Brits should apologise for treatment of Irish freedom fighters

Recently, prior to some volunteer work with the Macular Disease Foundation of Australia, I walked the route he and his fellow convicts took in chains from the cove up Macquarie Street to Hyde Park Barracks.

He was then allocated to the Surveyors of Roads for the colony of NSW.

He spent 10 years in chains on an iron gang before he received a ticket-of-leave to reside in the district of Queanbeyan at Tuggeranong Homestead.

He never returned to his native Ireland, eventually dying at the age of 78 at Tuggeranong Homestead.

In his later years he donated some of his land and built by hand the first public school in the Tuggeranong Valley.

He was transported for his rebellious activities in Queens County fighting to expel the British occupiers.

As well as handing back everything they looted during the age of empire, the new Starmer government should formally apologise for the transportation of Irish freedom fighters who opposed British occupation.

The intergenerational legacy demands nothing less.

European climate service Copernicus has recently reported heat records that are off the charts for June this year ("Alarm rings: June sizzles to 13th straight monthly heat record," July 9). In India recently, over a thousand people died in an extreme heatwave of over 52 degrees.

Meanwhile in Australia, our weather systems have also gone haywire.

A severe winter chill with record low temperatures has just hit Tassie, Adelaide and Melbourne. It's predicted that unusually heavy rain will follow on the east coast and inland.

These weird extremes are all signs of a climate breakdown.

Yet Labor continues to promote gas as a primary energy source for decades to come.

Surely it makes more sense to phase out this heavy pollutant for export and domestic use, keeping only a small amount as a reserve fuel.

The government's Future Gas Strategy is clearly not where our future lies.

Your article "Developers hoping it's third time lucky for Canberra apartment proposal" (July 5) reports that developer JWLand has reduced the number of residential apartments in its proposed Belconnen Exchange development in the Belconnen Town Centre from 550 to 495.

What isn't reported is that JWLand also intend to build an additional 292 "commercial accommodation units" on this block.

This is 787 apartments on a block of land where the crown lease clearly specifies no more that 550 apartments can be built. The strong community opposition to this development is focused on the over development of the block and the lack of sympathy the scale and design of this proposal has for the surrounding area.

If, as the developer suggests, "the proposal as it currently stands should be in a position to be able to be approved by the government" then we would need to question why have planning rules and guidelines. And why even bother to consult the community.

When the incredible Rosie Batty was named the Australian of the Year in 2015 I was stunned when she revealed that a woman was killed at the hands of her partner at least once a week.

Nearly 10 years on, I'm horrified that domestic violence deaths in Australia now seem to be occurring at the rate of almost one a day.

What the hell is going on?

How many more lives will be needlessly lost before men realise taking innocent lives is cowardice at its very worst.

If you're struggling to cope, please, please seek help.

This isn't something governments can fix. We need to find a solution within our communities.

It starts with individuals taking responsibility and for family, friends, and neighbours to speak out and provide whatever support they can.

Following Joe Biden's increasingly consuming obsession with President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine, the Democrats should cut out the middleman and replace him with Volodymyr Zelenskyy as candidate.

It would work given the amount of time bright, young Volodymyr is in Washington anyway.

That would achieve their major apparent policy goal (shared with establishment military-industrial Republicans) and tick all their perceived electoral boxes.

A key fact about Bungendore High School is that about 180 students a day will be bussed ("Bungendore Pool saved", July 7). This amounts to five buses before school and five after school.

The high school is designed to cater for Bungendore's existing population. Population growth in Bungendore will not occur because it is not approved by the NSW government due to insufficient mains drinking water supply.

Mick Sherd oval can be used by school children during school hours on school days under the legislation that authorised Mick Sherd oval to be established on crown land. What better use is there for the oval if not by our children?

The same applies to the swimming pool on crown land. This pool will be demolished because it will not be refurbished. It is being replaced with a new pool at the new sports hub. The half of the pool that is not on crown land is the proposed site for the school hall/gym and canteen.

The government's response to the parliamentary committee's report Rebuilding Employment Services is a sensible proposal to bring employment services back in-house.

This comes after two decades of private sector incompetence, self-interest, and profit taking off the back of the misery of the long-term unemployed.

Sure, the private providers have done a job of sorts in slotting people into jobs, predominantly where easy solutions have begged for action. But this has come at a huge cost to taxpayers, the screwing of employees in these private provider organisations, and mega profits of a number of the larger of those organisations.

For some providers this has been little more than a "get rich quick" scheme.

After two decades of this profligacy, the notion that government will bring back these services in-house has been met with the entirely predictable self-interested response from the peak lobby group's chief Kath Mandla along the lines of "we know better than you: we can do better than you etc".

In other words, how dare the government interrupt the profit-driven model by developing a strong APS stewardship of the employment services system.

Eric Hunter raised a good point (Letters, July 8). Do our MPs agree with the opening Parliamentary requests to "Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil".

Do they believe that only applies to them or to the population in general?

Do their actions and decisions support the welfare of all our country's people?

"I don't think and don't want Australia to go down the road of faith-based political parties because what that will do is undermine social cohesion". That's what Anthony Albanese said on July 5.

During Albanese's time in the Parliament there have been three "faith based" political parties.

They include the Australian Christians (2011-present), the Christian Democratic Party (1977-2022) and Family First (2002-2017) and (2021-present). I never heard Albanese oppose them.

Nor did I hear any opposition to the Australian Christian Lobby, perhaps the closest entity to "the Muslim vote", that seems to cause Albanese significant unease.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton asserts the next government could have "Muslim candidates from Western Sydney [and] it will be a disaster".

Deputy Leader Sussan Ley supports Dutton with "it's not Islamophobia to say that we don't want religious independents".

Wrong. It is if you only object to Muslim independents as is clearly the case.

The only people undermining social cohesion are the major party leaders.

No wonder they're losing votes to independents.

The voters are demanding better.

Perhaps as well as an envoy for anti-Semitism we could have a national envoy or commissioner for the environment charged with promoting the protection of the only home we have: Australia and its place on planet Earth.

The crew at Fix My Street deserve thanks for the job they did cleaning up Tilly's Reserve in Isaacs. Its looking spic and span.

I do insist on the importance of the usage of who and whom in a sentence according to the rule. "The public service boss whom I corrected didn't like it", the boss being in the position of the object, could explain why I didn't get the promotion. I, being the subject doing the correction. But the usage is declining; unfortunately, and regrettably.

Why has it taken government two years to realise organised crime is rampant, beginning with marginally legal lobbying, a moribund, emasculated NACC, ballistic real estate markets, swindling consultancies, uncontrolled drugs and gambling, and an "open sesame" for international criminals? ("A-G warns Australia is a 'playground for organised crime'", July 10)

You wouldn't purposely break wind next to people. So why have you decided that your neighbours are happy breathing the much worse, health-endangering emissions coming out of your wood-burning chimney? Your cheekiness has no bounds; stop smoking your neighbours out.

I am a lifelong Labor voter but I think the Woden tram is a waste of money and building a new suburb on the racecourse site is a great idea. How do I vote in the territory election?

Biden's use by date in politics is over on account of his frail health. He should do the decent thing and bow out gracefully and stop behaving like a megalomaniac from a third world banana republic.

Re "Fans want stadium to be number one priority" (July 12). "The people of Canberra have spoken and its official" you say. An unsupervised poll by a newspaper with only about 1000 votes. What a joke.

Our Senate election procedures are not the best. A candidate getting less than 1 per cent of primary votes gets elected to the chamber because of our preferential system of voting. Senate seats should be allocated in proportion to the primary votes a party gets in the lower house.

Serious consideration of the next rugby league immortal should fix up past omissions before looking at players of the last 20 years or so. North Sydney wingers Harold Horder, and later Ken Irvine, were prolific try scorers way ahead of their time.