ACT government needs to justify latest 40 km/h speed limit push

We are already enduring unjustifiable limits. For example 40 km/h in school zones from 8 am to 4 pm. States have the limit for one hour in the morning for school opening, and one hour in the afternoon for school closing.

For more than 40 years I have been driving along Namatjira Road Waramanga/Fisher and have never seen a school child outside of the early and later hour. Likewise, driving along Woodcock Drive Gordon through the Covenant Christian School zone. Not one child. Ever. It is overkill, no pun intended. But I do see the speed van at various times, out of the two hours mentioned.

In addition to the school zone restrictions in Namatjira Road, we are now enduring eight calming speed humps in just 1500 metres. Funds seem limitless.

The Transport Minister should show evidence justifying the need for further intrusion. How many incidents over the past 10 years have there been? What were the circumstances? Were the drivers under the influence of some substance? How much would it cost to erect many, many new signs through Canberra to show the relevant new speed limits? What is the real cost and the real benefit?

There is a fine line from the "nanny state" and the "bully state". Google it.

The language must have been blue in the shadowy precincts of Washington DC. "Those (expletive deleted) damned Aussies, we give them one little job as Deputy Sheriff in the Pacific and they go stuff it up".

The spooks and their spinmeisters in Canberra moved quickly, briefed their newly minted charges, and sent them out to cosy up to our "Pacific family".

Family? If that's so, it looks like a long-term abusive relationship. We colonized and exploited, destroyed their gods, spread venereal disease, taught them sexual shame, clothed them in Mother Hubbards, shipped in Indian labourers for the plantation drudgery, and to cap it off, "blackbirded" them into virtual slavery. More recently we laughed at their climate concerns and recruited them as "Pacific peons" to work on our farms for as little as $3 an hour.

Families love and care for each other. They visit frequently and even share houses. Our NZ "cousins" can come and go as they please. Isn't it high time we talk about extending the same embrace to our Pacific family and our cousins in Papua New Guinea?

Real security comes from love, understanding and care for the whole human family, and never, ever from the explosive growth of diabolical weapons of destruction and the drums of war

The average COVID hospitalisation rate in the ACT over the four weeks to July 17 was 2.8 people per 10,000 of population. The corresponding figure for Victoria was just under 0.9. Unlike the ACT, Victoria mandates mask-wearing on public transport and has installed more than 50,000 air purifiers in schools at the start of the year.

Our local politicians and public health bureaucrats gormlessly wondering why our hospital's staff and patients are burdened by COVID cases at rates three times Victoria's should look to their south.

Five per cent of all cars purchased in the ACT in 2021 were electric,("New internal combustion engine cars, light trucks will be banned in ACT from 2035 as part of electric transition", CT July 18).

In Norway, 84 percent of new car sales in January 2022 were electric, resulting from a combination of incentives for electric cars and disincentives on polluting vehicles.

Norway shows the way.

I regret to say that I have little confidence in Australian airports being able to prevent pathogens from entering Australia.

Some years ago I used to travel regularly between Nepal and Australia. On arrival at customs I would be asked whether I had visited any farms, and if so, to remove my shoes for sanitising.

I would then explain that although I hadn't visited any farms I needed my shoes cleaned anyway. Then I would let them know that every day in Kathmandu I used to walk along a road covered in droppings from goats, dogs, poultry and water buffalo, all of which was regularly mixed and spread by the monsoon rain.

Such roads are found in many countries. But unless customs inspectors are sufficiently trained about conditions in the countries of embarkation they will continue to ask the wrong questions of arriving passengers and put Australia's bio-security at risk.

I am amazed that this hasn't happened before now.

I was a GP in Canberra for 40 years. When I first came I had an elderly pensioner who clearly required a hip replacement. There was a three-month wait to even see an orthopaedic surgeon and when I contacted him he agreed that perhaps he could see the patient sooner but there would still be a two-to-three year wait to have the surgery. She would remain crippled during that time.

Forty years later the situation is no different and I suspect that little will change in the next 40 years. This is but one example of the appalling waiting list for elective surgery in the ACT. Why is this the case?

The local government will waste billions of dollars to destroy the city and build a tramline to Woden when there are cheaper, more environmentally friendly and quicker methods of transport available. It is crazy. In the meantime, those who cannot afford private medicine will need to suffer.

A curious comment from Rod Matthews (Letters, July 13) about intelligence agencies' ethics.

They should always put the national interest first.

However, the East Timor spying furore is not in our national interest at all. It is a reflection on their ineptitude and not in the national interest.

And sadly intelligence agencies without ethics will put their interests ahead of the nation. Former KGB apparatchik Putin is a classic example.

The first result from NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope reveals a very bright object with radiating "spikes" near the centre of the image.

Not far to the right and above this object is what according to NASA scientists, is a "cluster of small galaxies".

A pancake-shaped object appears to be draped over that cluster. This a very large galaxy, the light from which was bent by the gravitational influence of the galaxy cluster: the lens effect. This is yet more proof of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.

In arguing that decisions on whistleblowers should be made by courts rather than politicians, Michael Lane (Letters, July 12), ignores that courts make their decisions according to laws detailed and created by politicians.

In cases like that of Bernard Collaery, prosecution can occur only on the initiative of a politician, the Attorney-General, and can be halted only on the initiative of a politician, the Attorney-General. Also, the rules of classification of documents and information are approved by politicians.

He also ignores that while disclosure of classified information can lead to servicemen and clandestine operatives being exposed to danger, it often it leads to nothing more than embarrassment of politicians. This is the case in the Bernard Collaery affair.

Rohan Goyne ("Enlarge the court", CT letters 13 July) believes that the (Biden) White House will be reforming the size of the bench of the US Supreme Court. If so, they had better get a move on. Their opportunity may disappear at year's end. The current size of the bench (nine) is set by the Judiciary Act of 1869. Any change to that number would require a new Act of Congress. Such an Act would require a majority vote in each chamber of Congress.

Currently the Democrats have a small majority in the house, and only the casting vote of Vice President Harris (as the President of the Senate) in the Senate. Mid-term elections for the whole of the House and part of the Senate will be held in November and it is possible, maybe even probable, that the Democrats will lose one or both majorities. So, even if the Democrats get a new Judiciary Act passed before the mid-term elections, their ability to fill any of the extra positions on the bench could be curtailed.

A Republican-controlled Congress could fill the new seats with conservative nominees.

I must say I'm very disappointed at the way the PM took so long to reinstate COVID payments, free RATS for the disadvantaged, and the Medicare payment. You can't tell people they can't work - despite the fact they will have no income - without offering them financial support. Not even the LNP was that callous.

A recent ABC report on COVID rates in Tasmania included a graph confirming what I had concluded some time ago. That is that the rate of new infections per capita in the ACT is nearly double the national average and more than twice the rates in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

Re: "Try appeasement" (Letters, July 8).

The appeasement of Germany did not stop World War II. Rod Matthews may wish to check the history books. Appeasement is often seen as a sign of weakness by military aggressive powers. Would Mr Matthews be so quick to see the rest of the world appease China if it attacked Australia?

No surprise to see the family on the front page of Monday's The Canberra Times living in a tent. Andrew Barr is responsible for some of the most expensive rents in Australia. Barr has imposed a land tax of over $8000 on landlords who then pass the cost on to the renter.

We are told that wearing masks in this COVID pandemic is a personal responsibility. This message is interpreted as self interest, that no one else matters. It is high time we talked about wearing masks as a societal responsibility.

Monday's cartoon showed two politicians fighting on top of the corpse of a whale. Whales are a totem animal for some coastal Aboriginal tribes and the cartoon will be deeply offensive to them and Greens leader Adam Bandt.

With the admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO now imminent it is clear that Europe is prepared to defend itself to the last; the last Ukrainian that is.

No, Andrew Morrison, we do not need to sacrifice the Himalayan Pines for a sustainable transport system for a city rapidly approaching a population of half a million. (Letters, July 18) Heard of battery-operated buses? They are faster, do not burden the next generation with a massive debt, and do not destroy the environment.

Queanbeyan's car dealers can expect a sales boom starting in 2035 ("ACT sets date for ban on new fossil fuel cars," canberratimes.com.au, July 18).

Good to see the ACT government acting on EVs. I reckon you'll be struggling to find a petrol bowser come 2035.