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Canberra Today 12°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Letters / ‘Helpless’ to save the trees

JON Stanhope’s opinion (“Why the Northbourne flats have to stay”, CN, April 2) was greatly appreciated!

quillAs a pensioner and ACTION user, who has lived in this area for over 25 years and has read much of both sides of the light rail/Northbourne Avenue flats issue, I feel quite helpless watching the “wheel turn” that will radically destroy this area. Gone will be the gracious avenue of eucalypts – the lungs of the inner north – that I love, and the ambience of the open spaces around the now-neglected flats.

I do hope that your voice is heard urgently again on this matter!

Suzanne Mitchell, via email

A tax on a tax

THE Australian government’s “Tax Discussion Paper” fails to address a very critical issue: that is, the double taxation that all Australians have been paying ever since the introduction of the GST.

On inception, all states and territories were given carte blanche regarding the application of the GST to their own taxes, including land taxes, council rates, stamp duty etcetera.

Mostly, they chose to add their own taxes on top of transaction prices that already included the GST charge; effectively, a tax on a tax.

Apart from probably being unconstitutional, the double-taxation has been applied consistently over a wide range of transactions including real estate, motor vehicle sales as well as all forms of insurance, with the overall cost to average Australians probably running into hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Australian government has ignored this unfair situation for far too long. Abolition of this underhanded double taxation is long overdue.

M McGregor, Curtin

Tyranny of the minority

MICHAEL Moore makes some reasonable points in his column “Plain Ricky puts up a good argument” (CN, March 12). However, this pragmatic old goat objects to the tyranny of the minority, when people like Muir are elected on a vanishingly small number of votes and appear to have no understanding of the issues that confront them in the Senate. Despite his ignorance, this man and others like him, for example Jacqui Lambie, have an enormous influence on the fate of important legislation that affects all Australians. The failure of the much-needed higher education reforms is a case in point. Our system needs to filter out rather than encourage these yokels.

H Ronald, Jerrabomberra

TRAFFIC IN CRACE

‘Unbearable’

I AM an elderly resident who moved to the Goodwin Aged Care centre at Crace last month. I need to travel to the city regularly to visit my doctor for treatment.

I want to bring to your attention the traffic issues at Barton Highway as it is unbearable traffic and I get stuck for more than 45 mins driving at less than 5 km/h.

I raised the issue with the Crace community who informed me the issue was due to the fact there was no direct roads to divert Crace and Palmerston drivers to the city, which meant that there was a bottleneck at Barton Highway as all city drivers had to come to the roundabout.

Could the government please relieve me and many others from the Barton Highway traffic?

Judy Smith, via email

No bus

DISASTROUS planning by ACTION has inconvenienced Crace residents as it is ridiculous that there is no direct bus to the city.

All other suburbs like Palmerston and Bonner have direct city buses, so there is clear discrimination against Crace residents going on.

On behalf of all Crace, I request ACTION, please fix this ASAP.

Jenny Turner, via email

‘Nightmare’

GETTING out of Crace is an absolute nightmare for residents as no proper roads have been built in inner Crace connecting to the Barton Highway.

From Maranunga Avenue there is a cycle track but no road, which is pathetic planning. Residents going to the city have to go all the way to Abena Avenue instead of directly accessing the Barton Highway, causing nightmares for residents.

This is a waste of time and money due to ACT’s poor planning; please fix this issue as a priority.

Peter White, Crace

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