Housing diversity is essential

Canberra is now the most expensive city in Australia in which to rent.

A diversity of housing choices is one of the elements in addressing housing affordability.

We need to see "density done well" across our city.

This should be focused on providing housing not just for Canberrans currently in the housing market but for those seeking to enter now and into the future.

We have a "missing housing middle", with apartments concentrated in town centres and single dwellings in suburban areas.

As Canberra grows we need high quality, energy efficient, low-medium density development on sites near community facilities, transport and commercial centres.

Canberra can find ways to support alternative forms of housing in suburban areas, which respects the character of our neighbourhoods and grows our housing diversity.

The current ACT government's Demonstration Housing Project is a gentle approach to infill development.

To be a world-class modern city fit for the 21st century, Canberra needs to be compact, diverse, sustainable and resilient.

We need to be ready for challenging conversations about how our city is to mature and change in coming years, while protecting those aspects of Canberra that makes this city and region so special.

I refer to Senator Seselja's article "How much power should 13 politicians have over us" (canberratimes.com.au, July 21).

It is amazing how the good Senator argues for and against his own position in this article.

Zed argues that the power to legislate on voluntary assisted dying cannot lay with the current ACT government that was rightly elected by the people of the Australian Capital Territory in 2020.

However, as Zed was elected with a very impressive 7,775 primary votes, he should be entrusted with the power to deny the citizens of the Australian Capital Territory their right to decide how they should end their own lives.

It is even more remarkable that Zed believes it is okay for the citizens of the Australian Capital Territory to be beholden to the Australian Parliament to make laws that other states can make for themselves.

Finally, there may be a error in his article.

The byline states "Zed Seselja is a Liberal senator representing the Australian Capital Territory". I'm not sure Zed actually does that. Could someone fact check that please?

The outcome of the last ACT election was at best an "on balance" decision and could not be construed as a tick for everything on the Labor/Green wish list. Only now do we have the revelation of the monstrous debacle to occur on London Circuit to add to the case against any more light rail.

Why do Barr and Rattenbury continue to ignore widespread opinion against it?

They should acknowledge the mounting evidence that it is a waste of money.

I refer to Jasper Lindell's "Remediation loans under cladding fix scheme" (canberratimes.com.au, July 21).

Surely former MLA Ramsay's "top secret list" gives all the necessary details of cladding on ACT buildings.

Given the ACT government must have approved the plans for the use of the cladding and signed final certificates of safe, building occupancy, surely it should be totally responsible for remediation and all expenses?

The mind boggles as to why it has taken so long to tackle this "potentially, deadly combustible cladding" problem. Our Green/Labor Government has been lucky, so far.

Re: "Young Australians are trapped by the vaccine rollout debacle" by Olivia Ireland (July 19, p32). This article illustrated Ms Ireland's lack of maturity rather than the government's mismanagement of COVID-19. Her statements included the following:

"We (young people) have not asked for much during this pandemic. We have accepted the need to go into lockdowns, to halt our lives and forego the opportunities and perks of youth"; and

"All we want is to do our part...and to dare to dream of travelling during our early adult years."

Are today's young adults really doing it tough? I admit that previous generations did have a chance to "play their part". And they did "travel during their early adult years": to the trenches of Gallipoli and the Somme; to the deserts of Egypt and Libya; to the jungles of Malaya, New Guinea and Vietnam, and to the skies over Europe.

They too were unsure about what would happen next. And, worse, they couldn't get on their mobiles every day to keep in contact with their families and friends back home. But I suppose they didn't suffer from boredom.

Fortunately, some old sayings provide guidance to today's young: "life wasn't meant to be easy"; "stay calm and carry on"; and "toughen up".

I grieve for the interpreters who served our troops so well during the futile war in Afghanistan, along with their families, who have been abandoned to the Taliban by Dutton and his charmless colleagues.

The silence from the RSL is truly deafening.

Still, we're fairly well practiced in that by now. Just ask the Timorese who were abandoned to the Japanese, the Indonesians, Red and White Iron militias, Woodside...

My art-collecting son-in-law and daughter told me about renowned artist, educator and environmentalist Mandy Martin who died recently in Canberra ("Major artist with close links to Canberra dies", canberratimes.com.au, July 21).

They enjoyed meeting her and bought two of her paintings which poignantly capture the clash of fossil fuel mining on nature, indigenous people's "country". At her exhibition in 2016 she said: "I have a deep unease about the landscape we live in. I see it becoming marginal as climate change accelerates".

Active in "Climarte" (art for a safe climate), her thoughtful, beautiful legacy holds a powerful message for us all.

I gather top Olympic officials often achieved success in some obscure sport that around half of us have never heard of. What Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates said to Queensland Premier Annastasia Palasczuk has me asking what his background was in? Surely it wasn't the "Misogyny Pankration"?

Zed Seselja's scream in a Gungahlin handout about the cost of Electric Vehicles is quite dishonest. He quotes the average cost of electric vehicles as being $105,950 but included in that average are blisteringly expensive vehicles: Teslas and the like.

It's like quoting the average cost of normally aspirated vehicles in a list that contains Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Rolls Royces. There are a number of electric vehicles that cost between 40 and 50 thousand dollars; the cost that many people now pay for a new car.

Hurrah for Labor's relief from registration and stamp duty to encourage the take up of low emission electric vehicles and thumbs down to Zed for shonky comparison of prices.

The ACTmapi website's Land Custodianship map appears to have some anomalies when identifying which arm of the ACT government (or Commonwealth) manages land, as shown by the following examples.

The Dickson District Playing Fields, Dickson (Section 76, Block 6), is shaded in green stripes and the information box shows that the Directorate and agency responsible for it are "unknown". But for the nearby Downer Oval, the information box shows that it is the Transport and City Services Directorate and the Sport and Recreation Facilities agency.

The Dickson College is marked a bright purple; the Education Directorate. But North Ainslie, Ainslie, Majura and Lyneham Primary Schools are shaded grey (executive lease). Turner Primary is purple i.e. Education Directorate?

The ACT government is currently undertaking a "Planning System Review and Reform". As part of this, they may like to do a stock-take of which arm of government manages land to ensure that they provide accurate information to the community, rather than leaving things unknown, or in a grey area.

How much taxpayers' money has been spent by government ministers to try to stop UNESCO from listing the Great Barrier Reef as endangered. Our government is desperate to stop this so they can let rip with new coal mines and destructive fracking to please certain electorates.

Some advice for the marketing guy; no genuine apology ever includes the word "but".

Imagine what additional sedition charges the Sydney anti-lockdown demonstrator who struck the police horse "Tobruk" would be facing if the creature had been called "Gallipoli" or, worse, "Anzac". It's plainly a battle of heroes versus villains, down to the last hoof.

On seeing Pope's cartoon (July 23) I wondered "why is John Coates dressed as George Pell?" Then I realised. They're both men of easy arrogance, having risen to power in their respective churches by climbing ladders and avoiding snakes. I do so love our Pope.

I'm sick of vacuous Premiers telling us that Canberrans must be kept out because of COVID-19. Now would be a good time to keep MPs and Senators from NSW, Victoria and South Australia out of our Territory. Come on Chief Minister Barr, keep Canberra safe.

Hear, hear, Ross Kingham (Letters, July 24). Politicians please stay away. Canberrans have always known we don't count for much by Federal Parliament. Case finally proven.

FOR SALE: Cabinet, only 12 months old. Unused, but damaged. Marked "national" (meaning undetermined).

The government website says "as one of Australia's most important symbols, the flag should be used with respect and dignity". It is also says "do not allow the flag to fall or lie on the ground". I hope the PM never falls flat on his face while wearing his face mask.

Scott Morrison's constant, attempts to influence the TGA and ATAGI casts serious doubts over the veracity of the advice from these organisations.

Are they now telling us what Morrison wants them to tell us, or is their advice genuine, based on science and expert knowledge?

Consider the contrasting approaches taken by the federal government to crisis.

COVID-19 demands the urgent inoculation of everyone. But inoculating society to prevent the existential crisis of climate change is proceeding very slowly.

If prevention is better than cure, shouldn't this apply to both issues?

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