“We did not want to sell, it still hurts that we did. But we had no alternatives. No money to contest legally. We needed our kids to live somewhere safe. So I signed the papers, surrendering under duress.” Mr Fluffy affected homeowner DR MARK HARRADINE, of Wright, remembers… 

The article “How the Mr Fluffy owners were shortchanged”, by Jon Stanhope and Khalid Ahmed (CN August 28) triggered flashbacks about really difficult times. 

I hope that everyone reading the article is okay and seeks help if they need it.

To the point made about the Mr Fluffy property deals being a voluntary surrender or a compulsory acquisition. 

In our case the government’s testing found asbestos in our living areas, so we had to leave our home immediately. There was no government support. The bank told us our house was worth nothing. We could not in conscience sell it. 

We met personally a couple of times with government officials, who asked about our views for next steps. 

We put forward a preference for seeking reasonable assistance to knock down and rebuild. From the discussions this sounded like a live option. It also seemed that the Mr Fluffy problem was well known, and that we were not adequately informed when we bought our house. We later got a phone call from them to say they were announcing a “voluntary buyback” scheme, no other options. 

We did not want to sell, it still hurts that we did. But we had no alternatives. No money to contest legally. We needed our kids to live somewhere safe. I got severe reactive depression and needed to start afresh to get well again. So I signed the papers, surrendering under duress.

Reckon this counts as a compulsory acquisition.

Dr Mark Harradine, Wright

How the Mr Fluffy owners were shortchanged

ACT Health makes it hard to attract surgeons

In about 2003 I was engaged by ACT Health as a management consultant to assist with the development of new visiting medical officers (VMO) contracts to replace what had become a total dog’s breakfast of modified, annualised and personalised sessional contracts. 

We first needed to modify legislation to allow collective bargaining with the VMOs’ chosen representatives, the AMA and the VMOA.

Once the legislation was changed we spent months in negotiations and the VMO craft groups were given the choice of sessional or fee for service (FFS) contracts.

Given the nature of their work, most physicians chose sessional contracts, whereas surgeons whose clinical work was procedural, chose FFS. 

Those new contracts were put in place and have worked transparently for the last 20-odd years. Those on FFS contracts are paid for the work they actually do, no more or less. It does mean they earn more per hour than they would on a basic sessional rate (hence ACT Health’s desire to now force surgeons on to sessional contracts), but to put it in perspective, ACT Health might pay an orthopaedic surgeon a $2500 FFS payment for a procedure that the same surgeon would charge $7500 for to carry out on a private patient in a private hospital.

In addition, the surgeon working in the public system is expected to teach and supervise trainee surgeons, and as anyone who has ever had to train someone knows it can more than double how much time you spend doing the job.

Such surgeons are also expected to participate in an on-call roster and come in at any time of the day or night seven days a week to provide their expertise to patients.

To me, what the government is doing is ill advised and will make it even harder to attract and retain specialist surgeons.

With goodwill and a willingness to listen to those who are actually providing the care, it is very possible for us to have a cost-competitive and high-quality health system, but sadly we just seem to never go down that path.

Bill Stone, via citynews.com.au

Enjoy a stress-free commute while it lasts

The ACT government’s glossy “Brag Mag” dropped into my mailbox gushing that stage 2b of the light rail will travel to Woden with nine stations.

Unfortunately for those living southside, gone will be the halcyon days of a smooth, stress-free, three-kilometre commute from Weston Circle to just past Parliament House.

Along Yamba Drive, there could be conservatively at least six or seven stations, all with corresponding sets of traffic lights. What a headache. Enjoy a stress-free commute while it lasts.

Rosemary Harrison, Yarralumla

Weight is the killer, not the exhaust gases

This morning I received the registration renewal for my V8 Commodore. It allegedly spews various nasty gases into the atmosphere at the rate of 331g/km.

The Gorilla is now semi-retired, spends most of his time snoozing under a blanket, in the garage. He comes out a few times a year, in the last 12 months he’s travelled 2897 kilometres, thus allegedly (according to the ACT gummint) he’s dirtied the planet to the tune of 958,907 grams. Is that something I should be concerned about? I’ll hold judgment.

Meantime, my relatively new Outback Turbo allegedly spews (Only? Which makes him more loveable to the climate zealots?) 204g/km. 

If’n I drive him, say, 10,000 kilometres this next 12 months, he’ll belch 2,040,000 grams of ‘orribles into the air.

So despite being charged a lower registration amount, the Subey and I are getting away with making more of a mess of the place than the “dirty” ol’ V8 and at a cheaper cost per kilometre to my wallet. Thank you, ACT gummint.

Weight is the killer of our roads, not the volume of exhaust gases emitted by engines. Our registration charges seem to be going into thin air, they sure don’t seem to be going into road repair and maintenance if the current condition of the gravel section of the Boboyan Road is any indicator. Wonder when it last saw a grader?

I guess it demonstrates the stupidity of policy based on theoretical dogma rather than practical necessity.

Ray Atkin, Ngunnawal

Replacing pollies with AI has merit

Apart from the contradiction in terms with the pairing of “artificial” and “intelligence”, the notion that AI might replace politicians appears to me to have some merit. 

Imagine a completely dispassionate analysis of every policy that could improve the lives of the majority of the people, being weighed against the possible negative impacts these might have on said people. Immediately, the self-interest of politicians (and their proxies) would be circumvented, along with the appalling amount of time wasted in the traditional arm wrestling of policy development .

The remaining task for politicians would be implementation of policy, and this is what would be put to the vote. Paradise gained?

Ian Thistlewayte, via citynews.com.au

Sounds fair and responsible? Nup

Under a “PPP” (Public Private Partnership), major public infrastructure projects, mostly those the public cannot avoid using, such as toll roads, dams, tram systems, energy infrastructure and even buildings for law courts, (but practically never hospitals or schools), are delivered via a “BOOT” (Build, Own, Operate, and Transfer) arrangement. 

In that, private-sector players (including banks, retirement fund managers, lawyers, designers, constructors, and operators) put together and carry out the “BOO” activities, on terms to suit themselves, collecting income from the projects to always satisfy the funders’ profit requirements (even unnecessarily scaling up the project to push profits higher); and then, after a substantial pre-agreed time period (often at the estimated end of the project’s operational life) transfer the “asset” to the public sector. 

Apparently, it’s all to discourage governments from exposing themselves to borrowing, or using their own funds, for public works, and to favour “user pays”. Sounds fair and responsible? Nup.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah 

Serious scrutiny of what goes on

The CityNews is a great “rag”. Probably the only thing this town has that passes for serious scrutiny of what goes on here and its letters reflect this. 

Even Vi Evens gets her tilt at windmills and there were a couple of good, succinct letters in the August 21 edition from Peter Claughton, of Farrer, and Dick Bauch, of Latham.

A Kusta, Deakin

Arise Sir Clive, the king’s happy

Hoo-bloody-ray for Whimsy columnist CN’s Clive Williams. He’s the first writer for heaven knows how long to afford King Canute his proper due (“What do Moses and King Canute have in common?”, CN August 28). 

Usually, the poor old monarch is sneered at as foolish for trying to hold back the incoming tide.

As Clive reminds us though, ”Not guilty, m’lud”. Canute was an astute and wise king of England who was demonstrating the “limits of human power and the danger of surrounding oneself with sycophantic followers”.

Is there any hope, I wonder, of this edition of the CN finding its way into the Oval Office?

Eric Hunter, Cook 

A library review ‘makes good sense’

Dr Chris Watson’s letter calling for a review of ACT public libraries (CN, August 21) makes very good sense.

Unexpected library closures at times because of inadequate staffing is one issue. There have also been rumblings about closing Civic library. More libraries, not fewer, are needed, as in Molonglo suburbs without libraries.

Surely, in an educated city, libraries should be given high priority and not be getting the treatment that ill-maintained footpaths receive.

As Chris says, libraries are important community hubs for lifelong learning, and for connecting people with local resources. 

I often use the Civic library which enjoys a synergy with the CMAG museum close by.

With climate change, there have even been suggestions that public libraries might be used as a refuge for some people during a heatwave. 

I strongly support the call for a public hearing to explore how ACT libraries can be properly maintained and further expanded. The Civic library should remain.

Murray May, Cook 

Carbon beings, living in a carbon world

About ACT climate action and Hanrahan (letters, CN August 21).

Climate Action Canberra need not get hot and bothered about future 55C temperatures.

It is a known physical certainty, as the sun consumes more of its hydrogen gravitational mass that confines its fusion furnace, it will expand and engulf the earth in a scorching supernova that will eradicate all life. 

I look forward to activists and politicians taking steps to avoid this catastrophe.

And to set the record straight for Amy Blain, it is the IPCC, not me, that claims that three per cent of atmospheric CO2 comes from wayward human activity. 

The IPCC also states authoritatively that 97 per cent of atmospheric CO2 originates from natural sources; photosynthesis transpiration, wildfire, decay of plants and animals, volcanism, ocean outglassing and the like.

We are all carbon beings, living in a carbon world, dependent on carbon-based food for the hydrocarbon flesh and calcium carbonate bones of our very being.

Anthony Horden, Jamison Centre

Climate change is about population

I felt obligated to respond to Amy Blain’s letter (CN21 Aug) accusing me of being a climate denier. 

I am neither a denier nor alarmist, but I do strongly believe in the hemispheric and population reasons of climate change. Some 87 per cent of the world’s population live north of the equator, which really means that there is very little we can do to affect the climate changes occurring. 

We can and MUST try, but the numbers overwhelm us.

In Hanrahan’s time – 1919 – only 1.8 billion people populated our planet, or about 12 people per sq km. Now that figure equates to 55 per sq km with Australia populating at about 3 per sq km.

The answer to reducing climate change must rest with ALL of us, but the northern hemisphere MUST stand up, not just some countries. If not, in Hanrahan’s words, we’ll all be roon’d!

Dave Jeffrey, Farrer 

The effect of humans to global warming

Anthony Horden either misunderstands or misrepresents the effect of the human contribution to global warming (“I didn’t describe the full cycle to save space”, August 5).

He writes: “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.” 

This statement omits to say that the CO2 emitted from natural sources is almost exactly balanced by natural sinks. It’s the additional CO2 released by human activity that is unbalancing the system.

The first sentence in the executive summary of Chapter 5 Global Carbon and Other Biogeochemical Cycles and Feedbacks of the IPCC’s AR6 Working Group 1 report states: “It is unequivocal that the increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) since the pre-industrial period are caused by human activities” and later concludes: “Halting global warming would thus require global net anthropogenic CO2 emissions to become zero.” 

It would be good if Mr Horden told the full story.

Ray Peck, Hawthorn, Victoria

Applying a leather strap, don’t knock it

I fear too much emphasis these days is placed on the rights of the perpetrator with mixed consideration to the full impact of crime on the victim.

There seems to be a tendency to racially profile crime as an offender’s defence. This ploy befuddles some, but not everyone.

As a recent resident of Singapore, I witnessed their solution to crime and can highly recommend it. They embrace a system of the application of a wide leather strap across the offender’s backside and it works.

They are able to be sent home quickly, much reformed. Very few are keen for a repeat, so you tend to see a better outcome. 

Before the howlers get all excited over inhumanity, can I please argue, don’t knock success?

John Lawrence via email