Not all is rosy in a world where negative gearing reigns

The income foregone from their negative gearing by the government is more than paid back by not having to pay a pension to them when they retire. Everyone benefits. Right? Unfortunately, it looks like Mr Whittaker has overlooked two small but important points in his view.

It assumes the pensions Jack and Jill forego in 20 years' time are the same as now. But pensions have been decreasing over time, reliance on superannuation has increased, and exemptions for homes and investment properties have reduced. Jack and Jill would probably not have qualified for a pension even without a negatively geared investment property.

And who is renting Jack and Jill's property? Let's hypothecate Mrs Smith, a cleaner, who can't afford to buy a home, much less an investment property. What happens when she retires? Mrs Smith can't afford this house anymore. She has to move to public housing. The government has to pay her pension in full.

Mr Whittaker's Jack and Jill are already in the top 3 per cent of household income (more than $200,000 per year, according to 2019-2020 tax figures). Maybe he should consider the other 97 per cent of Australians who get a pretty raw deal from negative gearing.

Regarding your editorial "Dutton's lazy, cheap crack at Canberra and the public service" (March 9).

The succession of Liberal prime ministers who hate Canberra is readily explained.

They were all from NSW (even Dutton's Queensland was once part of NSW).

I think that even after more than a century they are still snitchy that Sydney didn't become the capital of Australia at federation.

That's a long time to hold a grudge.

I was quite concerned to read the piece "Cop at centre of NRL starts saga working in 'non-operational role'" (March 6).

I do question why such an article, disclosing the operational status of a police officer would really need to be published.

I accept that in this matter, some mistakes were made and admitted to, and that the police officer in question, Sergeant David Power, is under investigation. In due course, those mistakes may have consequences. For police officers, mistakes can end otherwise distinguished careers with devastating results.

Sergeant Power's service to ACT Policing and Canberra spans years, and among his colleagues he is known as a trusted mate and colleague always willing to support others.

Police officers aren't robots. They're human, often victims and have the potential to make errors, just like anyone else can. As president of the AFPA, I'm very aware of the mental health risks police officers face. Articles like this have a significant detrimental effect on the persons mentioned.

In my opinion, this article was unnecessary. It has resulted in harm and suffering for Sergeant Power and his family, and for what purpose? Clicks? I also question the rationale of naming Sergeant Powers' psychologist. Is naming the treating psychologist in the public interest? No, it is not.

Every person that reads the article now knows that Sergeant Power is receiving psychological treatment; how is that fair and how does that assist his treatment?

If we need a timely reminder of why Tim Buckley is right to oppose nuclear energy in Australia just look at what's happened with Britain's Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. ("Nuclear red herring a betrayal of Aussies," March 9).

When it was announced in 2009 the cost was £9 billion and the completion date was 2017. Now the former has blown out to £34 billion (A$66 billion) and the latter to 2030.

Do we really want to saddle ourselves with such an industry when cheaper alternatives are available?

The sentiments in Monday's editorial ("How lucky are we to live in Canberra", March 11) corroborate a comment that my daughter recently made (she is born and bred Canberran, now in Melbourne).

On my recent visit she asked what we should do for the day and I suggested going for a drive to which she replied "you don't go anywhere in Melbourne without a purpose".

I thought how wonderful and accessible it is to live in Canberra where we can hop in the car and "go for a drive" and within half an hour, you can be transported to any manner of sights and experiences, cultural, recreational, sporting and even retail, without the distance, congestion and parking woes of other major capital cities.

And then there is the weather, the beauty of the seasons and the flora and fauna.

Don't get me wrong, Canberra has its issues and challenges; it's the price we pay for living in a capital city. But just look around you. See and experience all the wonderful things Canberra has to offer, every day.

Jack Kershaw's letter (March 9) on the construction of the W2 building in Woden deserves follow-up action.

Presumably someone in ACT government signed off this appalling proposal despite what appear to be glaring errors. That decision should be reviewed.

The builder and developer should be given the choice to either knock it down now or not be allowed to build anything else in the ACT for the next 15 years.

The concern about Princess Charlotte's hand in a new photo that was released and then recalled has hit the top of many news feeds which shows this might be a very slow news day.

Her hand does look odd, as though her arm was being held by an invisible person. Most governments have faceless people manipulating events but the royals seem to have stepped this up with invisible assistants.

Should we be surprised by a possibly manipulated photo when monarchies have been manipulating their citizens for centuries?

The photo shows her as a mum with three children, maybe the media can leave her and her family alone until she is well and truly recovered from her medical treatment.

Roderick Holesgrove fears what will happen to the two-state solution if Donald Trump becomes US president again (Letters, March 8).

First, it's not just Netanyahu who currently opposes a two-state solution, it's the majority of Israelis. This is because every time Israel withdraws from land it gets attacked from there by terrorists. Currently, the Palestinians are led by Hamas in Gaza and in the West Bank, by the Palestinian Authority which praised the October 7 attacks, and has previously rejected every single one of the many Israeli offers of statehood and other attempts to encourage peace.

Israelis will make peace if there's a genuine partner on the Palestinian side, and they no longer feel a Palestinian state will threaten their safety.

Last time Trump was president, realising Palestinian intransigence was the obstacle to peace, he facilitated the Abraham Accords, which led to actual peace in the Middle East, between Israel and Arab states.

Jasmine Macdonald's article "Abuse rates will only rise if we keep brushing aside victim's stories" (March 8) seems to ignore salient facts.

The most recent ABS Personal Safety Survey found "experience of emotional abuse by a partner in the last 12 months" for 2021-2022 showed that in the 12 months prior to the survey women and men were almost equally likely to report experiencing emotional abuse by a current or previous partner (4.8 per cent or 451000 women and 4.2 per cent or 381,200 men).

Another data point is the proportion of male victims of domestic homicide. In 2022 there were 71 female victims and 64 male victims, males representing 47 per cent of such deaths. The numbers speak for themselves.

The answer to Leon Arundell's question about the name of the AWM (Letters, March 11) is contained in the Australian War Memorial Act, 1980.

It says the role of the AWM is to maintain and develop the national memorial to "Australians who have died: on or as a result of active service; or as a result of any war or warlike operation in which Australians have been on active service".

China is granting visa exemption to many European citizens but not to Australians so far. Given we are part of Asia and that many Chinese citizens live, study, invest and buy properties here I was expecting we would get more favourable visa treatment.

Ian Warden in his Saturday column asked readers to craft a slogan about their suburb akin to Manly's "Seven miles from Sydney and a 1000 miles from care". How about "Gowrie, nowhere near Belconnen"?

In response to Ian Warden's request for slogans dare I suggest the following: "Kambah, seven miles from Civic, and 1000 miles from Civic".

Dutton's spokesperson for "government waste reduction" should concentrate efforts on sewage. The opposition's in-office record illustrated incompetence in finance allocation and a lack of integrity.

I'm just wondering which of the three words "stupid white bastard" caused offence to the police officer?

Columnist Jenna Price tells us it's not racist to use the adjective "white" in our abuse of stupid bastards. Presumably "black", "brindle" or "yellow" wouldn't pass muster. Is "fat" out but "skinny" in? What about "old" or "bald"? I don't see why it is necessary to use racial terms at all. Surely "stupid" goes far enough?

Why am I supposed to support a well-known athlete who allegedly goes to a function, gets drunk, throws up in a cab, abuses the cab driver to the extent police have to be called and then abuses the police while getting paid an obscene amount of money to kick a bag of wind around?

I wonder what would have been the reaction had Sam Kerr called the English cop a "Pommy bastard", the expression we Aussies frequently used years ago - with total immunity and often acclamation?

I urge all your readers to go online and watch the whole 70 minutes of Joe Biden's recent State of the Union address. It was a brilliant speech, moving and inspiring, with a dash of self-deprecation and humour. Joe reminded Americans that "it's not how old you are but how old your ideas are''.

It's true. The Coalition really does have a serious "woman problem" to contend with. Their names are Sussan Ley, Jane Hume and Michaelia Cash.

If the LNP had gone nuclear in 2014 we would, on Dutton's timeline, have a reactor by now. What happened? Not a good idea at the time?