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Letters / Too little, too late

CLEARLY, the groundswell of opposition to the exorbitantly expensive 12 kilometres of tram service has the ACT government rattled so now, just before an election, they promise all sorts of upgrades to bus services across Canberra to try to maintain support.

quillThey have had four years to improve the bus service, but instead of expanding the bus-lane system and running more express buses during peak times, they’ve spent most of that time, not to mention the wasted resources, trying to con us on the supposed benefits of Rattenbury’s red rattler tramline.

Too little, too late – about time we jettisoned this mob.

William Cranshaw, via citynews.com.au

Shame if patients were deterred

IT would be a pity if current and future patients and their families were deterred from receiving palliative care because of the sad story of John and Mary Ann Paynter (CN, June 2).

As a fellow widower, I sympathise with Mr Paynter at the loss of his partner of nearly 40 years but I am sure his late wife’s dying experience in April at Canberra Hospital was untypical.

I visited a terminally-ill friend in Canberra Hospital last month and the staff appeared to be treating him appropriately. In fact, he was excitedly telling me that they had at last got on top of his pain control. Unfortunately, Mr Paynter’s call for the introduction of “assisted dying” is a call for assisted suicide and euthanasia. Having visited Belgium where euthanasia is practised and spoken with hospital staff, I can tell readers that the so-called “exceptional cases” quickly turn into the norm and become an entrenched part of the healthcare process.

Denis Strangman, Fraser

Making suffering compulsory

AS a nurse who works caring for palliative patients on a daily basis, I have seen countless patients and families suffer unnecessarily due to lack of choice in end-of-life care.

I would like to see a change in the law and voluntary euthanasia legalised.

The logic in Mr Paynter’s argument (“Seven ‘cruel’ days in palliative care”, CN, June 2) to legalise voluntary euthanasia stands to reason. Not being able to give people a choice feels to me like making suffering compulsory.

Name withheld, via citynews.com.au

Moore should be ashamed

POLITICAL columnist Michael Moore says he’s ashamed of our pointless cruelty to asylum seekers (CN, June 2). And he should be ashamed, but not for the reasons he stated. He has missed the whole point of not letting in the supposed refugees.
I say “supposed” because they ceased to be refugees when they landed on Indonesian soil and, in many cases, at a prior country.
The point of not letting them in is to close the gates to avoid what has happened in Europe, millions swarming in leaving a trail of rubbish as they move through the different countries abusing people and destroying tourism.
If we do not make a stand we would have hundreds if not thousands of boats arriving here and many getting killed on the way as the people smugglers do not care what condition the boats are in.
I agree the immigrants that have come to this country have made a very valuable contribution, worked hard and helped make Australia the great country it is.
The current group are not immigrants, they are trying to get in illegally and are breaking the law; they are trying to come in through the back door with no checks and balances.
They are trying to change our way of life. How many schools have stopped celebrating Christmas because it offends the Muslims, some even stopped the National Anthem because it offended the Muslims. If the Muslims are so offended by our way of life, why come here?
I am not a racist of any kind or have Islamophobia – I just accept they have a different culture and a lot do not want to change.

Vi Evans, MacGregor

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One Response to Letters / Too little, too late

Margaret Freemantle says: 19 June 2016 at 8:09 pm

Vi Evans-refugees are not migrants -they are seeking asylum seekers – escaping horrors in their own country and it is lawful to assist them.We signed the convention to say we would, and now have gone back on our word-shameful.Vi, you have grossly generalised and maligned good people in desperate circumstances. It would be an honour and a pleasure to introduce you to some refugees who came by boat. Your heart will seriously break. The media portrays whatever it thinks will make the best story -there may be some rubbish(have you tried to find a bin overseas where they have been banned because of the fear of bombs?) and I think you will find that tourist numbers have not gone down.
My gravest concern is in your comment “they are trying to change our way of life”. New arrivals do affect our way of living ,and have done so since Captain Cook days. But it is in a good way.
I am Catholic and at first found it difficult to accept that Christmas is now often known as the holiday season, but I soon realised that this is to be more inclusive and tolerant of all faiths and beliefs.I would say that the Muslims I have met do not want to change our way of life at all, but don’t want to be abused for having their own faith.They want to be accepted here because they love our way of life. Hate will not help-love will.

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