Letters

Not in it for the mone
I REFER to Michael Moore’s article “More crackers for pollies?” (“CityNews”, December 11). Candidates for the Community Alliance Party did not campaign to get into the Assembly for the money, they did it to try and improve the operation of the Assembly and the situation of ACT residents. 
The CAP feels that ACT politicians are paid enough as it is and, as far as I know, we were the only party which had a policy of only awarding increases in salaries in line with the people they represent, ie the CPI or AWE.  As far as I am concerned, the ACT Remuneration Tribunal should be abolished.
Ric Hingee, president, Community Alliance Party

A worrisome ploy?
Agrifood Awareness is busy circulating a letter (“CityNews”, December 11) which argues that the new canola edition of the “True Food Guide” is a ploy to worry the community.
In her misleading letter, Paula Fitzgerald says that Australia has had GM labelling since 2001, but does not say that current GM laws exclude virtually every GM-derived ingredient used in Australia including oils, products from animals fed GM feed, fast food, and more. 
So why does Agrifood Awareness not want GM food labelled or identified? Agrifood Awareness is an industry initiative set up to promote GM crops, its funders include CropLife, which represents the GM crop companies Monsanto and Bayer. They don’t want GM food labelled because they know that, given the choice, Australians won’t buy it.
A recent Newspoll survey shows that Australians want all GM food labelled, and that the majority of Australians do not want to eat GM food. In the absence of effective labelling laws, the “Greenpeace True Food Guide” provides consumers with the choice to avoid GM food. It contains a green list of popular food brands that are guaranteed to be GM free, and a red list of products which are not guaranteed to be GM free. It is a useful, wallet-sized guide for easy GM-free shopping.
For the record, Greenpeace makes no money from producing or supplying the “True Food Guide”.
The Guide can be down-loaded free of charge at http://www.truefood.org.au; consumers can ask for a copy by calling Greenpeace at 1800 815151.
Holly Shiach, ”Greenpeace True Food Guide” co-ordinator

Do drivers know?
LES Brennan (“CityNews”, December 4) raises the issue of on-road cyclists being exposed to carbon monoxide. Do car drivers realise just how polluted the air is that they’re breathing?
According to an article published in “Atmospheric Environment”, of July, 2007, the concentration of carbon monoxide is significantly higher inside the cars themselves than for any pedestrians on the same road. I’m sure there are other studies that show the same thing.
I would suggest that people driving cars are exposed to more carbon monoxide since they are directly in the traffic. Cyclists are about two metres further removed from the sources of carbon monoxide on the road, while the air intake of a car is sucking in air that has just come out of the preceding car’s exhaust system.
Of all the arguments used by car drivers to suggest that bicyclists shouldn’t be on the road, raising the spectre of poisonous gasses is hypocritical if not disingenuous.
Alex Satrapa, Holt

Spare the rivers
AUSTRALIA’S river systems – a fragile resource to start with – tragically have been allowed to degrade because management of this life-giving resource has been driven by market and profit considerations. We heard from environmental lawyer Gabrielle Hurley on our local Radio Landcare show (QBNFM, 8am Sundays) that a major cause of this is the fact that management of our river systems is still the responsibility of the States, and that the environmental consequences of the actions of one State can impact far beyond the downstream State border.
For example, The Murray-Darling river system has four States competing for use of its water, with industrial growth and market forces spurring the competition.
The time is overdue to put the environment and our future well being first; so let’s start a national movement to have our environment and natural resources managed federally, for the people and for the environment, rather than for big business. Amending the Australian constitution to make that happen may be our biggest policy challenge – but we can do that! We’ve done it before when the stakes probably were never as high as they are now.
Mary Martin and Pete West, Queanbeyan