It's time we finally embraced our city's public art legacy

When Tony Phantastes' made his exquisite Dreamers Gate in Collector, the locals invoked Gunning Shire Council to sue him on the grounds of unsafe structure. Now, Jon Stanhope's suggestion of prominent (but unusual) artwork in Canberra, reminiscent of Gormley's Angel in the U.K., has already roused similar rural protest. Penleigh Boyd, letters Aug 5) refers to infrastructure design as works of art in an attempt to rouse public objection to Stanhope's suggestion. I hope the most Canberrans are not as frightened as rural communities at imaginative public art.

The Canberra Times editorial (Monday, August 5) explores the pros and cons of removing the Manuka tree so a new hotel can be built, but its last sentence reveals its support for development over conservation - "It is simply a case of a tree making way for practicality in the real world". The message here is that if business in a particular area is temporarily struggling, simply import more people to boost it. Do not ask why it is struggling (most probably from there being too much competition), and whether the new population boosted revival will only invite further competition and an eventual repeat of the current stagnation.

Then presumably, more people will again be needed to again revive it. Those supportive of the rights of risk taking entrepreneurial businessmen will tell governments to get out of the way and let natural market forces play out. That is until profits shrink, then pleas for government intervention are heard. This is but a microcosm of what is happening across Australia - the demands of business dictating political high population growth policies. Result - a plethora of urban high density multi storey apartment buildings, many of poor quality, their social impacts never considered. Another very visible symptom is congestion on the roads, in public transport and other public places. There is a principle here - business should serve and therefore follow populations, not population numbers calculated to support business demands. Determination of population numbers should be based on social and environmental criteria. Might Mr Ponzi be hiding somewhere here?

Jack Kershaw (Letters, July 29) suggested that we preserve our beautiful Commonwealth Avenue for the reasons stated and that stage two light rail proceed over Edinburgh Avenue, Lawson Crescent, Walter Burley Griffin's missing third central lake, State Circle, its cutting and around Adelaide Avenue. I fully agree. By not having to go through Barton, this also reduces travel time to the fast-growing Woden Town Centre, save much needed funds by avoiding Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, surely permit overhead wires (they would hardly be visible) and stage three to Tuggeranong would become a reality earlier.

Let us get rail right across Canberra as soon as practicable, consider better access for the Barton hub at a later stage, reduce congestion on the Tuggeranong Parkway and permit Tuggeranong residents to feel part of the city sooner with better access to education, employment, retail and recreation opportunities. As Tuggeranong is mainly Zed Seselja territory electorally and he is a man of great influence, my proposal should attract much needed Commonwealth funds. It is not up to this relatively small jurisdiction to fund all this and Canberra residents contribute substantially to Commonwealth tax revenue.

As deeply sad (unfortunately I can't say shocking anymore) as the recent wave of mass shootings in the US are, the real tragedy only begins in their aftermath. Politicians offering the sickeningly self-serving and cowardly 'solutions' of prayer and kissing the flag instead of doing their job by enacting laws to at least minimise the possibility of it happening again. The same stupid statements such as 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people' trotted out.

By the same 'logic' you could say drugs don't kill people either, so they should all be legal and freely available. Technically true and totally beside the point. It's well past time that gun policy was taken away from the cold, dead hands and 'minds' of the NRA, but that's about as likely as a coherent statement from Donald Trump. If a foreign 'terrorist' did the same thing their country (and some neighbouring ones) would no doubt have been invaded by now, but since your fellow countryman did it then it's business as usual. RIP common sense.

If ever we needed a reminder of the fragility of our planet, it was brought home again during the 50th year Apollo 11 celebrations. Neil Armstrong reflected on the isolated beauty of earth as witnessed from the lunar orbit and he referenced our need to take care of this precious place. Also recently, Brian Cox's fascinating "The Planets" series, educated us about extreme and volatile atmospheres around other planets in our galaxy, once again highlighting the uniqueness of our own. Earth's atmospheric CO2 levels currently stand at 415 parts per million. The rate of its acceleration is speeding up every year, unchartered territory for life on this planet.

Global temperatures have increased by 1 degree Celsius since records began in 1880. Science tells us that at 2 degrees warming there will be no more coral reefs, severe heatwaves and floods will be normal, extinctions increased. At 4 degrees, all bets are off.

We are already witnessing disturbing evidence of just 1 degree average warming and its effects today. Yet still, our Federal Government's wilful and continued ignorance of this stark reality is obvious. IThe US currently suffers the same affliction with its leader. One has to wonder what the earth will look like when rocketing off to the moon 50 years from now.

The wind and coastal pumped hydro solution to a sustainable renewable energy future posed by Ronald Elliott (Letters, August 5) is brought into question by the climate events of the past ten days. The aggregate output from all wind farms on the eastern grid for the ten days beginning July 26 (published by the Australian Energy market Operator) was only 15 per cent of capacity, compared to the long term average of one third. To meet this short fall would require an enormous stored energy capacity in the coastal pumped hydro reservoirs proposed.

More critically, during the afternoon peak period of July 26 and the morning peak period of July 27, the aggregate output from all wind farms varied between three and six per cent of capacity. This means that the generators of the proposed pumped hydro systems would have to meet almost all of peak demand. Diversifying to solar generators would not help this situation. Establishing wind farms in the more advantageous areas of Tasmania may help but the transmission of a lot of energy to meet high demand rates requires the construction of new power cables across Bass Strait. Moving to a sustainable renewable energy future is only an ideal with no prospect for cheaper electricity.

Tailgating is a long-term problem on Canberra's roads, and we have to do something about it. The worst offenders won't change their behaviour voluntarily, but those trying to get it right need the right help. The new chevrons on the Tuggeranong Parkway are wrong: they are spaced too closely for 100km/h traffic.

The best advice from around the world says we should follow with either a two-second or a three-second gap. A two second gap demands that we see three chevrons. The problem would be fixed by painting out every second chevron, or changing the road signs.

When it comes to the need to increase the Newstart allowance Slo Mo is again demonstrating his inability to embrace an idea whose time has come. Once again as with so many issues he's behind the eight ball. But on this occasion he has a lot of greedy elderly Australians on his side of the court even if they might protest otherwise. He complains that the ALP is arguing for an increase in the allowance but won't say how they'd pay for it.

Hang on, going into the May election the ALP proposed a number of policies that would raise funds to pay for an increase in Newstart and other socially beneficial policies but large numbers of well heeled self funded retirees with very healthy superannuation funds decided that their own interests outweighed those unfortunates on Newstart and other forms of welfare support. Newstart can and should be increased if the federal government and it's supporters only could focus on those whose needs are far greater than their own.

Former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope regrets Labor's decision "in contradiction of the Party platform and a core Labor value, ie, democracy" to support the abolition of self-government on Norfolk Island. (Letters Monday 5/Aug). Can we hope that Labor will similarly support the abolition of self-government in the ACT?

Take the guns away from them.

When is the new transport minister going to listen to the public and fix the buses? The current chaos includes having no buses into the ANU campus and the National Zoo, and reduced hospital services. Curtin residents are particularly disadvantaged; despite their petition, they lost their No.2 bus and express services, forcing them back into cars.

If rumour is to be believed and Tony Abbott is appointed to the Australian War Memorial Council it would hardly be because of his relevant skills, knowledge and experience but for his undoubted vision, strategic leadership and advocacy.

Oh, No! Not another 'coalition' request from the US. Think about it Australia - they started this mess by withdrawing from the agreement with Iran, as they did with the agreement with Russia on nuclear weapons. Australia has followed the US into a number of "wars" since the 1950s - and they've NEVER won a war!

Good on you Cassandra ("Sexual harassment needs to be stamped out from behind the counter", August 4). The media need to spend a lot more time on addressing the intimidation and violence that vulnerable working women experience every day in Australian workplaces.

I wonder if any other icon water users have experienced an abnormal increase in actual water usage for the quarter ending July 2019 following installation of new water meters. My increase over the previous five-year average for July was 220%. I suspect the old meter was misread at the time of change over. Icon water has not yet responded to my letter raising the issue.

"US wants Australia to help confront Iran" ( Canberra Times, August 4). Instead, Australia should tell the US to return to the agreement with Iran that it walked out of. The current instability and tension between Iran and the West can be blamed almost entirely on America's breach of this agreement: just as the world's faltering response to climate change can be blamed largely on America's repudiation of the Paris accord.

Monday's TV guide states that Seachange 2.0 "is being filmed in Queensland coastal town Brunswick Heads" will no doubt come as a surprise to the NSW residents who live there and the many visitors who hadn't realised they'd crossed the border.

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