Letter-writer DIANNE DEANE’s rates notice is causing her distress. The unimproved value of her land has jumped 50 per cent and she’s as mad as hell…

I WAS distressed to receive my rates notice for 2022 to find that the valuation of the unimproved value of my land had increased by around 50 per cent in just one year. 

I agree with Ron Edgecombe, of Evatt, in his concern over the ACT Unimproved Land Valuation increases (Letters, CN October 6), but it’s not only units that are being treated unfairly. 

My rates for a medium-size block are now $4324 a year, almost doubling in the last seven years. My fixed income in retirement certainly hasn’t doubled in the same period. 

It’s not as if the increase in rates offers any increase in services. Instead, potholes are not fixed, grasslands are overgrown to the extent they can’t be used (unless you are a horse or kangaroo), health and mental health services, the education budget and public housing have all declined. 

I object to an inflated valuation of my land that I believe is based primarily on two factors: the need for the ACT government to pay for its useless extensions to the tram, and the government’s failure to make new land available to match the pace of demand and thus greatly inflating the cost of new land, which in turn also helps pay for the tram.

What a tidy solution to years of mismanagement and misplaced priorities of this government! 

I urge those concerned with this rude grab for money to lodge a written objection with the Commissioner for ACT Revenue at revenue.act.gov.au/rights-and-obligations. 

It’s too late to wait until the next election to give this government the message. Do it now.

Dianne Deane, via email

Sign a sign of no progress

DRIVING south along Athllon Drive, as I pass over Sulwood Drive, I am greeted by a sign that says: “We are duplicating this road”. 

It has been there since before the last ACT election, now some two years hence. 

What has happened in the fulfilment of this statement? Nothing! 

It is testament to yet another unfulfilled election promise from the Labor/Greens. Perhaps it is a dual-use sign – usable at the next election – that’s cost-saving economy for you! 

Would the ACT government either get on with the job, or perhaps be more honest about it, and remove the sign!

Graham Harper, Wanniassa

Canberra’s ‘shambolic’ public transport

I RECENTLY returned from a holiday in WA and had the opportunity to use Perth’s public transport system.

What a contrast with the shambolic system here.

First of all, the bus drivers accept cash and interstate visitors can pay that way if they are not there long enough to justify buying a pass. They recognise interstate Seniors Cards, too.

With the diabolical debt that the ACT government has got the territory into (ref Stanhope & Ahmed in various editions of “CityNews”), you would think they would see the importance of ending a stupid policy that bleeds revenue and resumed accepting cash on our bus system. 

But no, covid must be a much more virulent strain here than in the West!

Another massive difference between the two transport systems is that in Perth, bus services on weekends are a little less frequent than on Monday to Friday with 10-15-minute intervals being commonplace and 30 minutes in the evenings. Compare that with the two hour intervals we have had to suffer on weekends in Canberra on non-Rapid routes for two years.

We can’t afford a better service despite the outrageous property rates because of the government’s arrogant refusal to recognise the outrageous disruption and cost of extending light rail.

Colin Lyons, Weetangera

True-blue colours keep flapping

FEDERAL Liberal Party vice-president and Sky News regular Tina McQueen comes across as rather Putinesque (“No coming back for Libs without those ‘lefties’”, citynews.com.au, October 5). 

Any teal-tinged voter who is wondering about supporting the Liberal Party, or any moderate-leaning party member aiming for future party preselection, would be running yet another mile away from the party by now. 

Many would also have reason to be suspicious about the true credentials, beliefs and motivations of future Liberal female candidates in particular. 

So far, the ACT Liberals, who are also on a rocky path to resurrection, have not shown intestinal fortitude to stand up to Ms McQueen’s damning and controlling comments about ridding the party of “lefties”, and only welcoming “good conservatives”. 

Or did too many local members and MLAs instead attend the Conservative Political Action Conference Australia at the beginning of October and remain in thrall of the presentations made by McQueen, Nigel Farage, former Trump associates, Australian right-wing politicians and commentators, arch-conservative lobby groups and think-tanks?

Sue Dyer, Downer 

Dr Doug’s got something to crow about

DEAR Dr Douglas MacKenzie (Letters, CN October 6), as a true believer I know that you will continue to crow about the Labor Party’s ascendancy to the government benches, but to quote a 600-year-old French quotation: “The king is dead – long live the king”. 

Let your mate Albo get on with his job and hope that all will be well with the world for the next few years.

Dave Jeffrey, Farrer

An outrageous disrespect for Canberrans

I HAVE received a five-and-a-half-page statement from the ACT Revenue Office showing what I owe but nowhere does it show what I have paid.

As your columnist Paul Costigan (“Canberra Matters”) often states, this government shows an outrageous disrespect and inefficiency in dealing with Canberrans.

Imagine if the statements of my bank or body corporate didn’t show the amounts I’ve paid over the period covered by the statements. Who does the ACT Revenue Office take us for?

By the way, I must point out another inept, new way this government is choosing to serve its constituents, namely, not supplying the name of the officer who sends you a letter. 

Instead it says “Delegate of the Commissioner for ACT Revenue Operations”. It might sound impressive to them, but not to us.

Vivien Munoz, Holt

What have monarchs ever done for us?

RICK Forster’s arguments in favour of the monarchy are so old hat I’m surprised he didn’t also regurgitate the tedious, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

While listing the terrible nature of republics, he failed to mention how the world has also seen many bad monarchs and monarchies over the centuries. 

In our own lifetimes, British monarchs have done little or nothing to prevent us from falling into catastrophic times, to avoid disastrous economic downturns, or to right the wrongs placed on the disadvantaged. 

And critically, how many times has the British monarch sided with Australia over the interests of the British government? The answer is, none. Historically, what did the cousins, George V and Kaiser Wilhelm II do to prevent the slaughter of World War I? 

I could go on, pointing out that the late queen on her travels abroad, was required to speak on behalf of the UK government, rather than Australia. King Charles III will be required to do likewise. 

It has been Australian governments that have had to speak up for Australia, as John Curtin did in bringing troops back from the Middle East to fight the Japanese, against the wishes of the British War Cabinet. What did the British monarch have to say about that? 

We don’t know, because we’re not allowed to know what our Head of State thinks behind the palace doors, even when our interests are at stake, such as with the Whitlam dismissal. It took 50 years and High Court intervention to get access to the letters between Kerr and the Palace. Does Rick think this is acceptable for an allegedly democratic nation?

I’m not against any individual monarch – it’s the institution that is at fault, serious fault, as far as Australia is concerned. Surely we are capable of learning from the mistakes of other republican systems, most of which have plenty of good points as well as faults, just as we can take some of the values of our present system and preserve them in a changed format while getting rid of the useless bits. 

The main consideration is; it is long past time that a sovereign Australia stands up for itself, with a system that represents us first and foremost and is represented at its head by an Australian rather than by a foreigner who is foisted upon us through an accident of birth. 

By the way, he or she must also be a believer in a particular brand of a particular religion that had its origins in the aberrant behaviour of a monarch seven centuries past. That too, is apparently a desirable “value” for this modern multicultural society to live with.

It IS broke, and it does need fixing.

Eric Hunter, Cook