“With no macropods to eat it down, it is a firebomb just waiting to go off this coming summer. This is of concern to me, as my wife and I nearly lost our house up near Farrer Ridge in the 2003 event,” says letter writer IAN MacDOUGALL.
Many Canberrans are probably too young to remember the catastrophic bushfire event of 2003.
But according to the National Museum of Australia website: “Four people died and 435 were injured as a result of the Canberra fires. Almost 70 per cent of the ACT was burned. A total of 487 homes and 23 government and commercial buildings were destroyed, including the internationally renowned Mount Stromlo Observatory. The estimated financial cost of the fires was between $600 million and $1 billion.”
The annual cull is being sold to us in the name of “conservation”. But on a walk on Farrer Ridge, I encountered just one solitary and wary kangaroo, and pyrophytic undergrowth as thick as you like.
With no macropods to eat it down, it is a firebomb just waiting to go off this coming summer. This is of concern to me, as my wife and I nearly lost our house up here near that ridge in the 2003 event.
Needless to add, all the striped legless lizards, grassland earless dragons, golden sun moths, perunga grasshoppers, hooded robins and brown treecreepers, as well as the button wrinkleworts and Ginninderra peppercress plants that the ACT Government is trying to tell us its “conservation culling” of kangaroos is preserving, will all go up in flames as well.
Female kangaroos have the natural ability to pause embryo development when conditions are poor. We should leave the control of their own populations to them, and to Mother Nature, and cease – as of yesterday – the necessarily and inevitably genetically ignorant “conservation culling”.
The skippies are our friends.
Ian MacDougall, via citynews.com.au
Cease the cruelty of culling kangaroos
I would like to join in with the countless calls to the ACT Government to cease its appalling and barbaric kangaroo culling.
The dreaded time of the year is at the door for both compassionate Canberrans and our beautiful kangaroos.
Their only fault has been to find themselves in their own native environment, peacefully grazing and doing no harm to anyone, while surrounded by hostile humans leaders, who, instead of being guardians of this wonderful land and finding ways of co-existing, managing and protecting, have confused “conservation” with ignorant, inhumane and savage slaughter, leading eventually to extermination of the species.
Has it occurred to the ACT Government, its leader and policy makers, that it would be both just and prudent to lend their ear to their constituents with their 17-year long calls to cease the culling, to respond to the scientific evidence, to be consultative and transparent in their decision making, to be compassionate and innovative in managing sentient beings and environment?
What an irony, lack of logic and resourcefulness to be on one side concerned about wood heaters’ emissions, while on the other side conducting back burning and polluting the atmosphere in the ACT to manage bushfires fuel, instead of letting kangaroos graze and manage it!
Many ACT residents have long been past the point “enough is enough” at the appalling and unacceptable treatment of animals and environment by the ACT Government.
Bruna Krstulovic, Barton
Numbers are not their strong point
No wonder the ACT budget has blown out and the ACT Government can’t even cover interest payments on the loans it has taken out, when it has allocated cull numbers for macropods in reserves where there are none! Numbers are clearly not its strong point, and neither is compassion.
Gill Jewell, Barton
Liberals asleep at the wheel for 25 years
Many letter writers to CN have expressed their alarm at the ACT Government’s financial mismanagement.
John Lawrence, in his letter “There’s bad news and bad news” (CN June 4) repeats the bad news about the government debt and then takes a swipe at the hapless Liberals who he says are asleep at the wheel.
It’s more like they’ve been comatose for 25 years. During that quarter of a century of back-to-back Labor/Greens governments there has been little evidence of business acumen amongst their ranks.
The incumbent ACT Government is led by an old-fashioned Labor apparatchik, rising through the ranks as a staffer and adviser to various ministers.
The other nine members are a blend of ex-public servants, Labor staffers and trade union hacks.
The electorate that gives them a 1 and 2 at the ballot box every four years is very comfortable with the status quo.
Paul Temby, via email
Making sense of what we dream
I read with interest the article on why some folk recall dreams (CN, June 4).
It was good on the mechanics of dreams and sleep, but regrettably missed the chance to discuss dream interpretation.
Kekulé famously worked out the ring structure of benzene after dreaming of a snake biting its tail. His comment, “Let us learn to dream … then perhaps we shall find the truth,” stayed with me.
By having an interested person ask appropriate questions, sense can often be made of issues in a person’s life.
Once a friend told me that she had dreamed of losing her beautifully kept teeth. When I asked what her teeth meant to her, she realised the importance of the moment.
Dream recall is half the journey. Even a casual look at the circumstances behind it can help to open a window into the unconscious.
Bob Gardiner, Isabella Plains
Where universities have gone wrong
Having worked at eight universities over more than 25 years, I can offer some experience-based insights on where Australian universities have gone wrong:
- Too much emphasis on academics producing books, journal articles and book chapters, and not enough emphasis on – or career credit given to – academics delivering high-quality teaching, as rated by students.
- Too many academics who are more focused on progressing their academic careers than on helping students.
- Too many administrators over-administering and making it difficult to develop relevant new courses.
- Too little value placed by universities on academic expert comment for the media and at public forums.
- Outdated student assessment systems.
- Costly property overbuilding when building needs were declining.
- Too many academics and PhD students doing research that had little practical value or purpose.
- Overpayment of senior executives.
At a more senior management level, there was also a failure to appreciate the learning options available for overseas and domestic students – particularly what overseas universities were offering, often at less cost than in Australia.
Prof Clive Williams, Forrest
Treasurer Steel, hello; your response, please
A letter to Treasurer Chris Steel: I have written to you on February 10, March 20 and May 6 seeking a response [regarding the missing expenditures in the ratepayers’ pie chart sent with last year’s ACT Rates Assessment Notice]. To date, nothing. I await your response.
I now ask regarding the ACT publication – distributed to all Canberra residents – Our CBR (with Andrew Barr’s image on the front page):
- What is the annual production cost?
- What is the annual printing cost?
- What is the annual distribution cost?
John Miller, Flynn
Why can’t these people speak to each other?
I am a disabled person and appreciate that I have had a place to call home for over 10 years, thanks to Housing ACT.
My frustration is this: I have funding through the NDIS for home modifications to make my home safe for me, but the NDIS says it does not have permission to change a Housing ACT home.
At the same time, Housing ACT has acknowledged that I need home modifications, but states that it does not have the funding!
Why can’t these two organisations speak to each other – one providing the funding and the other making the changes happen?
One possible answer came some years ago when Housing ACT told me that it did not want to make my home look like a disabled person’s home (with additions such as small ramps and rails) because the next tenants would want a “normal-looking” home. I don’t know whether I feel shocked, or seen by the government as totally worthless.
A Leslie, via email
The scramble to be coherent and credible
A big con job is sure to be delivered when normally lazy or befuddled representatives in the three now-rightist parliamentary parties scramble to be coherent and credible communicators (“Coalition leaves door open to working with One Nation”, citynews.com.au, June 9).
Sue Dyer, Downer
Albanese’s is a Clayton’s Labor government
PM Anthony Albanese is no John Howard when it comes to leadership qualities and conviction. Howard had the courage of his convictions and stood by his principles; PM Albanese, on the other hand, is a wimp who indulges in making himself and his party as small a target as possible to avoid criticism. He caved in on the AUKUS agreement to avoid being wedged on defence. His one and only attempt at major reform with the Voice ended up being an absolute disaster. It has also set back the indigenous cause by a decade or more.
Howard was a leader; Albanese is not. His sole dedication is to the ALP retaining government, whatever the cost. The Albanese government is a Clayton’s Labor government.
Mario Stivala, Belconnen
There once was a pollie, Pauline…
Here’s another limerick inspired by Joel Pearce (letters, CN June 11):
There once was a pollie named Pauline,
Who thought net zero rather obscene.
She loudly championed coal,
As the ultimate goal,
Let’s hope voters prefer to be green
Haiku anyone?
Ray Peck, Hawthorn, Victoria
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