Double-vaccinated families are suffering under the lockdown

That is why it is so wonderful to know that just under 90 per cent of Canberrans aged over 60 are already fully vaccinated and the rest of the population is not far behind.

Given this, why are grandparents across Canberra desperately unhappy, depressed and confused?

It's because the ACT government refuses to accept that fully vaccinated Canberrans pose a much lower risk to our community and should be allowed to fulfil a useful role in their family.

Under current lockdown rules, fully vaccinated grandparents are not permitted to care for their young grandchildren during the school holidays.

This has created great distress for grandparents.

It also leaves many parents struggling to work from home and entertain children without their normal school holiday support from grandparents.

Meanwhile up to five unvaccinated people from five different households can merrily play golf or tennis and, regardless of vaccination status of the workers, building sites are open again.

This situation hardly seems fair or COVID-19-safe, and makes no sense.

A caring government, that is making sensible public health decisions based on real risk assessments, would allow fully vaccinated grandparents to care for young grandchildren in their own home during the school holidays.

Sadly, in the ACT, the usual suspects; unions, developers and sports clubs have the ear of the government, not the people who sit quietly at home doing the right thing.

On Thursday it will be six weeks since the lockdown began. Despite this, there are many small businesses which have yet to receive their support grant.

There has also been no correspondence from the ACT government to provide an approximate timeline for the now late payment. Payments were meant to be made in 30 days.

What's going on? Don't we want shops on the other side of this?

The Canberra Times article "Does Porter's resignation fix the issue?" (September 21, p8) raises an interesting question.

If Mr Porter has used some of the $1 million from undisclosed sources to pay his personal legal costs, will he now pay that money back to those sources?

If not, then Mr Porter continues to be a politician who has accepted a donation from an undisclosed source, which is contrary to the Prime Minister's ministerial standards.

In such circumstances, presumably, Mr Porter cannot again be appointed a government minister - remaining on the backbench indefinitely, or until he advises that he has returned the donation money.

One would hope that the passage of time would not automatically absolve Mr Porter for his decision to accept a donation from an undisclosed source.

That source could come back to Mr Porter at any time in the future and request a favour in return, potentially relating to a governmental decision or action.

It is almost an absolute certainty that such a favour would never be revealed to either the Parliament or to the Australian community.

I write in response to Sue Dyer's comments (Letters, September 21) on the article "Manuka project 'unviable' with entry to avenue", canberratimes.com.au, September 20.

Ill-conceived and arbitrary conditions imposed on development approvals must be called out for what they are. Public realm mobility and public connections belong in the public domain, not in private property.

This concept may be irksome to some. Viability is a real concern, when one must consider how much revenue must be generated every year to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars in rates imposed on this modest and highly restricted block of land.

Viability concerns are real and viability can be obliterated with even the subtlest conditions.

I see there is is still bureaucratic opposition to Mrs Liangis's long-overdue redevelopment plan for the Capital Cinema site.

As a frustrated Manuka shopper and would-be Cinema user, could I say that to insist on a main entrance onto Canberra Avenue as part of the proposed Cinema redevelopment is the most un-economic planning position that the ACT Planning Authority could take?

Canberra Avenue has long ceased to be a pedestrian thoroughfare. It is in fact one of the most used, busiest and noisiest roads in Canberra.

How does the Planning Authority think people will access and use such a "main entrance"? Sublime stupidity.

It is hard to feel sorry for Mrs Liangis and her luxury hotel development. It is entirely logical for a hotel to have an entry point from Canberra Avenue ("Developer Sotiria Liangis says she will cancel Manuka hotel project over 'unviable' Canberra Avenue entry", canberratimes.com.au September 20).

In fact, I was surprised to read that one had not been planned for. I pity the interstate tourist trying to figure out how to get into the hotel.

Having entry points from side streets would just add to the already high (pre-COVID-19) levels of congestion in Manuka.

If she walks away from the project, you can be sure there will be other developers to take her place.

Laurence Tubiana, a key architect of the Paris Agreement and chief executive of the European Climate Foundation, has written an opinion piece in The Financial Times.

"We are living in a climate altered by humans that is starting to unleash hell across the planet," she said.

"This is a moment for leaders to step up, especially those of the world's two superpowers, the US and China - both ravaged by the effects of the climate crisis in the past year.

"If China fails to move away from coal then global emission targets will be impossible to meet ... If the US does not deliver on its promises to poorer nations to provide financial support for their net-zero transitions, its credibility ... will be diminished."

I fully endorse her conclusion that "climate change is not a deal, a transaction between big powers; it is about everyone's security".

Joan Sheedy's "gym will be missed" letter (September 20) resonates with many "Ken Behrens". The AIS aqua program provided me with a regular fitness regime twice a week, and also a place where I felt comfortable and supported exercising after surgery.

So, why now, AIS? Why now, when participation numbers were high? Why discourage healthy pathways for all, but especially the elderly - the fit, the not-so-fit, both male and female? Why take this community activity away from them?

School swimming classes will continue. Do the older members of our community get to be forgotten once more?

In their article "Can this relationship be saved?" (September 20, p25) Romain Fathi and Claire Rioult wonder how Australia can mend its relationship with France after our government's knee-jerk reaction to its submarine dilemma.

There is a solution: buy the tried and trusted French Barracuda-class nuclear-powered submarines "off the shelf". This would help mend the relationship with France, save a lot of money, and leapfrog the 20-year wait for the AUKUS subs.

South Australians would still be trained to maintain the submarine fleet, and could also be employed to construct submersible drones for closer-to-home defence. The Americans and the British would be upset, but they'd get over it.

Thanks to the belligerence of LNP administrations under Turnbull and Morrison, our trading relationship with China is in tatters.

Now, thanks to the ham-fisted diplomatic efforts of the Morrison government, it looks more than likely that efforts to take up the slack with an agreement with the EU will be stymied by the French.

The Americans aren't going to bail out our farm sector. The Brits stabbed us in the back when they first went European, and in any event are too insignificant when it comes to filling the void.

What is the future of our wine makers, barley growers, beef producers and other agricultural producers under this government?

A homophone for AUKUS is Orcus. Orcus was a god of the underworld, and the punisher of oath breakers in Italic and Roman mythology. As with Hades, the name of the god was also used for the underworld itself. How appropriate.

So millions are going to be spent on mental health support for locked-down Canberrans. Just let us go to the hairdresser.

My advice to our redoubtable "acting" Prime Minister Barnaby is that if he must keep shooting himself in the foot, he needs to stop taking aim first.

A Tasmanian newspaper has described the violent protests in Melbourne as a "scum rebellion", and even the union spokesman described them as "drunken morons". You mean our fellow Australians? This is who we are.

The way this born-to-rule, arrogant and ignorant Coalition government goes about its "business" is nothing short of jaw-dropping. If you're caught out doing something particularly sneaky, or (allegedly) illegal, you only have to sit on the reserves bench for a while before getting back in the game. Vote the bastards out.

Alastair Bridges complains about not being able to get a haircut (Letters, September 22). As someone who has gone from looking like Michael Douglas to bearing an uncanny resemblance to Nosferatu through no fault of their own, I wish I had Alastair's problem.

Is Angela Kueter-Luks (Letters, September 20) aware that our Prime Minister was parachuted into his seat just like Kristina Keneally?

How is it that he is not just as unworthy as she?

Is it that Tu Le is worth sticking up for, while the popular local Liberal candidate who was pushed out by the PM was not?

I'm with you on this France. Zero diplomacy, zero respect from this current Australian government.

Australia's treatment of France over the submarine contract is rather like the husband who ends a marriage by announcing his engagement to another woman.

The failure to spell out a local reopening lockdown plan begs the question: does the ACT government really have one?

Christian Porter would be better placed if he used his (not so) secret account to construct a legal strategy that just might protect him from the one person most responsible for the damage to his reputation.

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