Tenants must show respect to their homes and neighbours

This is yet another example of the effect that bad housing tenants have on their community when not reined in by Housing ACT. We happily saw our government housing neighbours finally move out last weekend after months of trashing the lovely housing property they were granted. We now have a break from the continual domestic disputes and police visits.

They, too, left behind a vandalised property on their way to yet another government housing residence in Tuggeranong. Our complaints to Housing ACT during their tenancy were shut down without any recourse or adherence by these tenants to the ACT Residential Tenancies Act.

We were told by the ACT government that everybody deserves a roof over their heads. How pitiful. Criminals and people who hold neighbours to ransom with their ongoing bad behaviour should not have the right to have a roof over their heads. It is a privilege and this privilege is paid for by us, the tax and ratepayers of the ACT.

This arrogance and contempt by the ACT government for Canberra residents is appalling. Housing ACT is broken.

Lucille Rogers' criticism of the vaccine supply issues (Letters, July 8) is based on factual errors and is simply wrong. She claims the government "put all our eggs in one basket", apparently forgetting about the UQ vaccine (which the government supported) and overlooking the fact that Australia actually ordered Pfizer vaccines last year at the same time as the EU and Canada (who she points to as exemplars).

Both the EU and the US subsequently imposed export controls on vaccines. So in addition to the AstraZeneca vaccine, and contrary to Ms Roger's assertion, Australia did pursue multiple options and the government can hardly be blamed if orders are redirected to countries where people have been dying in their thousands.

Perhaps Ms Rogers might care to look at the countries which really are comparable, such as those with tightly-controlled borders, and low infection and hospitalisation rates, like New Zealand, Taiwan or Korea. Compared to those nations, Australia's vaccination rates are tracking well. For example, as at July 6, in Australia just on 33 per cent of the population has had at least one dose, whereas the equivalent figure in NZ is 25 per cent and just 12 per cent in Taiwan.

There is much to criticise the government for, but can we at least be honest and stick to the facts.

John Warhurst's piece "Politicians make fools of us all" (CT, July 8) gave me a lovely warm feeling. That was unusual, but understandable, because it summed up the last couple of weeks of reported politics for me and for most thinking Australians. Or so I thought at first.

Then came the cold afterthought. The article stops without resolving anything - trapped like us all in "a downward spiral and treated like fools". Now what would be a better possible resolution?

Here's my preferred next move. Prof Warhurst leaves the Republican movement stalled for a while, and pens a series of articles on constitutional, revolutionary, and intermediate ways to get this country's political machinery back into shape to function for us all. He's a leading political scientist - who better? Maybe he can even lead us towards a better system. Hurry up, John; I'm 82, you aren't so much younger, and it's time.

Australian politics must be turning into a worse primordial swamp when the normally calm and even-handed Prof Warhurst lets fly. I look forward to his next opinion piece in which I hope he explores the faceless mechanisms behind the political parties that set the agendas and drive the corruption of due process.

I suspect that the buck doesn't stop at the prime minister as the rorting philosophy, for example, is clearly a party-wide strategy set by the party executive to buy votes.

So, too, is the drive to force unwelcome religious dogma back into our society just when we thought we had democratically freed ourselves from such outdated social constraints. As Prof Warhurst says, "we are trapped in a downward spiral and increasingly treated like fools".

Mr Morrison, please explain; a lot of economic ills are blamed on Covid. But I recently returned, by car, from the Gold Coast (how aptly named). I filled up at 174.9 cents per litre. I refilled less than 24 hours later at a tiny village near the Hexham Bridge (near Newcastle) for $1.32 per litre. As our old friend, Prof Julius Sumner Miller, would ask: "Why is it so?"

Re: "Zuma surrenders to police" (Reuters, July 9), it's always sad when a one-time admired and respected freedom fighter like former South African president, Jacob Zuma, who fought against apartheid and did jail time with Nelson Mandela, should end up in jail facing charges related to corruption and abuse of power.

That apparently is the sad story of Zuma. He went rogue after his rise to power. His story again reminds us of Lord Acton's perceptive words: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." But Zuma's story should also serve as a cautionary tale. It warns us if you do wrong things when in power the long arm of the law can eventually get you.

In a heartwarming story about mass tree-planting in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh ("India in push to plant millions of trees", July 6), one paragraph in particular caught my eye. It said: "India has pledged to keep a third of its landcover under forest and tree cover, but a growing population and increasing demand for industrial projects has placed greater stress on the land."

India's population is just over 1.4 billion and is expected to be 1.64 billion in 2050.

It still grows by 16.6 million people per year. No wonder there is stress between the government's worthy goals with respect to mitigating climate change through planting trees and the people's need for food and to lift themselves out of poverty through industrialisation.

This is a classic case of limits to growth. Sunday was World Population Day, a time to reflect on the need to achieve zero population growth, or less, everywhere.

Thankfully, Australia's population growth of 0.55 per cent approximates the OECD average but it, too, needs to come down before we hit limits to growth, if we haven't done so already.

I think it would be helpful if Peter McLoughlin (Letters, July 8) used some of the "transparency, accountability and straight out honesty" demanded in the preceding letter from Bruce Paine on the matter that puts them at odds with Senator Zed Zeselja.

Stop calling euthanasia "voluntary assisted dying" or "death with dignity" and call it for what it is: doctor assisted suicide.

If life is not society's default position then we are on a slippery slope that includes prospects for suicide as an escape from any problem, and threatens the handicapped, the aged, the infirm and those with legacy.

Pressure will be brought on healers to become killers. An observer at the Nuremberg Trials noted the crimes of Nazi Germany started from small beginnings with the acceptance of the attitude there is such a thing as life not worth to be lived.

From the infinitely small wedged-in lever from which this entire trend of mind received its impetus was the attitude toward the non-rehabilitatable sick. Today, palliative care, tools and resources prevent unbearable pain and permit death with true dignity.

It looks like that in Canberra developers still rule at the expense of the community in after the latest ruling by the ACT Planning Authority for a DA in Gungahlin (CT, July 8). Will the balance of power ever shift?

A closed border also applies to ScoMo's brain as clearly depicted by Pope's (how lucky we are to have him!) cartoon (July 9). There is clearly nothing between the ears.

All the PM is good at is staying scot-free, deflecting possible future flack to others, like the states, a general or the business community, should the roll-out not pan out. All I can hope for is that we will be Scott-free after the next election.

I remind disappointed, angry constituents that there is a serious historical view, articulated by Bentham, Blackstone and Burke that "Your representative owes you ... his judgement, and he betrays [you] instead of serving you if he sacrifices [his judgement] to your opinion". Your representative must also consider the national interest, as he sees it, and God's law, as he understands it.

I hope Zed lectures his colleagues on the morality of fornicating, lying and stealing, as vehemently as he opposes his constituents' rights to discuss easing suffering for the dying.

This should get 'naysayers' on side on the euthanasia debate. Put your finance hats on and think of the health dollars that would be saved by terminally ill people opting to die at the time of their choosing. Some Treasury modelling may be in order.

In Panorama of July 3, Ian Warden, responsibly, wrote about the recent discrediting of Bruce Pascoe's much-lauded book Dark Emu. Months ago I ventured a letter to the editor of The Canberra Times questioning Pascoe's selection and use of quotes in Dark Emu. My letter was not published.

It is great to see the upcoming Tokyo Olympics will see both male and female flag-bearers leading their teams. This gives Australia the opportunity to display both the current Australian flag and the Aboriginal flag. Of course, only if Cate Campbell and Patty Mills are happy to.

Thank you, Sue, Bruce, Peter and Don, for your letters (July 8) dismissing Zed Seselja from the Senate. I'll vote for whichever one of you decides to stand. Actually, I'll vote for Katy Gallagher, who is a wonderful representative for the ACT. But thanks, anyway.

How many readers are The Canberra Times prepared to lose because they fail to understand that not every rugby league fan supports the Raiders?

Yo Gladys, perhaps it's time to drop the "Greater"?

Trendily coiffured, five o'clock shadows, know the code's social inclusion policy backwards; it's such a minor matter that the Wallabies play awful rugby.

If all else fails the deciding factor Scott Morrison has to get right before the next federal election is a vote of confidence in his government.

I share your angst, but am I missing something Peggy (Letters, July 9)? In my mind, less vaccine means fewer doses for fewer people. Perfectly good grammar.