Another light rail election?

Steel and Barr have cited several reasons for the delay, including difficulties getting the paperwork in order in time, and the detrimental effect the proposed corridor would have on the habitat of a moth.

Barr has stated he would not release cost estimates for Stage 2, again citing contracting confidentiality as his lame excuse. This does not hold up in the real world of major contract management given there is a sole-source supplier. Such chutzpa, such arrogance.

One can be almost certain that the statements are part of the Labor/Greens re-election strategy. But why? Is it possible that Stage 1, at $1.6 billion in real terms, is making too great a dent in the budget, and that Stages 2A and 2B, at twice or more the cost, is a bit too much to justify? Or is it simply a case of trying to wedge the Liberals in forcing it as an issue?

The Liberals have said they are not against light rail in principle but, if elected, would need to review the cost-effectiveness of Stage 2A and 2B before any decision is taken. This is an essential, and financially prudent, requirement, and a defensible promise.

Light rail has never made economic or practical sense in a spread-out city like Canberra. It was nothing less than a sop to the Greens for their vote.

One can only hope a re-elected Rattenbury/Steel/Barr government will come to its economic senses.

It's a bit rich for the PM to offer condolences for elderly deaths (via Facebook amongst other things) when his government has full responsibility for privately operated aged care facilities, and has done next to nothing about problems known long before the Royal Commission.

The profit driven private-provider service delivery model has turned out to be a recipe for disaster. The market does not know best.

Acknowledging "shortcomings", and saying lessons will be learnt, sounds like a lot of hot air in the absence of actually addressing the problem.

I think the evidence is now quite unequivocal that a request for ADF assistance was made, but then withdrawn, by the Victorian government.

That request was accepted by the Department of Defence and the ADF.

Victoria's emergency management commissioner initially sought assistance in the form of 850 personnel in an email sent on June 24. The request was withdrawn on June 25 because of "changing operational and resourcing requirements".

Defence emails and timelines corroborate that request, and acceptance. In numerous of his daily press conferences, the Victorian Premier has either avoided questions, denied this, or shifted the blame.

The use of the ADF is not to be undertaken lightly. It can be a complicated process involving constitutional, legislative and defence policy considerations, and operational exigencies. This is in addition to the physical mustering, and deployment of, personnel.

It is a credit to the ADF, and the Department of Defence, that they can deploy quickly and effectively, not only in a COVID-19 environment, but also in the recent catastrophic bushfires.

The time for obfuscation, denial and blame shifting is definitely over. In the spirit of the (apparently) new paradigm of cooperative federalism, Dan Andrews should restore the public's confidence in politics, government, and its administration.

The picture of the pale blue dot accompanying Eloise Birchall's article "Vantage point from outer space opens up a whole new world" (Sunday Focus Science, August 16, p19) shows earth as a speck of light in the infinite emptiness of space.

This image should drive home the message of just how precious and vulnerable is our planetary home. It should also remind us of how much damage we humans have done to this planet - including global warming, deforestation, pollution of the oceans and extinction of numerous species - most of it in the 260 years since the Industrial Revolution. This is a mere moment in time, given that earth is 4.54 billion years old and there has been life on earth for at least 3.5 billion years.

We should not need to be reminded that there is no Pale Blue Planet B.

There must be an election coming soon. Shortly after media reports of a shortage of 3000 dwellings for the less well-off, and the homeless, the ACT government announced $61 million would be made available to boost affordable housing.

But their caring is best judged by past practice, not future promises. For at least the past 18 months several government townhouses have remained vacant, and derelict, on the corner of Longmore St and Langdon Ave in Wanniassa. They are only 50 metres from the Wanniassa Shopping centre and major bus routes.

Two winters have nearly passed and nothing has been done to make these properties habitable.

The current Labor/Greens government, in its rush to stimulate private high rise development and minimise valuable green space, appears to have drifted away from a basic objective in the ALP National Constitution to "abolish poverty... provide access to housing, health and welfare services".

Perhaps they've been in power for too long?

A little more on the VJ-Day versus VP-Day debate.

The advocates for VP-Day overlook the fact that Indonesia, Malaya, Burma, China, and Korea are Asian nations rather than Pacific ones. The VP-Day designation does the armies and air forces that fought in those, and other eastern theatres, a disservice.

To top that off, we westerners are told that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings brought about the Japanese surrender.

That overlooks the fact that battle-hardened Soviet armies had poured into Manchuria, Mongolia and northern Korea on at least three fronts before the Nagasaki bombing, and had pulverised the Japanese forces facing them.

Australia, as a middle-power country, ought to seriously act in regional defence terms, as realised in the 2020 Defence Strategy Review, and not try to keep up with an expensive big power game between US and China. Indonesia is our immediate northern neighbour. It straddles Australia and has a population of 275 million, a potential shield. India, to the west, has a population of nearly 1.4 billion. A sensible regional defence approach would be to integrate with them via an Indo-Pacific defence treaty along similar lines to NATO. Singapore, Malaysia (30 million), Vietnam (100 million), and New Zealand could also be included.

The approach should include a close involvement economically and selectively through the Trans Pacific Partnership. We could promote educational and cultural links by exchange, and offer help in a development and trade sense. A close regional defence strategy would result.

The ANZUS treaty with the US would seem to be useless in defence terms. It requires "consideration" only.

The US will only ever act in its own interest and sell us expensive weapons and utilise northern defence facilities for its own convenience. I am concerned that currently 11 high performance joint strike fighters, for about $1 billion, and ultimately only 72 aircraft for about $9 billion, is insignificant for defence capability. There is concern about the plane's vulnerability within 10 years, as well as a need for bombers. Technological changes may result in early obsolescence.

The new submarine program will cost $50 billion plus for 12 submarines now expected to be operational from 2030-2050. They will probably be obsolete before they enter the water.

Recent experience has seen low cost military and IT activities win the day, not the advanced expensive hardware. Close regional friendship and cooperative action would be more productive.

E-mails are being received from the Federation Party Australian Capital Territory seeking candidates to represent them in the upcoming ACT Election.

I am surprised to see that that they are using the acronym AFP which, as we all know, stands for Australian Federal Police.

Wouldn't FPACT be more appropriate?

Taking Phil Jackson's contribution (Letters, August 17) further, and you have "tine hice", well known in Knightsbridge.

How ironic. Two headlines from The Canberra Times on August 17: "ACT welfare numbers surge during pandemic" (page 4), and "Canberra leads in new car sales" (page 6).

Sometimes I think the person who invented the leaf blowers is related to Mr Trump.

The Victorian government in three words? Dysfunctional, ineffective, and myopic. Come to think of it, you can relate the same three words to a particular territory government that comes to mind.

Why does Australia, population 25 million, continue to pay aid to Indonesia, population about 267 million? How can this be justified in today's Australian economic landscape?

Mario Stivala suggests a basic intelligence test for politicians before they can be elected (Letters, August 19). Perhaps, but don't we also need a basic intelligence test for those who vote for them?

There before me was a big tarpaulin. Shaped like the Australian continent, it was. There was a bit of movement underneath as I gingerly lifted it. Beneath it? Six squabbling little colonies.

It is commendable that supermarkets have followed the lead of hardware stores in urging customers to wear face masks. It would be even more commendable if supermarkets were to follow the lead of pharmacies and hardware stores by making face masks available in-store.

Max Jensen is concerned over the inefficiency of a 20-second delay at traffic signals. (Letters, August 17). This inefficiency is minor compared to the up to two hours hapless Canberrans can spend waiting for most Canberra suburban buses on weekends.

I am holding my breath in the hope that this will hasten an unreserved apology from Premier Berejiklian to the scores of ACT citizens who were grossly inconvenienced by her mismanagement of recent NSW border changes.

"Welfare cheats", presuming they exist beyond Morrison's delusions, would be amateurs compared to companies with ethically deficient advisers and accountants to rip-off taxpayers big-time, and thumb their noses at the egregiousness of their fraud ("Some companies turn JobKeeper into DividendKeeper", August 17, p.23).

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