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Canberra Today 18°/22° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Letters: Here’s to Chuck Conder!

AS an old Conder resident, I thank you for knowing your history and taking up the cudgels (CN, Canberra Confidential, April 17) in the long-standing battle to have my suburb named correctly; that is Conder not Condor.

Sadly, it is not only the ACT Legislative Assembly and its good burghers who make this mistake; real estate agencies, the bureaucracy and many Canberra organisations – including a high-profile pizza chain (I call it the Domino effect) make this mistake all too frequently.

Why anyone could imagine that Canberra would name a suburb after a large bird of carrion (condor) is beyond my understanding.

Now, good old ex-Pom Chuck Conder may have had a somewhat dissolute and short-lived existence (dead at 40), but he is a noted Australian painter, so let’s give his reputation and talent wings – and not some ugly old flesh-eating bird.

 

Barry Rollings, via email  

 

Opportunism, methinks

THE ALP opposes co-payments, really?

A lot of politics is regrettably about posturing, opposing things that facts in government would lead you to support. The ALP has embarked upon a huge fear-campaign on the suggestion of co-payments for doctor visits. Oddly, the same ALP in government happily and regularly hiked up the co-payment for pharmaceuticals, which are pretty fundamental to health care, too. A wee bit of opportunism here!

M Gordon, Flynn

It’s time to buddy up?

IN my view, it’s time Canberra initiated a sister-city process with the capital of the US, Washington. Yes, we already have this status with Nara, Japan, and Beijing, China. But many cities have more than two. Our US friendship goes back to World War I at least, and daily we live in the presence of Walter Burley Griffin. There will be critics, of course, asking what can Washington do for us. I see that as short-thinking and short sighted.

There are many organisations already in Canberra with strong links to America. Surely our local representatives and business entrepreneurs could only benefit from very close links with Washington.

Yes, our Government is dwarfed politically and numerically by the number of Washington politicians – but could this not work to our advantage?

Colliss Parrett, Barton

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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