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Canberra Today 14°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Letters / Not invited to be part of the gaming talks

I HAVE read with interest the ongoing discussion in “CityNews” about the community response to the announcement that the legislated cap on electronic gaming machine numbers was being increased.

quillACTCOSS, as the peak body for community organisations and an advocate for the interests of people living with disadvantage and low incomes in the ACT, has an abiding interest in the regulation and operations of the gambling industry.

Among the people who play electronic gaming machines on a weekly basis, 30 per cent develop a gambling problem that has a significant negative impact on their life. That’s why ACTCOSS says this product is not benign, and there needs to be strong consumer protection measures to reduce the harm it can cause. Reducing access to this legal but potentially harmful product is an effective consumer protection measure, which explains ACTCOSS’s disappointment that the cap on the number of electronic gaming machines has been lifted in the short term and will grow with population growth in the long term.

The community organisations best placed to comment on the proposed changes to the cap on gaming machines and the tax revenue generated from these machines did respond to the invitation from the ACT Minister for Gaming and Racing to be part of the initial consultation process. These organisations were not invited to continue to be part of negotiating setting the cap or tax revenue arrangements. Being invited to be part of consultation but being left out of negotiations is not full engagement, hence my comments in the media.

Through a number of decision-making processes the ACT government has demonstrated a willingness to include community voices in both consultation and negotiation of final outcomes, including through the co-design processes used as part of developing a blueprint for what health, education, justice and community services should look like across the ACT.

I look forward to this more fulsome consultation process being adopted when making decisions about the operation and contribution of the gambling industry in our city.

Susan Helyar, director, ACT Council of Social Service

Motoring sense , the ‘bogan’ issue

THE situation columnist Mark Parton (CN, October 9) wrote about with Kuringa Drive at Fraser is not a mystery it’s obvious: a lot of people’s road sense disappears because they don’t have any in the first place!

The road is of the same standard as thousands of country roads around Australia with far lower accident rates.

The fact is, Canberrans are psychologically conditioned to driving only on dual carriageways that are flat, have no or little road camber and are well lit. Hence the King’s Highway being named the most dangerous in NSW despite its condition being superior to other highways.

The lack of road sense and driving aptitude is so prevalent in Canberra that every night I am seeing between two and six cars driving without lights on.

It always appears to be the same types of people, those with their minds elsewhere.

I travel a lot in southern NSW and Victoria and never see such incompetence. Canberra is a well-educated place, but it’s a case of being unable to educate the educated because motoring is seen as a bogan issue in the ACT.

Mick Williams, via email

Four better or worse?

I REALLY dislike the expression “growing a pair” (Seven Days, CN, October 16). I think we were better off with the time-honoured “showing guts” and variations thereof.

Furthermore, if Shane Rattenbury “grew a pair” he would have four, which could be inconvenient!

Mr Rattenbury believes in what he does and does what he believes. Please don’t suggest that showing courage is new to him. It isn’t easy being Green. Show some respect, please.

Jenny Wright, Karabar

Appearance of irony

TURNING to Page 8 (CN, October 9) I came across a cartoon commenting on the debate about the Abbott Government’s desire to see the end of the burqa. Directly below said cartoon was an article from Sonya Fladun “Being a girl just gets harder and harder!”.

Being directly below this political cartoon I was expecting an opinion piece about how the public debate around the burqa affected women and individual rights. To my surprise though, Ms Fladun’s article described that, as a professional woman, she felt that societal expectations meant she needed to spend money and time to ensure that her ensemble matched and her hair was appropriately styled. I couldn’t help but see the irony.

Neil Thompson, Lyneham

 

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