The ACT Government must believe in Santa Claus if it thinks that sales tax cuts for low-emission vehicles (''Tax cuts for green machines'', August 20, p1) will have any substantial impact on car purchasing habits.
If a comparison is made between Toyota's Prius and Corolla, it will take about 24 years for the Prius's fuel savings to pay off the $17,000 purchase price differential. How can the Prius be a green car when it is full of materials that require greenhouse gas emissions to manufacture?
What's next, Jon Stanhope? Will we get a tax cut to buy a plug-in electric vehicle that has no exhaust emissions but gets its electricity from a coal-fired power station?
Jeff Carl, Rivett
Blank on batteries
It is good news that the ACT Government has instituted a scheme for the recycling of energy-saving light bulbs (''Dispose of fluorescent light bulbs'', August 20, p9).
The recycling of batteries, however, has only been partly addressed, and that is a serious problem given the highly toxic metals they contain.
We can leave car batteries at resource management centres and recycle mobile phone batteries through the Aussie Recycling program (which also raises funds for the Spastic Centre).
But what of the countless small batteries our electronic appliances use?
Their disposal in a garbage bin would be easy, but I know this is a very bad option.
In spite of inquiries at electronics stores and recycling centres, I have drawn a blank on their recycling.
Could the Government now investigate options for their safe disposal?
Small they may be, but they are anything but harmless.
Tim Hardy, Florey
Talk but no action
John Hargreaves thinks he has outlined a vision of the future (''Labour spruiks its transport plan'', August 16, p6).
But what a disappointment the government integrated transport framework is.
It shows that in the more than two months since Jon Stanhope's commitment to light rail (''It's all onboard in push for light rail'', July 10, p1) that our Government has done nothing.
Not a single mention of a feasibility study or a cost-benefit analysis.
This was the ideal opportunity for the Government to show real commitment to the environment and the future of our city, but we continue to get hollow commitments.
Antony Rajkovic, Chisholm
Private property
It was heartening to read that there is a computer reuse and recycling warehouse in Canberra (''Call to help clean up electronic waste'', August 18, p5) especially as there is so much potential for old computers to leach carcinogenic toxins into water and soil if dumped.
However, after reading of what data can be retrieved from a hard drive by a computer forensic specialist, I am concerned about how to avoid a recycled computer's hard drive being ''mined'' for personal information or identify theft.
As a lay computer user, I have to ask what may be a very silly question with an obvious answer.
Are there ways to make sure that if a computer is recycled that the information on the hard drive can be made impenetrable to even the most determined of criminals?
Ann Darbyshire, Gunning, NSW
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff