I disagree with Noel Whittaker ("Why housing can't be made affordable", November 6, p45).
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Why I disagree is I was the beneficiary of affordable Canberra housing in 1974.
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Before the ACT had self-government, the federal government held two kinds of land auctions. There were auctions restricted to first home buyers and auctions for other buyers. In essence, there were flyweight auctions and heavyweight auctions.
Today, there are only heavyweight auctions. First home buyers can't compete. But it doesn't have to stay that way. Make ACT housing affordable by having two kinds of land auctions, as in 1974.
All currencies lose value at the same rate that urban land increases in value. How come?
Ever since "Redeemable in gold upon presentation to the Federal Treasury" was removed from banknotes, governments went hog-wild. The Turnbull government's debt is $473 billion.
Governments borrow to solve a debt problem or print more banknotes to solve financial woes. This risks the Turnbull government's credit rating and debauches the currency. Lenin said: "The best way to destroy capitalism is to debauch the currency."
Welcome to Moscow by the Molonglo, where life is beautiful all the time. Just keep taking your meds and nobody will know you can't cope.
Graham Macafee, Latham
Rubbery figures
I've heard some nonsense in my time as executive director of Clubs Australia but nothing quite as nonsensical as the editorial "It's time to tackle pokie reform" (October 30, p18).
The suggestion that clubs have been built "on the base of human misery" is particularly offensive and not borne out by the facts.
ACT Clubs have provided more than $150 million in community contributions over the past decade alone, providing crucial funding for worthy causes including Canberra Hospital, Camp Quality, Care Flight and various local schools and sporting clubs.
Part of that contribution comes from gaming revenue, but the assertion that problem gamblers account for almost half of all gambling losses in the ACT is utterly false. The latest prevalence study found that problem gamblers account for 15.6 per cent of all
poker machine expenditure.
Not-for-profit clubs are up for a sensible and balanced debate on poker machines, but it must take into account the 2500 jobs created by clubs in the ACT and the more than $300 million paid in gaming taxes to the ACT government over the past 10 years.
And it must be based on the facts, not rubbery figures.
Anthony Ball, executive director, Clubs Australia
Canberrans sold a pup
Thank you, Stephen Jeffery (Letters, November 6) for pointing out how different Capital Metro (Stage 1) will be compared with the Gold Coast's GLink (both about 12 kilometres).
Let's compare other realities.
GLink cost $1.2 billion, of which the federal and Queensland governments contributed $600million; CMetro Stage 1 will cost $1.3billion, of which Canberrans pay the lot.
GLink services a "string of pearls" from Broadbeach, through Surface Paradise and its beaches, to the medical/hospital complex and the university, through the densest residential area in Australia, servicing a normal population of more than 500,000 and with more than 5 million tourists a year.
What will the Gungahlin-Civic link service in comparison? Commuter rushes morning and evening (now serviced by Red Rapids) and almost nothing the rest of the day.
In its first year, GLink carried 6.5million passengers. CMetro Stage 1, at its maximum (business case figures) will carry 6.3 million passengers a year, resulting in a subsidy of about $10.50 for every passenger.
And as far as a "killing" by the government on real estate value capture along the Stage1 corridor is concerned, think again. The government is obliged, under an agreement with the federal government, to rehouse about 1100 public tenants in units along Northbourne Avenue to free up that land for sale. It has already been reported that rehousing those tenants will cost Canberra taxpayers $500million. How much will be left of "value capture" after that lot is paid for?
Canberrans have been sold a pup with light rail.
M. Silex, Erindale
NBN's poor delivery
Just loved Paul Malone ("Change is fine ...", Letters, November 6) regarding connecting to the NBN.
I have finally been connected after six months and 57 phone calls to Telstra and NBN, the longest call being 3.5 hours.
Never an apology; conflicting "explanations" regarding delays; allocated a new landline number without informing me about the new number, or that I needed a new number; and borderline bullying by phone messaging.
The connection was completed only after action by the office of my local member, Gai Brodtmann, including her own personal, and much appreciated, attention.
And I now have three, not one, new modems!
Ross Kingham, Canberra
Seeking to bolster the company's (NBN) credentials by appointing former politicians to local boards is surely a sign of utter desperation ("Spy fear over China link to NBN", November 6, p6).
With former, and present, Australian politicians held in such poor odour, most people might prefer to take their chances with the Huawei arm of the People's Liberation Army.
With Australia's own record of bugging (Timor-Leste, for example), it is ironic to be hoisted with one's own petard!
Albert M. White, Queanbeyan
Parallel universes
While he was studiously misappropriating probability theory to suit his pseudo-religious conclusions, I wonder if Peter Cooper (Letters, November 6) ever considered the astronomical improbability of someone such as himself, with no science or mathematics training beyond secondary school, accomplishing in a few lines of English what theoretical physicists fixated on numbers and equations have unsuccessfully spent decades attempting to do, proving definitively that parallel universes cannot exist?
David Dunning and Justin Kruger's salient paper on the subject is evidently just as relevant today as it was when published 17 years ago.
James Allan, Narrabundah
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