“Across the many terms of ALP government, particularly under Andrew Barr, community disquiet across a number of demographics has grown,” says letter writer ALBERT OBERDORF. 

I believe Michael Moore’s proposal that the ACT Greens, ACT Liberals and independents urgently form a coalition of the willing to unlock Labor’s devastating grip on the ACT (CN January 22) will be supported by the majority of Canberrans.

In fact, late last year, I put such a proposal to Liberal Mark Parton and independents Fiona Carrick and Thomas Emerson on behalf of a number of Canberrans who are extremely concerned about what is happening to Canberra and the ACT, financially, socially and environmentally, under the current ALP government. 

I emphasised that we believed this would provide them with the opportunity to demonstrate to Canberrans the benefits of having a broad range of MLAs in government with a consequent better focus on the community.

It would also break the ALP’s hold on government, with the new interim government having three years to demonstrate to the ACT voters the benefits of having a broad range of MLAs with a better focus on community. 

I stressed that we are aware that this is a radical move but considered it to be an essential, perhaps indeed the only, step forward, given the failure of the ACT Liberals over the past seven elections, the now more than two-decades-long dominance of the ALP and the increasingly catastrophic situation of the ACT.

This looming catastrophe is, in the first instance, financial, but also goes far deeper. At bottom, it reflects a cavalier disregard for the principles Canberra was built on, including for the appropriate and effective delivery of critical public services, such as transport, health, education, etcetera.

Across the many terms of ALP government, particularly under Andrew Barr, community disquiet across a number of demographics has grown. 

This is reflected in a number of areas. The ACT’s credit rating has been reduced several times in the past few years and is likely to be further reduced next year.

Recently, the Conservation Council lamented the government’s announcement that the Territory would not meet its 2025 emission reduction target and that it will struggle to achieve net zero by 2050. In particular, it is concerned that the ACT government is not showing any ambition to turn this around.

Yet as noted above, the Canberra Liberals have failed to have the impact required to unseat Labor. Moreover, its recent infighting makes it highly unlikely that it will do so in the foreseeable future. 

We thus consider the strategy now put forward by Michael Moore to be a prime opportunity for our elected members to address the enormous problems of finance, planning, housing and governance afflicting Canberra.

As he says: “There will be ideological differences between the Liberals, the Greens and the independents. What should be the focus of these MLAs is to find the common ground and to work together in the interest of Canberrans.”

In this regard, I would draw their attention to Gough Whitlam’s famous statement: “Certainly, the impotent are pure.” It highlights the tension between political purity and the necessity of power in achieving meaningful change.

Albert Oberdorf, via email

Do banks consider the age of their customers?

After enjoying a chai lattè with a friend, I was heading home and was asked by an older lady if I could help her with an auto-teller banking enquiry.

She was attempting to obtain a balance, but obviously couldn’t read the directions and was unfamiliar with the instruction screens. 

I attempted to help her by following the directions, but unfortunately the “Computer Says No!” response was all we got.

The PIN number didn’t correspond to a required number so the machine kept going in a spiralling cycle of NO, NO and NO again! (Which bank, you may ask!)

She and I cleared the transaction and got her card back, then I reminded her that she might be able to get cash at the supermarket if she needed it.

We chatted a bit more and she talked about her kids (who lived all over this wide brown land), and how they had taken things from her and how she wanted to enjoy some independence and time to herself in her last few years, avoiding any further intervention from her family.

She seemed to be still switched on and able to look after herself at 95 and stubbornly insisting that she didn’t need any help or friends. 

I was left concerned about how she would fare with her banking issues, knowing that she could pay for her groceries but not be able to get cash without a valid PIN number.

The bank’s responsibility in managing her account was limited to a letter, which she probably didn’t fully understand and possibly not done the required “log in” to establish a new PIN. 

I began to wonder if the bank ever considered the age of their investors and recognised the need to tailor the services they offered to our seniors. 

I asked myself what if she had approached a less than honest person for help; could she have been scammed by some unscrupulous con-person?

These days when bank branches are closing, you have to make appointments to actually see a real person, correspondence can be confusing, card services tricky and cash transactions are disappearing, things aren’t made easy for our seniors.

Maybe some banks are better than others, but they should all be better because our seniors are (second only to children), the most vulnerable group of people, who deserve a whole lot better.

If the truth be known, the big banks would indeed be able to afford some extra services for their senior customers, but that would eat into their all important profit margins and investor dividends! I don’t know exactly what this would look like, but I’m sure the seniors concerned would have quite a few interesting suggestions! 

Carole Ford, via email

ACT bushfire maps need reviewing

Prof Clive Williams recalls the firestorms and heat exceeding 800°C when Dresden and Hamburg were bombed in World War II (“How to save property and shelter during bushfires”, CN January 29).

After the Black Summer fires, former NSW fire commissioner Greg Mullins warned that megafires can create their own weather, forming pyrocumulonimbus storm clouds that generate fire-driven thunderstorms.

Australian Standard AS 3959:2018, Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas, aims to improve a building’s resistance to bushfire attack, including embers, radiant heat up to 1000°C and flame contact.

In the ACT, buildings on blocks with a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) rating, mapped by the ACT Emergency Services Agency, must comply with this standard.

A report, When Cities Burn, released by Mullins in January, concludes that climate change has made homes on the fringes of many Australian cities vulnerable to catastrophic bushfires, like the 2003 Canberra fires and the 2025 Los Angeles fires.

It is worrying that the bushfire-prone areas map for the ACT referenced in the report includes many more properties than those captured by the ACT’s BAL map. Considering this evidence and a worsening climate, does the ACT’s BAL mapping now require review?

Ray Peck, Hawthorn, Victoria

Why the moderates should split

The moderates in the Liberal Party should split from the increasingly out-of-touch conservative wing. This would enable them to formulate policies acceptable to the majority of voters.

If they take an evidence-based approach in areas including housing, energy and climate change they would not only ensure their electoral relevance, but give the Albanese government the courage to undertake needed reforms. In housing this should include the reduction of capital gains and negative gearing concessions.

To remain with the conservatives would ensure a slow, lingering political demise.

Mike Quirk, Garran 

Link between animal cruelty and DV

There have been several court reports involving cruelty towards animals, namely puppies and small dogs. The sanctions have been essentially no more than the proverbial “slap on the wrist” of the offenders.

Most recently, a man was remanded in custody after punching his “co-owned” dog in the face and back, before he attempted to set it on fire, a vulnerable and defenceless animal.

Apparently, he was feeling lonely after drinking a bottle of whiskey.

While I applaud magistrate Jane Campbell for remanding the man, I must question if it was because he was on bail and a suspended sentence as opposed to attempted murder of the pup?

The man’s lawyer, Damian Lloveda, stated: “Alleged violence towards animals can be a sign of possible further aggressions… but there is no violence towards humans here.”

Mr Lloveda, I beg to differ, due to evidence-based research.

I was previously employed as the Safety Action Meeting co-ordinator for a domestic and family violence service based in Queanbeyan. The assessment tool I used for women and children who were at serious threat of further violence is called the Domestic Violence Safety Assessment Tool, developed by the NSW government.

One of the primary indicators of domestic and family violence is if your partner has ever harmed or killed a family pet or threatened to do so.

I strongly suggest Mr Lloveda does some research on the relationship between animal cruelty and domestic and family violence. 

Janine Haskins, Cook

Online and right out of it!

Readers have no doubt noticed that probably 60 to 80 per cent of people in shopping centres are glued to their mobile phones, and not engaging with other people.

Eye-to-eye communication with others is an important human activity that is apparently in decline. Not just in Canberra, but in cities across the world.

Australians are spending an incredible 41 hours a week online. That’s the equivalent of an entire working week and around a third of their waking hours. Of that time, close to 20 hours a week is spent on social media alone.

Off February is a movement encouraging people to delete social media apps from their phones for the month of February.

In Australia, that could free up from 50 to 160 hours of people’s lives, to do other things such as enjoying walking, cooking, listening to music, dancing, having a picnic, etcetera.

This is a global movement beginning with just one month to improve the quality of people’s lives. More information on Off February Australia is available at emraustralia.com.au

Murray May, Cook

Don’t be fooled by pool announcement

In support of the letters from Mike Quirk and Janine Haskins (CN January 28) regarding Canberra’s swimming pools (or lack of them), in 1979 Canberra had a heatwave of 35C plus temperatures in a week.

Canberra’s population was a tad over 200,000 and had five outdoor 50-metre swimming pools, including Deakin Swimming Pool that is no longer. At the moment there is no active pool at Jamison with Civic and Phillip to follow. So now we have well over double the population since 1979, but two less outdoor 50-metre pools, soon to be four less. 

That works out at a ratio of one 50 metre outdoor pool per 40,000 residents in 1979, currently it is around 1:160,000, soon to be 1:480,000, leaving Dickson Pool as the only outdoor 50-metre pool.

Don’t count on an alternate Civic Pool being built anytime soon, judging by the time and red tape it takes for anything to be done in this city. So does the government prefer you to sit in an air-conditioned building draining the grid (more blackouts) on heatwave days rather than enjoy the fresh air and cooling waters of an outdoor 50-metre public swimming pool?

Canberrans shouldn’t be fooled by the government’s recent announcement of another pool in Phillip. Barr’s government has lied about too many things, so it is a bit like the boy who cried wolf.

By demolishing the current site, it would also get rid of the only ice skating rink in the whole of Canberra, which ingeniously also heats the outdoor pool through its refrigeration. A cost and energy saver, which I thought we were all about. 

With many telling us our summers are getting hotter and longer we would lose public facilities that provide cooling and heat relief in the baking summers to come. 

This government continues with its desire to ruin Canberra’s once envied lack of skyscrapers with heat-seeking apartments in a suburb near you while at the same time preaching to us the increased exposure to higher temperatures due to climate change.

They also like you to believe the ACT is 100 per cent renewable, when it gets most of its electricity from coal and gas stations in NSW. 

To borrow a few lines from The Smashing Pumpkins hit Shakedown (1979);

Cool kids never have the time

To dust, I guess forgotten and absorbed to the Earth below

The street heats the urgency of now,

As you see there’s no one around. 

Ian Pilsner, Weston

Trump disapproval rises among key demographics

Is it possible that unbeknownst to us all, the assassin’s bullet, diverted by President Trump’s ear, shot him in the foot instead, where it now stays, permanently lodged?

This may partly explain Trump’s ongoing unpredictable and erratic behaviour.

His threat on Greenland has severely weakened the 75-year-old NATO alliance, and further damaged major European trading deals.

The president and his allies continue to battle the Congress, the bureaucracy, universities, the courts and the media.

His armed militia, ICE, is guilty of gunning down and murdering two American citizens in full view of bystanders.

Recent US polls show Trump’s disapproval is on the rise among his key demographics: Hispanic Voters 76 per cent disapproval, Asian Voters 73 per cent disapproval, and voters aged 18-29, 69 per cent disapproval.

Only 66 per cent of Republicans believe Trump has the “mental fitness” needed to be president and only 42 per cent believe he acts ethically in office.

Meanwhile, Melania Trump’s foray on to “the big screen” has bombed dramatically, with her movie/documentary Melania being lambasted by critics.

Empire gave the documentary just one star, Variety called it “a cheeseball infomercial “and The Guardian “an elaborate piece of designer taxidermy”.

DJ Trump said he thought it was” really great”.

Melania director Brett Ratner’s career was derailed by sexual assault allegations in 2017. He denied the allegations and no criminal charges were filed.

Ratner also appears in recent unsealed Epstein files showing him with the disgraced financier and an unidentified woman.

The plot thickens.

Declan McGrath, via email

Liberal candidate just slid down a snake

With Pauline Hanson now declaring that a One Nation coalition with the federal Liberals and Nationals is the only way to take government away from Labor, the ACT Liberals’ Senate candidate just slid down another long snake on that party’s increasingly tatty-looking board game where an individual can only win when all players have advanced past the party traps of self-centred ambitions, time-wasting molly-coddling and loss of relevance.

Sue Dyer, Downer