We're the bad drivers who will only breed more bad drivers

On reading the State of the Environment Report 2023 recently presented to the ACT government I was shocked to learn that Eastern Grey kangaroos are classed as an invasive species. It is safe to say the persons who made that call are indeed, without a doubt, invasive species and have wrought utter destruction on much of Australia's iconic wildlife and natural processes in this region. These people continue to neglect and mismanage the spread of invasive weeds (that must be removed under legislation) left to seed and spread year after year.

This has contributed to a serious loss of biodiversity of local flora and fauna in our surrounding nature reserves.

Add to that the impending risk of fire in these reserves due to a massive build-up of dried grasses through lack of grazing. We are now paying contractors to mow and placing cattle to graze to mitigate the risk of fire. Not to mention another six species have been added to the endangered list.

Surely, we should expect people tasked with protecting our environment to perform at a higher level than what is currently occurring.

Agreeing with the "Normalising alcohol use" letter from Jorge Gapella (Letters, March 23), I would add further observations to this topic.

Attending a recent fundraising event for cancer, I reflected on the irony of the amount of alcohol present and consumed at a health awareness event.

The Australian love of alcohol continued its long history: overconsumed by attendees such that the MC had difficulty making himself heard, bottles of alcohol given as door prizes and multiple alcohol gifts donated for the fundraising auctions.

Alcohol is a risk factor for cancer. The World Health Organisation states there is no safe level of alcohol consumption for cancer, and the harmful use of alcohol is a causal factor in more than 200 disease and injury conditions.

Yet there are very few social occasions in Australia where drinking alcohol is not encouraged. Alcohol is an intrinsic part of Australian culture and drinking and heavy drinking are seen as acceptable. Of course there are those who drink responsibly but most Australians would not know what the safe drinking guidelines are.

Western Australia is not afraid to be hard-hitting with its "What's your poison?" and "Alcohol. Think again" campaigns.

How refreshing it would be to attend an event where drinking alcohol is not encouraged.

I was appalled to read the last few lines of a quote from Road Policing Inspector Travis Mills in The Canberra Times on Friday, March 22. He urged cyclists to opt for the safest travel option and said, "If this young lady was on the cycle lane, she wouldn't have lost her life ...".

He may not have meant it, but it was blatant victim blaming and appalling taste. I would have thought that any police officer in this situation would have had media training and would have realised that his final comments were inappropriate and unbelievably distressing to the family and friends of the victim.

Words are powerful and need to be used wisely. A more fitting final comment would have been, "every road user has the right to expect their fellow travellers to adhere to the road rules". This young woman would not have died if the driver of the car that hit her had done just that.

This government must be out of its mind if it thinks it can get away with the declaring kangaroos as invasive species. Canberrans are sick to death of this undemocratic and dismissive government. With political parties, such as the Animal Justice Party, the Belco party, some independents and the Liberal Party all against killing kangaroos, this is now a political issue. The Labor-Greens coalition's time in power is up. We are fed up with the dishonesty from Andrew Barr, Shane Rattenbury and Rebecca Vassarotti about kangaroos. Canberrans want and demand vegetated overpasses around our nature reserves to allow our precious wildlife to move around safely.

Kathryn Kelly claims the anti-Israel rallies around Australia aren't anti-Semitic (Letters, March 24). They aren't if they're just criticising Israeli policies, but they are anti-Semitic if they're calling for the destruction of the Jewish state by, for example, chanting that from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

She says Israel is not the same as the Jewish people, but for the vast majority of Jews around the world, Zionism is an integral part of their Judaism. Again, when she says, not all Jews support the defunding of UNRWA, the elected representatives of the community do, as do the vast majority of Jews. This is not only because of the established links between Hamas and UNRWA, but also because UNRWA schools incite hatred of Israel, while UNRWA perpetuates Palestinians' refugee status and by uniquely including all descendants, adds to their number, to wield as a political weapon against Israel, rather than solving the refugee problem, as is done for every other refugee population.

Teachers and principals are abused and even injured by parents and their children. Truly. A hard-working princess is ridiculed because she used AI in a photo to tidy her daughter's cardigan and worn tiles on the floor. A presidential candidate can disparage Australia's ambassador to the USA with no supporting evidence.

There is less and less courtesy on our roads. School principals and our precious teachers in Canberra should have better things to do than deal with abusive parents.

Has a whole generation missed learning about kindness, courtesy and basic good manners - just how to be nice - and is passing the ignorance on to their children? Is it reasonable to blame social media where it is easy, even clever to practise ridiculing and rudeness? Or is it storylines in television programs that leave out respect? Do we need a slogan as catchy as "Slip slop slap" and "Care for kids"?

Just be nice. Let's make a start by deluging our kids' teachers with thank you notes. Thank a teacher today.

Excellent that the majority of Australians support a fuel efficiency standard. The Coalition walked away from introducing fuel efficiency standards back in 2016 and, according to the Australia Institute, we have since spent $5.9 billion more on fuel than we would have otherwise. Nine million tonnes of climate pollution would also have been prevented by 4000 megalitres of fuel not imported and burnt to power the less efficient cars on our roads, and some of the deaths as a result of vehicle exhaust pollution would have been avoided. Now is the time for the Albanese government to introduce a strong vehicle efficiency standard that will accelerate the benefits offered by efficient, cleaner cars.

I am a volunteer English teacher. Last week I asked our group to tell us about aspects of Australia that they thought were good, but also about anything which they thought was worse than in their home country. After a pause for thought, one student piped up. She said that she hated the way some Australians used foul language as if it were just a part of normal life and vocabulary. Once she had spoken up, others added their agreement, in no uncertain terms.

So it saddened me, two days later, to read Cris Kennedy's review of the new British film Wicked Little Letters (Panorama, Saturday), in which he extols the use of bad language, saying that he grew up on it. Is this, I wonder, the impression of Australia that we want to give to those newly arrived on our shores and, indeed, to those growing up here who represent the future of this country and its values?

At the recently held Tasmanian election poetic justice has prevailed as the two former Liberal members, John Tucker and Lara Alexander, who defected and became independents, have both lost their seats.

Members should not be allowed to change party or become independents as it is a betrayal of those that voted for them.

The provisional election result is indicative that the days of the two-party dominance in Australian politics is slowly but surely being eroded, and that's a change for the better and long overdue.

United Nations secretary general Antonio Gutteres called Israel's blockade of unfettered humanitarian aid to Gaza a "moral outrage".

That is precisely what it is and every man and woman of conscience everywhere in the world knows that.

This is a shameful indictment against the far-right Israeli state. It shows itself to be devoid of humanity and human decency.

If indeed it does take 10 to 20 years to build a nuclear reactor, then if they kicked off now, it should surely be nearly ready for use around the same time as Barr's Labor ghost trams to nowhere being done and dusted. All for around the same bargain price.

That would then be what's known as a "win-win" and cause for double celebrations.

The chances of either ever happening are right up there with my Western Bulldogs, West Ham and St George all winning a premiership. Ever.

About half the number of times I think I should write a letter to the editor, do I actually sit at the PC and compose a letter.

About half of these letters I compose - after reflection - do I actually send to the editor.

About half the letters I send to the editor get published.

About half of these letters, when I read them in the CT, I think "that's a bit silly."

Christopher Bantick suggests that we should help and support Canberra poets.

To do so, why not follow the example of London's popular "Poems on the Underground".

Poems could be displayed in trams and at light rail stops and in buses.

The poets would gain a wider readership and payment for the display of their poems and we travellers could have more stimulating and inspiring journeys.

Much of the controversy over kangaroos being an invasive species misses critical points.

One being that, although Eastern Greys are native to Australia, they are not native to the Canberra region in current numbers.

The bush clearances and elimination of dingoes has favoured increased numbers especially against species of wallabies.

Indeed paintings by early European settlers generally show wallabies rather than Eastern Greys.

In this day and age, I cannot understand how royalty can fit into any sort of democracy but I bear no malice toward the young royal who is facing a cancer scare.

What does bemuse me is the fact that the world media can't decide whether to spell her name with a C or a K.

I am delighted to see that the former senator, Eric Abetz, has resurrected his political career, albeit in the relatively shallow pool of Tasmanian state politics.

Over the years his statements and attitudes have done far more for the cause of progressive politics than any left-wing advocate.