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Canberra Today 20°/24° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Letters / Barr and Berry are way off track

JON Stanhope provides a damning assessment of the ACT government’s social and housing priorities in his opinion piece on the ACT Suburban Land Agency (“Labor drives land prices ever higher at any cost”, CN, June 21).  

He suggests that Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Housing Minister Yvette Berry are deliberately constraining the supply of land for detached housing, thus driving the median price of such housing still further up, and well out of reach of people on lower incomes.  

Further, the supply of detached housing is the reverse of what Canberrans have expressed as a desired choice in housing, rather than more and more units.
Stanhope’s concerns about equity reflect what I believe to be traditional values for the ALP.  It has me wondering if Stanhope, Barr, and Berry are even in the same party. Barr and Berry are way off track, with the Suburban Land Agency’s number one task apparently being to “maximise revenue” from land sales!

Murray May, Cook

Never mind the trees…

I REFER to “Seven Days” by Mike Welsh (CN, June 14) and the picture of “the great Queanbeyan stitch-up”.

I always cringe when I see this sort of thing; undoubtedly there is a lot of engagement by the folk who knit and crochet but surely, wouldn’t

making warm, bright clothing or bedspreads for the not-so-lucky of us be better, the trees do well enough without!

Suzanne Mitchell, via email

Train travel gets a big tick

TRAIN travel times between Canberra and Sydney were more than five hours duration – but last September we travelled to Sydney by train in four hours – the smoothest train ever! – because all the timber railway sleepers had been replaced with steel sleepers.

I am surprised NSW Railways have not advertised their improvements.

I challenge anyone to travel from Kingston Railway station – by bus or plane, during normal business hours – five days a week – and consistently reach Central Railway station in four hours – arriving relaxed, unstressed, rested and refreshed by the extremely comfortable seating and excellent buffet service.

Peter Gately, Flynn

Why close Mugga Lane tip?

I AM writing about Paul Costigan’s column “Pollies fail the smell test on Fyshwick dump” (CN, June 7). This really is the icing on the cake.

Has it been disclosed whose silly idea this was and why the decision was made? Especially as Mugga Lane has 30 years life in it.

Is there an organisation that wants to buy Mugga Lane or somewhere nearby and needs the current tip closed? I can bet the details will never come out.

What was not mentioned in the article is that apart from the smell, environment pollution and dust is the place will be overrun by rats, mice and cockroaches.

If Mugga Lane is to be closed, Why? Why close a perfectly good facility located well away from others and make life extremely difficult for businesses and customers in Fyshwick?

Vi Evans, via email

Breaking the confessional seal

THE Chief Minister wants to break the confessional seal in relation to child sexual abuse. If the Church is to consider it at all, then it should first seek an acceptable answer as to why it should not also be broken within the same interpretation of secular justice for summary or indictable offences applying to prime ministers, cabinet and other ministers, chief ministers and all other parliamentarians.

Colliss Parrett, Barton

 

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