A line to disruption

This economically and socially unjustified, and alarming, adventure must be stopped before it gets totally out of hand. Arguably, a flexible fleet of electric buses would be the appropriate solution to our mass-transit needs.

This would involve no disruption/destruction, and would put to best use Canberra's excellent road network.

Sandy Paine, Griffith

No reply for plebs

When Jack Pappas (Letters, October 26), a highly regarded Canberra barrister, alleges impropriety and a lack of transparency by (perhaps only a few) Canberra MLAs, Simon Corbell immediately responds with alacrity (Letters, October 28).

However, we plebs out in the community can write to the government asking for this and that and often never receive anything back.

Protecting their (diminishing) reputation seems more important to MLAs than doing their elected public service job and that does send the wrong message to the community. I would not be surprised if this government attempts to oust all Administrative Law appeals that might be viewed as obstructionist to their grandiose views of tomorrow-land, thus eliminating the need for ministerial call-in powers.

Stephen Petersen, Dunlop

Is a plan enough?

Chief Minister Andrew Barr has called on the Liberals to support a motion in favour of public transport, stating that "we need to improve our public transport system. This government has a clear plan to do just that".

Can he demonstrate his own commitment to public transport by telling us when the government will have enough buses to carry the 10.5per cent of work commuters that his government has committed will travel by bus in 2016?

Labor's 2004 Sustainable Transport Plan aimed to increase the public transport share of journeys to work, from under7per cent in 2001 to 9per cent in 2011. By 2006 the mode share had increased to almost 8per cent. It did not increase between 2006 and 2011.

Bus boardings increased from 2011 to 2014, but employment rose faster. This indicates the government achieved no increase in public transport mode share between 2006 and 2014.

Labor is committed to public transport, and has a plan, but is that enough?

Leon Arundell, Downer

Bus beating rail

Chris Emery (Letters, October 27) is correct when he says that Canberrans have "voted with their feet" by choosing to travel to Sydney by bus rather than rail. I am one of them. The bus service is frequent, reliable and cheap.

Travelling at an average 85km/h it is slower than most trains in the developed world but a lot faster than the stone age Canberra to Sydney rail service. In Europe, where I am currently holidaying, I have also voted with my feet: for rail. I have travelled around 1600km by rail over the last month at speeds approaching 300km/h.

Even the slow regional trains reach speeds of around 150km/h and average 100km/h. You can get a cappuccino at the buffet and not spill a drop. You can use the WC without fear of serious injury. I hope that Chris, Dennis Forbes (Letters, October 29) and I live long enough to enjoy a modern Canberra-Sydney rail service that provides real competition to Murrays et al. A VFT might be a bridge too far, but a RFT (reasonable fast train) would be nice.

Mike Reddy, Curtin

Sentences missing

My print article "Driving a tank through airport's advertising defence" (Times2, October 29, p5) was missing two key sentences due to sub-editing (the sentences were included in the online version). The affected paragraph should have read as follows: "That leads us to profits, a word missing from Byron's article. Byron says the Snow family has invested more than $2billion in the airport; they should be commended for this. This investment has generated considerable profits: the Snow family companies, Canberra Airport Pty Limited and Capital Airport Group Pty Limited, together had after-tax profits of $195million in 2014-15. Forbes Magazine in 2014 ranked Terry Snow as Australia's 46th richest person, with net worth of $620million."

David Stephens, No Airports Arms Ads, Bruce

Personally, I'm looking down for my bag when waiting at the luggage carousel ("Driving a tank through airport's advertising defence", Times2, October 29, p5).

Greg Cornwell, Yarralumla

Assertions rubbish

I am a retired principal in the public education system, so Michael Lane (Letters, October 29) will no doubt feel free to disregard anything I say. His assertions that public schools are "discipline-free areas" and that "there is no pride in achievement being instilled into pupils, no striving by staff to bring out the best in each child" are simply rubbish.

In 37 years of working in the public system, I know that the vast majority of staff are absolutely working to give the students in their care every opportunity to succeed and to help them develop their pride in their own achievements. I also know that the self discipline that students develop in public schools stands them in good stead when they move on to the real world of university study or the workforce.

It is incredibly simple to make sweeping statements as Mr Lane does. I wonder how he was able to come up with information on all public schools in Australia. Either he is a supremely effective and efficient researcher or he is simply making up information to suit his narrative.

I know which suggestion I prefer.

Fiona Allan, Ngunnawal

Cultural necessity

Praise for a boys-only school moving to co-education has held no acknowledgment of the continuing need for strength-based female education. The hideous level of domestic violence coupled with lifetime differences in salary, employment opportunities and appointment levels, mean that affirmative education remains a cultural necessity.

Val Brown, Griffith

In a September 2010 parliamentary debate, Malcolm Turnbull declared: "We humans are conducting amassive science experiment with this planet. It's the only planet we've got ... We know that the consequences of unchecked global warming would be catastrophic. We know that extreme weather events are occurring with greater and greater frequency, and, while it is never possible topoint to one drought or one storm or one flood and say that particular incident is caused by global warming, we know that these trends are consistent with those predicted by climate scientists. We, as a human species, have a deep and abiding obligation to this planet and to the generations that will come after us."

Five years later, as Prime Minister, he said: "It would not make the slightest difference toglobal emissions if Australia stopped exporting coal. The countries to which we export would simply buy it from somewhere else" ("Next chief scientist envisages a future with no oil, coal or gas", October 28, p5).

No mention was made of the extraction of the 12 billion litres of precious groundwater from parched land, the degradation of the terrestrial and marine environment, the loss of biodiversity from the already endangered Great Barrier Reef, and the imposition of a coal-based economy on already heavily polluted cities of the developing world. Last year the Mayor of Beijing declared his city to be unliveable.

It is sad that Turnbull's (and Bill Shorten's) good qualities are being swamped by the edict of rampant capitalism, namely ever-increasing GDP (gross national profligacy) of non-renewable energy resources and entropy, which are driving global warming.

Bryan Furnass, Hughes

It is possible former prime minister Tony Abbott, surrounded as he was by those who deny climate change and climate science, was unaware of the danger posed to humanity and nature by the current trend in the atmosphere. No such allowance can be made in connection with recent statements by his successor, Malcolm Turnbull, who is well aware of the grave consequences of the rise of CO2 to and above 400 parts per million, tracking towards the upper stability limit of the continental ice sheets, metres-scale sea level rise, and accentuation of extreme weather events around the world.

It is thus disappointing to learn of the supposed "morality" of coal exports, including to countries where the poor will suffer the most from global warming due to rising sea levels, droughts and floods.

While only recently Mr Turnbull highlighted the importance to Australia of science and innovation, the single most important warning science ever issued to humanity is the need to avoid an extreme rise of atmospheric CO2, which shifts the state of the terrestrial climate away from conditions which allowed the development of humans and later of agriculture and civilisation.

Dr Andrew Glikson, Kambah

Humans are feral

China, by ending its one-child policy for relatively short-term financial reasons, has made a huge mistake. Any Australian who has any concern for our environment and future generations should be advocating that we, along with having nil immigration, should adopt the same strictly enforced one child a family policy the Chinese had.

I am hoping Australians will, as a matter of urgency, have the guts to accept that we are a selfish, feral species, and that we should not deliberately try and increase the numbers of any feral species that inhabits our dry and infertile continent, be they cane toads, rabbits or humans.

Rod Campbell, Ainslie

Every day the TV brings more news of the human catastrophe in the Middle East. Pictures of war in a desolate landscape, deserts with little vegetation, hordes of people in overcrowded cities, and now an avalanche of people marching into Europe. Yet never does anyone mention its prime cause – overpopulation.

The present situation directly reflects a birth bubble, 15-50 years ago, fuelled by oil – the present religious tensions a symptom, not a cause. So the Chinese elite's decision to replace sensible birth control with a Ponzi-scheme population policy because they have an ageing population indicates that they have had bad simplistic advice.

They should use human ingenuity to mould work to the age profile of the population, not instigate more suicidal population growth. The world's leaders need to understand that an ageing population is a blessing, not a problem.

Adrian Gibbs, Yarralumla

Abbott to be Pope?

From the tenor of his speech to the Margaret Thatcher Flat Earth Society and recent statements that despite the recent change in his employment status he is too young to retire, a renowned biblical scholar and reader of the mind of God, Tony Abbott has revealed his future career aspirations.

It is said that soon after his birth his mother read the entrails of a goat and declaimed that one day he would be either Pope or prime minister. Liberated as he now is from the onerous duties of the latter position, he is free to direct his energies and intellect to securing the former.

Paul McElligott, Aranda

Australia shameful

In comparison with Europe, Australia has a relatively small problem with refugees which it has solved with brutality and at great expense. Tony Abbott's recommendation that such remedies be applied on the other side of the world not only brings his country into disrepute but also cast doubt on his beliefs. Surely Christianity cannot condone this?

Chiming in with Abbott, British TV personality Katie Hopkins praises Australia for keeping refugees from arriving by sea. She suggests that Europe should use gunboats to prevent them from crossing the Mediterranean. She compares them to "cockroaches". Being praised by Hopkins makes me as ashamed of being Australian.

Maureen Bettle, Duffy

Upbringing decisive

Father Robert Willson (Letters, October 28) says that he does not have enough faith to be an atheist. O ye of little faith.

I wonder how the amounts of faith required to believe in atheism or the Christian God compare with the amounts required to believe in one or more of the thousands of other gods. And is the optimal religion the one that requires the minimum, maximum, or median amount of faith? But these are academic questions. Obviously, the reason most theists believe in a particular god or gods is that they were brought up to do so.

Mike Dallwitz, Giralang

Terrorism is to blame

The reason for Israel's security measures in the West Bank, characterised by Judy Bamberger as Israel treating Palestinians like criminals (Letters, October 29), is the continuous Palestinian terrorism emanating from the area. This is despite the fact that Israel has repeatedly made genuine peace offers incorporating major concessions.

Even if one accepts the highly dubious assertion that "the attackers are mostly young 'lone wolf' Palestinians" who "do not spring from "terror cells" that can be "condemn[ed] and shut down", these attacks need to be recognised for what they are – terrorist acts – and responded to appropriately. They cannot be justified by making a special pleading regarding the supposed circumstances of the attackers.

In any case, constant terrorist attacks against Israel were coming from the West Bank before 1967, when Israel took control of the area after being attacked from there by Jordan. The Palestinian leadership and their fellow travellers will never admit it, but the Palestinian problem with Israel isn't where its borders are, it's that it exists at all. And that is due to the endemic corruption and nepotism of the Palestinian leadership and the abandonment of the Palestinian people by other nations in the region, not the actions of the state of Israel.

Peter Wise, Narrabundah

LIGHT RAIL DOING WELL

George Beaton (Letters, October 29) and Chris Emery (Letters, October 28) have cited Edinburgh and StLouis as examples of failed light rail systems. Both systems have become crucial to local transport, with passenger numbers well above preconstruction estimates. I am still waiting for the example of the one unsuccessful system anywhere in theworld.

Bill Scott, Downer

In its first year of operation to May 2015, Edinburgh's new tram carried 4.92million passengers, which was 370,000 ahead of target. The operating company's revenue exceeded targets by 3per cent.

Scott Matheson, Downer

WHITLAM DISMISSAL

Given the recent revelations about the Whitlam dismissal, the Liberals should change the name of the

Sir Garfield Barwick Address to the SirAnthony Mason Address.

S.W. Davey, Torrens

BETTER RED THAN PINK

So John Passant (Letters, October 29) has trouble seeing the pink ball at a cricket game. I think I know why. He is so far to the left that only a red ball will satisfy him!

Terry Stewart, Page

POOR ARGUMENT

I don't know where Michael Lane (Letters, October 29) went to school, but they clearly didn't teach him thatflinging a grab bag of assorted ideological prejudices into a letter or email, without evidence to back any of them, is not making an argument.

His efforts would have earned him a D minus from my public school English teacher.

Terry George, Kingston

INCONVENIENT LOVE

Tony Abbott is on to something. Clearly Jesus didn't mean that you should love your neighbour as yourself if it is costly or inconvenient to you. Wake up, Francis!

H. Simon, Watson

HOWARD APOLOGISE?

Gary Frances (Letters, October 29) asked after Tony Blair's apology, "When are we going to get an apology from John Howard?" My initial response was never, but on reflection I now think never, ever.

Ted Tregillgas, Flynn

CURIOUS STANDARDS

I have read many letters and even opinion pieces in The Canberra Times recently about military equipment manufacturers advertising at Canberra Airport, but not much about full-page advertisements bythe same manufacturers in the newspaper. Why is that? Just curious.

John F. Simmons, Kambah

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