Views on the news from Canberra’s top columnists
"The ACT government should be leading the way with exemplary residential projects, rather than trying to maximise its and its rapacious developers’ short-term gains," says RICHARD JOHNSON, president, Kingston & Barton Residents Group.
"It has become increasingly apparent the government is hell-bent on digging an even larger financial and social hole by extending light rail," says letter writer MIKE QUIRK.
Columnist HUGH SELBY journeys into the bewildering world of phonics to discover what they are and why they're vitally important in teaching children to learn to read and write and enjoy it.
Cartoonist PAUL DORIN is bracing for the federal budget on Tuesday.
"A lot has changed since Mr Berlin pledged his loving dedication together with the royalties of the song from 1926. But the power of love is not one of them," writes The Gadfly columnist ROBERT MACKLIN.
"Heading east from Queanbeyan on the Kings Highway there’s remnants and new additions to the curious practice of teddies attached to trees, a feature for potentially as long as four decades," writes Yesterdays columnist NICHOLE OVERALL.
It's back by popular request, another burst of Rattenbury's Believe It Or Else! – tall tales (but probably untrue) from the bowels of the ACT government.
Letter writer COLIN LYONS, of Fadden, says the neglect of the Transport Canberra information office in Alinga Street, Civic, is an example of "incompetent public transport management in Canberra by the government".
"Among both men and women who have experienced violence from their partner, three quarters never went to the police. This is a critical result when, considering what kinds of services are needed," writes HUGH SELBY.
"Refusing bail and holding in a prison those alleged to have been violent to their partner, children or other family members is a flimsy BandAid on a non-healing sore," writes legal columnist HUGH SELBY.
The omnipresence of the internet in our global lives has changed several centuries of legal thinking. There is now a willingness to pass laws in Australia that have a global reach, writes legal columnist HUGH SELBY.
"Fred was at the bank yesterday when a little old lady asked him if he could help check her balance. So he pushed her over." Columnist CLIVE WILLIAMS says humour varies greatly , based on individual experiences, beliefs and sensitivities.
"His passion cost him his health and his first marriage, but he returned to his public quest for Aboriginal advancement, earning the praise of professorial fellows as 'Australia’s Lawrence of Arabia'," writes ROBERT MACKLIN.
Sir Ernest Escargot, Head Snail of the ACT Inactivity Commission, shares a breathless update on the Canberra Institute of Technobabble investigations with KEEPING UP THE ACT.
"If encouraged, the golf course roos will move off on to the reserve, but I have no doubt they will be unnecessarily and brutally slaughtered." Letter writer GWENDA GRIFFITHS despairs for the Red Hill kangaroos.
Cartoonist PAUL DORIN takes a look at the impending federal budget.
Legal columnist HUGH SELBY offers a spirited response to an opinion column by Kelly Saunders in which she posed the question over a defendant's right to silence in a sexual assault prosecution. Selby argues she's wrong...
Chinese swimming scandal: a strong defence by world anti-doping body, but narrative of ‘cover-up’ remains, write TRACEY HOLMES and CATHERINE ORDWAY.
Sexual assault victims give evidence in court, but alleged perpetrators don’t have to. Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case shows why that needs to change, says KELLY SAUNDERS.
