Politicians with rental properties have a conflict of interest

Last year I assumed the Albanese government's decision not to endorse the Greens' proposition to cap rents, as a way of dampening the national housing crisis, was simply political gamesmanship.

Don't give the Greens a "win" in view of their increasing in-roads in traditional Labor seats. However, the allegation that many MPs are also landlords raises another possibility.

Could it be that many Labor MPs oppose a rent cap in order to protect their own financial interests, and to curry favour with landlord MPs in the Coalition?

The Greens have signalled they will again oppose Labor's latest housing policy unless a cap is placed on rents. Data shows that rents in some capital cities increased by between 13 and 17 per cent last year, whereas the RBA increased interest rates by a much lesser amount.

It's time for the public to know which MPs in all parties are landlords, and for those people to declare a possible conflict of interest when housing policy is next debated.

It would appear that Roderick Holesgrove (Letters, January 11) doesn't believe that having had an established ancient social and national structure and having maintained a presence in a region for millennia entitles a people to exist on their traditional land.

His comparison with the Romans in Britain is nonsensical. The Romans left, but Jews remained in Israel even though their numbers were reduced by invasion, conquest and religious subjugation.

Would he apply his same logic to the claims of all indigenous people?

It seems the glib comments of an acting AFP inspector have excited the NIMBY brigade concerning the Summernats.

Having had a regulatory involvement with the event for over 25 years my observations are that the community and AFP can have as much social disorder and what might be considered offensive behaviour as it is prepared to tolerate.

Rather than taking a cheap shot, maybe the acting inspector would be better served to properly engage with the event and put in place proactive measures that are intended to address the apparent source of the said social concerns.

However, any reasonable assessment of the AFP's capacity to assist in the regulation of the harder social issues will find them wanting. The Canberra community does not get what it is paying for.

He suggests that what is needed is a "moron" checkpoint at the border. If that was thought to be an effective thing, I for one would not be trusting this AFP, and this acting inspector to undertake the activity.

If Roderick Holesgrove had ever watched The Life of Brian he would know the Romans' Italian descendants have just as strong a claim to Palestine as the hypothetical claim he alleges they may have over parts of Britain.

The Romans (and their Byzantine eastern empire offshoot) ruled Palestine from 63 BC to 638 AD (the Arab conquest).

Roderick Holesgrove's irredentist analogy is nonsensical (Letters, January 11). The Romans had, and the Italians have, an ancestral homeland and it wasn't the British Isles.

The Zionist Jews had no homeland, so by definition they couldn't "colonise".

They purchased land in their ancient homeland from Arab landlords. In 1929 such purchases by the Jewish National Fund caused the eviction of 2500 Arab farmers.

That was when the troubles really started.

The UN partition decision was based on actual Jewish presence.

It sucked for the Palestinian Arabs, but imagine how much better their lives would have been over the last 75 years if they had accepted that reality in 1947 (or 1949 after the attempt to destroy Israel blew up in their faces).

I don't see the Pomeranian and Silesian Germans living in "camps", celebrating victimhood and fantasising about wresting their former homeland from the Poles.

The recent storm of letters about conflict in the Middle East could perhaps be stopped now?

This decades-old conflict has had seeming endless attempts to find a peaceful outcome which continue to amount to naught.

Is it realistic that The Canberra Times letter writers, however erudite, really have any useful contribution worth publishing?

Can we have more on Summernats or other topics of national or ACT interest? Please.

One constantly hears how bad and inept Canberra's public hospital health system is. This is my experience.

Late last year, I presented to the ED of The Canberra Hospital. I was very ill. I was seen promptly and diagnosed with serious medical issues.

I was then admitted and treated in a competent and decent manner by absolutely everyone involved.

It couldn't have been done better. I couldn't find a single flaw. It's a gold standard global benchmark for how every hospital and health system (which also includes our great community nursing teams) should be run and done.

This hospital is like a hive collective. It's organised, a city within the city. One just has to go and sit near the hospital information area to see for yourself.

I would like to thank everyone involved, including the CEO Dave Peffer as I don't know how to thank you all enough.

Wow. Where to begin on Allan Orr's plea for the return of the alpha-male hegemony ("With a foreign legion, Australia's defence force decline is now terminal", January 8)?

I think I'll just opine that conservative alpha males are responsible for most of our current woes including the bad behaviour of our troops and the farcical operations they become involved in, never mind the climate crisis which military campaigns only worsen.

I say young people realise that we can't afford to indulge in this stupid, tragic destructive crap any more. But we will. We will trawl the world for people willing to continue the madness. That's why we're going down the drain.

Anyone opposing Athol Morris's hateful colonialist propaganda is anti-Semitic (Letters, January 8).

That has to include the many thousands of Jews who realise that Israel's policies are ensuring that Israelis cannot feel safe for the foreseeable future. You only have to read Jewish writers in Israeli newspapers as well as in the quality press in the US.

If Athol Morris has his way, that feeling of insecurity will extend to Jews everywhere.

Isn't it surprising that some people can't understand that those whose lands have been invaded and who are forced off their farms tend not to like it. Israel is ensuring a steady stream of new recruits for Hamas and Hezbollah.

It's time that the government recalled that it is made up of representatives of the electors. Yes, I know Burke's view that as a parliamentarian he had a responsibility to rise above the common mob. But that was a long time ago. Many people were either illiterate or unaware of wider implications.

How long must we suffer from Mr Morrison's wedges? According to the Roy Morgan poll he is the second or third least-trusted politician in the country. So why are we still being made to suffer his manipulations?

Beneath him at the bottom of the barrel is Mr Dutton, and just above Mr Morrison is Barnaby Joyce.

If this government cannot bring itself to rise above the wedges of those people we obviously have to begin identifying highly capable independents to represent us at the coming election.

Fifty years ago only about 5 per cent of Australians were getting a tertiary education. Now about 40 per cent are at that level. The electorates that set aside conservative politicians, and replaced them with highly educated, highly capable people of high integrity, comprised comparatively well educated, successful people.

It's time for the government to do what has already been identified and supported by electors.

Priorities include a major cut in immigration, immediate action on the Murray-Darling water management, axing the Morrison wedge on stage three tax cuts, action on corporate tax dodging and charging a market price for minerals (not a low "royalty").

Among the rash of Summernats comment I've noticed a steady usage of "curb" to mean "roadside". Let's curb this confusing driving on the right-hand side of the literary road and park where syntax is safer - at the "kerb".

I'm alleging that acting Inspector Richardson is guilty of failing to use correct police speak when addressing what happened over the last weekend. He should have referred to alleged burnouts by alleged hoons who are part of an alleged sub-species.

Good onya South Africa. Don't forget to cite the Americans. It is Yankee bombs that are killing the defenceless Palestinian women and children of Gaza.

Roderick Holesgrove says that to be even-handed, if we're going to criticise Russia's aggression towards Ukraine, we need to criticise Israel (Letters, January 7). But we are being consistent. We support Ukraine because Russia attacked it. We support Israel because Hamas attacked it. Both Israel and Ukraine are fighting wars of self-defence.

What else could lizard smuggling be, but a "cold-blooded" crime? ("'Cold blooded' $1.2m native lizard export ring busted", January 9).

Shelley McQueen (Letters, January 8) says that "Israel wants to continue the illegal occupation of Gaza ...". Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. McQueen's criticism is thus factually incorrect and hence meaningless.

How appropriate that an article about teachers should have a glaring error in the headline: "So why do we devalue they're work so greatly?" ("It's hardly a holiday for teachers", January 7). While the article has since been corrected my phone corrected 'they're' to 'their' of its own accord. Clearly it knew better than whoever wrote that headline.

Your correspondent tells us it is "wrong" for "cricketers, or actors, to use their professional platforms to promote personal views" (Letters, January 10). Why, precisely?

Every year for the rest of your life will be one of the hottest on record. This in turn means that 2023 and 2024 will end up being some of the coldest years of this century. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Now UK Foreign Secretary and former PM David Cameron is "worried" Israel has "taken action that might be in breach of international law" in its war on Gaza. In response, Al Jazeera senior journalist Professor Marwan Bishara said that has been in plain sight from the very beginning of the Israeli military campaign.