Mark Parton faces his greatest challenge – he has to transform his disparate party room into a cohesive opposition, develop a suite of policies that resonate with the electorate, then sell it to the voters. A tall order, says letter writer, IAN DE LANDELLES.

Having been a very engaged participant in ACT politics since the beginning of self government, and still an interested observer from afar, I’m keen to see how the installation of Mark Parton as opposition leader will affect the fortunes of the Canberra Liberals.

I have known Mark in some of his many guises for a couple of decades.

First as a breakfast DJ, then as a “shock jock” when he described the Legislative Assembly as the “Circus on London Circuit”, to his unsuccessful attempt at becoming a member for Ginninderra and then, benefiting from Brendan Smyth’s decision to “retire”, resulting in Mark winning that vacant seat in Brindabella.

Since that time, Mark has used his boundless energy to “work his electorate” and use his undoubted marketing skills, to achieve the second highest primary vote of any MLA other than Andrew Barr. A very significant achievement.

Now however, he faces his greatest challenge.

First, he has to transform his disparate party room into a cohesive opposition.

Then he has to develop a suite of policies that resonate with the electorate.

And then, he has to be the chief salesperson and convince voters that he and his team are a viable alternative to the incumbent.

None of these will be easily achieved.

The question is, does Mark have all of these qualities or will the electorate decide that he’s just a different jockey on the same horse?

Ian De Landelles, Murrays Beach, NSW

We should be protected from arch-recidivists

I was horrified to read Andrew Corney’s experience of finding his son Blake dead in his child seat following a collision by a gravel truck when its recidivist driver fell asleep at the wheel (“Little Blake’s gone, but the repeat offenders roll on”, CN October 6).

I wonder if I could cope with such a horror and remain mentally unscarred.

I was more horrified that recidivist truck driver Akis Livas, with 50 offences (including rape), 35 of which were for traffic offences, received a three-year-three-month sentence for culpable driving, and was out in two years.

I was further horrified that the ACT Sentence Administration Board stated they were unable to place a condition on Livas’ bail regarding addressing his sleep apnoea, a then well-known condition.

To a rational person, it appears Livas’ record and condition prohibits him from having a driving licence, particularly for heavy vehicles, as this even demonstrated.

As a start, the ACT government could place a medical and driving-offence history assessment on all heavy vehicle licences. But I suspect their risk-averse and decision-adverse government employees might find that too confronting.

I know the law is an ass, but surely the public should be protected from such arch-recidivists as Livas?

Anthony Hordern, Jamison Centre

Little Blake’s gone, but the repeat offenders roll on

Ley’s leadership fate ‘already sealed’

Although some on the conservative side of politics and the media still back Sussan Ley as opposition leader, I believe her fate is already sealed.

Yes, she inherited a doomed Coalition, scuttled by Scott Morrison and then, driven further to the depths, by Peter Dutton, but despite the battles she may or may not be winning behind the scenes, her public profile, and that of the party she leads, is at an all-time low.

One recent poll shows the Coalition’s primary vote fell 5 percentage points in a month to a poll-record low of 24 per cent.

Her fumbling and bumbling around net zero is bewildering. In the 2025 election, which saw the Coalition annihilated and their then leader, Peter Dutton, losing his seat, three-quarters of Millennials and Generation Z voters named climate change as a top-tier voting issue.

If the party voted her as leader to offset Morrison’s and Dutton’s disregard of women voters, that strategy is also clearly destined for failure and has done untold damage to portraying women as leaders.

A recent ANU election study shows women voting for the Coalition has fallen from 45 per cent in 2013 to just 33 in 2025.

God may have saved Trump from assassination but “nothing can save Sussan Ley”.

Declan McGrath, via email

Government can’t do anything about miners

Re Melanie Glover/mynah birds (letters, CN November 6): Mynah birds are an introduced Asian species, not native to Australia. They have chocolate and caramel coloured feathers, plus a yellow beak.

Noisy miners have grey plumage, yellow beaks and are native to Australia, an appropriate nickname is hyena birds as they

chase off other birds in a pack. They are the miners that swoop.

So, as a native bird, the government will not/cannot “do something about them”.

Elaine Staples, Campbell

The common miner/myna mistake

I believe that Melanie Glover (letters, CN November 6), has made the common mistake of confusing noisy miners, a member of the honeyeater species and a protected Australian native and the pesky Indian myna, an introduced bird related to starlings.

The noisy miner is smaller than the myna and can be identified by the light grey feathers on their neck and under body. While they are aggressive and will swoop dogs and humans they rarely attack unlike the magpie during nesting season. They do have a persistent “peep peep” call, but it is not excessively loud.

The Indian myna on the other hand is classified as a pest and does take over nests of other native birds and eats skinks and other small native animals.

I am not aware of any action by the ACT government to eliminate these pests but the Canberra Indian Myna Action Group has done a wonderful job of reducing their numbers by trapping and humanely euthanising them.

This has been extremely successful in the suburbs, however they are still prolific around shopping centres where food is available and trapping is not practical.

Neil Stevenson, Kambah

Growing up around the Whitlams

Re the statue of Gough Whitlam: seriously, how many Australians want to pay for a memorial statue to such a flawed person? 

I grew up with the Whitlam family in South Cronulla in the ’60s. My mother was a good friend of Margaret, but my father loathed Gough. 

When the Whitlam family moved to Cabramatta to further Gough’s political aspirations we drove to their house warming.

Cathy Whitlam was a friend around my age, as all us kids were many who lived on the peninsula. 

It is indelible on my memories, especially when my brothers put Gough in their billy cart to go down Wangi Avenue where the Whitlams lived

Robyn Gillett, via email

Albo’s got his priorities mixed up

Families in Australia are currently struggling to make ends meet. According to Vinnies 33 per cent won’t be able to provide for themselves, a national Resolve Poll has shown that 61 per cent of respondents would struggle with an expense of a few thousand dollars. 

Property, rent and food have skyrocketed to the point of unaffordability, it is forecast that surpluses won’t happen for the next four years, and living standards have dropped.

What is the Albanese government doing to address the above problems? It has pledged to erect a statue of Gough Whitlam in the Parliament House forecourt!

Unsurprisingly, it would appear as though “Airbus Albo” is suffering from

a severe case of jetlag after his marathon globetrotting to date and is getting his priorities all mixed up as a consequence.

Mario Stivala, Belconnen

GG’s place, a great spot for affordable housing!

The convenor of the Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy seems to agree with me (letters, CN November 6) that the position of governor-general should be abolished.

It is a relic of former (British) monarchical rule and is essentially superfluous in our system, where executive power is wielded by the federal cabinet of ministers through the prime minister.

By convention, the governor-general only does what he/she is told. Removing the GG would free up their residence Yarralumla – what a great site for many affordable and aged housing units!

Oh, but it’s not on the tram route. Come to think of it, not much else of Canberra is or will be, regardless of its outrageous cost.

Richard Johnston, Kingston 

Under pressure, would we be any different?

Re Ross E Smith’s letter (CN November) about Ben Roberts-Smith.

I agree wholeheartedly with Ross. Ben was awarded the medal for bravery and nobody can take that away from him. 

We have no idea what the military has to put up with when they’re in a war situation. We will probably never know what happened. Even women and children are used as suicide bombers in some of those countries.

Given the pressure the soldiers are put under, would we be any different? Also, sometimes some of the reporters do not always show a full or true picture of what has happened.

Vi Evans via email

Not safe to assume there weren’t landings

Prof Peter Stanley (letters, CN November 6) states that Japanese soldiers did not set foot in Australia during World War II (other than as POWs).

A reconnaissance party landed on the northwest coast and proceeded inland, looking for a large Allied airbase. The shore party withdrew after wandering for a day (or so?). No fighting occurred.

Invasion of our airspace and bombing our land and harbours (Darwin and Broome); reconnaissance flights over Sydney and Hobart; submarines in Sydney Harbour and the torpedoing of the Kuttabul. All are forms of limited invasion. Ditto, sailing our seas and shelling Sydney and Newcastle; and sinking ships. 

It is not safe to assume that no other landings occurred along our massively long shoreline in remote regions.

A German U-boat landed a shore party in a remote part of NZ to collect fresh water.

Christopher Ryan, Watson

Fewer machines not answer to gambling harm

How ironic that my letter calling for effective action to reduce gambling-related harm appeared in the same (November 6) issue of CityNews as an advertising feature for the Clubs ACT annual awards.

It is understandable that Clubs ACT wishes to focus attention on clubs’ contributions to the community and to the ACT government; however, these claims need to be put into perspective.

If, as Clubs ACT claims, clubs are “places where people feel supported” and “community comes before profit”, why are all except for a handful of ACT clubs continuing to extract millions of dollars from the pockets of Canberrans through the use of high-intensity poker machines, with no loss and time limits or other safety mechanisms?

Despite a reduction in the number of poker machines in ACT licensed venues, poker machine revenue – that is, losses incurred by individuals – increased from $186.5 million in 2023-24 to $190.6 million in 2024-25. Former ACT gaming minister Shane Rattenbury admitted last year what the evidence has consistently shown: that simply reducing the number of machines is not a sufficient strategy to address gambling-related harm.

These losses are not primarily from occasional punters having a fun night out: recent data from The Australia Institute and others confirm that the greatest proportion of losses are from vulnerable addicted gamblers. It would add valuable perspective to this year’s Clubs ACT awards if we could be told how much each of these clubs and club groups have taken from the community over the past year in gambling losses.

Karina Morris, Hawker

The politicians’ pay formula is simple

It is time the generous salaries of local politicians were tied to management/economical and financial performance indicators, evaluated and adjusted.

Why should the rate/taxpayer keep paying blindly for debt creation and flagging performance, it makes no sense. The formula is simple, lift your game, take a pay cut or get out.

John Lawrence via e-mail

Where the economics of renewables shine through

Ian Pilsner (letters, CN November 13) wants us to think that only parties of the left embrace renewables. But this is nonsense. 

True to their free-market Republican principles, Texans avoided the centralised planning process and subsidies favoured for energy systems in other states. They instead left the decisions up to investors. 

The result is that Texas has more solar and wind capacity than the famously renewable-loving California. Texas’ battery capacity is lower – but the 174GW to be added to their current 8GW over the next five years will fix that.

All this renewables investment seems to be delivering; Texas has fabulous reliability and power prices to homes and businesses are 24 per cent below the national average. 

Florida, another predominantly Republican state, has the US’s third largest footprint of renewables and battery storage.

When ideology is finally put aside, the economics of renewables shine through, even in the Lone Star and Sunshine states.

Lesley Walker, Northcote, Victoria

A recipe for permanent opposition

Letter writer Paul Temby argues that because the Coalition “won three elections in 2013, 2016 and 2019 opposing climate change action”, they should do so again (“Opposition did well opposing net-zero”, CN November 13). But that assumes the electorate hasn’t changed.

The latest Australian Election Study – an authoritative ANU survey conducted after every election since 1987 – shows a record-low Coalition primary vote of just 21 per cent among millennial voters.

This group, now aged 29 to 44, has drifted further from the Coalition in each of the past four elections. With Millennials and Gen Z now outnumbering Baby Boomers for the first time, Mr Temby’s advice looks like a recipe for permanent opposition.

Ray Peck, Hawthorn, Victoria