“Perhaps the government should concentrate on demonstrating value through sound financial management rather than reminding ratepayers that using a service funded by their taxes has saved them money,” says letter writer DAVID EVERED.

When I recently borrowed books from Libraries ACT, the due-date slip told me how much I had supposedly “saved” by borrowing rather than buying them.

Why do we need to be told this? Public libraries exist because access to books, newspapers and journals is a community benefit – not because every visit must be translated into a dollar value.

At a time when the ACT Government is struggling to manage its own budget, the message seems particularly misplaced.

Perhaps the government should concentrate on demonstrating value through sound financial management rather than reminding ratepayers that using a service funded by their taxes has saved them money.

Libraries ACT provides an excellent and greatly valued public service. It does not need a retail-style calculation to justify its worth.

David Evered, via email

Labor’s borrowing to pay interest is alarming 

Canberrans should be alarmed by the ACT Labor government’s borrowings to pay interest. 

Labor is the same as someone with a maxed-out credit card using another credit card to pay it off their bill.

But we should remember that Labor policies originate from Eastern Europe.

When reading Jon Stanhope and Khalid Ahmed’s column (“Steel’s compounding interest takes its toll”, CN July 16), I recalled a conversation with a Yugoslav construction manager in Germany in 1990, shortly after the collapse of Communism.

He complained that: “Now we have to pay interest on the money allocated for construction. Previously we did not.” He remarked that this made construction management “more complicated”.

When I told him that Australian builders were then paying up to 25 per cent interest, commonly 20 per cent, as a result of the policies of the “World’s Best Treasurer” Paul Keating, he initially thought I was pulling his leg!

Anthony Hordern, Jamison Centre

Blame sits with podcaster not the PM 

When did political debate in Australia turn into a pathetic low-intellect game of schoolyard name calling, where the winner is the one who can deliver the biggest insults and defame individuals with ill-founded accusations?

Robert McMahon’s column (“PM’s shocking bonking revelations demean women”, CN July 16), is yet another example of this low-brow tendency.

Dr McMahon appears to be an educated person, so one assumes he understands the term ad hominem – Latin for “to the person” – which describes responding to an argument by attacking the speaker’s character, motives, or background.

Social media is full of this kind of trash talk directed at the Albanese government and the prime minister himself. Such comments rarely explain the source of people’s anger or offer any constructive way to address it.

I would suggest to Dr McMahon that if anyone demeaned women, it was the attention-seeking podcaster Nikki Osborne, who asked the PM the question in the first place while turning against the very “sisterhood” she might claim to support.

Did she ask Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman or Rhonda Burchmore for permission before objectifying them by asking whether the prime minister would like to “shag” them? I doubt it.

That is hypocrisy – and that is what is truly “vulgar and embarrassing”.

Declan McGrath, Gordon 

Why Monty Python was probably right

Tom Lehrer in 1965 observed the US was “spending twenty billion dollars of your money to put some clown on the moon”.

A similar comment could be made today as corporations run by the likes of Musk and Bezos and several governments are selling the vision of a new space age where humans will be living, working and holidaying in space. The vision received widespread uncritical support in the coverage of the Artemis 2 moon flyby.

ANU philosopher Ben Bramble, in his book Lunacy, questions the efficacy of the vision. The trillions needed for the quest will divert funds needed to fix earthly problems including environmental decline, growing inequality and climate change.

The mindset appears to be that it’s preferable to trash the earth so it becomes uninhabitable in order to establish colonies on Mars and other potentially inhospitable locations.

We don’t need to go to Mars or to where “no man has gone before” if we collectively improve our stewardship of the earth.

It would not be unreasonable to think the key motivations of the tech moguls, given their track record, are greed and power (not just an extension of a childhood fascination with space), and for governments, military advantage.

It’s probably naive to trust in the “goodness of human nature” and expect nations to collectively consider the merits of a new space age.

Monty Python was probably right in the Galaxy song when singing “there’s bugger all (intelligent life)…down here on earth.”

Mike Quirk, Garran

Israel needs to treat its neighbours properly

There’ll never be lasting peace if Israel continues to complain about damage caused to it and minimises or denies damage to the other parties.

Only a rigorous self-examination and more even-handed treatment of its neighbours will provide a meaningful start to lasting peace.

It’ll not happen by continuing attacks and reprisals; one of the parties has to start the process and stay the course.

Herman van de Brug, Holt 

Self-identity surprise in census

I heard that everyone will now be asked/given the opportunity to self-identify their gender (regardless of the natural facts).

I therefore will self identify as “indigenous” as I was born in Australia, as were at least six generations of my family lineage. I am now Aboriginal! Thanks to the new census!

David Jones, Duffy

Plea for zebra crossings

This is Jamison needing help; please tell our government that we need zebra crossings near the Southern Cross Club at Bowman Street, Macquarie, and road bumps to stop yobs.

Helen Bielenberg, via email

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