Hail damaged car write-offs a ripoff

I share Mr Alvarez's view that "...it makes no sense to lose late-model, hail-damaged cars from our market when most have only cosmetic damage. They would easily serve as safe and reliable transport for uni students or people who can't otherwise afford a newer model car".

This wasteful, draconian policy also automatically applies to vehicles more than 10 years old. As a result I've been bullied into handing over my slightly damaged vehicle, even though it is mechanically and structurally sound and would easily last another five to 10 years.

Does any reader happen to know why this policy exists? Is it for ideological "nanny state" reasons?

Scott Morrison went to Hannah Clarke's funeral in Brisbane. He's going to be a very busy man if he keeps this up.

On average one woman every week is killed by her partner/husband or ex-partner/husband.

Is he going to all of them?

Maybe, if he is so concerned, he could declare it a national emergency and commit the government to adequately funding crisis and supported accommodation services for those women (and any children).

He could also lead by example in changing the misogynist culture that perpetuates this violence.

Only two dedicated COVID-19 testing centres are being requested by the AMA for Canberra ("Doctors push for coronavirus testing centres in north and south", canberratimes.com.au, March 11).

Should the ACT government support this proposal, let's hope some well-coordinated planning occurs across a range of directorates about the centres' siting, the need to minimise the use of multi-trip journeys by public transport to and from the chosen locations and also long walks to a centre from a bus interchange or a rail terminal.

Special consideration may be needed for parts of Canberra that have higher proportions of at-risk residents and no established walk-in medical centres.

It's 6.05pm on Monday and I'm looking for information about COVID-19 and what I should do in case I get "flu like symptoms".

Google took me to the ACT Health website. Here they tell me what to do if I was on one of the flights they're monitoring.

They also tell me what to do if I want national information. But I still don't know what to do if I start coughing and have a sore throat etc.

I think I may have read to contact my doctor. What if I come down with symptoms after hours?

Come on ACT Health. Give us some clear directions. I'm 66-years-old and my wife is 72-years-old by the way.

It seems that cooing political noises are now being made about the importance of maintaining The Causeway's role in Canberra social fabric, despite its impending high density redevelopment.

The government has, in fact, such respect for that area it gave the Canberra institution that was the family-run estate auctioneer, which operated out of the Causeway Hall for decades, its marching orders in no uncertain terms some four years ago.

Gordon Fyfe (Letters, March 3) has not convinced me that Canberrans should be allowed to park on nature strips.

His first argument, that "parked cars impede vision", applies also to cars parked on nature strips.

His second argument is that "in some older suburbs we don't have any footpaths, and have to walk on the road". The only times that we "have to walk on the road" are when nature strips are obstructed by illegal landscaping or, you guessed it, by vehicles parked illegally on nature strips.

His third argument is that "in some newer suburbs streets are so narrow it's not possible to drive down them safely, or to pass oncoming vehicles, if vehicles are parked in the street".

This typically applies on streets that carry less than one vehicle every two minutes. On rare occasions I have to pull over for a few seconds to allow oncoming drivers to come though, or they do the same for me.

On even rarer occasions, when I am behind a slower vehicle, I wait until it is safe to overtake. If Mr Fyfe cannot drive down these streets safely, has he considered surrendering his driver's licence?

I find it a bit rich for Frank Bolton (Letters, March 5) to proclaim "there is ample evidence to indicate a deeply entrenched left-wing socialist bias" in the ABC. Apart from the tautology, the problem with Mr Bolton's claim is that it appears to be based on a single personal experience 11 years ago.

He joins the ranks of numerous critics of the ABC, overwhelmingly from the political right, who attack the ABC simply for telling its listeners and viewers what has happened, or is happening, in Australia and the world.

This is a clear case of shooting the messenger if you don't like the message.

Some of the ABC's critics complain that the ABC interviews, or has on its staff, a disproportionately large number of "progressives" and a disproportionately small number of conservatives.

Perhaps, because the ABC has a reputation in some circles for being biased to the left, some potential interviewees and employees opt for what they perceive as more "politically friendly" environments.

This could create a self-perpetuating imbalance. As I see it, this imbalance is not an inherent characteristic.

Frank Bolton (Letters, March 5) is an excellent example of the fact that people who want to find bias at the ABC will find it.

The use of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki has got to be one of the most debated moral issues of the 20th century. As Australia's national broadcaster it seems entirely proper ABC staff would seek to hear the thoughts of those who were closely involved in those world-changing events.

Mr Bolton objects to any debate of the complexities of these monumental decisions: what a lack of intellectual curiosity.

Asking hard questions isn't a gotcha moment, it is an essential part of learning from history. He should have more confidence in the strength of his answer to the question: namely, that ending the war was an important moral prerogative.

In 2009 an ABC interviewer asked Frank Bolton (Letters, March 5) whether he had thought about the morality of the atomic bomb during his World War II service.

It was a fair question, and it sounds as if Mr Bolton gave a perfectly reasonable response.

If that is the best evidence of ABC bias that can be found then we should we be all pleased to have a strong and independent ABC which is prepared to do its job.

That sometimes involves asking uncomfortable, but necessary, questions.

Doug Hurst (Letters, March 6) misunderstands the intent of the "No Dams" stickers of the early 1980s. It never meant "no dams anywhere". It referred to a 1981 Tasmanian referendum choice between two poor options for a hydroelectric dam on the Gordon River in south-west Tasmania.

Voters weren't given the option to say "neither". Either dam would have flooded extensive wilderness areas while producing relatively low electricity outputs.

The hydroelectric dams in Tasmania that predated these proposals are to be combined with wind power enabling Tasmania's recently announced 200 per cent renewable electricity target. The excess generation can be used to produce hydrogen while additional transmission cables to the mainland will displace fossil fuel generation directly.

Re: "Virus hit to dwarf costs from fires" (canberratimes.com.au, March 6). The cost of fires does not include the cost of habitat destruction. The cost of the virus is the prices people would pay for goods and services not produced. It means things that are not monetised have no cost and the things that can be, have a cost.

We are in an economic never-never land.

It looks as though we are heading into the 'R' word.

Time to paraphrase Paul Keating once more, "This will be the recession we had to have".

Well done Josh. You won't be able to blame Labor for this one.

We fortunate ACT residents enjoy 100 per cent renewable and reliable electricity. It is also among the nation's cheapest.

Time to face the facts, Doug Hurst (Letters, March 6).

So many people are reviving memories of using cut-up newspaper in pre-toilet roll times. One old mystery has been solved though. Now I know how the 1920s dance craze, "The Black Bottom" got its name.

A letter in The Canberra Times of March 6 discussed the possibility of using the print edition in the current stockpiling "emergency".

I suggest that the puzzle pages be reserved for smart-arses.

As Eric Idle sang "Look on the bright side". If COVID-19 kills a lot of people and stops international jet travel, that's a climate change reduction twofer.

I wonder if the free-market libertarians in our federal government love the behaviour of that free-market with toilet paper?

Fear not. Free speech will live on and so it should (Greg Cornwell, Letters, March 11). But free speech without thought to accuracy, and often intentionally unfair and unkind will threaten our (relatively) harmonious society. It's as simple as that.

In complaining that his critics are suppressing his freedom of speech, Greg Cornwell is confusing freedom of speech with freedom from criticism (Letters, March 11).

A consequence of the panic buying of toilet paper will be the disposal of all that waste. Spare a thought for the plumbers who will be involved in additional clearance of resulting blockages.

Ken Murtagh (Letters, March 10) likes the idea of no overhead wires for our tram. Pity there's no modern transport which doesn't require wires. Oh wait, buses. They could even service universities, hospitals, and retirement villages and have flexible routes. Pity these are a distant memory.

Further to Bruce Paine's letter re: Our CBR newsletter (March 11). I received a hard copy on March 10, the day after Canberra Day. It told me about all the events I could have attended in the week just gone by. What a shame, they sounded good.

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