Spot on Bill

The opinion piece “fit the bill” by Bill Stefaniak in the edition 4 July of the Canberra Weekly was an excellent piece that should be read by MLAs, especially the Greens.

I believe he is right in every aspect plus a point he forgot in my opinion was that Labor/Greens Government are against the clubs because of their stance against the Labor/Greens in the last election. Mr Barr and Mr Rattenbury are playing politics in this type of “tit for tat” situation by trying to highlight all the negatives instead of including all of the positives which surely outweigh the negatives.

Bill’s statement that the Greens seem to want to destroy anything that brings enjoyment to ordinary people and promote issues that do little to help the community is 100 per cent correct. Instead of being a progressive party helping the people move on in a better world, they seem to want to spread doom and gloom and become killjoys to everything we do. They have been the party who stopped Greyhound Racing in the ACT with loss of jobs, animal circuses, got rid of gas and woodfired heaters, thoroughbred racing (more loss of jobs), petrol-driven vehicles, a downgrade of our public transport to spend a lot of money on the tram which will never replace an efficient bus service. All these things have come about and those yet to come without first asking the ratepayers of the ACT the question—”Do you want to live in a Nanny State or do enjoy living in a Democracy?”

• Errol Good, Macgregor

Pro-nuclear bias in the Weekly

Over successive weeks, Canberra Weekly has published pro-nuclear opinion columns. The first, Bill Stefaniak’s (27 June), was no surprise either in direction or content. What else could he do but follow meekly in his former Liberal colleagues’ footsteps? On the other hand, Dr Alan Moran’s pro-nuclear piece (4 July), seemed more an attack on Senator David Pocock than any detailed analysis. He also focused on the ACT rather than a national nuclear grid, which is what the Opposition is proposing. Let’s examine briefly Dr Moran’s credentials. He is an economist formerly with the ultra-conservative, libertarian Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). He also has connections with the conservative US Heartland Institute which, with the IPA, is anti-climate change and strongly advocates free-market economics. Dr Moran is a regular contributor to the conservative Spectator Australia and runs a website called “Regulation Economics”, which appears to be vigorously and personally anti-Labor.

This would matter less had Dr Moran or the Canberra Weekly provided full disclosure of his related interests – the traditional process for both journalists and publishers to allow for more informed reader assessments. Instead, we got nothing.

In the interests of a more balanced understanding of the real issues behind nuclear power in Australia, I presume we’ll soon read in the Weekly a detailed analysis by an independent and openly credentialled expert who puts the other side of the nuclear “debate”.

• Eric Hunter, Cook

Nuclear risks

I know Dutton and the LNP have no idea about the cost of building Nuclear Power Reactors in Australia, but have they also considered the cost of protecting these Nuclear Facilities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the estimated life span that Dutton seems to claim will be 80 years?

Not just land-based domestic or foreign terrorists but also from aerial and waterborne drone attacks that we have seen become so effective and destructive in the Ukraine-Russia war. Remember Mr Dutton and his followers are always telling us about the threats we face, is it safe to build such high-risk targets near homes, families and cities?

 – Doug Steley 

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