“No manner of ‘creative accounting’ will solve the ACT government’s health budget conundrum,” says letter writer IAN DE LANDELLES.

News that the ACT health budget is unsustainable, should come as a surprise to no one.

Jon Stanhope and I don’t always agree on policy matters, however I find myself in furious lockstep with what he said at a monthly meeting of the ALP Mt Rogers sub-branch more than two decades ago.

In his usual report to the assembled members, Jon opined that he didn’t want to be in government in 2030, as he didn’t know how the health bill would be paid.

Jon and I are both among those significantly contributing to this growing dilemma. We are both baby boomers, the demographic whose cost to the health system continues to increase exponentially.

All governments, of all political persuasions, have been aware, or should have been aware, that this major dilemma was speeding towards them and planned accordingly.

No manner of “creative accounting” will solve this conundrum and I wish Chris Steel well with his attempts to do so.

Ian De Landelles, Murrays Beach, NSW

I suggest light rail has become unaffordable

In their analysis of the ACT government’s budget from 2024-2025 to 2027-2028 ( “ACT budget shock: How Barr broke the bank”, CN February 13) Jon Stanhope and Khalid Ahmed conclude with the statement “He (Shane Rattenbury) may wish to begin (making sense of the parlous state of the ACT budget) by pondering what cuts to vital services could have been avoided but for stage 2a’s $577 million spent on a 1.7 km tram journey”. 

I have seen estimates of the final cost of light rail stage 2A of up to $1.46 billion, which does not include the loss of taxable income from the numerous businesses forced to close for three years while the western sector of London Circuit is closed for the building of light rail tracks.

The costing of light rail to Woden has still not been revealed. Stage 2B will include a new span of Commonwealth Avenue bridge and a large amount of earthworks to level, and in some areas widen, the median of Adelaide Avenue and Yarra Glen over several kilometres. 

The cost of all this work will likely amount to several billions, and drive the ACT government’s budget further into the black hole of deficit. I suggest that light rail has become unaffordable.

Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

Conservation Council’s Damascus moment?

Travelling in Canberra’s mostly-fossil-fuelled buses causes more pollution than equivalent travel in fossil-fuelled cars.

Nevertheless, the ACT-government-funded Conservation Council wants frequent bus services, which will do more to increase emissions than to increase patronage. 

Its “Make the Move” website encourages us to travel by bus rather than by car, to “reduce our ecological footprint”.

Two years ago I argued in CityNews that we should transition more quickly to electric buses. The Conservation Council responded by expelling me from its transport working group and banning me from its office. 

It then applied (unsuccessfully) for a court order to prohibit me from entering its office, contacting its board or staff, or writing about it in the media.

Paul the Apostle stopped persecuting Christians after Christ appeared to him while he was travelling to Damascus.

The Conservation Council now supports a quicker transition to electric buses and recently posted that, “fossil fuels are like a modern day version of tobacco”.

Did the Conservation Council recently drive to Damascus?

Leon Arundell, Downer

No hill that Labor’s light might shine

To sum up Dr Jenny Stewart’s excellent column (“Advance Australia… before it’s too late, please”, CN February 13): how do we know what we need to get where we want to go, if we don’t know what we want it to be like when we get there? 

And it’s not only Coalition governments that have lacked initiative and vision, Labor hasn’t done much better on the progressive front.

I’ve always regarded the Hawke government as the best government in Australia’s history – best conservative government, that is.

And since Hawke and Keating, Labor has retreated even further into the “afraid-to-do-anything-meaningful” cave where there’s no visionary light on the hill, because there’s no hill of ambition upon which the light might shine.

Eric Hunter, Cook 

Will Cheyne take up the coronial challenge?

As a member of the ACT Coronial Advocacy Group (ACAG), myself and others worked in consultation (over an 18-month period) with an independent facilitator (IF). 

The IF was engaged to speak to families and relevant coronial stakeholders, including ACT Courts and the police to bring the groups together to improve the operation of the ACT Coroners Court, including ensuring that it better fulfils its key objective to prevent unnecessary deaths. 

The IF produced a report, which was tabled in the ACT Legislative Assembly during the last sitting week of 2024 before the election by the ACT’s previous attorney-general Shane Rattenbury.

The report identified that the ACT is the only jurisdiction in Australia where the chief coroner is also the chief magistrate. 

The IF recommended that this should be the subject of an independent review to determine if this is in the best interests of a timely and effective ACT coronial process, and whether it serves to strengthen the delivery of justice to the ACT community.

ACAG was disappointed that Mr Rattenbury did not commit to implement the independent review. However, since then, the ACT has a new Attorney-General, Tara Cheyne; and ACAG is hopeful she will commit to actioning the review.

As a mother who was adversely impacted by the experience of enduring my daughter’s (Brontë) coronial hearing, I implore Ms Cheyne to seriously consider the recommendations in the report commencing with a review of the ACT Coroners Court.

The ACT has a golden opportunity to improve the coronial processes for grieving families with a trauma-informed, person-centred restorative process.

Janine Haskins, Alliance for Coronial Reform

Go for a walk away from social media

Congratulations to Peter Forster (letters, CN February 6) for requesting more local news in CityNews and the Canberra Times. 

We have all had enough of Trump and disinformation in social media. Surely it is time to hear more about our own community and a lot less about events that will never directly affect us.

Our neighbours, community workers and those who make a direct contribution locally like local businesses are the most important people in our lives. 

The unhappy letters in both newspapers seem to be written by those privileged few, glued to foreign news who know or care little about the contribution they could make in their own backyard. 

They should go for a walk and talk to someone they don’t know to face reality away from social media.

John Kimber, Lyneham

Candidates should know the nuclear costs

Peter Dutton seems to revel in making Canberra bashing a weekly occurrence. Having promised to cut 36,000 jobs “in Canberra”, he has now suggested that there are no “real families” in Canberra.

Hopefully, members of a wide variety of bona fide Canberra families will bail up ACT Liberal Party MP and senate candidates at their local shops over the coming months, to pass on their views about the aspiring prime minister’s penchant for snide and non-inclusive remarks. 

They might also ask hard questions about the few Coalition policy announcements made public so far.

For example, about reasons for only sticking to a net zero emissions target for 2050 and shying away from any possible 2030 and 2035 target setting until in government. 

Also, about needing to acknowledge voter concerns about the predicted impacts of uncertainty and costs for power users over many years while seven nuclear reactors are planned in detail, skilled labour is secured, approvals are obtained at federal, state land community levels, and how massive construction projects on decommissioned and rehabilitated old coal-fuelled power plant sites somehow could deliver the first couple of nuclear power plants by 2037. 

All the while knowing that hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds will be needed to produce a power source that by 2050 would only meet 38 per cent of this country’s energy needs.

Candidates should be ready to discuss the costings and sources of key nuclear plant operational inputs like the 2000 litres of water per second that each reactor requires over its lifetime, especially when they will function in increasingly hotter and drier areas. 

Like others elsewhere, “real” ACT parents and grandparents will want to know about power reliability and the price impacts that younger generations will face over the decades of taxpayer-owned and funded nuclear power infrastructure development, delivery, and maintenance.

Sue Dyer, Downer

Time to get cracking on solar gardens

As a shareholder in the Haystacks Community Solar Garden Co-op, I was heartened to see your excellent coverage in “Harvest time for first solar garden” (CN February 2). 

Most people are unaware of community solar gardens and even though Australia’s first is located at Grong Grong, Australians anywhere were able to join and benefit.

About one-in-three Australians are unable to enjoy the benefits of rooftop solar – many because they rent or own apartments. But solar gardens change all that. The solar garden is installed off site so there are no worries about installation, plus the insurance and ongoing maintenance is all included in the plot price.

Each of the co-operative members purchases “a plot” (panels) in the solar garden regardless of where they live. The electricity generated is sold to an electricity retailer, and they provide a credit on the members’ electricity bills.

Even if members move house, they simply change their address with the electricity retail partner and solar garden credits continue to arrive. Haystacks Solar Garden has proven so popular that all 175 solar garden plots were sold in September 2023. There are nearly 200 solar gardens in the US – Australia must get cracking.

Ray Peck, Hawthorn, Victoria