Bushfires not only threat to the ACT's wildlife

Surely we could all do more to conserve our wildlife, especially in the suburbs. The ACT government says that conservation is a key element in planning and development decisions in the Territory, but this applies mainly to new suburbs.

The old leafy suburbs have so much conservation potential, but are sadly neglected. Weston Park in Yarralumla is a heritage precinct attracting many visitors and locals. The master plan for many years contained an objective "to maintain and enhance the wildlife habitat". This objective has now been dropped.

The government has the expertise to put in place inexpensive, but effective, wildlife conservation measures in older leafy suburbs. It is time to do so. These suburbs present a golden wildlife conservation opportunity. All the building blocks wildlife needs to thrive are in place, and the risk of fires is lower than in national parks.

Park users can help conservation efforts in suburban parks by observing regulations relating to vehicle access, rubbish disposal, control of pets, noise limitation and so on.

The Senate's decision to recommend Bettina Arndt be stripped of her Order of Australia award is out of order.

The Senators have no detailed knowledge of this case and ought to keep to matters that they are responsible for.

The irony of it is that many of them have Order of Australia awards. I wonder how they would go in the court of public opinion? More ironically, any of the Senate's members who are, or have even been, ministers of the crown are entitled to be called 'The Honourable'. What a joke that is.

They should leave this matter to those whose responsibility it is.

In all the regular gloom about waiting times at Canberra and Calvary emergency departments, writers miss the point triage systems prioritise serious issues above sore toes, coughs and splinters.

The best whinge was from the bloke who carried on about being at Calvary emergency for five hours while people who arrived after him were seen.

What was his issue? Gout. He hadn't bothered to see his GP about this on the Friday before.

With global warming and the need to cut down on emissions, the last thing we need is an extra runway at Canberra airport.

Indeed, given the short haul flights to Sydney are so polluting, these ought to be phased out and the ACT/NSW and Federal governments should fund a higher speed train to Sydney (less than 2.5hrs) which would carry far more passengers with far less pollution.

Most of the our nation's rail system is probably 100 years out of date. We have no fast trains anywhere. Japan's bullet trains have been running for nearly 50 years and all we can do is talk about it.

John Skurr (Letters, February 26) makes a vital point on the need for soap, water and drying facilities in public toilets as the best way to enable proper hand washing.

This is universally recognised as the best way to minimise the spread of infection, including COVID-19. Not only is this an essential provision in public toilets; all ACT schools need these facilities together with an education campaign to protect the health of our children and indeed the whole community.

Soap is the key and is often lacking in school toilets. ACT health and education authorities need to act on this.

As one of the 117 doctors from around the world who have called for an end to the psychological torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange ("Doctors call for end of Assange 'torture' ", canberratimes.com.au, February 19), I'd like to highlight the extreme dereliction of duty of the Australian government in virtually washing its hands of any responsibility for the welfare of this Australian citizen.

Our government failed to intervene when British authorities refused him permission to safely leave the Ecuadorian embassy to receive necessary medical care.

They failed to intervene when Assange's health severely deteriorated as a result of the psychological torture he has been subject to. They failed to intervene when he was deprived of full access to legal assistance to prepare his own defence.

Health care is not a privilege to be withheld from those who publish information that incriminates governments; it is a basic human right. Psychological torture should be anathema to all governments, including our own, and yet, in the case of Assange, it seems it is being used as a warning to other journalists.

Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, who has visited Assange and examined his case, wrote "In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I have never seen a group of democratic states ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law".

It's significant the largest outbreak of Covid 19 infection outside China has been on a tourist ship where thousands of people were packed together.

Recently the ABC's 7.30 Report ran four consecutive night's programs about housing. The prevailing message was "most of us are going to live in high-rise apartments in our ever more crowded cities so we'd better get used to it".

Not a peep that very high population growth is a deliberate policy of all political parties and could be changed at any time. A downside the ABC did not mention was we will just have to get used to the spread of infectious epidemics in our crowded high-rise apartments.

Maybe, just maybe, the costs and just plain difficulties already identified, (let alone those we don't yet know about), with getting trams across the lake are signs that light rail may not be the best public transport option between Civic and Woden.

If we collectively ignore those signs it will be at an enormous cost to ACT ratepayers who will foot the bill for pursuing the "get the tram across the lake at any cost" folly.

Clearly we need an affordable, environmentally friendly way of getting large number of passengers people between Woden and Civic, and destinations in between. However, that doesn't automatically mean we need a tram to provide that service.

What about considering an O-Bahn arrangement, which works so well in Adelaide? The concrete track would be limited to the central reservation along Adelaide Avenue and Yamba Drive (where light rail tracks and overhead wires would be laid for a tram option).

After coming off the concrete track the electrically powered O-Bahn bus would have the flexibility of following any number of routes into Civic or Woden Town Centre.

Surely such an alternative is worthy of serious consideration?

Its' costs should be tabled before we commit to another major works project that takes scarce funding away from the ACT's other spending priorities.

Re: "Crace home breaks suburb record for a second time" (16 February, p 39).

This block-titled detached house has an Unimproved Value of $471,000, and a Market Value $1,630,000, so has an Unimproved Value to Market Value Ratio of 0.29. The previous record holder in Crace has a UVR of 0.30.

Meanwhile, across Canberra, tens of thousands of unit-titled townhouses and low-density apartments are receiving the March quarter instalment of their rates bill with its unit-title surcharge.

The reason for this collective punishment from the Barr Labor government? They have UVRs of 0.30 and above, and generally use this capital-intensity just to put a roof over their heads. Some are not even capital-intensive. Not many theatre rooms, hot spring spas, and wine cellars in those units.

It's heartening to see Canberra's planning regulations can be readily modified to suit a developers needs as evidenced by the approval for 140 units in Coombs on a site originally slated for 44 and revised down from 149. A clear victory for the developer over the community.

We are so appalled by the horrific murders in Brisbane, that the woman in Townsville who was murdered a couple of days later is hardly mentioned.

We must call out all these terrible crimes.

If Kevin McCloud thinks that Kingston foreshore is some sort of architectural miracle then he should have gone to SpecSavers.

Re: Editorial cartoon, February 25.

I find it utterly disgraceful Pope could suggest to the grieving families of the two victims of the crash that it was a lack of action on climate change that caused their demise.

What next? Are you going the tell the families of the victims of the Corona virus their loved ones died because of China's lack of action on climate change?

Despite the tragic loss of two lives David Pope's cartoon re "The Australia Line's" unwillingness to journey into the cost of inaction highlights our nation's leaders' unwillingness to lead. (Editorial cartoon, February 25. p15).

In response to the ALP committing to a net-zero carbon target by 2050, the PM said: "I won't commit to anything that I don't know the cost of".

I can be confident the government knows exactly the cost of the coronavirus pandemic plan, otherwise I guess he wouldn't commit to it? We can all rest easy.

The Federal Attorney-General and the police themselves might believe that they're already under enough scrutiny to not fall under the ACT's Integrity Commission.

But surely, as both like to recite to the public, "they've got nothing to fear if they've got nothing to hide".

It seems superfluous to await refined epidemiological "research" into effects of recent bushfire "smoke" on Canberrans, when, it might reasonably be inferred from winemakers, that if "heavy acrid smoke" impacts grape vintage dramatically, it may be extremely toxic to alveolar cells ("Vintage goes up in smoke", February 19, p1).

Does the Murdoch empire collude with Russia when it comes to US election interference? Certainly looks that way.

Why don't all trains have tracking devices that record speed for the whole journey so there's no need to ask passengers or others to speculate on what speed the train was travelling before a derailment?

The article on bullying at Canberra Hospital (February 24) begs the question of who is doing the bullying?

Is it particular individuals who themselves might be stressed? Is it systemic?

Is it doctors or administrators? Is it cultural?

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