Candidate statements are the answer

Boyd worries about how the voters can decide between candidates given limitations to campaigning in an age of physical distancing.

A unique solution presents itself via the Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy Candidate Statement.

This was first run in the 2016 ACT election. Fifteen of the current MLAs submitted a statement.

The alliance is running it again for this year's election. The candidate statement gives candidates a way to communicate to voters why they are qualified for the job of MLA, their skills and experience, how they are going to strengthen democracy and how they are going to involve voters in governing. The statements will be available to voters on the Alliance's website.

This will help voters decide who is worthy of representing them and who is likely to do the best job.

The decision by the Federal Court to allow the culling of feral horses on the Bogong High Plains and Eastern Alps in Victoria is welcome news indeed. The court dismissed the so-called "heritage value" of the brumbies.

The ecology of the alpine areas is very fragile, and particularly vulnerable to the trampling of horses and other hard-hooved animals, such as deer.

Yet here in NSW, in Kosciuszko National Park (KNP), it is estimated there are 20,000 feral horses, the numbers having stayed at the same even after the devastating bushfires of last summer. As a consequence, in KNP, 23 native plant species and 11 native animal species are threatened by horses destroying their habitats.

In February this year NSW environment minister, Matt Kean, announced that emergency brumby control would take place in KNP.

Let us hope he acts swiftly before he is removed from the portfolio. Let us hope he keeps his job.

Matt Kean is the one shining light amongst the NSW Cabinet when it comes to climate change and the environment generally.

The last thing Australians need right now is a testosterone-infused response to a critical health issue, but it seems that that is what we are getting. ("PM Morrison throws off the doona to embrace the danger", May 9, p4).

The Prime Minister's rhetoric, about not staying "under the doona" forever, not being "too timid", not running from danger, and not slowing down in the face of inevitable outbreaks is an example of the sort of masculinity which equates disease prevention measures with weakness and timidity.

The message that the PM seems to be conveying is that, in order to uphold our honour, we must stare down the enemy and not be the first to blink.

Given that we know that men and women interpret and respond to health issues differently, it would be interesting to know the gender composition of the PM's team of advisors on COVID-19.

I note Debbie Davidson and Sharon Bishop (Letters, May 9) questioned the special dispensations made for the NRL.

For many people, the resumption of play will be a return to normalcy. It will release the pressure valve for people who are feeling psychological pressure(s) caused by COVID-19.

This could enable the community to be better able to cope with the pressures attendant on returning to their workplace, seeking jobs, returning to school and so on.

At west basin there is purpose-built stone memorial to Grenfell Rudduck (1914-1964) Associate-Commissioner to the National Capital Development Commission. The brass plaque on the stone wall reads: "Erected by his friends to remember Grenfell Rudduck 1914-1964 Town Planner and Architect who helped to build this city".

The National Capital Authority has recently received a works approval application from the City Renewal Authority for redevelopment of west basin. Public consultation closes on May 22.

In the City Renewal Authority's application, containing 60 detailed drawings and a 167 page written report, there is not one mention of the memorial. Without people like Grenfell Rudduck this city would not exist.

The Grenfell Rudduck memorial deserves to be preserved and treated with respect as part of Canberra's urban fabric and social history. The application needs to recognise the memorial's presence and detail how it will be protected during the proposed tree felling and ground works.

By the look of things in Canberra we may be poised for rise in infections due to complacency.

The national infection rate has been creeping up according to ABC tracking. One reason why seems obvious. Most of those who serve customers in Canberra shops, even in the relatively busy city centre, don't wear masks. This includes food servers.

If your business is open, wear a mask and insist that your workers do the same. If such common sense precautions are being ignored, it is a fair bet that others are too.

According to your editorial "Acton project is a tale of two city visions" (canberratimes.com.au, May 8), "The Acton proposal could change the character of central Canberra forever". I fully agree.

Lake Burley Griffin is, of course, an artificial lake, created by the building of Scrivener Dam. One would therefore be justified in regarding all of the lake's shoreline as artificial.

That is obviously the case with most of the shoreline in central Canberra, most of which consists of stone walls, built mostly in smooth curves.

A conspicuous exception to the obvious artificiality is the shoreline between Henry Rolland Park and the Acton peninsula. This is now the only section of shoreline in the three "basins" of central Canberra that resembles a natural lake shoreline. It should be allowed to remain that way.

I find the proposed infill of part of Lake Burley Griffin a tragic loss of amenity for Griffin's masterpiece. The late Prof. Dick Clough, when architect/landscaper at the NCDC, spent a lot of effort setting out a natural edge for the lake, resulting in minimum height walls and a larger waterscape, rather than strictly adopting Griffin's geometric pattern.

The NCDC subsequently adopted the same approach for all of its lakes and ponds.

They proliferated because, following the success of Lake Burley Griffin, it was decided to include lakes in the development of Belconnen and Tuggeranong.

A lot of money has been spent on developing our waterscapes in Canberra.

I was fortunate enough to promote the development of both Lake Ginninderra and Lake Tuggeranong (though supporting a larger lake) as well as a number of ponds.

We should not be losing any of our valuable, and well planned, waterscapes to commercial development.

My wife and I have three Apple devices; a mini iPad and two iPhones. None of these finds the others on Bluetooth, even when they are only centimetres apart and Bluetooth is enabled on all three.

Both iPhones have the COVIDSafe app installed and both assure us that the app is working. Yet the phones still do not find each other, even with the app running in the foreground.

I suspect they wouldn't be able to find any other phones either, thus making the app totally pointless.

Courtesy is the solution to what seems to be becoming an increasingly tense situation between cyclists and walkers on Canberra's shared paths.

It has to cut both ways. I am both a cyclist and a walker. As a walker, I appreciate hearing a warning bell from a cyclist approaching me from behind and, as a cyclist I always ring my bell in the same situation.

Many walkers don't seem to appreciate it is impossible for a cyclist to know whether or not their warning bell has been heard. Some walkers may be hard of hearing and many others are either listening to electronic devices.

The walker should acknowledge they have heard the bell with a wave of the hand.

If Donald Trump feels the need to call COVID-19 Chinese flu because it originated in China, considering that the first case of Spanish Flu was recorded in Kansas perhaps we should start calling it the American Flu.

Peter Dutton is critical of the Queensland Government's move to acquire Virgin Australia Airlines. I cannot comment on the viability of this move. However, it's a step in the right direction. What about all state and territory governments investing in it, owning it, and running it?

This morning I came out from under the doona and said to my life-partner, "I've flattened the curve of my tiredness and come out the other side. I'm now going to pivot from the bedroom to the breakfast room".

Surely limiting restaurants to a percentage of their maximum capacity would be better than to 10 per venue no matter what size. Ensuring compliance would be more difficult but certainly not impossible.

I note Alan Jones "listened to the experts" before resigning from radio. Wasn't he always criticising the experts when it came to climate change? What a hypocrite.

Difficult times have resulted in major media cost cutting. If a certain radio network needs wording for a termination letter try; "To dear Alan, Too dear Alan."

I hope Douglas Mackenzie had a mischievous smile on his face when he wrote "Climate sceptics are notoriously stubborn" (Letters, May 11). I contend so are climate change believers.

Parliamentary video footage showed Josh Frydenberg repeatedly coughing into his hand, not his elbow, against all medical advice. He didn't appear to clean his hand following each cough, continuing to pick up a water bottle and handle papers. I hope the attendant who cleared away the water bottle was wearing gloves.

Chopsticks and stones may break our bones but tariffs really hurt us.

Thank you, John Panneman (Letters, May 8) for putting me in my place. I wonder, though, how you, can say an "angel loses his wings". Surely, there must be female angels. You score a "fail" on gender-equity and inclusiveness which should be fundamental to your status as a "humanist".

We have had storms, fires and floods, and now pestilence. I think we should get going with climate change before our one and only planet becomes uninhabitable. Come on folks, get shouting out about it.

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