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Canberra Today 12°/15° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Letters / Spare Fyshwick the stinking garbage

THERE are many issues of community concern in regard to the current CRS waste proposal for transferring all of the red-bin and commercial waste presently received at Mugga landfill to be relocated by rail to Woodlawn landfill (Tarago) some 70 kilometres away.

It is planned to load the waste, including stinking garbage, in the retail and commercial heart of Fyshwick some 264 metres from the future suburb of East Lake designed to home 9000 residents.

No other site has been considered by the proponent or by government planners. Community letters have received no response from Planning Minister Gentleman and chief planner Ben Ponton from January 2018. FOI response has, in some cases, been refused, taken from two to four months and, in the meantime, ACT Planning has facilitated and progressed a most unpopular and unsustainable proposal through the issuing of a scoping document and notified a draft EIS process.

The proposal, the “one-stop solution to waste management” delivers one Sydney company a monopoly over waste management in the ACT and makes the organic waste proposals and reduce, reuse, recycle of the recently released “Waste Feasibility Study” redundant.

The proposed waste-transfer terminal shed will be the largest in Australia and some four kilometres from Parliament House. Why would anyone think it was a great and innovative idea to move this garbage from its present rural broadacre setting to urban retail Fyshwick; concentrating diesel trucks and increasing health and safety risks for everyone?

There is no benefit to community and all profit to this developer.

To speak out in opposition to the draft EIS make a submission to EPDCustomerServices@act.gov.au; the notifiable instrument is NI2018-27 notionally for a Materials Recovery Facility and rail freight hub at Ipswich Street. In reality, the waste-transfer terminal to receive 300,000 tonnes a year will rail at least 80 per cent of the waste to landfill at Woodlawn and we will be paying in every way you care to assess.

Barbara Moore, Kingston

Humbug, Mr Barr, to your Budget

HUMBUG to the so-called 2018/19 Budget surplus splash of cash. With the hike in rates/utilities and the like, the ACT government may be able to pay the monthly interest on its borrowings plus add to its cronies’ superannuation largesse.

I am wondering how Bah (Barr) can sound off about being the longest-serving Australian treasurer, one who has literally destroyed our future and that of our children. God help them when trying to meet their dream of home ownership. I refer to the “no stamp duty” and the demise of the home-ownership grant in the Budget speech.

Has he the gumption to answer the following questions of his Budget surplus claim when considering the following:

  • How much over budget is the light rail (can he quote a true amount)?
  • What will be the final cost of the 2km Gundaroo/Mirrabei Drive duplication fiasco?
  • What is the total ACT government loan – how far in debt for all its costly public works?
  • As the ACT government shareholder in EVO Energy (ActewAGL) how much are they in debt as I understand they have trouble meeting their monthly interest instalments?

I look forward to reading his answers.

Ray Leister, Amaroo

It isn’t broken

THE wedding of Harry and Meghan has once again sparked the debate of Australia becoming a republic.

Why, when we have had two referendums that resulted in a “no” vote, are the “yes” voters still insisting we go to another referendum for a republic?

I thought we were a democracy and not a bunch of spoilt children spitting their dummy because of not getting their own way.

Why will becoming a republic make a difference? The Queen does not make any decisions for Australia, she does not tell us what to do.

What are the financial costs? A heck of a lot more than we can afford at the moment and a heck of a lot more than people would realise. The legal system will need to be rewritten, as will the constitution and this could take years and many millions of dollars (not to mention the court cases that will fail as the new rules are ironed-out).

All the Public Service departments including Parliament will have to change, as will all the paperwork, letterheads etcetera.

Like a lot of countries that are republics, we could end up with a dictatorship that keeps changing the rules for their own benefit.

There’s an old saying that I think applies, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

Vi Evans via email

An ‘expert on everything’

SO, reader Vi Evans is an expert on everything from same-sex marriage to the plight of Aborigines (“Why do we need reconciliation day?”, CN, June 7). Perhaps “CityNews” should consider giving he or she the role of editor.

Gordon Neals, Wright

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Ian Meikle, editor

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