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Canberra Today 13°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Letters: Car safety concerns ‘dismissed’

READERS might be interested in a recent problem I have had with a Hyundai i30 where the electronic steering failed five months out of warranty and which cost $2831 to repair.

I raised this issue with Hyundai as I also own an iLoad van and was concerned that if this was a problem with their vehicles, innocent owners, family members or other road users could be killed or injured. Hyundai’s response was to dismiss my concerns and intimate that their dealer network was only interested if the problem occurred during the warranty period and that they “cannot assist further in this matter”.

I certainly will not buy another and I would counsel all Hyundai owners to look out for any signs of steering problems with their vehicles, even if minor and intermittent as in my case, and not get brushed off by Hyundai Australia. Your life, or someone else’s, might depend upon it.

 Ric Hingee, Duffy

Well done, Shane

IF the future of unicorns was left to people like columnist Mark Parton, it’s understandable why they are no longer around.

The law to ban factory farming of animals in the ACT is a welcome and humane step in helping create a world where animals matter and cruelty ends. Waiting until species are extinct to protect and value them is a matter of “too little, too late”.

Well done to Shane Rattenbury and his team for taking the first step.

 Amanda Medcalf, Cook

Price of being drug-free

RECENTLY, the possibility of add-on costs by not having needles in our prison has been raised.

Realising that being drug-free, prisoner or not, means no illicit drug use costs to the taxpayer, the WA government has given recurrent funding for eight years (at present around $1.2 million annually) to the Fresh Start Program in Perth, which deals not in drug maintenance, but getting people drug-free as quickly as possible.

In 2011, the WA State Government gave a $1.5 million boost to that program. This money, additional to the $1.2 million, allowed for an extra 244 naltrexone implant treatments. The WA government is no less careful with funding than any other, and must be satisfied that the Perth program is not only getting patients back to drug-free lives, but is also significantly reducing drug costs to that State’s taxpayers. As long as the A.C.T. Government refuses to support this treatment Canberran incomes are haemorrhaging for no purpose.

Colliss Parrett, Barton

Welcome to Canberra

WE are a happy mixed-race family with a new baby, only recently having moved to Canberra. One of our family is a recovering burn victim, so life is sometimes not easy.

Late last year when I bumped into one of our building cleaners he told me: “Your floor really smells… it’s the Chinese”.

While making this comment, he pointed to our neighbour’s apartment. I ignored the rest of his comments as the only Chinese person on our floor is my wife, and she certainly does not smell or cause any smell that he may have been referring to. This racial vilification is unacceptable in today’s society.

Is this what Canberra has to offer? Why are foreigners not welcome? They are no different to you or me. I have made a complaint with the ACT Human Rights Commission and the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Name withheld, via email

Try a bit harder

THE reporter responsible for the item “Staying on script” in Canberra Confidential (CN, March 13) could surely have found a less demeaning way to refer to older ladies.

Age does not render women insensitive, nor does it mean they are less intelligent than younger people. Being referred to as “little old ladies” or “old darlings” is offensive. Perhaps your reporter could, in future, try a bit harder to find a more acceptable epithet.

 Noela Nagle, via email

And harder still…

 ALLOW me to draw your attention to Wendy Johnson’s dining review headed “A room full of beans” (CN, March 13). The fourth paragraph says: “…Costa Rica, Columbia, India, Cuba, Asia”. The correct spelling of that South American country is Colombia. The fifth paragraph contains the same spelling error. Not being familiar with Colombian cuisine, I cannot pass judgement on “The Columbian Potatoes”.

Lest you consider me a pedantic nitpicker, I can assure you from many years of experience that correct spelling is not just desirable, it is critical.

Vincent Mawson, via email

 

 

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