Is Australia's arts community missing out in more ways than one ("Canberra arts cash flicked to movies", December 17, p1)? First, our cultural institutions are being hit with a further "efficiency dividend" to help bolster the local production of Hollywood movies. The argument is, as it always is, think what it means to the economy in jobs. But does it?
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Has anybody produced figures that actually prove we gain a net economic benefit from such exercises? Second, if we have gained more than was "invested", has any of it been passed back to the institutions that suffered cuts?
Finally, are there different rules for private and government investment in film production? If a private investment results in a successful box office return, the investor gets their capital back, plus a share of any profits.
It seems, without any evidence to the contrary, that government investment gets no direct return on capital, let alone profit, even if the movie makes millions.
My argument is simple: by all means invest in block-busters, but ensure our treasured art and cultural institutions get a fair slice of the mass-entertainment cake that they've helped pay to bake.
Eric Hunter, Cook
'Alternative' savings
The federal government is struggling to find savings and is about to make real inroads into pathology services, prescriptions and other valuable medical benefits of proven effectiveness. Treasurer Scott Morrison asks for suggestions as to where alternative savings might be made, so here are three.
First, remove pseudoscientific, mystical, ineffective "alternative treatments" from those which can claim a health fund rebate or any other government subsidies using taxpayers' money.
The government's own top research body, the National Health and Medical Research Council, has just produced a major report showing that 19common alternative therapies, from naturopathy to homeopathy, have inadequate evidence of efficacy. What more do you need?
Second, stop wasting any more taxpayers' money in subsidising the teaching of these spurious treatments, which can now be pursued in a variety of organisations from fly-by-night operations to universities.
And, third, stop wasting yet more taxpayer's money in loans to students who study these "courses", few of whom will ever earn enough to repay them.
These simple measures will save many millions of dollars.
Britain took these steps years ago; why don't we? Are the political donations from the alternative medicine and pharmaceutical quarters just too big to lose?
Professor Rob Morrison, Bridgewater, SA
Yes, it is getting hotter
H. Ronald (Letters, December 16) suggests "we should hope that the current hiatus continues indefinitely". If by the "current hiatus", Ronald means the consistent trend for the last 40 years of 0.15 degrees increase in average global surface temperatures per decade, then I beg to differ. The only thing worse would be for the rate to accelerate, which is certainly possible. There have been year to year variations in the rate, caused mainly by the El Nino Southern Oscillation, but the upwards trend has been relentless.
A cherry-picker can find periods when temperatures have been flat or even decreasing. None of these has been statistically significant. In fact, there has been no statistically significant change in the rate of increase during these last 40 years. Global average surface temperatures this year and probably the next will be well above trend. It will probably return to the steadily increasing trend, or even below it, in the following years, as happened after 1998.
It is, however, unlikely that we will ever see another decade as cool as 2000 -09, which was itself hotter than any previous decade in the instrumental record.
Paul Pentony, Hackett
Fewer trees, less CO2
Perhaps Christopher Hood (Letters, December 15) can explain why carbon dioxide levels were more than 2 times higher 18,000 years ago than today's ppm percentage?
The answer is simple. Less vegetation existed in the Ice Age to consume the excess gas.
The Earth has endured ice age conditions in much of the past 36 million years. I'd be more worried about any future cold than beneficial warming.
Secondly, I do follow the science. Educated as a geologist and geophysicist, I read technical journals prodigiously.
I do have a sense of humour though. There exists a certain irony when people who once walked up and down footpaths claiming the end of the world is nigh are now employed in taxpayer-funded sinecures. You have to laugh. Without paying a cent, the neurotics of the world are enjoying French cuisine and champagne while spending your money.
It's a bit like giving your drunken, teenaged son the car keys and a credit card with no limit. Enjoy!
Gerry Murphy, Braddon
Tax facts
Greg Pinder (Letters, December 7) eloquently explains why lowering the company tax rate reduces revenue. It would be incorrect, however, to assume that reducing the company tax rate would result, even in the longer term, in a proportional revenue reduction.
Indeed, the British Treasury concluded in 2013 that between 45 per cent and 60 per cent of the cost to revenue would be recouped by additional revenue from increased economic activity.
Taxes have adverse effects on economic growth and company tax more than most. A company tax rate that is high by international standards means that some opportunities for investment become uneconomic. This is especially the case for an open, capital importing economy such as ours. Investors (and in foreign investors, in particular) can choose to invest in the many jurisdictions with lower company tax rates.
A lower company tax rate would be expected to attract additional foreign investment. This would, in turn, increase the capital available for labour, making it more productive and boosting wage incomes and consumption and the revenue from that income and consumption.
John Burge, Curtin
Let's take the wheel
I can't remember the last time I voted Liberal, but I felt the CT editorial "Liberals take to cruising in slow lane" (Times2, December 17, p2) was too hard on the ACT Liberals' discussion paper about public transport options on Northbourne Avenue. You largely damned the document with faint praise, and missed an important point with your ending, "Outsourcing transport policy to the public smacks not just of laziness but of arrogance".
Arrogance, by the way, is surely exclusive to ACT Labor in recent years. Consider the tram policy and its lack of justification, or recall Minister Joy Burch's (mis)management of the Fitters' Workshop debate.
Granted, some aspects of the discussion paper do only merit faint praise. It is obscurely produced by Alistair Coe and appears on his website rather than the party's website. It is clearly a hasty production containing too many unanswered questions, such as how buses and cyclists would transfer into or out of lanes in the median strip. The Libs should be working far harder on this public transport matter.
But the point you missed is that Canberrans are fed up with the pretended consultation they have endured for many years under Labor. Focus groups with biased questions to answer, and fudged reports, are an insult to the public, especially when such conclusions as they produce seem to be ignored or distorted anyway.
The so-called survey about the tram, which started from the assumption that the respondent was in favour of trams, was a sad joke.
Any attempt to collect the unfiltered views of individual Canberrans on this divisive issue is better than Labor's pseudo-consultation. Yes, let's outsource this policy to the public. The public is much better at facing economic facts and applying commonsense than Labor politicians under duress from Greens!
Brian Stone, Weetangera
Missing the mark
Geoff Pryor (Letters, December 17) says some questionable things about golf clubs, such as the Federal Golf Club on Red Hill, wanting to develop some of their land for housing. First, he says this "has recently become a contentious issue"; actually, this was the subject of my first published letter in the Times, in 1995, when Yowani Country Club did that.
Second, he's wrong in saying that, when this happens, the "social value" of the club's lease (a venue for the community to play golf) is foregone to give the club a "windfall gain" – saying this is "private gain for public pain".
There are two reasons why this is wrong.
One, as was the case with Yowani, the land Federal wants to develop is not used for golf, it's surplus land.
Two, far from causing "public pain", there's considerable public gain – the change-of-use charge payable to the government, and the use of some valuable land that would otherwise remain dormant.
Third, Pryor seems to object to the club getting a "windfall profit" from developing the land. Really? If the change-of-use charge (for allowing the land to be used for housing) is set properly, it's the community that gets a windfall gain.
And if the club makes a profit from the development itself, that's no different from the profit a developer would make if the government resumed the land and sold it to a developer.
R.S. Gilbert, Braddon
Housing fears
At a public meeting in Gungahlin last Tuesday, residents expressed unanimous opposition to an ACT government proposal to locate a concentration of public housing – relocated from Canberra city – adjacent to the area's largest childcare, pre-school and junior school, the Franklin Early Childhood School. It was clear that many citizens are both deeply angry and frightened.
Studies of public housing around the world show that the more concentrated it is, the greater the social problems and crime rates tend to be. The Sydney-based study "'Hotbeds of Crime?' Crime and Public Housing in Urban Sydney" by Weatherburn Lind and Ku (1999) explains that "public housing estates experience persistent crime problems simply because crime-prone individuals are (by reason of their economic and social disadvantage) more likely to be allocated to public housing". Furthermore, many studies show that good tenants of public housing live in a constant state of fear, stress and anxiety as a result of this concentration of issue-prone people.
Why the ACT government would wish to concentrate crime, social disadvantage and other impacts in a single location in the first place defies rational explanation. To concentrate it right next to a child-minding centre, a school and the biggest play park in the area borders on wilful irresponsibility.
Which politician or public servant is going to be accountable if, as a result of their decision, even a single child is harmed or its health adversely impacted? We all know the answer.
Most residents present seemed to feel it makes better sense to disperse public housing tenancies evenly across the community rather than concentrate them – for public housing tenants themselves, for local residents in general and for their children. This can be achieved through rent subsidies, voucher schemes and sensible planning.
In an area like Gungahlin, with many new high-rise apartments, the opportunities are abundant.
Julian Cribb, Franklin
Stations silent
Thank you to Ian Douglas (Letters, December 17) for his response about commercial television not being broadcast on Foxtel in Canberra, but I do not think he is totally correct – commercial channels in any area can broadcast to the satellite, which can rebroadcast via Foxtel as a local station (with local advertisements).
The purpose of my letter was to get a response from the commercial stations as to why five major cities can broadcast free to air and Foxtel, and Canberra can't. I was always betting London to a brick on that there would never be a response from the commercial stations.
Guess I am correct so far.
Steven Hurren, Macquarie
Trail 'improvements'
Stromlo Forest Park is all about the bush trails, right? Well, actually, no, according to the latest master plan for the park. The plan will remove the fire trails on the eastern side of the park (closest to where people live) to make way for tourist accommodation, bitumen roads and other "improvements".
Local residents will no longer have easy access to simple bush walking and jogging trails.
Louis Young, Duffy
We are disregarding benefits of railways
Canberrans, for the most part, ignore the rail transport facilities available to them. There is a vague awareness of a passenger service to Sydney, which is largely less convenient than the bus service. The passenger service to Melbourne is fed by a bus to Cootamundra, although the journey can be achieved from Canberra by a change at Goulburn.
Inter-city rail travel has declined from lack of patronage and ceases to be promoted. Commercial rail transport which, with secure investment, once supported our capital is now generally ignored.
Hence it is good to be reminded in recent articles by John Thistleton ("Full steam ahead for the little freight engine that could", December 11, p1 and "Constant alert on scenic ride" Gang-gang, December 17, p8) of its existence, and, what is largely unknown, its importance.
For one instance, the track is in place for the ever-increasing load of waste, now collected at Hume by Espee Railroad Services. Freight collection is a facility whose overheads have already been solved (ibid). The superior management of rail transport, with its high insistence on safety, probably little realised, is interestingly detailed.
This in shown in contrast to the careless manner in which our highways are used ("Full alert as tipped truck spills Mr Fluffy rubble", December 16, p2). We have a road system that is subject to inadequate legislation, and a rail system that is widely ignored.
The Canberra Times is to be commended in its campaign to correct this misuse.
Jack Palmer, Watson
TPP serves US interest
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is primarily designed to obstruct Russia and China from expanding their trade partnerships and is effectively a US declaration of economic war, creating a restrictive market under US control. The US FTA was bad enough but this is far worse. When will we ever learn?
Rhys Stanley, via Hall, NSW
TO THE POINT
The Canberra Times wants to hear from you in short bursts. Email views in 50 words or fewer to
letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au
WORDS! WORDS! WORDS!
"Agile! Innovative! Exciting!" – another three word slogan, fooling no one, fixing nothing.
Annie Lang, Kambah
NOT A SPEED LIMIT
Before questioning the literacy of other drivers, Karl Eret (Letters, December 17) should have spent some time reading up on traffic signage. The advisory speed signs to which he refers indicate the recommended maximum speed in good driving conditions for the average car. They are not, in fact, a speed limit, and are neither mandatory nor enforceable.
Mark Hawes, Evatt
A HARD DRIVE
How long before "Uber" transforms from Uberlegen (elite) to Ubertreiben (exaggerated) as a result of rape/assault claims; be they true or not. Seems to be little else that the established licence-holders can use for survival.
Phil O'Brien, Flynn
EASY RIDER
I love the idea of gliding through an urban meadow in light rail. It sounds like fun. Meanwhile, I enjoy travelling to work by bus. My fellow passengers and I represent 30 to 40 cars removed from the road per bus trip. What a relaxingly simple way to help our environment, while catching up on some reading or conversation!
Rosemary Walters, Palmerston
PM, PUT IN MORE ENERGY
New survey results by Essential Research show that more Australians hate coal than like Prime Minister Turnbull. The 20 per cent still undecided on fossil fuels rafter all this time are likely waiting to be told what to think, or shown a clear alternative to fossil-fuel dependency.
Turnbull can easily raise his popularity by boosting the renewable energy sector.
Katherine Beauchamp, Ainslie
A GAME OF JEOPARDY
The optimism displayed by H.Ronald (Letters, December 16) is not based on the reality that we are now in uncharted waters and cannot rely on past patterns to predict the future. One wonders upon what basis she or he so confidently asserts that, "Whatever happens with the climate, the earth is not in jeopardy". Given our current state of knowledge, this is avery brave, if foolhardy, statement indeed!
Sue Schreiner, Red Hill
ECONOMICS LESSONS
Treasurer Scott Morrison's insistence that the government has no revenue problem suggests his inexperience on the job. We can only hope he learns fast.
Sankar Kumar Chatterjee, Evatt
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