Southlands Tennis Club courts… build the supermarket somewhere else, says Peter Claughton. Photo: Facebook
There is no justification for an additional supermarket in Mawson, says letter writer PETER CLAUGHTON.
The proposed Revitalisation of Mawson Plan includes a second supermarket to be constructed on the site of the Southlands Tennis Club courts.
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The tennis courts and surrounding footpaths and walls have had a considerable amount of money spent on then in the last couple of years and are in excellent condition.
The only eyesore is the sorry state of the changing rooms on the adjacent oval.
There is no justification for an additional supermarket in Mawson. The centre has a supermarket and a variety of shops selling fruit and vegetables, meat, bakery and oriental products. Parking is good and the current centre has the capacity to absorb an increase in the local population.
Leave the Mawson tennis courts alone and build the supermarket somewhere else.
Peter Claughton, Farrer
Why the loud music in shops?
Isn’t the idea in retailing, to retain prospective shoppers in store for as long as possible?
Why then have music playing so loud that it makes it unpleasant and can drive them out?
Michael Forrest, via email
Ways to get more people on public transport
Columnist Mike Quirk argues that the government should commission an independent assessment to evaluate bus rapid transport (“Price rapid buses before laying more light rail”, CN October 27).
Published government reports show that parking fees, transit lanes and bus rapid transit are the best ways to get more Canberrans using public transport.
The government concluded that keeping Adelaide Avenue’s transit lanes would increase Canberra’s public transport travel by five per cent, compared with replacing them by building light rail to Woden.
Canberra’s public transport patronage increased by three per cent, and the Budget improved by $15 million a year, after the Australian government invested a few million in parking meters for the Parliamentary Triangle.
I have been caring for 38 years due to having two now-adult kids with severe autism and now a partner who is becoming frail due to kidney disease.
Caring is relentless and wears the carer down. I can honestly speak from experience on this score. I am suffering from carer burnout which is beyond exhaustion.
My partner is very frail as a result of kidney disease. He went into Burrangirie for two weeks so I could have a badly needed break.
I realise that I need a regular break every six months if I am to continue caring for him.
What made me annoyed was to discover that the ACT Labor government has decided to close the Burrangiri while they use the $10 million sourced from the Federal Labor government to renovate the facility.
Both Labor governments have forgotten their original mandate to support ordinary Australians doing it tough.
What the ACT government should be doing is continuing to provide the respite service at the current facility and build a new centre elsewhere.
Caring does not stop for a year while they renovate the current Burrangiri centre.
Providing respite is both governments’ jobs as, by caring, I have not abandoned my partner to the hospital system or put pressure on the aged care system in Canberra.
The Salvation Army has done a sterling job of staffing Burrangiri for over 40 years and its team understands the needs of those they care for and the needs of the family carers who look after them normally. Why not keep them on and stop the usual stupidity of the current ACT government?
Otherwise, when I need a break I will drop my partner off at the Legislative Assembly and leave the day program and overnight respite to Rachel Stephen-Smith and other members!
Karna O’Dea, via email
Well done to Chiaka for forcing a promise
Following the ACT Government’s recent reneging on its 2024 promise to introduce electronic monitoring (EM), Liberal opposition member Chiaka Barry successfully moved to have EM introduced.
Well done, to her and all those members who support EM.
Over recent years, as a prison reform advocate, I have agitated for EM to be introduced for alleged offenders on bail orders, as well as people on community-based orders, including parolees.
In 2024, a friend and I made submissions and gave evidence to the inquiry into the administration of bail conducted by one of the Assembly standing committees.
That committee endorsed the use of EM.
Standing committees are a waste of everyone’s efforts and time if their recommendations are ignored.
Motivated community organisations and interested community members are essential for the work of committees and good government.
The Government needs to remember that “there is nothing about us, without us”.
Janine Haskins, social justice advocate
Creating a cosy group of licensees
As those from the construction industry know, the ACT Legislative Assembly includes few with experience in that or any other industry.
The Labor Party’s latest “licence raj”, as Opposition Leader Mark Parton points out (“Give the little guys a better go at building houses”, CN October 22), places further restrictions on which firms can even apply for building approvals involving three or more dwellings.
That limits applications from builders who employ the CFMEU, which it is said funds the Labor Party. It creates a cosy group of licensees to create the next batch of poorly designed Shanghai Towers. It pushes the risk of decision making further away from the government employees, which suits their work style.
As Parton states, builders and building certifiers already operate under licensing arrangements. Those need to be appropriately enforced by government. In addition more resources need to be allocated to building the construction design and trade training.
It is the designers and tradies on the ground who build better buildings, not some licence raj wallahs.
If the ACT Government wasted less money on trams, which will never save the planet, it might even have the resources to make the current construction licensing arrangements work as intended.
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