A sorry outlook for far too many, Mr Barr. Why would anyone who is not extremely wealthy risk downsizing to a new Canberra apartment when they may spend much of the first few years of their new life scouring and analysing their building complex for defects in order not to miss the relatively short eligibility period for making significant claims to rectify building defects ("Elara owners $10m compo bid rejected", The Canberra Times, February 14)?
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
It would seem to many that your government’s ‘‘highly regulated consumer protection service’’ that was set up in 2002 to assist claims against poor building construction is now inadequate for dealing with the nightmare situations facing many apartment owners.
Sue Dyer, Downer
Decency needed
What a petulant and hysterical display from Peter Dutton and the Liberal party in response to losing a vote in Parliament, ably assisted by the frenzied scare-mongering of the Murdoch press, sympathetic radio shock jocks and opinionated pay TV hosts.
Earlier this week, a high-profile criminal in jail for drug trafficking was medically evacuated by helicopter after being stabbed in Barwon prison; he required urgent medical care and it was arranged. There was no national discussion about his character or criminal activities.
An individual seeking asylum is not a criminal. Removing sick refugees and asylum seekers off the island prisons for urgent medical attention is a vote for human rights, empathy and common decency.
Chris Doyle, Gordon
Renewables path
It was refreshing and encouraging to read the report ‘‘Renewables growth strengthens’’ (Business, February 16, p26), particularly its revelations about BP’s enlightened attitude to renewable energy.
BP’s latest annual Energy Outlook states that renewable energy will become the world’s primary power source within 20 years, and that the pace at which this change is happening "is faster than for any fuel in history".
This presumably means that the use of renewable energy is being adopted even more rapidly than was the use of coal during the industrial revolution.
The use of coal will level off in the outlook’s most ‘‘aggressive’’ scenario, but in all others will dramatically decrease. BP’s chief economist Spencer Dale said that ‘‘in our evolving transition scenario, 85 per cent of new energy’’ will be ‘‘lower carbon’’.
BP chief executive Bob Dudley called for strong leadership on electricity generation policy to meet our Paris Agreement commitments and said that a price on carbon would ‘‘incentivise everyone to use less energy.’’ The call for a carbon price has also been made by Shell Australia’s chairman, Zoe Yujnovich.
Big oil and gas companies understand the problem of carbon dioxide emissions and are prepared to do something about it, even if it means disrupting their business models.
I therefore find it deeply troubling that pro-(big) business governments can or will not do the right and sensible thing and follow the lead of companies such as BP and Shell.
Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin
On the PM
Bravo to Ian Warden for his astute and newsworthy article that segues our current Prime Minister with the current swag of Christian Loonies.
It’s really lucky for Warden that ScoMo is of the Christian faith and thus able to turn the other cheek.
He makes a really compelling argument for ScoMo’s departure in May – the last thing we need in a PM is a dynamic, self-starter with a moral compass!
Kris Plummer, Watson
Trump and lies
"Socialist" senator Bernie Sanders has launched a second bid for the White House, saying he’s running to defeat "pathological liar" Donald Trump (Aljazeera, February 20).
Many political observers claimed Sanders had a better chance of defeating Trump in the2016 presidential election butwas conspiratorially denied the ticket by the Democratic Party establishment.
Sanders is in a long list of prominent people who have called Trump a pathological liar. Among them Trump’s fellow Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz and former governor Michael Dukakis. And just a month ago Trump’s White House propagandist Kellyanne Conway’s husband, George T Conway, a conservative lawyer, called Trump a pathological liar in a scathing tweet (KRMG, January 20).
For an elaboration on this subject I recommend Bella DePaulo’s article, I study liars. I’ve never seen one like Donald Trump, special to the Washington Post published in The Chicago Tribune on December 8, 2017.
It’s hard to understand how such a pathological liar has landed in the highest office in that great country?
Rajend Naidu, Glenfield, NSW
Nobel talk
Donald Trump’s expectation of a Nobel prize reminds me of a proverb which when translated will stand like this: ‘‘He who is great does not have to say he is great. If he is really great people will say if he is great’’.
Sankar Kumar Chatterjee, Evatt
A disgrace
The Australian government is providing tens of millions of dollars to Electro Optic Systems, a Canberra defence company exporting a next-generation weapons system destined for Saudi Arabia, a country at the centre of a growing international furore over its murderous complicity in war crimes in Yemen along with the USA, France and mercenaries from many countries.
The government is assisting in the creation of the greatest human disaster in our memory, with starvation and death the outcome. What a disgrace we have become as a country, supported by a feckless government, lock, stock and barrel.
Rex Williams, Springwood NSW
Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.
Keep your letter to 250 or fewer words. References to Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).
