Governments should reintroduce mask mandates as crisis looms

It beggars belief that, almost in the same breath, we are told of the possible alarming increase of COVID-19 variant infections - yet mandates for mask wearing have been lifted. Sure, we are urged to take personal responsibility but one only has to see the low level of compliance to reinforce reality of "she'll be right mate". The same goes for voluntary vaccination figures.

Crispin's analogy with road safety and seat belts rings true. That's why we installed them in a new car in 1963 - well before they became mandatory. If we cannot be responsible for our own actions when it seriously impacts others, then it has to be mandated. COVID is serious - ignore whinging about inconvenience and balancing economic impacts against people's lives - mandate vaccinations and masks.

So we are left to our own judgement on wearing masks because the ACT government thinks mandatory mask wearing won't work. Well judgement isn't working either given the number of maskless people out and about.

I understand that it is difficult to mandate and police mask wearing in places where people drink and eat. However, there are many of us who can and do avoid such places in the midst of the most infectious times of the pandemic.

What we can't do is chose to avoid places which we must visit such as shops, supermarkets, transport and health services. We need to not only protect ourselves in such places, but also protect the workers there so they can continue their service.

Please Health Minister take some action and mandate mask wearing in those places where we have no choice but to attend.

Kym MacMillan (Letters, July 14) argues the Frontier Wars do not meet "any definition of war". The problem he has is that one of the War Memorial's functions under the Australian War Memorial Act 1980 sections 3 and 5 is "to disseminate information relating to Australian military history" and "Australian military history" covers, according to the Act, "wars and warlike operations" [such as peacekeeping].

That definition surely covers a range of activities that would satisfy even Kym MacMillan.

Kym MacMillan (Letters, July 14) claims there was "no such thing as the frontier wars".

Speaking as an historian who has researched this subject for more than 40 years, I can assure him that he is egregiously wrong. British regiments conducted campaigns against Aboriginal resistance for 50 years.

In 1838, for example, Mounted Police (a British military unit raised in Sydney) conducted a campaign against the Kamilaroi on the Liverpool Plains, "acting under orders", as its commander wrote in an official report.

Mr McMillian might consult my 1986 book The Remote Garrison: the British Army in Australia for substantiation - or indeed the massive literature on the subject that now exists.

The AWM needs to acknowledge honestly the first war fought by and against Australians. It does not need ignorant apologists.

Well, at least Alan Hutchinson (Letters, July 11) doesn't claim to "feel soiled" like one The Canberra Times reader did after reading a mainstream alternative point of view, but goes close regardless.

Trump's alleged personal failings, exaggerated to a somewhat hysterical degree by our media, have nothing to do with how he ran America. Separate character from conduct like we had to with Kennedy and Clinton. Credit where it's due.

Trump simultaneously cut American emissions by 12 per cent and increased production of oil and gas, mostly by the genius of fracking, thus freeing America and the world from the threat of economic blackmail from the Arabs and Russia, as is the case in Europe now.

This was a near miracle and exemplary international behaviour.

He confronted communist China over their general bastardry, including industrial and patent theft, and proliferating emissions. He tried reason and diplomacy with North Korea.

He reduced unemployment to 3.5 per cent, especially benefiting minorities. So much so he broke the Democrats' hold on the Hispanic vote in particular.

The Dow hit 30,000 points, the highest for any Republican president for 90 years.

It can only get worse for those on the left. Ron de Santis looks like getting the Republican nomination for 2024, not Trump.

De Santis is even more conservative and almost as proactive than Trump, he's Hispanic, a Catholic just like JFK, and has no obvious character flaws. A nightmare for the Democrats.

I fully agree with your editorial "The Greens need to get real on climate" (canberratimes.com.au, July 14).

The Greens' climate policy aims for goals such as reducing emissions to be greenhouse gas neutral or negative by 2035, 100 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources as soon as possible, no new coal or gas-fired power plants, existing coal-fired power plants to be decommissioned, and the Australian government to divest from fossil fuel extraction and use.

These goals are extreme, but there is a goal that borders on insane. The Greens state that "a safer climate will require a return to an atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide, or lower", a level not seen for at least the last one million years. This is an impossible goal.

The Greens must learn to negotiate and accept compromise or they will achieve little or nothing.

This coming Saturday the traffic island opposite the Russian Federation Embassy will see people from around Australia congregate to remind the occupants and others of the murder of 298 civilians aboard Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, with 38 Australians among them.

This is of massive importance to those family members of the deceased who will attend.

Motorists passing the demonstration should let anyone behind those gates know that it remains important to everyday Australians as well.

I "discovered" The Canberra Times at the Hotel Montebianco in Santiago in the 90s. At breakfast, three (very senior) German engineers were reading out and commending a three-week old letter from (I think?) Paul Wayper of Cook.

With newfound awareness and soon after, I asked an Indian lady at the shared BA lounge at LAX if I might grab her discarded The Canberra Times ... "Most certainly, I found it at Heathrow, it is really very interesting".

Best of all, a whole three hours earlier at the old Kai Tak Hong Kong, (essentially already home) the odd red and that glorious view watching a multitude of precarious aircraft landings with a one-day-old The Canberra Times donated from some Swiss businessman (sheer luxury).

I put it to you Mario Stivala of Belconnen, J Adamson of Flynn, Dr Douglas Mackenzie of Deakin, a host of others; and of course our eminently sensible Jenny Golding, that all your words, observations and opinions travel far beyond Canberra. I have no doubt that a small department in The People's Republic of China record and analyse every word you utter.

Private Parker did not die in the Boer War ("AWM should recognize those who fought in the frontier wars", Letters, July 9). The first Boer War was fought in 1881, and no Australian colonial troops took part in this war. Private Parker was killed in the South Africa War which was fought over the period 1899 - 1902. That war is often referred to as the Second Boer War by many historians. A good number of relevant memorials, including here in Australia, list the war's title as The South Africa War.

In addition, the title that appears on the war's two medals, the Queen's South Africa Medal, 1899-1902, and the King's South Africa Medal, 1901-1902, list the War as "South Africa".

In addition, The Oxford Companion To Australian Military History lists the War as the "Second Boer War or South Africa War".

Thank you Gordon Fyfe for your letter (Letters, July 10) praising the medical workers during your recent visit to the Emergency Department. I could not agree more but I have to ask why did I spent six hours in a corridor waiting for a bed and then another three hours waiting to see the doctor? A nine-hour wait is totally unacceptable, but then we need money for the "light rail".

Interesting letter Greg Trigg (Letters, July 14). Question: Did Trump "gild the lily" too much or is he just tactless?

If Roo is about (near Sulwood Drive) where then, are Kanga, Piglet and Pooh? Not to mention Christopher Robin.

The "climate wars" began in 2009 when Kevin Rudd ignored the Greens and then refused to negotiate with them. Albanese risks making the same mistake.

Watching the brutal Origin series decider as a student of sociology I couldn't help noticing the exhibition of a dark side of humanity: the savagery associated with tribalism. We already have a good deal of that going on with our preoccupation with war and militarism. Sports should be spared that Neanderthal mentality.

Some letter writers (mostly, it seems, those of conservative bent) keep calling those who disagree with their views, "whingers". Try looking in the mirror folks - or maybe even move out of your glass houses.

Following several simultaneous resignations amongst ministers in the UK parliament, PM Boris Johnson offered his resignation. The same should apply to the Victorian Premier Dan Andrews for the very same reason.

As a regular runner through the nature reserve which adjoins Hughes/Garran and Red Hill, I too note the near total absence of kangaroos since the start of the nocturnal shooting. Let's get real. The government sanctioned shooting is about reducing the number of cars being damaged when a 'roo is hit. It's about money, not preserving wildlife and habitat.

The article on the Model Y Telsla car (The Canberra Times, July 9) would have been more informative if it had given the distance ranges for city and country driving and a discussion of battery explosion safety in an accident.

Early explorers conceived Australia as having an "inland sea", a feature which might well be realised were Perrottet to actualise his dam-raising, knee-jerk reaction, while cooler heads would propose the environmentally and monetarily less expensive, more permanent relocation option.