to turn all open land into the soulless appearance of, say, Parliament House?
And as for being a haven for snakes, what a Furphy that is.
Timothy Walsh, Garran
DEPUTY PM MISGUIDED
This week a former Fire and Rescue NSW commissioner explained why he and 22 other retired fire and emergency service chiefs spoke up earlier this year about how 'climate change is supercharging our natural disaster risks'.
Does Deputy PM Michael McCormack include these highly experienced professionals in his misguided rant about 'raving inner-city lunatics' who dare to analyse and link extreme environmental destruction to climate change impacts ("Climate link to bushfires riles deputy PM", canberratimes.com.au, November 11)?
Sue Dyer, Downer
SCIENCE NOT ENOUGH
Could someone please tell me what it is that our Prime Minister and his deputy know about climate change that 11,000 scientists don't.
Philip Winkworth, Campbell
ELEPHANTS IN PROPERTY ROOM
I see that our New Zealand neighbours have managed to legislate to keep foreign investors out of their housing market.
If this is unpalatable for our political leaders, maybe we could limit foreign investors to only those from countries that allow us to purchase in their countries?
The other elephant in the room is how much real estate agents charge for their services.
Their commissions could be considered obscene for the limited value adding that they bring to the process.
Kim Fitzgerald, Deakin
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