“Government by levy is unfair, inequitable and bad governance. We now have three levies stacked on to residential and commercial rates, amounting to more than $500 a year per rateable property.” Letter writer HELEN TAN, of Deakin to object to the health levy. 

I urge all ratepayers to oppose the health levy imposed on territory ratepayers (residential and commercial). 

Government by levy is unfair, inequitable and bad governance. We now have three levies stacked on to residential and commercial rates, amounting to more than $500 a year per rateable property. 

This served to increase rents as well as the cost of living of householders and shop owners.

You can object by signing the Assembly petition; lodging an objection as per the rates notice instructions; and refusing to pay it (deduct $100, or $250 for commercial rates) from your payment. All or any of these, to send a message to the ACT government.

It will otherwise become a rusted on feature of your annual rates, and increase as the domestic violence levy and the emergency services levies have.

Note that there is no accountability for the spending of these collections, and it is an established fact that the DV levy was not used for the purpose for which it is purportedly collected. What a surprise. What next? A school levy?

Helen Tan, Deakin

Elaine gets straight the point

Love Clive Williams and his Whimsy column.

Elaine Staples, Campbell

Not taking action on ‘roos might be crueller

I noted your correspondent’s sadness and anger over the kangaroo cull. (letters, CN July 24). It’s a ghastly business and their distress is understandable.

I’ve travelled extensively through this wide, brown land and have never seen herds of kangaroos as large as the ACT hosts. Mobs of 50 and more roam at will.

On one property I visited, elderly residents dared not go out at night for fear they might (accidentally) be knocked over. So many ‘roos visited that droppings covered the grounds. There were too many carcasses on the Barton Highway recently, to count. Three each summer night on William Hovell. 

I’ve seen the greater horror that nature can inflict with drought and fire. There’s lots of food and water around now, but we can’t tell what the coming summer will bring.

It’s unsustainable. Wiser heads than mine have determined what ‘roo number the land will support. Not taking action might be crueller than the current solution.

I was, though, concerned about the report of poor shooter behaviour in Kambah. It’s not a job for cowboys; tell your MP. 

Dick Bauch, Latham

Suspicious of Gaza death numbers

I don’t know the methodology of the study into deaths in Gaza cited by Mike Quirk (Letters, CN July 17), but I’m very suspicious of any study that finds more deaths than even the propagandising Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims. 

An in-depth study by the UK’s Henry Jackson Society of war deaths announced by the Health Ministry found that most casualties were men aged 15-45. 

It also found that the Health Ministry misdescribed male fighters as women or children, and included as casualties people killed by Hamas, either deliberately or by misfiring rockets, who died of natural causes such as cancer, or even died before the war started.

Also, in January, the Gaza Health Ministry announced Israel had orphaned more than 38,000 Gaza children – 32,151 had lost their father, 4417 their mother and 1918 had lost both. 

These are tragic figures, but they do reveal that nearly six times as many male parents of fighting age were killed as females, suggesting a high proportion of those killed overall were fighters.

And there would be far fewer civilian casualties overall if not for Hamas’ human shield tactics.

Eleanor Miles, Queanbeyan East, NSW

Was Hanrahan right? Will we all be rooned?

The current outcry from all sides about climate change ignores the history of this wonderful country. 

In 1921, John O’Brien published a poem titled, “Said Hanrahan”, which discusses the difficulties of drought and flooding rains.

Indeed, the main subject is a bloke outside of church on Sunday discussing the weather with other parishioners. 

“We’ll all be rooned, said Hanrahan,” if it doesn’t rain soon. There will be no crops to feed their stock and they will die. 

Overnight it starts to rain and continues. The sceptic Hanrahan now espouses the opposite: “We’ll all be rooned, said Hanrahan” if it doesn’t stop raining. 

The end of the poem then changes to the threat of bushfires caused by the spring growth. “We’ll all be rooned, said Hanrahan…”

I guess nothing has changed over the last 100 years! I commend the poem to those that are unfamiliar with it, which was taught at primary school, albeit 70 years ago. 

Dave Jeffrey, Farrer

ANU’s throwing Bach out with the bathwater again 

In 2012 the bean counters and gung-ho change-management boffins at ANU believed that a $14 million surplus was an inadequate foundation for its operations.

They sought to counteract this “financial crisis” with swingeing cutbacks to staff, and course and tuition offerings at the School of Music and elsewhere on campus. 

Although the administration pulled back from the worst-case staff cutback processes after torrid consultations and community uproar, a significant loss of eminent academics plus collapsed teaching structures still resulted, including at the School of Music.

In 2025 a new cavalry charge is aiming to throw Bach out with the bathwater again. 

Considerable academic, student and community unrest and alarm is evident across the university and broader community about the proposed, large-scale cost-cutting and its hollowing out of valued academic structures, student offerings and research opportunities.

Now, like in 2012, there is no convincing evidence of acceptance of the need to ensure the “pursuit of excellence” at the School of Music, the School of Art, and in other similarly targeted yet well-established and renowned arts and humanities entities that have been big ANU drawcards for staff and students alike (“Our truly national university fades into the sunset“, citynews.com.au July 26). 

Perhaps the ANU chancellery and its posse of change, HR and finance consultants find it hard to factor in and communicate about the concepts and pathways needed to deliver and safeguard the reputation, prestige and pride associated with the many key arms of this public national institution and the standing it has achieved, both nationally and internationally.

But they could at least try harder, particularly since “town meets gown” in Canberra in many valuable ways. 

Sue Dyer, Downer

Why is the council in so much deficit?

In July 2023, the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council raised rates 18 per cent a year for three years after recording a deficit of $1.14 million in 2022-23.

An independent report had found that, without intervention, the average operating deficit over 10 years would be $20.6 million a year.

As the owner of rateable land valued at $473,000 residential in Queanbeyan, I am being charged $3662 a year for land rates. 

I find it very strange that for the same size block in Nowra, the owners are charged $1583 a year. Why such a difference? Double, in fact. There are other examples that can be made.

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal has signed off on the full rise proposed by the council of 64.3 per cent over three years, or 18 per cent a year in 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26.

 Did the regulator ask the question why Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council was in so much deficit? In fact, has anyone in power asked that question?

James Bowman, Queanbeyan, NSW

Four budget-neutral options to reduce poverty

The St Vincent de Paul Society has submitted its proposal to the treasurer’s upcoming Economic Reform Roundtable on August 19-21. 

In the submission, we outline four budget-neutral options, modelled by the ANU’s Centre for Social Policy Research, designed to lift more struggling Australians above the poverty line. 

Not only that, but the ANU study reveals how changing tax concessions on the wealthiest superannuation accounts could fund a fairer safety net while boosting the superannuation of around 90 per cent of Australians. 

Our proposals show millions of potential winners, while asking only the wealthiest households to receive a little less in tax breaks or welfare payments. 

The Society also strongly opposes any broadening or increasing of the GST, as this would only widen the growing gap between Australia’s richest and poorest households. That’s not the Australia we aspire to. 

Every day across Australia, the Society is seeing more people seeking our help – not just those on welfare, but middle-income families and working Australians, many for the first time. The system is broken and must be fixed, urgently. 

We believe our ANU study, A Fairer Tax and Welfare System 2025, demonstrates that it is economically feasible to lift more Australian families out of poverty while improving outcomes for lower- and middle-income households.

We invite you to read more about the report at vinnies.org.au and urge you to contact your local MP or Senator to demand a fairer tax and welfare system for Australia. 

Mark Gaetani, national president, St Vincent de Paul Society National Council of Australia 

We prefer sunshine to fission

Thanks to Ian Pilsner for the “cherry pecking” award. A little humour goes a long way. But it’s hard to know who Mr Pilsner would take advice from regarding the unsuitability of nuclear power in Australia’s energy mix. 

He has already dismissed the CSIRO and experts who work in the international energy field. Perhaps he might listen to our former chief scientists. 

Just last year, Dr Cathy Foley noted on the ABC’s Q&A program how expensive nuclear technology is and how long it takes to become operational. 

In 2023, in an interview with The Australian journalist Christine Middap, Dr Alan Finkel said: “So when put together it’s not realistic, even if we wanted to, to have nuclear in Australia before about 2040, by which time I am quite confident we won’t need it.” 

But even ordinary Australians are not keen. In a 2023 survey investigating the support for different energy sources, Freshwater Strategy found that solar (84 per cent) and onshore wind (61 per cent) were the most popular whereas nuclear (35 per cent) and coal (33 per cent) were the least popular.

Mr Pilsner might admire France’s reactors, but we prefer sunshine to fission. Backing nuclear here is like bringing a snowplough to the outback — wrong tool, wrong time, wrong country.

Ray Peck, Hawthorn, Victoria

I didn’t describe the full cycle to save space

Re: “Carbon dioxide is off the chart” (letters, CN July 24).

Letter writer Ray Peck is correct that the carbon for calcium carbonate in our skeletons primarily comes from the food we eat. 

However, that plant food primarily gets its carbon from atmospheric CO2 via photosynthesis.

Having studied some biology at school, and later working in satellite remote sensing, in a letter for publication I did not describe the full CO2 cycle to save space.

The IPCC definitely states 97 per cent of atmospheric CO2 comes from natural sources and processes, including animals like us respiring, only three per cent coming from those other wayward human activities.

Only politicians claim to be able to change the natural atmosphere. Given the state of the ACT budget, courtesy of erudite CN correspondents Jon Stanhope and Khalid Ahmed, I fear ours will send the ACT broke before they achieve that.

Anthony Hordern, Jamison Centre