The ACT government seems to think money grows on trees, says letter writer MURRAY MAY in his reaction to the latest ACT budget: “The whole thing is a debacle, with the lack of foresight and prudent financial management very evident.”

For some years now, Jon Stanhope and Khalid Ahmed have been analysing and writing in CityNews about the poor financial management of the ACT government.

The lack of good sense in the mega-expensive light rail project has been highlighted when other cheaper and better options are available. 

Now, surprise, surprise, the ACT government discovers it has a considerable deficit problem and wants to gouge residents further with rate hikes and a health levy as well.

The ACT government seems to think money grows on trees. How long can these sorts of rises continue before many ratepayers can’t afford them?

The whole thing is a debacle, with the lack of foresight and prudent financial management very evident. There may well be arguments for the Commonwealth to fund health to a greater extent, but what room did the ACT government allow for expected and unexpected costs?

Even more concerning, where is this all heading? A further downgrade of the ACT government’s credit rating is possible, resulting in increased interest payments on government debt.

Murray May, Cook

Are these new imposts even legal?

Several immediate issues are raised by this abomination of an annual budget handed down by the ACT Treasurer.

The health levy: The threshold question that must immediately be posed – is it even legal for a jurisdiction apart from the Commonwealth to amend or add to the Commonwealth Medicare levy, which is used for the purposes of achieving universal health care.

The deleterious budget situation that ACT Health is now in has principally been caused through progressive cost shifting from the health budget, and delays in provision of hospital services over the term of the Barr government, including delays in the Canberra Hospital redevelopment, the compulsory acquisition of Calvary Hospital, issues with accreditation, minimal funding for essential services staff, VMO contracts , intractable ongoing corporate management issues in the health bureaucracy affecting both clinician, administrative and management staffing, etcetera, etcetera.

Every one of these issues has been within the ability of the Barr government to control and manage. The overwhelming fact that these problems have not been addressed and managed must be one of the most damning indictments of the Barr government’s term in office.

Electric vehicles taxes: The ACT Treasurer announced that a minimum 2.5 per cent stamp duty will apply on new vehicle sales with the rate increasing in line with emissions and value; and that an 8 per cent tax will apply on vehicles worth more than $80,000.

The new ACT 2.5 per cent stamp duty on vehicles appears to be inconsistent with the broader stated policy objectives of the Commonwealth’s new vehicle emission standards.

The Commonwealth government previously levied a tax framework on the sale of luxury vehicles (from memory over $65k), consistent with its constitutional authority to levy taxes. This tax was progressively revised to take into account the increasing sale of electric vehicles, which in the early days, even at base model costs, breached this threshold. 

The new ACT tax on vehicles over $80k does not appear to be legal, in that the Commonwealth alone under the constitution has the authority to levy such taxes.

The new tax also appears to be inconsistent with the policy intent of the Commonwealth’s new vehicle emission standards and should also be challenged on this basis.

Ron Edgecombe, Evatt

Canberra Metro wins when tram heads south

Jon Stanhope & Khalid Ahmed (“Inflate ‘city shaping’ benefits and, bingo, it all adds up!”, CN June 24) ask: “If light rail heads south, who benefits?”

Canberra’s commuters won’t benefit. Light rail to Woden will be 10 to 15 minutes slower than buses that use Adelaide Avenue’s transit lanes.

The government estimates that territory-wide public transport patronage would be 5 per cent less than if it kept Adelaide Avenue’s transit lanes. Car travel would increase. That would increase congestion delays for car commuters.

The main beneficiaries of light rail heading south would be the six companies that own Canberra Metro, and which take all of their profits out of Canberra. 

The ACT government paid Canberra Metro’s owners $675 million to build rapid transit between Gungahlin and Civic, even though it estimated that bus rapid transit would cost only half that amount (and would produce essentially the same benefits).

Then, without a tender process, the ACT government gave Canberra Metro’s owners $577 million to build and operate a 1.7-kilometre light rail extension to Commonwealth Park (resident population: one archbishop), that it estimated would produce only $150 million worth of benefits.

Canberra Metro’s owners no doubt expect to benefit even more from an uncontested $billion+ contract to build and operate slow, gold-plated light rail from Commonwealth Park to Woden.

Leon Arundell, Downer

No space for exuberance or free spirits

I first came to Canberra in 2000 looking for a rental property for my family. 

While driving around, I came across a group of young boys, caps turned backwards, shirts off and tied around their waists, exuberantly running free through a green corridor in Farrer. 

It immediately struck me that this was the type of town in which I wanted to raise my kids.

Twenty-five years later, much has changed not only in Canberra, but our nation. What was once an undisguised enthusiasm in our national project, no better seen than at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, has become a hesitant and uncertain response in who we are.

Some of this can be attributed to the increasing tendency of governments to want to control every minutia of our lives. 

A recent trip around the new suburbs of Molonglo (Dave Jeffrey’s letter, CN June 19) highlighted to me the contrast in visions between now and then.

I saw closely built, multi-storey apartment buildings surrounded by asphalt and concrete. No space for exuberance or encouragement of free spirits. How far we have travelled in 25 years.

Malcolm Sherren, Stirling

We need to change the attitude to productivity

In the past 10 years there has been no increase in living standards per person.

Before that, living standards increased every year from about 1830, averaging a compound rate of 2 per cent a year except for a period in the 1930s. Yet there seems to be no major concern evident in the population. 

However, before 1830 the living standard did not increase at all for the working poor and nobody objected. It was considered normal. Are we returning to that situation?

What causes an increase in living standards? Increases in living standards are directly related to increases in productivity. Productivity and living standards are strongly correlated. 

In Australia there has been a massive shift in employment to the service sector, which shows zero increases in productivity. No increase in productivity, no increase in wages. 

Yes, the government can force wage increases in that sector, to only reduce wages in other sectors. The only way to increase wages is to increase productivity – everywhere. 

The question of how to increase productivity is a good question. Basically there has to be a change in attitude among Australians. Improve and reduce taxation, increase investment, more and better infrastructure and, yes, less government spending on welfare, are among a long list of changes that have to be made. Or look forward to no improvement in your standard of living, even a fall, and for that of your children forever.

Tim Walshaw, Watson

Taken in with all the Hamas lies

Dr Sue Packer et al (letters, CN June 19) are taken in with all the Hamas lies about the suffering in Gaza.

Had Hamas not carried out the horrific atrocities on October 7 2023, brutally murdering 1200 civilians, raping women, cutting off babies’ heads, burning people alive and other tortures, no-one would have died. Had Hamas put down their weapons and released the innocent hostages at any time, the war would have stopped. Hamas chooses misery and suffering for its residents rather than peace and prosperity.

The figure of 50,000 killed must also be disputed. Hamas does not differentiate between combatants and civilians, uses hospitals and schools as human shields and their method of reporting is farcical with countless errors and fabrications. Even the anti-Israel UN has revised down its figures, but that is barely publicised.

Packer et al need to look more closely at the facts and blame Hamas for every death in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Alan Shroot, Forrest

Helping Hamas win its propaganda war 

I find it extraordinary that a group of self-righteous Canberrans (CN 19 June) accuses Israel of being responsible for the devastation in Gaza but is completely silent about the role of Hamas in creating this dreadful human tragedy.

It is very telling that they have not condemned Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organisation sworn to annihilating Israel, for instigating the current conflict; for the barbarities it committed; for raping civilians; for killing civilians including babies and children; for kidnapping, holding and mistreating hostages against international law; for using Gazans as human shields; for stealing aid; and for torturing and killing innocent Gazans who dare to protest Hamas rule.

If this group is so concerned for the children of Gaza, why have they not called on Hamas to surrender and release the remaining hostages so this awful conflict can end? Instead they want to reward Hamas’ terrorism by immediately recognising a State of Palestine. 

It is the promotion of these myopic anti-Israeli views that is helping Hamas win its propaganda war in the West.

Paul Ross, Googong, NSW

Why wine writer Richard can relax

Wine writer Richard Calver can relax (“Shocking news for moderate drinkers”, CN June 5). 

A systematic review and meta-analysis conducted by Luceron-Lucas-Torres and others published in 2023 in Frontiers in Nutrition showed no association between wine consumption and cancer.

The authors postulate that ingredients other than alcohol in wine provide a protective benefit.

Ian Hone, Weston

Irony of ACT electricity scheme costs

In a recent letter, Actew/AGL advised customers of a 10.11 per cent increase in the price of electricity from July 1.

About a half of this increase (4.93 per cent) was attributed to increased “ACT government scheme costs” relating to the pursuit of “net zero” emissions.

Whether one supports such schemes or not, the irony is striking: firstly, pay an extra 5 per cent for your electricity so the government can promote the “cheapest” forms of energy and, secondly, force people who can least afford renewable technology to subsidise those who can, and those living in houses or units where solar is not an option to subsidise those who do. 

David Palmer, via email

Why Australia should rethink the US alliance

As the global order shifts and the internal politics of the United States become increasingly unstable, it is time for Australia to consider a bold reorientation of its foreign and defence policy. 

We should begin by withdrawing from our military alliances with the US, including AUKUS and ANZUS, and suspending the submarine procurement deal. Such a decision need not be permanent—it should be conditional upon the restoration of moderate, democratic leadership in Washington.

This is not an anti-American argument. It is a pro-Australian one, based on strategic realism, ethical clarity, and a reassessment of our national interests in a rapidly changing world.

The US has long been a cornerstone of Australian defence policy. But today, its democratic institutions are under serious strain. The political mainstream is veering towards extremism, and its global leadership is increasingly driven by short-termism and domestic grievance rather than stability and rule of law.

In aligning so closely with the US, Australia risks being drawn into conflicts it does not choose, over interests that are not its own. America chose to elect a populist demagogue.

Critics will ask, “But what about China?” The answer is straightforward: China is not a military threat to Australia. It has no territorial ambitions here, and while it may seek greater influence in the Indo-Pacific, this is a challenge best met through diplomacy, not provocation.

Strategic independence does not mean abandoning allies or retreating from global responsibility. It means choosing partnerships based on shared values and genuine interests, not inherited obligations or ideological inertia.

Withdrawing from US-led alliances and cancelling the submarine deal would be controversial. But it would also be courageous, timely, and in the long-term interests of the Australian people.

The oceans around us already do most of the defending. It’s time our foreign policy caught up.

John Franze, via email 

Annual horror the antithesis of conservation

The Animal Protectors Alliance condemns and deplores the ACT government decision to shoot, decapitate and bludgeon to death 2981 kangaroos on Canberra’s urban nature reserves this year.

It should be noted that the kangaroos bludgeoned and decapitated are joeys whose deaths are in addition to the 2981 that are the government’s stated kill target.

An increase of 2981 in the population of kangaroos living on Canberra’s urban nature reserves is biologically impossible, flying in the face of the fact that kangaroos have only one baby a year, most of whom die in infancy, like most young of most wild animal species.

It also defies growing evidence that kangaroo populations Australia-wide have been reduced to barely 10 per cent of their numbers at the time of European settlement.

As usual, there has been no public consultation, no transparency, no accountability. This annual horror is the antithesis of conservation. It is wanton cruelty for no apparent reason other than to make way for ever more development, supported by pseudo-scientific babble that has no basis in either fact or reason.

The ACT government denies the cruelty of its annual slaughter with assertions about a “humane” killing season. Yet the ACT’s killing season takes place when almost every mature female kangaroos has both a pouch joey and a young at foot. Both babies die when their mother is killed, either bashed to death or orphaned to starve.

Robyn Soxsmith, co-founder, Animal Protectors Alliance

Quality of higher-density dwellings has to improve

The deficiencies in the ACT government’s approach to planning are apparent in the Indicative Land Release Program 2025-26 to 29-30. It targets a supply of 30,000 new homes of which 90 per cent are to be multi-unit dwellings including significant privately initiated redevelopment.

The target is qualified, being subject to market capacity and industrial capability.

At the 2021 Census the average dwelling occupancy of semi-detached dwellings was 2.1 persons and for flats 1.8 persons. Yet, despite the 90 per cent multi-unit dwelling direction, a dwelling occupancy of 2.5 persons is utilised to estimate future dwelling requirements. Furthermore, it is not apparent whether the number of vacant dwellings and the amount of land with builders and developers was considered in assessing dwelling requirements.

The 90 per cent multi-unit share was not determined by an assessment of demand from the expected change in the population’s size, composition (age structure and household type) or housing preferences but by a desire to attain compact city benefits.

The past restriction of the supply of detached dwellings is reflected in the 91 per cent increase in the price of separate houses compared to 48 per cent for other dwellings between 2010 and 2024.

There is a need to release more land for detached dwellings to meet housing preferences and to moderate house prices increases. There is uncertainty about how much supply will be generated by privately initiated redevelopment, including the impact of the missing middle housing reforms, and of the impact of labour force and material shortages on the market.

If housing preferences are to be met and the benefits of a more compact city achieved, the design and quality of higher-density dwellings has to be improved to make them a real alternative to detached dwellings. Given declining affordability, the task is urgent.

Mike Quirk, Garran

Misrepresenting my letter ‘completely’

First of all, I do not have a wood fire and have never had one.

Now, down the responses of my letter (“Death claims are ‘complete nonsense'”, CN June 12). Both Carol Ford and Murray May have misrepresented my letter completely.

Ms Ford claims I “protested vehemently and also claims the number of respiratory related deaths could not possibly be attributed to wood burning heaters”. I said no such thing.

I said: “I would like to know how the Medical Journal of Australia article in 2023 can claim the number of deaths in the ACT are attributable to wood heaters similar to the 2019-2020 bushfires. I said the words “complete nonsense” in relation to the quote from that article that equated the two.

Mr May references an article “written by five leading researchers” who do not appear to have any significant reputations, and the article is based entirely on secondary data.

It is interesting that the article states: “The number of wood heaters should be reduced by banning new installations and phasing out existing units in urban and suburban areas” without examining the dangers (including pollution) inherent in the alternatives necessitated by the elimination of wood heaters.

The presumption that there would be no danger from the adopted method of heating is – at best – naïve.

Vi Evans via e-mail

Not smart enough to follow yellowcake road 

Letter writer Eric Hunter criticises Anthony Hordern for having the audacity to hold the CSIRO to account (“Letter really takes the (yellow)cake”, CN June 19).

The CSIRO does not always get it right. Years ago they predicted that fuel prices could rise to $8 a litre by 2018 and they have also stated 20 years ago that our ski fields will virtually disappear by 2050.

It is not only the CSIRO that gets it wrong. Climate scientist Tim Flannery predicted that the rain would vanish in Australia and cities like Perth were going to become ghost towns by now.

Funnily enough, he references a little known engineer with ties to the CSIRO, while ignoring the vast numbers of scientists and engineers around the world who have stated it is impossible to get to net zero without using nuclear power.

Nuclear power has been used successfully and safely around the world for over half a century and here in Australia we have been using a nuclear reactor for medicine for that time, too. 

If we hadn’t had such scaremongering from the nuclear deniers, we could have had a fully functioning, emissions-free nuclear industry by now using our local uranium. 

What a shame we weren’t smart enough like other countries to follow the yellowcake road. 

Ian Pilsner, Weston