Canberra Labor should go it alone at this year's ACT election

I want to lob a tiny hand grenade into the mix and say to the Labor Party that I will not vote for them while they continue with their alliance with the ACT Greens.

The Greens have shown themselves to be a party of ideologues who are inept when it actually comes to governing the ACT and acting in the best interests of the ACT population.

Greens minister Rebecca Vassarotti, in my view, exemplifies this.

The Labor Party, in order to stay in government, has been forced to act with its hands tied behind its back because of the excessive influence of the Greens, and as a result has become tired, out-of-touch and ineffective in government.

Who will I vote for? A lot will depend on the quality of the candidates, many of whom are yet to be determined.

A lot has been said about David Pocock and his effectiveness as an independent. But candidates of his quality are rare. Not just any independent will do. There is much for voters to consider carefully between now and October.

D Boguz (Letters, July 9) warned that Senator Fatima Payman, and Muslim leaders contemplating running candidates, may cause division. He referred to the Cronulla riots and graffiti on mosques. He's right. We can't have those uppity Muslims expressing their opinions. Exercising their rights could provoke people into trying to stop them. It would be fault of the Muslims. Wouldn't it?

I live in a Canberra apartment complex which has a landscaped internal courtyard area with a seating area for all residents to enjoy.

Do I have to carry ID at all times, in case police accuse me of trespassing in my own apartment complex?

The recent police actions worry me. Assistant Commissioner Scott Lee's ABC interview does not explain why police believed the resident was an intruder.

Will they accuse me of being an intruder in my own apartment complex? I am not impressed.

If a neighbour thinks I look different, is that all it takes to have a carload of officers challenge my right to be there?

Re the article "Top lawyers lay into Attorney-General" (July 6) suggesting Shane Rattenbury is more concerned with politics and the election than with doing his job properly.

I find it even more outrageous that Shane Rattenbury, a Green, thinks it is morally acceptable to encourage and to pay the legal fees of a senior public servant in suing his own integrity commission.

This is presumably to prevent Labor/Greens embarrassment with potential corruption findings before the election.

It is even more surprising and frightening that the Liberal opposition is missing in action.

That seems to happen whenever there is an opportunity to oppose the Labor/Greens' government's most egregious actions.

The coming election is difficult for voters because none of the major parties has any credibility.

The policy of not naming juvenile offenders makes perfect sense and gives these individuals the chance to reform their ways.

But is it intended to provide lifelong anonymity for career criminals who fail to take advantage of this opportunity?

Surely those who continue with a life of crime, like the individual who undertook the armed robbery of Nick Kyrgios's car, have lost any right to anonymity.

Listening to the UK's incoming prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer outlining UK Labour's future aims, I was struck by the similarities to that of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in May 2022.

In both instances, the leaders spoke about a need to heal political divides to make life better for all, a process dependent upon the parliament and the community coming together in a spirit of common cause to redress the failings of the past.

The Starmer Labour government's clear mandate enables the UK reparative processes to proceed unhindered.

The Albanese government, despite having a similar mandate, has been denied in the Senate some of its reformative change since taking office. Sadly for the nation, our Senate has within it a significant number of senators who are always anti-Labor irrespective of the merits of the legislation in front of them.

This ham-fisted clique of naysayers includes among their number the LNP, the opportunistic Greens, and Hansonites.

This is clear proof we are not the cleverest of countries.

Please stop confusing average and median when talking about house prices in Canberra.

A recent The Canberra Times headline screeched "the ACT suburbs now with $1 million average".

The first paragraph says the average house in some of the ACT's quietest suburbs is set to pass the $1 million dollar mark in 2025. The very next paragraph says that more than 14 suburbs are predicted to see the median house price rise to $1 million.

Average and median are two very different things. Using the average is actually completely useless and misleading when talking about house prices.

If it's the median house price that is expected to rise, please use median. You can't use both, with the same dollar value, in the same sentence.

The report "Alarm rings: June sizzles to 13th straight monthly heat record" (July 9) begs the question "how high must temperatures go before governments take notice?"

It is also yet another warning for the world to cease burning fossil fuels as soon as possible.

This should begin with coal, still the main source of carbon dioxide, by far the most abundant heat-trapping gas in Earth's atmosphere. The reality is that the burning of coal, which initiated the process of global heating during the Industrial Revolution which began in the 1740s, is still increasing, including in Australia. For the sake of humanity, this dangerous folly must cease.

Now it's Turnbull's turn to plant the boot. This country was not built by naysayers and nervous nellies.

It will never solve its current and future problems of infrastructure, housing, power generation and climate protocols, unless it gets off its arse and does something. That includes embracing nuclear energy and building infrastructure for the future.

We will be condemning future generations to freeways that are actually parking lots, clogged airports, schools and hospitals that you can't get into unless there is some visionary action.

Rob Ey refers to Peter Martin's article which is based on an article in The Economist (July 7). The main point The Economist makes is that the cost of solar cells has fallen substantially.

But that's only part of the story. The Economist also notes that the cost of long-distance connections and storage (especially batteries) "takes time and money". Their cost offsets to varying degrees the cost advantage of solar cells. The estimated cost of HumeLink has risen from $1 billion in 2020 to $5 billion.

As for using rail to transport solar-powered batteries, that would only be feasible if there are railway lines near the solar arrays.

Herman van de Brug (Letters, July 8) has an interesting approach to combatting the vandalism and disruption of anti-Israel protestors: just give them what they want by being "even-handed".

We should never be even-handed between a democracy and the terrorists who attack it.

The protestors' "river to the sea" chants indicate they want nothing less than the destruction of Israel. Kow towing will encourage further inappropriate behaviour.

Following Sir Keir Starmer's win in the UK elections one of the British newspapers had a headline something along the lines of "King asks Sir Keir Starmer to form a government".

That's not the case. The King "instructs" the winner of a free and fair election he or she "must" form a government.

I look forward to the moment when Australians wake up and realise how outdated and irrelevant a constitutional monarchy is in the 21st century.

Is The Canberra Times trying to bait its readers by using "uptick" on the front page of Sunday's edition (July 7) of the paper? It is certainly an unwelcome Americanism in my opinion.

Our Catholic Prime Minister has stated he does not wish for Australia to have faith-based political parties. Yet, every sitting of our Parliament begins with a Christian prayer. So much for the separation of state and churches.

Despite Labour's resounding success in the recent UK election it managed to lose six safe Labour seats, all with substantial Muslim populations. PM Albanese should take note.

Foreign investment in our real estate market is pushing prices up. I wonder what the government is going to do. Nothing probably.

Surely the critical issue with the CIT scandal is were the products "fit for purpose"? If not there is no obligation to pay.

Is Mr Orban visiting Mr Putin to arrange a re-enactment of the suppression of Hungary by USSR tanks on November 4, 1956?

Re Rosemary Walters' letter (Letters, July 6) on the CIT corruption scandal. Doesn't the Canberra taxpayer have the right to know more of the thoughts of a "complexity thinker" worth $8 million of their money other than the advantages of climbing Mt Everest lightly equipped?

No Fred (Letters, July 8) under an obligation you are obligated, and remain legally or morally bound to do something. But I'll be obliged for our trying to see the difference as I had to.

Fred Pilcher is mistaken about the origins of "obligated" (Letters, July 8). It's not a recent coinage by Americans. Of the nine quotations from between 1533 and 1900 recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, only two - from 1753 and 1888 - are by American writers. The remaining seven were all by British writers.

The ABC has a program called Stuff the British Stole, the premise of which is that the British stole lots of things during the empire's heyday. In the interests of fairness will the ABC be making a program called "What the Spanish stole?" They looted big time from the Aztecs and Mayans in South America. No, I didn't think so.

It's great to see a good news story about public school kids. ("$10 million to get 1000 kids rowing", July 8). Keep up the good work.