Dr Paul Jenkins deserves to be thanked for reminding Canberrans of the dangers of euthanasia and assisted suicide. All people want to have confidence their physician will provide a careful, truthful approach to the treatments offered. Trust can be broken when a law facilitating euthanasia is introduced, however carefully drafted.
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If treatment should be stopped, and palliative care commenced, the doctor should be able to recommend that approach and the patient, or advocate, should be able to trust the physician's judgment.
A person's right to life is the fundamental natural right of all people.
Bev Cains, Garran
Who does the PM represent?
Who does this PM represent? The Christian lobby? The far right extremists in his party?
Certainly not moderate liberal MPs and their constituents or the Australian public at large, all of whom are demanding he address the issue of integrity and transparency in government with debate on his promised ICAC.
Shirley Ferguson, Lyneham
Sun doesn't always shine
As the rain poured down from dark skies (at midday) I started to wonder how much of my energy is coming from my solar panels.
The answer: virtually none. So then I wondered about the rest of the grid. A check of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) website showed that in the previous 24 hours (November 24 and 25), just 11 per cent of electricity in the NSW/ACT grid came from renewable sources, and 81 per cent from coal.
In simple terms, if not for those coal-powered stations which are due to close in coming years, the lights would have been out across the ACT and most of the rest of SE Australia this week.
No battery system is going to replace that lost power source for periods of several days at a time.
I therefore have to wonder at the logic behind the closing of power stations and the increasing reliance on intermittent renewable energy, until such time as we have built and commissioned substantial sources of reliable, rapidly dispatchable base load energy, sufficient to service the community's needs.
While our leaders are busy congratulating themselves on their Green plans, could someone answer that question?
Kym MacMillan, O'Malley
Leadership is lacking
At a time when the country has been in need of leadership and direction, the government prioritises religious rights and voter ID, which are not issues of paramount importance to the majority of Aussies.
The majority of Australians want a strong ICAC and measures that will unite the country, not divide it.
After all, many wars have been started by religious differences. We must seek to prevent that here. We need freedom from religious interference in public life.
Colin Handley, Lyneham
Anti-vaxxers endanger us all
Recently I saw a photograph of a woman and child, taken during Canberra's recent anti-vaxxer demonstrations.
The woman held a placard which read "Coercion is not choice".
We all value our personal freedoms but at present we are a community in the midst of the pandemic crisis.
Regulations like the wearing of masks and being vaccinated against COVID-19 are for the benefit of the entire community.
The Delta variant is extra virulent and we need to protect, firstly, the most vulnerable, then the whole population.
We are all members of the community and we have a responsibility to safeguard everyone else.
Anti-vaxxers are toying with not only their health but with everyone's.
Those of us who have been vaccinated are also entitled to choice, the choice not to contact the virus from those who refuse to consider the impact of their selfishness.
Vee Saunders, Weetangera
Promote Bridget (the other one)
Unfortunately for the wider electorate the very sane and sensible Liberal MP Bridget Archer, who crossed the floor on ICAC, languishes on the Coalition backbench while another Bridget was reinstated to the frontbench earlier this year with much backslapping and acclaim.
Obviously the male ministerial brigade value and reward the latter's highly partisan, attacking demeanour and determined ability to generously and unfairly shovel taxpayers' money to marginal electorates.
But they should also watch out for more than one conscience-driven Boadicea who believes integrity is a foundational part of every federal politician's job description.