Fair play on fairway

Federal Golf Club is one of the oldest established organisations in Canberra and its history pre-dates the creation of Lake Burley Griffin and, unlike most of the other golf and sporting clubs in Canberra, has not either received government support, permission to develop housing and/or been bailed out by large licensed clubs. Federal makes a significant contribution to the local and ACT community and if it is not able to develop this parcel of waste land, its long-term sustainable future will be compromised.

It is about time there was some sensible and rational discussion about its future, without the impassioned and misguided pleas of the nimby fraternity.

Chris Hume, Banks

The report of another housing development proposal by the Federal Golf Club once again raises the issue of the ad hoc ACT government treatment of private development on community-owned land.

Sporting clubs are granted concessionary leases over considerable and valuable land areas at significant ratepayer support, in order to provide a community asset.

It now seems that whenever the sporting club needs more capital, instead of looking to its membership or to a perhaps deficient business model, it attempts to persuade the government to allow it to not only develop contrary to the terms and spirit of its lease, but then to retain any windfall profit derived from the increased land value.

This approach, to which the government policy appears to be to "treat each on its merits", has the result of dudding the ratepayer thrice over.

Firstly, by applying ratepayer funds to the financial support of a select and private club; secondly, by not returning the financial benefits derived from development back to the government in the form of betterment; and thirdly, by converting a community space into a private space.

If a sporting club wishes to live beyond its means, that is its prerogative. It should not, however, seek to enrich itself at community expense.

Perhaps a first step would be to levy the membership before selling off the family (that is, the community) silver.

Paul Ratcliffe, Yarralumla

"All ratepayers would effectively have to pay for the cost, regardless of whether they have gardens, whether they prefer to self-haul or whether they compost their green waste," says TAMS Minister Shane Rattenbury. ("Call for green waste kerbside collection likely to be binned", November 22, p3). Is this to be the new government approach?

As Minister Rattenbury puts it: "To change a system where we did bring in a third bin would require an additional cost, and for those households that don't need that, there's a genuine question of if they should have that cost imposed on them."

So, I expect those who don't have children, don't use public hospitals or public transport, don't use public libraries, etc will not be expected to subside these. It will be an interesting society where only those who use a system pay for it. And how sad!

Sue Schreiner, Red Hill

It is good to see Nick Kyrgios help launch the Just Play Program ("Blast has Kyrgios fired up to work hard", Sport November 21, pp2-3). But a couple of his responses in the article are cause for concern he still has a way to go to really come of age.

First, he says he is a competitor and, regardless, he always tries to win. This is not true, as a couple of obvious tanking incidents would confirm — unless these were devious tactics which didn't work.

Secondly, he says he has no regrets about what has happened in the past. So the obnoxious comment he made to Stan Wawrinka that Thanasi Kokkinakis had bonked his girlfriend and other unacceptable abuse is just a mere bagatelle for him.

Even if, sadly, he has no regrets, it remains an open question as to whether he has learnt. But no regrets if he hasn't?

Eric Hodge, Pearce

Here are the Big Bash scores. Clarke doesn't like Symonds, Hayden or Buchanan but he does like Warnie and Haddin.

Katich was not happy with Clarke who wanted Hussey to sing the song somewhere else. But that's all OK now. MacGill doesn't like Buchanan either; in fact, no one like Buchanan, except for Watto, who likes everyone – even Clarke.

Clarke thinks less of Boof, because he didn't tell him about Haddin.

Hayden is not happy with Boof about Haddin, but that is irrelevant.

Warnie likes frothies, but doesn't think much of Boof either, because he did or didn't select Siddle, as the case may be. None of them like New Zealand, because they seem interested in something called the "spirit of the game".

Clem Hill turns in his grave and Ian Chappell despairs. In their day, all the arguments were with the administrators, or the opposing team.

Peter Crossing, Curtin

Michale Lane (Letters, November 23) says that "a car 70 metres away doing only 50km/h will inevitably collide with" a vehicle that crosses its path at 10km/h. He offers the solution that the people using those vehicles "must be made to dismount and be pedestrians ... to minimise the chance of a collision". How much safer our roads would be if drivers on main roads were limited to less than 50km/h, and drivers on cross streets were required to stop their engines and push their cars through intersections.

Leon Arundell, Downer

It's not really that hard, Michael Lane, and neither you nor Minister Shane Rattenbury even have to use a calculator.

Australian Road Rule 81 (1) says, very clearly: "A driver approaching a pedestrian crossing must drive at a speed at which the driver can, if necessary, stop safely before the crossing." Your belief that you are allowed to approach a pedestrian crossing at 50km/h, even under less-perfect conditions, is, fortunately for all vulnerable road users, just arrant nonsense.

Geoff Clarke, Holder

Anthony Agius' article "Look out for fake Apple Products" (Forum, November 21, p3) made me suspect he must be an Apple employee, so keen was he to warn us about those dreadful Apple counterfeit items. I was close to the mark. Dr Google says he was the founder of the Australian Apple fan site Mactalk.

I find it objectionable that Apple tries to control its market so tightly that even such a mundane item as a power/data lead that plugs into an Apple device should carry a chip without which any lead manufactured by someone else will cease to function when the operating system is updated. Apple has followed this business model from the outset, sometimes to its great cost.

The PC very nearly killed Apple off because Apple tried to monopolise the software for its computers while IMB opened the door for its PCs to all and sundry. I have an iPad Classic, which contains a great deal of music collected over the years, but Apple quietly dropped support for this wonderful device, and has reduced its connectivity and utility with successive updates of iTunes.

If Apple had decent competition, it might drop its predatory pricing in Australia, although I doubt it would ever pay its fair share of Australian income tax without a government gun at its head.

Murray Williamson, Weetangera

Who is our government representing when it votes down its own anti corporate tax avoidance bill because of a tax disclosure amendment? It makes no sense that Shell stations should get away with paying zero tax in the last three years and Chevron pay only $248 on $1.7billion profit made last year.

Clearly, these corporations feel no responsibility or gratitude to the communities they profit from and, in fact, depend upon. We need leaders with the guts to stand up to them.

J. Toller, Yarralumla

Although the federal government is at last showing signs of conceding that superannuation concessions for the nation's more affluent need to be part of their tax reform agenda, Treasurer Scott Morrison has already mooted caveats that any change should not impinge on existing savings.

There were no such pangs of conscience from the Coalition when the Abbott government reintroduced a 15per cent super contribution tax on 3.6million of the lowest paid workers. Neither were there any signs of sympathy when their super top-ups were legislated for repeal.

While there is a hesitancy to disturb the top income bracket, those at the other end of the spectrum are fair game.

Frank Carroll, Moorooka, Qld

John Passant (Letters, November 23) states that a NATSEM analysis has shown increases to the GST base or rate would be regressive. While that is not completely accurate (for example, the analysis shows that adding education to the GST would not be regressive, and would even be progressive if the overall GST take were limited to the current total), John is largely right.

But why should that be the end of the story? Wealth is just an accounting figure until you convert it into something. Having more money than someone else doesn't make you better off than them unless you buy more things with it.

To say that the GST is a regressive tax – that the GST paid by the wealthy is a smaller percentage of their income than the GST paid by the poor is of theirs – implies that the wealthy spend a smaller share of their income than the poor do. So what are they doing with the rest of it?

If they eventually spend it, won't they then pay GST, making their GST percentage the same as everyone else's (at least if we remove the current GST exemptions)? If they don't spend it, what is unfair about the GST being regressive?

Greg Pinder, Charnwood

Richard Denniss calls for a discussion about the effects of burning coal, citing the survival of Pacific islands such as Kiribati as a cause celebre. ("Let's spell out coal's role", Forum, November 21, p6). Denniss knows that Kiribati and most Pacific islands face a more immediate threat than climate change. With slowly rising seas these tiny specks of land commonly grow as the coral multiplies and, if nature is left to weave it's magic, the islands will usually cope.

Overpopulation, poor management of land, water and waste as well as interference with the coral to provide material for infrastructure poses a bigger problem than rising seas, and coal is certainly not the culprit here. At the very least his position is highly contestable.

That Denniss appears to have accepted the concerns of Kiribati President Anote Tong on this matter without critical examination should raise questions about the reliability of his views on climate change more generally.

H.Ronald, Jerrabomberra, NSW

I refer to Patrick O'Hara's one-paragraph description on who was responsible for the terrorist attacks in Paris (Letters, November 21).

Back in July he criticised me for my "seven lines" on the Greek crisis (Letters, July 10). Now he shows me up with his single-paragraph critique on responsibility for the complex Islamic State situation. This is a 100per cent improvement on his two-paragraph expose of a morally bankrupt Liberal Party (Letters, October 31).

I look forward to his next succinct description of a complex issue in even fewer paragraphs.

Ric Hingee, Duffy

How very kind of the United States National Institute of Health to acknowledge chimpanzees for their "service to biomedical research" ("US ends medical research on chimpanzees", November 20, p13).

Not quite an apology for decades of often pointless cruelty, but it will have to do.

China's medical establishment could follow this fine example and express their gratitude to all those death-row prisoners who generously "donate" their organs – a practice which (it was reported earlier in the weeks) the Chinese government has decided on second thought not to put a stop to.

G.Burgess, Kaleen

Arise baby boomer pedants. Recent articles have proclaimed that baby boomers are turning 70. Not so. Not yet.

Baby boomers are post-World War II babies; and VP Day was August 14, 1945.

Without getting into the icky bits about what some parents did or did not get up to in those days, if your mum and dad jumped the gun and got busy before the action was over and the official festivities commenced, then "Sorry – no BB Balloon for you!"

By all means, welcome to this wide brown land, but if you troubled the Census collectors before about the middle of 1946, it appears you may be a member of a different demograph.

G.Williams, Gowrie

John Richardson (Letters, November 23) has a comprehensive knowledge of the more outrageous and foolish statements made by Winston Churchill at various times in his long career. The faults of Churchill were on the same massive scale as his good qualities, and sometimes he was wrong in his judgments.

But in Britain's darkest hour, in May 1940, Churchill was supremely right. Many in the British government, like Halifax, wanted a negotiated settlement with Hitler after Dunkirk. Churchill saw that this would mean abject surrender and rallied the Empire to fight on to the end and never to surrender to "that guttersnipe".

Without Churchill, Britain would have lost and Europe would have remained under Nazi slavery. Even if the United States had resolved to liberate Europe, it would have had no base from which to do so.

So criticise Winston Churchill all you like, but remember that he saved Western civilisation. Having done so, the British people showed their gratitude by kicking him out of office in 1945.

Robert Willson, Deakin

TOO MUCH TRUST

Felix MacNeill (Letters, November 23) concludes his barely disguised pro-light rail offering with the idea we should all "shut up and let the real experts get on with the job". To me, that sounds like a corollary to the old exhortation: "Trust us, we're from the government."

Eric Hunter, Cook

COMMERCIAL GREED

The price of fuel has not been as cheap for many years as it is now, yet the cost of private bus fares on the Canberra-Sydney run has spiralled, being in some cases almost 50per cent higher than this time last year. As the companies often imposed a surcharge to cover increased fuel charges, is there any additional factor, other than commercial greed, that can explain the recent price hikes?

John Murray, Fadden

PITILESS PORTRAIT

Australia now has its very own equivalent of "Whistler's Mother", a merciless and unattractive portrait, following the state's acquisition of Tom Roberts' painting of Louis Abrahams. ("Mystery donors help NGA buy Tom Roberts portrait for $750,000", November 20, p5).

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

TOXIC ORGANISMS

Tychonema is not an algae but a cyanobacteria ("Algae outbreak hits community hard", November 22, p11). There can be blooms of algae as well, but the cyanobacteria are the dangerous ones because of the poisons they produce. When is The Canberra Times going to get this right.

John Terrey, Yass, NSW

TYPICAL OF CHURCHILL

John Richardson (Letters, November 21) alerted me, in response to a suggestion that we need Winston Churchill in these times of terror, that shortly after World WarI, he recommended the use of poisoned gas against recalcitrant uncivilised Arab tribes. Although I wasn't aware of this, it is quite consistent with the nature of that eloquent, well-spoken war-mongering alcoholic.

David Williams, Watson

THE ANTI BRIGADE

I refer to a number of articles in Monday's edition of The Canberra Times. I am thinking of setting up a committee titled "A committee against committees that are against things". Anyone want to join?

Paddy O'Keeffe, Palmerston

BALANCE THE BAD NEWS

There has never been a better time for someone to start a media unit that focuses on the majority of good that outweighs the bad our media feeds the simple-minded in this country.

D.J.Fraser, Mudgeeraba, Qld

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