Development threat to local platypus

I note the quotation "Any negative impacts for platypus populations that might arise from land use change or development (suburban sprawl) will need to be considered" (Dr T. Hawke).

There are three platypus pools below Ginninderra Falls. The public is going to be given access to them for recreational activities as part of the ACT government joint venture with Riverview/Ginninderry.

Under the joint venture a riverside water leisure park is also planned for Murrumbidgee River in Ginninderry.

Australia's iconic platypus population is obviously under serious threat and needs to be protected in the ACT and across NSW. Surely our true Greens will oppose plans to "swim with platypuses".

I'm desperately sad to hear that platypuses are under threat. We loved kayaking on the lake near Duntroon and watching lots of them. They nested in the complex root systems of the waterside willows. One day pink plastic tape appeared on the trees .

We said "that's nice someone is researching this fine habitat and these gorgeous creatures". We got that one very wrong . The markings were on trees to be cut down. The stumps were poisoned

There are no platypus there now. Well done willow warriors.

I agree with one of Jill Sutton's points - that wages differentials have grown too large - but not with her claim that "if it those groups with the strongest unions who get increases first, so be it. We have to start somewhere" (Letters, November 24).

The latter point leads to inequitable and unsustainable increases in remuneration, particularly in the ACT where strong unions also are, in effect, the employer of the ACT's public servants and other providers of essential services.

The Transport Workers Union has not been reported as refuting the employer's claim drivers received a 3.4 percent increase in April. In contrast, virtually no one else in the ACT outside of the ACT public service (whose pay has been, and is set to continue, increasing by slightly over 2.7 percent each year) has received a material increase in their remuneration or pension, with the exception of people reliant on JobSeeker.

Strong unions making wage demands and then, as a key part of the ACT government, deciding what to award their members has been at least part of the reason why ACT's average "state and local" taxation revenue per capita has grown much more quickly than average income.

The vast majority of people in the ACT are being heavily taxed to deliver, inter alia, wage increases well above the norm for ACT public servants and the like.

I am not expecting any change for at least the next four years including because the Chief Minister's reportedly does not care about deficits and debt, the Greens lack of care about fiscal matters, and the Labor/Green win in the recent ACT election.

While in no way condoning the alleged atrocities committed by a small number of SAS troops in Afghanistan, to close the SAS exhibits in the AWM would seem to be a "head in the sand" reaction.

If all the exhibits linked to Australian individuals, platoons, units or regiments who may have committed war crimes in all conflicts were closed the only thing left open at the AWM would be the canteen.

Before the tram Northbourne Avenue was mostly eucalyptus forest. But now the concrete, track and overhead wires of a 19th century transport technology radiate intense heat, mixed with that of car air-conditioners to create a heat island in the centre of a territory with a declared climate emergency.

Penleigh Boyd (Letters, November 21) has highlighted the need for lifecycle costing to be considered in Stage 2 tram's assessment. Engineers Australia is now investigating the lifecycle aspects of alternate transport and energy generation to guide Australia during the COVID-19 recovery. Decisions should be based on reality, not ideology.

Imagine a trackless tram which obviates the need for more bridges over the Lake. The true test for engineers in the ACT is to not just to solve the problem but to eliminate the problem.

When women first started the fight for equality men jumped on the bandwagon. They ran conferences on the topic, the speakers were men and most, if not all, the audiences were men. They controlled it.

Today their young descendants are doing the same thing with ageism. They run conferences on it, the speakers are young people, and the audience are mainly young people, as the venues are not usually accessible to the less mobile older people.

What the organisers know about ageing is often derived from what other young people have written, based also on second hand knowledge.

If we really want to eliminate ageism we need to listen to genuine older people (over 70), thus making them feel more useful and discussing real issues. We can't abolish ageism until we know what the issues are.

With the election of 78-year-old Joe Biden the Americans seem well ahead of us.

I completely agree with Alvin Hopper (Letters, November 25) that "any soldier accused of crime is, like anyone else, entitled to the presumption of innocence and a fair trial". However I don't concur with his suggestion that these vital considerations be left to one side.

Mr Hopper rightly declares the presumption of innocence to be a "vital consideration". It is indeed one of the vital foundations of our democracy that our soldiers in Afghanistan were fighting to preserve.

That is the problem with the present military, political and media condemnation of soldiers who served in Afghanistan. Without any proceedings in a court martial or a civilian trial they have been presumed guilty.

It is good news that Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been released from Iran. Remarkably she served almost the exact same sentence as Negar Godskani, an Iranian woman arrested in Adelaide on a US warrant and held in Australia without bail despite giving birth in prison and thus separated from her newborn son.

Her "crime" was that 10 years earlier she had helped organise the sale of television transmission equipment to Iran. It appears the Iranians may have had a grudge to settle.

But that symbolises Iran's relationship going back to the Mohammad Mosaddegh affair when a democratically elected government was overthrown by British and US intervention in 1953 to ensure continued cheap oil supplies.

The federal government once categorised people as lifters or leaners in terms of their contribution to the economy. But when it comes to the urgent requirement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor are the leaners, leaving it to states like NSW and to corporations to do the work. Renewable energy is now the cheapest way to produce electricity, with batteries and pumped hydro as backup. Mr Taylor ignores the evidence and insists using gas from fracking is the way ahead.

It's time the government stopped acting at the behest of fossil fuel interests and focused on the environment and energy costs.

Well, The Canberra Times has been properly flushed out ("AEU's position on philanthropy confusing", canberratimes.com.au, November 27). The newspaper for a progressive government town now rides shotgun for Canberra's elite. It refers to a "class war" and then picks its side. That's its prerogative, I guess, and it can continue to test the market.

The union for the ACT's public school educators, who disproportionally serve our city's most needy children, will continue to defy one-sided editorials and sound the alarm each time educational inequality is exacerbated. What this paper calls an "ideological bent" is a simple notion that the education dollar should be spread evenly, because no child is more important than another child. This is not a radical idea in most developed nations but, to our enduring shame, it is here. An Australia clinging to its egalitarian traditions might just be kidding itself.

I seem to recall the adjective "teflon" being applied to Neville Wran because nothing ever stuck. He's got nothing on Gladys.

I completely agree (Letters, November 25), Elizabeth Lee seems to be the best leader for the ACT Liberals for now. I do not agree with the choice of Giulia Jones for deputy, or Zed Seselja for the Senate. They show that the party is still in the thrall of the radical right and will never win government in the ACT as a result.

At least Peter Kercher, Holt (Letters, November 27) had his mail delivered. A business A4 sized envelope, posted at a post office in Nelson Bay, with correct address and postage on 31st August still hasn't been delivered to my address!

The American people should thank Trump for exposing irregularities in 2020 election, and all the elections that have gone before. Mr Biden should promise to fix the problems so Trump can have an undisputable win in 2024. For now, it is time for a Trump-exit.

The ACT government has shown no interest in solving the garbage strike. Ratepayers are being charged for this service and no compensation has been offered. Can the government show some steel, call in the Suez contract, and resume operations as an integral part of government?

We venerate a nation whose presidents can, and do, pardon convicted crooks who clearly weren't just victims of political persecution or a perversion of the principles of justice. We need our heads checked.

Scott Morrison denies responsibility for robodebt because the fault was not in the automation of the process but in the use of income averaging. Either way it was a disaster, and either way, he was the minister in charge. He cannot evade the responsibility.

Mike Quirk's (Letters, November 24) "softly, softly catchee panda" approach to China's human rights abuses etc, sounds more like appeasement. Appeasing dictators like Adolf Hitler ended in World War II. Let's not try for World War III.

I support Mathias Cormann's bid to head the OECD. I agree the Australian Government should support that bid. But the provision of an RAAF VIP aircraft to fly him all over the place is over the top. If video conferencing is okay for the national cabinet and the G20 why wasn't that considered?

I've noticed some people who are critical of others not being able to speak English cannot speak it properly themselves.

The release of the Brereton report has revealed the standard former chief of army David Morrison was prepared to walk past and, by his own argument, what he was prepared to accept.

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