My only family connection to the military is my late grandfather who was a captain in the Polish Infantry during World War II. I'm now a proud guardian of the medals he won for bravery.
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Our top brass's decision to strip meritorious service medals from soldiers who happened to serve alongside the very few individuals who allegedly committed war crimes in Afghanistan is the mother of all knee-jerk reactions.
Military medals are the only visible signs of soldiers putting their lives on the line and are the only tangible objects that can be passed on to their families. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) took the lives of many ADF veterans. Will their families be forced to hand decorations back?
Declaring people to be guilty by association does not sit well with the Aussie psyche; no doubt it will do wonders for recruitment and morale.
There is talk about apologising to, and compensating Afghan families for, the 39 unlawful killings that our special forces allegedly committed. Will the Afghan government apologise to the families of Australian servicemen murdered in the "green-on-blue" attacks?
R S Baczynski, Isaacs
A bet each way
Glenn Flower, Secretary AEU ACT Branch (Letters, November 30) is endeavouring to justify his union's recent resolution re donations to an independent school.
While it is true ACT government schools cater for a high number of needy children, many independent schools also have provisions in place that allow needy students to attend without financial imposition if approached by parents.
If the AEU ACT branch is genuine in its concern that more education funding is needed in the government sector, instead of resorting to the lazy option of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" they should be vigorously lobbying the ACT government for more funding.
The approach they have adopted is both divisive in its approach and lazy in its execution. In case the AEU ACT branch is not aware, unfortunately Australian's egalitarianism has been fading for a some time now and is heading for extinction.
D Bogusz, Greenway
Money for Mathias
Not content with his eye-wateringly good superannuation package, Senator Mathias Cormann now wants to lead the OECD - conveniently based in Paris where Mathias can reacquaint himself with the delights of Europe without the bother of a 20-hour flight from Perth.
To support his candidature he has compiled a list of Australia's climate credentials that he presumably takes credit for as finance minister in the Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison governments.
Most of the achievements in his list, unfortunately, are the result of actions of the Gillard government (Carbon Tax), state and territory governments (solar feed in tariffs) and individual Australians (roof-top solar uptake). For example, dot-point eight boasts that "We have the world's biggest battery and virtual power plant".
Let the record show that when the Weatherill-led South Australian government (ALP) stitched up the big battery deal with Elon Musk it was mocked by Cormann's Coalition colleagues.
How stupid does Cormann think the boffins at the OECD are? Doesn't he think they can Google?
Mike Reddy, Curtin
Flip the question
Re: "Who is being helped by putting Collaery on trial?" by Hamish McDonald (November 25, pp34,35), insert "not" into the question and the answer is simple. China and its notorious "Belt and Road" initiatives played out in East Timor.
The Timor Gap was legitimately found and given to Australia nearly a century ago by the Brits. It had never been anywhere near the old 12-mile international construct. It had never been seriously within the Portuguese purview.
East Timor's claim is confected and new. So, too, is China's heavy involvement in advancing infrastructure, and negotiating stances. Mr Collaery freely admitted handling secret information for which he had never been cleared, spread it widely, and used it against us. And the principal beneficiary? China.
Emotive claims on behalf of East Timor do not wash. Indifferent Portuguese colonial policies and practices are not down to us. China's mischief, and Mr Collaery's acknowledged actions have undermined his country's critical economic interests. It is very disappointing that his array of allies ignore the facts.
Patrick Jones, Griffith
War crimes not new
I agree with John Simmons ("Many rotten apples", Letters, November 26). The problem predates Afghanistan. When allegations from Vietnam were brought to the government's attention, they shirked their responsibility and declined to investigate them; giving assurances training had been revised and it couldn't happen again.
I drew one minister's attention to government material provided for school children doing modern history which stated Australian soldiers were guilty of "killing the badly wounded [and] shooting enemy who had surrendered or who were clearly no threat". I also pointed to an interview published by DVA in which it was alleged that "the Geneva Convention was thrown out the window ... if something moves, you shoot the bastard, irrespective of what it is, or who it is ...". My request for investigations fell on deaf ears.
I asked the relevant minister in 2008:
"Do you agree that one of the fundamental (historical) tenets that Australian schoolchildren should be taught is that although the horror of the reality of war is worse than anything that can be imagined, Australian people and their government condemn the abuse of military power in any form whatsoever ..." and that "the proof of this is thoroughness with which each and every alleged atrocity is investigated".
Rather than SAS officers letting down their men, I feel that the government has let down the ADF. If investigations into earlier allegations had been conducted, and training revised and validated, what is alleged to have happened in Afghanistan, might not have occurred.
Bruce Cameron, Campbell
Election doubts
In a letter published last month I criticised the ACT government for refusing to release the source code of its electronic voting system. No doubt it wasn't my letter that prompted the report ("ACT voting system error prone: experts", canberratimes.com.au, November 23) but it's nice to be able to say "I told you so".
Fortunately "the errors did not cause the wrong candidates to be elected" - this time. More good luck than good management.
Electronic voting has been repeatedly demonstrated to be highly problematic and the best, indeed the only, insurance is to expose the source code to the eyes of anyone interested and knowledgeable enough to look at it. It's been done in the past, but this year someone in the ACT government made the specific decision not to. It would be nice to know why.
Fred Pilcher, Kaleen
Restriction contradiction
From December 2, ACT businesses that wish to have more than 25 people across their venue can apply the one person per two square metre rule in both indoor and outdoor spaces. The only condition is they use the Check In CBR app to collect patron contact details. Would the ACT Chief Health Officer please explain why then it is still a requirement that places of worship that want to have more than 25 people across the entire venue must continue to apply the one person per four square metres of usable space rule for each indoor space. The implication is that a place of worship is inherently more COVID-19 risky than, for example, hospitality venues. How is this so? Why can't places of worship be subject to the same capacity constraints as business and venues, including the requirement to use the Check In CBR app to collect patron contact details? Is there a bias against places of worship in the CHO's COVID-19 policy?
Don Sephton, Greenway
Change the plan
Jack Kershaw (Letters, November 27), trots out his idea of a light rail route through east Acton, part of the ANU campus, along the Acton peninsula (what about the museum?), a breathtakingly expensive new bridge to Flynn Drive, then along the Flynn Drive median to State Circle. Apart from its time-consuming circuitous configuration, a route with so many corners, including right angles, is impractical, if not impossible.
My suggestion is to drop Light Rail Stage 2 altogether, and make Civic a changeover station to a rubber-tyred electric tram route using the existing Commonwealth Avenue, Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, State Circle and Adelaide Avenue, widened where necessary. This has the considerable advantage of being entirely flexible and avoiding the disfigurement suffered by Northbourne Avenue.
Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin
TO THE POINT
GIVE BERNARD A GO
My nomination for the next ACT Integrity Commissioner is Bernard Collaery.
Chris Carder, Spence
THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER?
DFAT is allocating 8.5 staff and millions of dollars to put Mathias Cormann into the cushy OECD job in Paris. Is this a reward for his betrayal of Malcolm Turnbull in 2018?
Chris Smith, Kingston
THINK IT THROUGH
The ACT AEU branch wants government funding reduced every time a large donation is made to a private school. Presumably then if a private school makes a large donation to parents (by cutting fees) they would want government funding to that private school increased. They can't have it both ways.
John Howarth, Weston
A CONTRADICTION
Scott Morrison supports Mathias Cormann's bid for an OECD position because of his "liberal democratic market-based values". How does that sit with their joint opposition to market-based solutions to achieve the necessary reduction in carbon in the atmosphere - a price on carbon emissions?
Greg Dunstone, Bruce
FIND ANOTHER MARKET
Why is Australia so obsessed trading with China? The game China plays in return is not worth it.
China not importing Australian wines, lobsters, beef or wool is their loss. I am sure there are a lot of other countries who would love to import our products.
Penelope Upward, O'Connor
WRONG APPROACH
Ham-fisted megaphone diplomacy and referring China to the WTO are unlikely to achieve a positive outcome for Australian farmers. In international politics, as in agriculture, you reap what you sow.
C Williams, Forrest
CUSTOMER ALWAYS RIGHT
China is a customer, not an enemy of Australia. It takes a special kind of stupidity for any business, even if it is a government, to offend and alienate a very important customer.
Sandor Siro, Ainslie
IS ALBO A DUD?
Does Albo have what it takes to win the next federal election? The Labor Party has two viable leaders: Penny Wong and Tanya Plibersek. But many Australians may draw the line at another female PM. Gillard was a real dud.
G Gillespie, Scullin
WASTED ENERGY
We have bought a unit near Belconnen Mall with a good view of some government offices.
ABS House is lit up like a Christmas tree all night.
About two-and-a-half floors of Home Affairs' main building are also well lit. What a waste, even allowing for some 24-hours operations.
Herman van de Brug, Kaleen
WHAT SAYS THE R.S.L.?
I haven't seen any formal commentary from the RSL on the ADF's decision to punish the many for the alleged offences of the few by withdrawing the SOTG unit citation.
Given the RSL needs these veterans to keep functioning, now would be a good time to stand up and be counted.
Allan Joyce, Florey
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