Angst and frustration at corruption of consultation

THE lack of truth, transparency and evidence of real commitment to physical and visual improvements as key pillars for the ACT government’s future planning regime is definitely not winning over the hearts and minds of those who care about future liveability in this city (“Furtive planning reforms offer truth as an option”, CN February 23).

There is so much angst, aggravation and frustration out in the community, especially among those who can follow some of the utter complexity of the new ACT planning bill, territory plan and district strategies concept documentation, all of which is served up with minimalist education and “engagement” processes, opportunities and support.

Too many others have given up on it all completely – in disgust. It is hard for yet others to know where to start.

The ACT government’s organisation, handling and content of this significant reform package, and the current consultation round, on top of dumping masses of more complex documentation on government websites, continue to be deficient and off-putting.

Inadequate notification for too few consultation “pop ups” and ‘listening centre” arrangements are still the norm. Searching around the bowels of a website for ad hoc updates on these highlights insufficient timing options.

In December a polite formal request for attendance of an expert planner at an inner-north suburban meeting of interested residents was rebuffed, despite the suburb being peppered with many “future investigation areas” on the new planning maps.

Either insufficient resources are available to ensure that a comprehensive, quality job occurs on all this reform at the community level, or executive decisions have been made to fund only the bare minimum, regardless of community need or even government interest in helping to restore much eroded faith and trust in these key governance processes.

This does not bode at all well for the vast range of new planning operations that will be implemented under the new system, including its much-reduced public consultation timeframes.

Bulldozing rapid finalisation of the new set up into permanency seems to be the key objective, given that the planning minister wants full implementation to start mid-year.

Sue Dyer, Downer

Thank goodness for Taryn Brumfitt!

I THINK columnist Robert Macklin made Taryn Brumfitt’s point for her when he referred to Beyonce as “obese” (“The Gadfly”, CN February 16).

In what world is Beyonce obese? I saw the pictures of her at the Grammys, and if only all of us could be in such great shape.

Perhaps Macklin has confused Lizzo for Beyonce? If that is the case, he has bigger problems than health concerns. Interesting, also, to point out the singer’s “female friends”, almost as if primarily women are targeted for being overweight. Thank goodness for Taryn Brumfitt.

Brigit Perry, Giralang

Are poplars wrong in the first place?

COULD it be that planting poplars in front of the National Library was a poor choice in the first place? Replacing them with another imported species, also seems culturally cringy. My suggestion at the time of the public consultation on this, was Brachychiton Populneus (Kurrajong), a joyfully attractive flowering native tree, with a deep green foliage, and a form that suits formal locations.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

Massive failure of the corrections system

THE comments of Jon Stanhope (“ACT holds its lock up record for indigenous people”, CN February 16) reveals some deeply disturbing statistics.

Worst is the recidivism figure for Aboriginal males in our jail – a staggering 96 per cent. What this means is that life for some is an unending cycle of serious offending, arrest, court, jail, release, repeat. There are two sides to this cycle – most serious crimes have victims.

On these figures there must be families dreading the release of a family member, confident that soon that person will again fall into the habit of abuse of alcohol or other drugs and, maybe, repeat a habit of attack and physical and sexual assault.

Our inability to break that cycle represents a massive failure of the system. When last I visited the Oberon facility for young offenders in NSW, for example, very successful programs were in place that saw a recidivism rate of 10 per cent.

I haven’t for many years visited the facility designed particularly for Aboriginal inmates outside Ivanhoe in NSW but my memory is that, there too, targeted programs also met with a degree of success.

Change doesn’t happen by chance and rates of recidivism are linked to educational and welfare programs in a jail. Clearly our government needs to create a taskforce urgently to examine the current structures and consider alternatives.

Noel Beddoe, Belconnen

Bank governor needs more levers

I AGREE with Michael Moore (“Sharing the pain of fighting inflation”, CN February 23).

Dr Philip Lowe, the governor of the Reserve Bank, should have the power to vary the rate and modify the targets of the GST. He should also be able to impose a small levy on the banks, most notably the “Big Four’” with their gigantic profits.

For example, a levy of 0.01 per cent on $5.15 billion (the 2022 second half-year profit of the Commonwealth Bank) would be $51.5 million. CBA executives and shareholders would barely notice it, but it would provide an appreciable boost to the federal government’s budget.

Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

Dougal says, in case you wondered…

PERHAPS some readers may wonder why I decided to retire when I did (“A fond farewell to our fearless film reviewer”, CN February 16). The reason is simple. I have a condition that the doctors call cognitive impairment. We mere English speakers would call it bad memory.

After writing skill, memory is a cinema reviewer’s second most important tool. That’s why I felt I had to stop kidding myself. I would dearly have loved to continue reviewing until that day when I don’t wake up.

The condition is apparently age-driven. In my case, it has had nearly 89 years to manifest itself. And nobody has yet worked out how to perform a functional brain transplant. Anyway, I like to think that mine was a bit out of the ordinary and thus more difficult to replace!

Dougal Macdonald, Bungendore