ACT government must act to alleviate inmate boredom at the Alexander Maconochie Centre

I am unsure if Mr Gentleman has been to the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC), let alone spoken to the detainees housed there, following the loss of their liberty due to breaking the law.

Yes, losing their liberty is punishment.

I applaud Neil McAllister for his candour in exposing the numerous issues impacting detainees at the AMC.

However, I am concerned that he "left" his role in March. Did he walk, or was he pushed?

As a social justice advocate, one of my passions is justice reform. From what I have seen and heard, there is nothing reformative about the AMC; it appears to be anything but.

Detainees at the AMC are indeed bored out of their minds and at times some turn to substance abuse for relief.

There is no industry, limited reformative programs, and limited access to education.

I have had the opportunity to speak to several detainees at the AMC. Most have said they would prefer to be in the NSW custodial system. I find that very telling.

The ground-breaking "human rights" prison is a complete farce.

I implore Mr Gentleman to face up to the reality of how detainees are being prepared (or rather, not prepared) to assimilate into the community upon their release.

It is indeed a strange country we live in where people like David McBride and Richard Boyle face years in prison for doing little more than upsetting the political classes with news of government misbehaviour.

And yet we have nearly daily evidence of serious corruption and rorting by the same political class who get to just sail merrily along with their taxpayer-funded lifestyles.

Did I read right? $76 million wasted on a new human resources management system just to be abandoned and now at least another $17 million to be spent on upgrading the old system.

Chris Steel is "disappointed". No apology. Nothing to see here.

What a disgraceful waste of ratepayers' money. This government needs to go.

I am one of the protesters who stand across the road from the Russian Embassy during the week and on Saturdays, solely because I strongly oppose the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

I demand the Russian ambassador publicly retract his claim that the protesters are paid to protest.

He made it up to denigrate us.

I also note that the current Russian embassy complex is quite large and comprises a number of buildings.

There is no legitimate need for two Russian embassy sites.

Matthew Dickerson's article about the running costs of EVs makes interesting reading ("Taking the measure of how EV running costs stack up", canberratimes.com.au, July 3).

Not only is the cost of running an EV around 75 times cheaper than running a petrol car, taking into account the conversion of coal-fired energy to power, the fuel efficiency of an EV is also much higher.

This means less pollution from burning coal.

Plus, tail-pipe emissions are zero. Reducing pollution as well as running costs, should be good incentives for those in the market for an electric vehicle.

There were a few decades around Federation and after World War II when Australians were an optimistic lot; willing to take a punt that we could become a generous, inclusive people, committed to human rights and to helping those who are struggling.

But for the past four decades or so, we have been encouraged to give priority to our own needs.

At the moment, we seem to be drifting towards telling the most disadvantaged group in our community that we won't recognise in our Constitution that they have been here for more than 60,000 years before us.

Nor will we confirm that we agree to their having the right to give us their views on matters of concern to them.

The reason they feel the need to ask this is that we have virtually never really listened to what they think would help them climb out of the disadvantage which we plunged them into.

We've always known better and it seems that we still think we do.

Are we really that frightened of the most disadvantaged 3.8 per cent of our population simply telling us what they think?

It will be a sad day for Australia if we deny them this right.

Ameeta Jain ("Rent freeze and rent caps will only worsen the problem", canberratimes.com.au, July 2) made some salient points about the vicious costs cycle for owners of residential rental properties and the potential impacts on renters.

Ms Jain's arguments could be enhanced if she researched the effects on rents being sought by owners of state and territory government charges.

These charges include significant land rates increases, the unconscionable land tax, and rising utilities such as water and sewerage.

These government-created charges add thousands of dollars to the rents that people pay.

However, Ms Jain's suggestion to ease building restrictions and scrap red-tape for new construction projects is demonstrably a high-risk solution to easing the housing crisis.

The Building Code of Australia and the regulatory framework was changed in 1996 with the objective of removing perceived obstacles to the construction process and delivering lower construction costs.

One element was moving building certification from the public to the private sector.

Empirical research would likely show that the quality of residential construction (including apartment complexes) has fallen and resulted in poorly built buildings that have had significant financial and emotional consequences for buyers.

Rather than further ease regulations and red tape, it might be better for buyers and renters, productivity and the economy to either tighten the system by making regulators properly fulfil their obligations or by adding regulation that protects buyers.

Why is it relevant that The Canberra Times readers are made aware that a female fronting the courts is a grandmother or not?

Two recent articles about a woman charged with an offence, and eventually found guilty, were titled "Grandma allegedly involved in vigilantism" (canberratimes.com.au, June 27) and "Grandma kicked suspected child burner" (canberratimes,com.au, June 27).

The crime was committed alongside her son who was also found guilty.

After seeing those "Grandma" headlines, I was expecting to read a story about an elderly lady committing a crime.

Instead, I read that the woman is only 54 years old. The fact that along the way in her life she became a "grandma" has nothing to do with the fact that she committed a crime as an adult woman.

And if it had been a male offender aged 54 would The Canberra Times have inserted a "Grandpa" headline? I doubt it.

I think we should just fill in Lake Burley Griffin and be done with it.

First, it would remove the logistical and technical challenges of the light rail route across the lake.

It would also free up lots of space for a new convention centre, a redeveloped theatre precinct, an Olympic-size pool and a new stadium fit for rugby league, rugby union, AFL, soccer and cricket, with a 30,000-seat capacity and parking spots for all of them.

Rohan Goyne cites "the GST betrayal" as an example of the "Greens politicking at the expense of the Australian people" (Letters, June 29).

He appears to be confusing the Greens with the Australian Democrats.

When the goods and services tax bill was passed by the Senate on June 28, 1999, the only Greens' representative in the Parliament, Bob Brown, voted against it.

Of the seven Australian Democrats' senators present during the vote, however, five voted to pass it.

I just got Senator David Pocock's first annual report. What a blast of fresh air he is as our senator. Really active on national and local issues. Congratulations to him for a top performance. More of the same please.

We expect perfect behaviour from sportspeople and politicians, a standard many of us don't reach, while CEOs earn inflated incomes and face no criminal charges for underpaying staff.

Perhaps Allegro Funds will appoint Gladys and Daryl as lead partners for their newly acquired one-dollar government consultancy business. What could possibly go wrong?

As Andrew Barr abandons the idea of a city stadium that seems to be the preference of most stakeholders, he should pause to remember that 23 years ago the redevelopment of Bruce Stadium cost a Liberal chief minister her job.

I'm fed up of the term "Women's Ashes". It is not the Ashes. That's the men's game played over five Tests. The women's game is one Test, some one-day internationals and T20s. It's a jamboree, not the Ashes.

Politicians purport to seek to make integrity a touchstone for their behaviour. The trouble is that most of them wouldn't recognise the commodity if they fell over it. And that they often do.

Certain whingeing Poms in the MCC have a damned hide to complain about a run-out which was technically correct but not about an overruled catch which was equally correct. But Australia has had the last laugh, twice over.

Same old Pommies. Always bleating.

When a controversial decision goes England's way the defence is always "ah, but it was deemed legal by the umpire". When a controversial decision goes the way of the opposition the outcry is always "cheats". A bunch of hypocrites at Lords on days four and five proves the point.

Mokhles Sidden (Letters, July 3) says the Indigenous Voice is a farce and asks whether it is "an attempt by Albo to distract voters". If he did some research he would find the Voice has been around for years. It was an LNP government that funded its development - as a distraction perhaps?

Dutton's wants to tell businesses what they should and shouldn't do about the Voice but not about the crippling cost-of-living pressures affecting the average household. Dutton should look in the mirror before he chastises others over a "culture war".