“Every facility you contact for respite care is already at 95 per cent capacity and available rooms are as scarce as hen’s teeth. Combine these factors with the 12-18 month wait for ACAT Home Care Packages the aged-care situation in Canberra is in a catastrophic state and most definitely not fit for purpose,” says letter writer CAROLE FORD, of Conder. 

I can’t be the only person trying to find respite care for an aged parent in Canberra!

During the last fortnight my nearly 96-year-old mother has fallen twice in her bathroom (despite using a support frame) because her legs “just gave way”. 

Mum fortunately has an alert pendant. She remained lying on the floor after passing out and waited for help from an ambulance for more than two hours. 

Her family arrived before the ambulance and agreed with paramedics that she be taken to hospital to be “checked over”. 

After a blood test, but no further investigative tests, she spent a very cold and uncomfortable night in emergency. As a consequence of these falls mum’s health, confidence and physical abilities have dramatically declined. 

She can’t be left alone during the day or night, because she can’t get to the bathroom on her own, can’t make a cup of tea, can’t cook/reheat a meal and is terrified of being left alone. 

The family have rallied and extra care services have been put in place to cover the many hours of care she needs. The family discussed the need for respite care and one option offered up was the Burrangiri Aged Care Respite Centre in Rivett, which is run by the Salvation Army and able to admit her for three weeks so that a long-time planned family holiday could go ahead. 

During the admissions process we were told that Burrangiri was to be closed because the ACT government classified the facility as “unfit for purpose” (Burrangiri is more than 30 years old).

The staff who operate the Salvation Army administered care home are dedicated to their patients and the level of care is exemplary. My question is, when Burrangiri is bulldozed, what will replace it? Where will the people searching for extremely hard-to-find respite care find an appropriate service? 

Every facility (on a two-page list) that you contact for respite care is already at 95 per cent capacity and available rooms are as scarce as hen’s teeth. 

Combine these factors with the 12-18 month wait for ACAT Home Care Packages the aged-care situation in Canberra is in a catastrophic state and most definitely not fit for purpose.

Carole Ford, Conder 

Burrangiri’s genuine love and caring from the staff

I read with horror a letter in CityNews last month bemoaning the forthcoming closure of Burrangiri Respite Centre. The letter spoke of a lack of political empathy, true, but I will speak from experience.

I have used four different respite places since moving to Canberra for medical reasons, including one in Broulee. I must add that Banksia Gardens was a pleasant place with good services and staff.

I once had to use a respite place in Isaacs.

Then there were LDK and Burrangiri. The latter, Burrangiri, was outstanding. All others were left behind in their dust.

Nowhere else was the feeling of genuine resident love and caring from the staff, who always chatted and laughed amongst themselves, obviously happy to work there.

It was a lovely place, and nowhere else could I have been better looked after and cared for. The meals served were always varied and excellent for those in an institution type of premise.

The people making this decision have no understanding of the service value Burrangiri provides

Noel Smart, Canberra

Light rail cost down to the millimetre

The three articles in CN (The tramcars that ate Canberra, February 27) talked about $577 million for stage 2a of the Light Rail project, plus $81.5 million for raising London Circuit. 

These are figures that are hard to comprehend. 

For the 1.7 kilometres of the project that equals $387,352 per metre of completed infrastructure or $387.35 per millimetre.

Barry Peffer, via email

Unplug your ears on the tram’s financial black hole

Bravo CityNews for such a collection of articles and letters decrying the light rail travesty (The tramcars that ate Canberra, February 27). Coincidently, during the same week, even the Canberra Times was questioning the economics of the tram. 

The reality is that the majority of Canberrans do not want stage 2b to Woden, according to the paper’s Insider’s Reader’s Panel. 

Maybe, just maybe, the Barr government might unplug its ears on this financial black hole.

Max Flint, co-ordinator, Smart Canberra Transport

Disgraceful behaviour on buses goes unchecked

Regular users of Canberra’s bus system would have been witness to some disgraceful behaviour on Canberra’s buses which largely goes unchecked. 

On a recent Monday evening, I was on an R5 bus heading to Tuggeranong from Civic that was held up at the Woden Interchange while police boarded the bus to interview young louts. 

They had smashed a window on another bus then quickly changed buses, presumably to try and avoid being apprehended.

On my bus, a large group of young people created an absolute racket at the back of the bus which made things very uncomfortable for other passengers. 

The driver was clearly most unhappy about their behaviour but not in a position to stop the bus on busy Adelaide Avenue.

I have observed that ever since Action stopped talking cash during covid and subsequently when the government made bus travel free during the MyWay trial period, the behaviour of many adolescent passengers has worsened considerably. 

Drivers have told me they receive little support from Transport Canberra to take action and clearly the court response is so weak that the offenders are not deterred. This anti-social behaviour would discourage some people from bus travel.

On the driver front, it also seems apparent to me that Action places little, if any, importance on including basic communication skills and thoughtful driving practices with new recruit training. 

There was a time when they were nearly all very friendly and drove safely. It is supposed to be a customer service job, after all.

Colin Lyons, Weetangera

I’m not cheering for Sam Kerr, either

I agree wholeheartedly with Declan Mcgrath’s comments (letters, CN February 27) about our Matilda’s captain, Sam Kerr.

What a disgraceful young woman this episode of her behaviour had been and thank goodness the media coverage has given us a good account of what happened. 

The TV coverage of her in the Twickenham police station afterwards, slouching on the seat as if she had no manners at all, disgraced herself, her position and Australian sport in general.

If this is the sort of person Australians are supposed to support, then I’m out. Have her sacked immediately, I don’t want to see her face again.

Bronwyn Halbisch, via email

Liberals need to speak up and be counted

Canberra Liberals leader Leanne Castley recently talked up her party’s lead ACT Senate candidate for the 2025 federal election and indicated that “the candidates we have” are “excited” for an election date to be called. 

At that stage preselection of only one lower house candidate had taken place, for the southern electorate of Bean. By the beginning of March the local Liberals had announced two more candidates who will be standing in the electorates of Canberra and Fenner. 

The nomination of the Bean candidate, who has enjoyed significant lead campaign time since December, was accompanied by a public Liberal Party CV-style statement that does not mention that this candidate is both a board member and a leading “Distinct Marker”, which is a person “of reverence” and “courage”, at the Vision Church in Fyshwick, an institution whose strong belief statements suggest that, inter alia, it does not recognise or support same-sex marriage .

ACT Liberal representatives have exhibited a very long and poor voting record at both the federal and local parliamentary levels when support is expected and required for territory rights and other key social, human rights and health-related reforms that would benefit constituents.

Hopefully all ACT federal election candidates, particularly key Liberal ones and those belonging to conservative minor parties, will be far more forthcoming and open with voters about their background, past and current paid and unpaid positions, and personal interests. 

Voters deserve to know whether candidates would support any socially conservative Coalition representatives, such as SA’s Liberal senator Alex Antic and Queensland’s LNP senator Matt Canavan, in their regular and obsessive social-control crusades that seek to interfere in and turn back the clock on progress made not just in the ACT but elsewhere on matters relating to citizens’ private decision-making about their own lives. 

Sue Dyer, Downer

Light rail money could have gone further

Michael Attwell (letters, CN March 13) makes a good point when lamenting the waste of public funds going into light rail when it could be better used expanding sporting venues. Indeed, we can think of many alternative uses for these funds, not just sporting venues.

Our dragway supporters have been backfiring over the loss of their hot-rod strip for decades, but remain focused.

John Lawrence via email

Were life so simple as letter writers suggest

John L Smith and Paul Ross (letters, CN February 27) seem to think that religion (Christianity, in particular) and “family fidelity” are all that are needed to ensure Australia’s future. 

Centuries-old religious upheaval in the Middle East isn’t helping Australian Jews or Muslims feel secure and part of the wider community.

Nor do some of our leading families set a good example with one former Australian making headlines for seeking to dispossess three of his four children from their share of the family’s multi-million dollar media empire. Millions of families give love and do their very best for their children, just as millions of religious faithful live lives of decency and compassion, yet in so many cases they suffer from the sins of others, sometimes horribly so while the sinners often go unpunished, even prosper.

Were life only so simple as Messrs Smith and Ross suggest, regardless of God’s apparent lack of concern.

Eric Hunter, Cook

The answer is blowing in the wind

John L Smith (letters CN, March 6) states “38 per cent of Australia’s energy needs” could come from nuclear power plants. He is evidently a staunch supporter of nuclear reactors to generate base-load power. That is theoretically true, but there are serious practical problems in its implementation.

Mr Smith does not mention the cost, which Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has inferred would be met by his government – ie Australian taxpayers – were he to win the forthcoming election. 

The CSIRO, with input from the Australian Energy Market Operator, found that building a large-scale nuclear power plant in Australia would cost at least $8.5 billion, take 15 years, and would produce electricity at about twice the cost of renewables.

Mr Dutton’s plan is to build six nuclear power plants, although Premier David Crisafulli has said he will not agree to the building of the Callide and Tarong nuclear power plants in Queensland.

Nuclear power for Australia is simply too expensive and too slow if we hope to make any impression on emissions and prevent the worst effects of unabated global heating. 

Extreme weather events, such Tropical Cyclone Alfred with its powerful winds, torrential rain, and devastating floods, are becoming more common and could be the harbingers of truly catastrophic weather events.

Do we still have sufficient time to avert such dire threats? The answer is blowing in the wind.

Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin 

Dutton’s nuclear solution simply won’t deliver

Does John L Smith understand modern power conversion technology, or the proposed “nuclear solution” (Letters, CN March 6)? 

The Dutton nuclear proposal will NOT provide 38 per cent of energy needs, even if it were available now, let alone in 2040 when it might become available.

The proposed five full-scale nuclear reactors (at around 1GW each) plus two SMRs (at around 0.5GW each) starting in 2037 and 2035 respectively, would produce just 6GW of nuclear energy. Just one of these might be built by the 2040s.

Mr Smith says “There are many questions about the proposed grid forming inverter technology” and uses the term “synchronous generators” without seeming to understand what that actually means. 

In fact, it is possible (and happening right now) that inverter technology can create synthetic P-f characteristics far stronger than any existing rotating machines such as those driven by nuclear or existing coal.

Lastly, he says cooling water would be recycled, but contradicts this by saying that the water usage would be “about the same” as that used in the coal-fired plants being replaced.

In cooling tower technology, a lot of water is lost through evaporation. Is it recycled, or lost? We all need accurate information so we can make the right decisions.

Fiona Colin, Malvern East, Victoria

Turning housing into an investment industry

Again, a letter writer blames the Albanese government for the national housing crisis (“Cost of living election, bring it on, Albo”, CN March 6).

Responsibility for housing is shared between national, state and local governments, with the last two being responsible for the operational aspects.

The Albanese government has distributed billions of dollars under the Commonwealth/State Housing Agreement to state and local governments to boost supply, spent millions under the Rent Assistance programs easing costs for tenants, and boosted TAFE sector funding to train more tradesmen.

The Howard government accentuated the crisis by halving the capital gains tax in 1999. Coupled with negative gearing concessions, this decision encouraged first-time investors into the market, and established investors to buy up more property.

A classic example is Peter Dutton who allegedly made $30 million from transactions across 26 pieces of real estate. No doubt he made good use of the tax concessions. But he’s not the only one. In more recent years, a survey revealed nearly 400 politicians and their families owned more than one property.

In effect, Coalition tax policies over many years turned housing into an investment industry. How can the Albanese government be expected to quickly rectify the situation?

Bill Bowron, via email

Bus figures came from the ACT government 

Columnist Mike Quirk (“Bloody minded politics is what’s driving the tram”, CN March 4) says that a consultant concluded that bus rapid transport would be half the cost of light rail, bring roughly twice the profit and produce the same development along the route.

It was actually the ACT government that concluded that a single bus rapid transit route would cost less than half as much as light rail, would provide twice the bang-for-buck, and would provide 92% of the benefits of light rail. The government made those conclusions in its August 2012 “City to Gungahlin Transit Corridor – Infrastructure Australia Project Submission.”

Leon Arundell, Downer

Concerns about the growth of public debt

As a monetary economist, I have had growing concerns about the growth of public debt of the Australian states and federal government. Government expenditure is increasingly taking the form of borrowing, which is not being repaid.

Government debt increases to the point where the government(s) are unable to pay the interest from tax revenue, given other expenditures, and have to resort to borrowing to pay the interest.

From that point, the size of borrowing will rapidly compound. The states will then resort to the federal government for help. The federal government can only print money to pay. But not forever. The outcome will be, as Keynes said, would be to “debauch the currency”.

Inflation then becomes hyper-inflation as long as the financial superstructure, banks and so-on, continues to exit. 

But often after that the currency ceases to have any value. Money supply collapses because the financial system locks up and can no longer issue new credit, and commerce comes to a standstill because most goods are shipped on credit.

In turn incomes decline precipitously, and shortly after, tax revenues drop to zero. With financial institutions wiped out, governments have no ability to continue borrowing or print money to finance deficits. As banks have gone, electronic money disappears. Government can’t print paper money because it cannot buy the paper. Government will be unable to pay anybody, even the armed forces.

As Dmitry Orlov said in his book, The Five Stages of Collapse, society collapses as people cannot buy food, farmers cannot buy fuel to harvest their crops, and there is general starvation. Armed gangs roam around, each claiming legitimacy.

This has happened to several countries in the past few years.

Can this trend be reversed? Unlikely. Aside from default (actually not a bad idea), government debt would have to be reduced. But there is no will or intention to do this. 

Readers of this letter need to take intelligent precautions. The inhabitants of many countries where this has happened have resorted to using US dollar notes for exchange. Society may continue to exist, though at a much-reduced level. Their governments have ceased, and they remain dependent on foreign aid, yes in US dollars, to minimally exist.

Tim Walshaw, Watson