Australia's Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, proudly announced $10million for humanitarian relief for Nepal. Our country spends that much on war and preparations for war in three hours, and hundreds of millions more on commemorating it.

More attention to building up goodwill, rather than our destructive capacity, would go a long way to making a more secure world.

Dr Sue Wareham, Vice-President, Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia)

The terrible plight of the Nepalese people after the devastating earthquake that has caused the death of thousands of people and the destruction of their homes and community buildings is known worldwide, resulting in relief efforts by many countries, including Australia. However, because of the vast magnitude of this disaster and the limited resources of Nepal to save lives by providing food, water, shelter and medicines in a harsh terrain, the ongoing existence of Nepal as a stable nation, is at stake.

Can Australia play a greater role in assisting this tiny nation? For example, by calling on the United Nations to become immediately involved in a Nepalese rebuilding program?

Keith McEwan, Bonython

Nicholas Stuart ("Value for money isn't easy", Times2, April 21, p1) is, of course, dead right, as is Chris Whyte (Letters, April 30). In future warfare – and we're not looking that far ahead – the only value for submarines will be as covert launchers of targeted ballistic missiles: the ultimate deterrent. We don't need a submarine industry or a tank industry (sorry Geelong), but we do need a missile industry and some forward thinkers in Defence.

The army's operational concepts for the Land 400 armed combat vehicle program reads like a primer on tank warfare, describing the capabilities sought for the project's proposed wheeled and tracked combat vehicles that might have proved useful in the Ardennes over 70 years ago.

According to Defence, the L400 program seeks to deliver a fleet of combat vehicles with the firepower, protection and mobility to defeat increasingly lethal and adaptive adversaries well into the future. These are brave words, but the system's real relevance to future warfare calls into question its employment as the ADF's basic land combat force in the longer term, when operational scenarios are likely to shift significantly away from this style of ground combat towards the realm of long-range-precision strike weapons. Although costly, their possession alone is an important deterrent in interstate conflict and their stand-off precision in more limited engagements, such as within our immediate region, might well obviate the need for casualties in contested amphibious assaults as outlined in the L400 operational concepts.

Interestingly, the army's strategic research director, Dr Albert Palazzo says Defence planners should carefully consider investments in future capability.

"Instead of large and vulnerable capital ships, submarines and manned jets, it might make more sense to invest in armed and expendable air, surface and subsurface drones or networks of land-based missile batteries (or rail guns) that can strike targets at great distance."

Tom Muir, Fadden

I am sorry that Jack Waterford ("Outcry reserved for when Australians are involved", April 30,p1) has taken what seems to be a heartless view of the Australian victims of the executions last week and I could not disagree more with his hypothesis that Australians are only interested when it is Australians who are to be put to death.

The news cycle is such that there will be new things to be horrified by this week and if the citizenry stewed over them all endlessly, we'd all have vicarious post-traumatic stress disorder.

If this act of barbarism achieved anything, it was to remind people who are perhaps not as well informed as Mr Waterford, that state execution is quite common in some parts of the world; that it is horrific and perhaps we should be doing something about that.

Jennifer Saunders, Bungendore, NSW

Clive Banson (Letters, April 30) opines, "We do expect a social conscience in Labor". I wondered about this and sought enlightenment in the musings of that Labor moral compass, Graham "Whatever it Takes" Richardson, who wrote: "In the Labor Party, you are able to hate, even encouraged to hate. You are expected to be able to continue working with the people you hate."

Now, perhaps hatred can move mountains for the public good, or even illuminate a hill, but maybe, just maybe, policy merely boils down to a matter of votes and what the punters will stomach.

If Clive is not happy with the mob he voted in, he could always follow the lead of that other Labor visionary, Mark Latham, who wrote, "All those sick puppies in the Labor Party, I'm happy to leave them behind".

Stuart Yorston, Macgregor

Shaun Crow's article "Gay marriage poser tests alliances within Labor" (Forum, May 2, p6) suggests the Labor Party needs to jump on the sexual-equality bandwagon, espousing same-sex marriage as an equality issue.

If you propose to sanction same-sex marriage, you must wrestle with the question that, once this barrier is felled, what, if any, sort of marriage will not be allowed?

Will a man be able to marry his adult daughter, a mother her adult son, a sister her brother, a woman to two men, and a man to two women?

The definition of marriage as one man and one woman, when cast aside, opens the door to no definition of marriage and therefore marriage means whatever anyone wants it to mean. If it means everything, it means nothing.

Katherine Powers, Campbell

Like the careless leaves of golden autumn, the fabric of this town is becoming unstuck. High-rise buildings blank out blue mountain vistas; the Sydney and Melbourne buildings stand neglected; serene avenues in old Canberra, north and south, become clogged with parked cars; gracious 1920s houses, in designated heritage areas, disappear overnight, to be replaced by greedy fence-to-fence McMansions, or faux-old constructions; plans are made to overshadow the old brickworks and modest Yarralumla cottages with brutal high-rise apartments. Downer, Dickson, Campbell and Braddon face a similar fate.

A light rail system, nominally reflecting the vision of Walter Burley Griffin, hardly disguises the developer's dream of lining Northbourne Avenue solidly with high-rise. Even the integrity of the elegant Dunrossil Drive to Government House is under threat. Canberra's spirit also flags.

A hallowed cafe, Tosolinis, beloved of public servants, writers and poets, closes its doors; a hallowed institution, Jack Waterford, ceases his lordly oversight; and the lights of Electric Shadows Bookshop are dimmed forever. Triumphant beacons of creative heritage remain – the Albert Hall, saved by heroic citizens; the Hyatt Hotel; the Hotel Kurrajong, home of Chifley. The National Trust endeavours to save the Northbourne flats. Roy Grounds' brilliant Academy of Science (now Shine Dome) shelters modestly in the shade of Hotel Hotel, like a turtle under a cliff.

But a whole-of-Canberra vision is needed, and a whole-of-Canberra discussion, lest what our community most values about our past and present is swept away, in the twinkling of an eye, by our proposed future.

Ann Kent, Forrest

As a former staff member of RSPCA, I am absolutely disgusted in a justice system that allows guilty animal abusers off without having to pay for their wrongdoings ("RSPCA to foot bill in neglect hearings", May 1, p3). It's heartbreaking to see these poor creatures come into a shelter in extremely poor condition and the staff work tirelessly to save them (some are too far gone). I personally looked after some of these animals.

Judges and magistrates need to visit and/or volunteer at a shelter to see the full impact on both the animals and staff. They would quickly change their minds.

A lot of money goes into each animal to save them from this life and RSPCA should not be the ones to pay the price.

Maria Hayes, Gilmore

The confusion regarding planning and development within the ACT government continues. The government's Environment and Planning Directorate's website, appropriately updated April 1, 2015, proclaims that the ACT government is currently preparing a master plan for the Belconnen town centre. It states: "Community feedback, industry input, and expert planning studies are being used to shape the draft master plan due for release during the second half of 2015".

However, it appears that the ACT government's Land Development Agency is neither concerned nor cares about the niceties of abiding by what may or may not be in the forthcoming master plan for Belconnen. This is made clear by a half-page advertisement in the Canberra Times' Allhomes edition of May 2, p54, which announces "Section 200 Belconnen. For Sale by Auction. Exceptional Englobo Opportunity. Situated in the heart of Belconnen. Maximum dwellings: 745. Subdivision allowable".

For those who are unaware of the location of this section, it comprises the much-used car park between the Belconnen Canberra Labor Club and Eastern Valley Way that extends down to an Emu Bank frontage.

Not satisfied with this pre-empting of the master plan-to-come, there is further evidence on page 55 of the same edition where blocks 34 and 37 of section 52 are also advertised for sale, and "approved for 319 residential units".

These blocks comprise the land between the Westfield mall and Lake Ginninderra that also front on Emu Bank.

Sorry, Mr Gentleman, but who needs a draft master plan when there is an LDA?

Murray Upton, Belconnen

The Belconnen Community Council has seen recent calls for federal government action to prevent the move of Immigration's workforce from Belconnen. The Department of Immigration and Border Control has repeatedly said it is behaving as per Commonwealth procurement guidelines.

We also note that strict measures are applied by Finance before it approves anything, and the council hopes they take into account the equitable distribution of Commonwealth resources before making any decision that impacts the workers, families and small businesses of Belconnen.

The bipartisan approach taken by Senator Zed Seselja and Andrew Leigh MP to keeping the workforce in Belconnen is a positive sign. Retaining the workforce in the town centre is supported by the community and business sector in Belconnen.

The local ACT government also supports the continued presence of Immigration in Belconnen.

There is ample commercial space in Belconnen for the Civic-based workforce to relocate, and several years on the remaining lease, in which time a new building could be constructed for the combined workforce (as happened for Communications staff several years ago across the road from the main Immigration building).

We urge all community members to contact their elected representatives to express their view on the matter.

The department and its workers have been an important part of Belconnen for over 30 years, and many families live here for this very reason. They must stay.

Damien Haas, committee member, Belconnen Community Council

I am sitting in a Braddon cafe, resisting the urge to graffiti on the cafe's copy of The Canberra Times. The alluring blank space left by the removal of President Widodo's portrait from the National Portrait Gallery ("Joko off the wall as gallery fears artistic reprisal", May 1, p1) is so tempting. "Trumble trembles", "Trumble's timidity" and good old "Shame" beg to flow from my pen.

As a long time friend of the NPG, I am saddened that freedom of artistic expression has been compromised by this pre-emptive strike from the gallery's director.

Ros Lawson, Narrabundah

I am reading a great book: The Complete Humorous Sketches and Tales of Mark Twain. There are 136 of them. An introduction, by Charles Neider, written in more modern times, says: "... the newspapers of the day made [the sketches and tales] possible. The blight of bigness and sameness had not yet come to the papers. There were no press associations and no syndicates. Each paper had an intimate, personal, local tone rare today and reflected the personality of its editor, also the town or area in which it was read. Today a reader's only, slim hope of a hearing is in the Letters to the Editor section of the editiorial pages."

R. J. Wenholz, Holt

Thank-you Alison Coster (Letters, April 30) for your letter on Labrador therapy. Our "sharing the love" moment was at the dawn service at the war memorial. Twenty or so Harley-Davidson riders sat in front of us, in the final row of plastic chairs in front of the tiered seating. The seating was filling rapidly and a group of genteel elderly ladies could not access the last of the vacant seats, which were plum in the middle of the second-last row.

Several of the bikies noticed and got out of their seats, picked up their chairs and made a pathway so that the little old ladies could make their way through to the vacant seats. Then a conversation was had about how each group was coping with the cold weather, both groups having come to Canberra from different parts of Australia. "I've had to put three beanies on!" chirped one of the ladies to one of the burly bikers. Priceless! Yep, what the world needs now.

J. Westerburg, Reid

TO THE POINT

The Canberra Times wants to hear from you in short bursts. Email views in 50 words or fewer to letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au

HASTE TO MOVE ON

Why, within hours, have politicians asked us to move on from the events in Indonesia? The reason is given by Shakespeare, in Horatio's similar query to Hamlet: "Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables."

Hugh Littlewood, Flynn

STILL WAITING

Not sure if I've missed something, but after the big increase in rate charges, was there not meant to be reduction in stamp duty? I have yet to see one and don't of know anyone who has.

Lars Plenge, Gordon

SUITABLE STAND-IN

Re the article "Joko off the wall as gallery fears artistic reprisal" (May 1, p1), I suggest a photo of a Javanese shadow puppet could be a fitting replacement to fill the space left on the wall at the National Portrait Gallery.

Anne Laisk, Weston

EDITOR-AT-LENGTH

Forget the world's editors; Jack Waterford should spare a thought for his readers ("Spare a thought for the world's editors", Forum, May 2, p1). That at-large in his title obviously went to his head. Paul Kelly at-large at the Oz suffered the same affliction, chucking in concision for expatiation.

Waterford should just style himself at-length and then we'd all know where we stand.

Matt Gately, Rivett

Jack Waterford's list of possible meanings for "editor-at-large" did not include one that, by inspection, comes to mind – "prolix".

P. Edwards, Holder

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William on the birth of their "princess" ("Royal baby: Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, gives birth to baby girl", Canberra Times, May 3). And congratulations to the other 360,000 special mums who brought joy to the world on the same day, but who were spared the fawning adoration of our Prime Minister and Governor-General. Next.

John Richardson, Wallagoot, NSW

MORE THAN A PICNIC

We have just come back from a walk around Ginninderra Ponds. At one of the picnic spots, it appeared as though a corroboree or similar function had taken place, as a fire had been lit and beer cans and beer bottles were strewn across a wide area. We did our best to clear them and put them in the sole rubbish bin provided in this area. We have notified the AFP of our findings, but I wonder whether this sort of thing is normal and accepted behaviour in the ACT.

Richard and Krys Milner, Dunlop

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.

Keep your letter to 250 words or less. References to Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).