Do the ACT government's town planners talk to the sport and recreation facility planners?
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The Territory Plan requires that any additional development at the Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre "provides or retains an ice skating rink suitable for national ice hockey competitions" and "provides or retains a 50-metre public pool" and "development for other uses involves redevelopment of the pool as an indoor facility".
We now learn that in September 2020 the government selected a developer to build two Olympic ice skating rinks in Tuggeranong.
The owner of the Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre has already closed the pool. If the Tuggeranong ice centre goes ahead it won't be long before the Phillip ice rink is also closed.
Given the government has already built a pool in Molonglo and now plans an ice rink in Tuggeranong, the owner of the Phillip Centre will no doubt be seeking removal of the Territory Plan's redevelopment requirements.
Will the government agree to this? Can the government announce its policy on the future of the Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre?
What an uncoordinated planning shambles. All to the detriment of sport and recreation facilities in Woden town centre.
Keith Burnham, Stirling
Protesters are misguided
Kristen Pratt (Letters, February 11) writes that "Canberrans aren't the government" and adds that "If they (the protesters) have a problem with government policy it would be best if they focused their protests towards them (the government)".
As most Canberrans will know, if you travel any distance away from the safety of the ACT borders it's best not to let the locals know where you come from unless you want to be subjected to a diatribe blaming you and yours for the sins of the (daggy dad) father and his colleagues or, even worse, the imagined sins of those that haven't held the reigns of power for three electoral cycles now.
It's hardly surprising that the protesters fouling Canberra's streets don't have a clue that their protests are misdirected.
Keith Hill, Clifton Beach, Qld
Pornography the cause
ScoMo has apologised for the anti-women culture in Canberra's Parliament House, only to be excoriated by Brittany and Grace yet again.
Sadly, neither has noted the underlying problem in all workplaces: our youth have been raised on a diet of hardcore pornography, accessible by smart phone 24/7, even by young children.
Combined with ubiquitous booze to weaken any inhibitions, it is a recipe for disaster. ScoMo's government has begun to address the issue, investigating ways to force all adult websites to require foolproof age verification as is now happening in the UK.
Will Albo, Grace Tame's hero, promise to pass a law with teeth to that effect? That's the kind of action that is needed.
Roslyn Phillips, Tea Tree Gully, SA
Outrage is understandable
In the federal Senate parliamentary debate last Thursday morning, government Senate leader Simon Birmingham faced heated protest on government accountability and the treatment of the Senate committee process.
Birmingham - one of the Liberal "moderates" - disparagingly rejected all criticisms as "political" and laughingly referred to the Greens' Senator Hanson-Young as having a capacity for dialling outrage up. Mr Birmingham labours under the misapprehension that any amount of outrage could even begin to do him and his government justice.
Alex Mattea, Sydney, NSW
It's time for men to "beeehave"
A popular 1970s vernacular expression was to "beeehave".
That's a simple message for the predatory and undisciplined males wandering Parliament House.
Keep your sex-seeking hands and unsavoury thoughts to yourselves. Work. Stay off the booze. Slither back to whence you came on Friday afternoon.
Can you manage that?
