ACT govt needs to answer questions over tenant evictions

The ACT government refused comment on the basis the matter was for the Salvation Army and that "due to an ongoing procurement process we are unable to comment on contract arrangements".

This may refer to the existing contract or to the new contract, due to takeover this work on July 1. That depends on whether the ACT government proposes to provide social housing, that is, housing for the long-term homeless. The government would surely have a new contract in place if it is to continue this important service.

Governments are elected to govern on our behalf.

They are obliged to respond to citizens, to report on the stewardship of public assets and their initiatives to fulfil the various education, health and other municipal initiatives we citizens propose; for which we elect the individuals who comprise a government.

So governments have no right to refuse to advise journalists about social housing, among many initiatives required to fulfil a government's obligations.

A new social housing contract is needed within five weeks, if not a new contract with the existing provider it has surely been awarded to a new provider. Contracting for the provision of government obligations such as housing does not excuse the obligation to keep citizens advised.

These individuals being evicted should be moving into accommodation provided by the new provider by June 30.

When will this government tell citizens?

Australia's homicide rates for Indigenous people in 2022-23 were eight per 100,000 men and three per 100,000 women. For non-Indigenous people the rates were one per 100,000 for men and .45 per 100,000 for women.

It says a lot about Australians that we focus so heavily on reducing one of these numbers, and so little on reducing the others ("Women need real solutions to violence," May 20).

I'm not a Peter Dutton fan, but I applaud his intention to introduce a two-year ban on foreigners buying existing homes as a step in the right direction.

Minister Bill Shorten has criticised the idea as "lightweight" because fewer than 5000 homes had been purchased by foreigners in the past two years. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young predictably claimed the idea is "racist". However, if not for wealthy foreigners, 5000 struggling Australian families might have got a home of their own. And that would be 5000 less landlords eager to get the highest rent possible and take the money out of the country.

Anthony Albanese and Housing Minister Julie Collins need to recognise a policy distinction between existing and new housing. They are focused on increasing supply but won't acknowledge that allowing foreigners, and encouraging local investors with negative gearing concessions, to buy up existing houses does not add one new dwelling to the national housing supply.

Why should my grandchildren have to compete with wealthy foreigners and local investors advantaged by government negative gearing concessions, in order to own a home in their own country? Why can't we follow Canada which has a three-year ban on foreigners, and why can't the Albanese government grandfather negative gearing concessions by deciding concessions won't apply to any new purchases of existing housing after, say, January 1, 2025? The national housing crisis needs more immediate action than promises of new houses in five years' time.

Geoff Piddington (Letters, May 13) asked "If helmets were optional, would bike riding become more acceptable?" From my perspective of many years of cycling behind me, I assure Mr Piddington that wearing a helmet can be a life-saver.

I recall the occasion when a boy cycling too fast along the bike path near the Yacht Club misjudged a bend and hit the rear wheel of my bike. The bike was taken from under me, and I collided head-first with a tree. The impact shattered my helmet, but I survived. Had I not been wearing that helmet, I would probably not be writing this.

Wearing a helmet while cycling is a legal obligation for very good reason.

I have been interested in the letters about Federal Golf Club and the disappearance of the gang-gang cockatoos.

As a regular golfer at Federal I have observed a large influx of birds that were not previously there. The course is covered in Australian noisy miners and currawongs that are aggressive to the parrots and smaller birds.

As a resident of Aranda, until about two years ago we used to feed three or four families of gang-gangs as well as galahs, king parrots, eastern and crimson rosellas many other species of birds. Thanks to the Australian miners and lorikeets we no longer have any of the aforementioned parrots and other birds except a few crimsons. Even the galah is a rare sight.

The people of Canberra have to decide which birds they want. Parrots or large currawongs, miners and lorikeets.

If the government's cost-of-living package can bring down inflation, then why don't we give all of our money to the government and let the government pay all of our bills?

Obviously individual spending is inflationary, but government spending isn't.

Either that or economists have no idea what inflation really is. In that case, God help us all.

I refer to the letter from Felicity Chivas (May 13). I was under the impression that, as cash is legal tender, it was illegal for retail outlets to refuse to accept it.

This includes hospitality and entertainment venues. Obviously Bob Katter thought likewise in his recent stoush with the Parliament House canteen. Maybe I am wrong.

However, in an effort to halt this insidious drift towards totally ousting cash, I suggest that we all boycott venues which will not accept physical money.

Cash is by far my preferred payment method when I am paying in person. I am not comfortable having all my purchases recorded on "the system". Let cash rule!

When will territory and federal government education ministers and their senior officials stop pussyfooting around an ACT education service provider that continues to breach many of the normal financial expectations and requirements that are met by other providers, employers and "good citizens" ("Union files dispute over unpaid super", May 10)?

In doing so, this private charitable entity appears disdainful of the government funding, taxation exemptions, other concessions and money-saving privileges it enjoys year after year.

ACT taxpayers and ratepayers must be forking out even more as different levels of responsible government continue to wade through a worsening quagmire of financial ineptitude and non-compliance. Past reports of light-handed warnings and a bit of table thumping seem ineffective when the college still appears to shirk its public accountability responsibilities.

Sharing more information more transparently with those who in effect are propping up this multifaceted institutional mess might help governments expedite a conclusion to these overly drawn-out and costly matters.

To keep batting this away until after the ACT election would only suggest that the federal Labor and ACT governments prioritise votes from certain sectors above ensuring public funding and support is only provided to those who comply with their responsibilities.

Further to my letter of May 15 on the impact of global warming on GDP an article in Nature Communications Earth and Environment of March 21 suggests that global warming is a significant inflationary pressure.

But despite media and government attention on inflation I doubt that climate change has featured much in government and RBA thinking on the issue.

What a wonderful distraction, David McBride, you may have provided our government on budget night. You will have to serve "just" two years (as reported by our ABC) of an eight-year-and-three-month sentence for telling the world the truth.

Wherever it may be, the Force is with you and your supporters, and your courage will be vindicated.

Why should I care about all the horrors in Australia and around the world? Most of my life is behind me and I hope God will welcome me into his promised home soon. But I do care. I care for people. I want to see people happy, enjoying life and to be with me in their heaven one day.

Meanwhile in Sydney a tenant is given 90 days' notice to vacate by his landlord. And ... so what?

Trump ally Steven Bannon, the mastermind behind his 2016 election victory, is facing possible jail time. It seems that anyone who votes for Trump in the next election must be silly.

Resources Minister King lives in an Alice in Wonderland fantasy kingdom created by myth-perpetuating fossil fuel merchants who say carbon can be captured, innocuously stored and make exaggerated contributions to employment while they receive subsidies and minimise their tax.

Australia has rewarded Hamas with a "yes" vote at the UN. Has there been a government so lacking in moral integrity since federation; betraying Israel and our own Jewish community? One can only hope this stab in the back will be remembered come election time.

Let me get this right. An ANU student who expresses unconditional support for Hamas gets hauled before a disciplinary committee. Others, who refuse to condemn Israel's slaughter of more than 32,000 civilians, many of them civilians, get off scot-free. Please explain.

I admire the courageous ANU students who are holding their protest concerning the genocide of the Palestinian people by camping in the university grounds. I would like to recommend the university develop a protocol with the students and thereby respect their right to protest.

What's the environmental damage caused by the various rockets lifting into space? How much do such excursions cost? To what end? In a world where many populations face food shortages and starvation, what's the point? It is shameful, yet no country will stop. Does nobody else care?

The 1946 Nuremberg trials said it clearly: "I was only following orders" is not an excuse. Fast-forward 80 years. David McBride is jailed for five years and told he should have followed orders. Does anyone else see this hypocrisy?

It seems somewhat hypocritical for Anthony Albanese to call for Julian Assange to be freed by the British yet to allow David McBride to be prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned.