A proposal to have all Canberra suburb and street names reviewed due to links with people who have questionable pasts has been met with outrage.
Labor MLA Bec Cody called for the review, citing community pain caused "by the commemoration of villains as heroes" due to the criminal or abhorrent acts of some people currently honoured.
She asked the ACT Place Names Committee to revise all place names so that they meet community standards.
One example cited was Haig Park, named after Douglas Haig, who has been referred to as The Butcher for his tactics during World War One.
But the committee's co-chair Jeff Brown rejected that view, saying place names were enduring and rarely changed, because that is hard to do in practice.
"It is very unusual to change names," he said.
"And it is a complex thing, because you would actually have to — even when we change a single street name — we actually have to contact every person that's on that street."
He said that has only ever been done "about twice" in the ACT's history, including for Canberra's CBD, which is officially called "City".
"And yet everyone still knows it as Civic, because that was an original proposal which sort of got taken up," Mr Brown said.
"So changing names is a very awkward thing."
ABC listeners call motion waste of time and money
That opinion was widely shared by ABC Radio Canberra listeners, who sent in dozens of text messages slamming the idea.
"Bec Cody hasn't got enough to do if this is the best she can come up with," Will from Kaleen wrote.
"What an utterly lame motion. There is no broad-based community drive for this. Nuts!"
"What are the numbers of people who have complained about place names?" Chris from Kambah asked.
"Less than 100? If it's only people that you talk to out and about then it can't be many. So because of this the whole system of names have to be reviewed?
"How much work is this? Cost? Sounds like a name-making thought bubble."
Several people pointed out that rewriting place names is an attempt to rewrite history.
"Surely the MLAs have better things to do; like fixing the broken health, the failing education systems and ensuring our rubbish bins are picked up on time," Phil wrote.
Other texters highlighted the headaches name changes could cause for emergency services, post deliveries and business owners.
The reaction was not entirely negative, with some people agreeing that places celebrating the name of someone who committed a terrible crime should be changed.
But out of about 50 text messages ABC Radio Canberra received throughout the morning, only a handful backed the review.
Ms Cody's motion will be debated in the ACT Legislative Assembly on November 28.
