In the ACT, we now have a similar situation. The Liberal opposition is promising to not proceed with light rail that will cost around a billion dollars of ratepayers' money to benefit a quite small section of our ACT community. Simon Corbell now threatens to make any future tearing-up of contracts financially punitive on all ratepayers, despite the business case for light rail not having been effectively made, as the Canberra Times has pointed out in its editorials.

If the ACT government proceeds with this threat, and signs non-bipartisan contracts (perhaps with secret "side letters" of guarantees, as apparently occurred in Victoria), then this unconscionable act should be remembered and acted upon by all voters at the 2016 election.

It is essential that major infrastructure projects for Canberra be debated by the Assembly until bipartisan support is obtained; anything less is ideological grandstanding with a very high price tag.

Rex Simmons, Mawson

Contrary to N.Bailey's letter (April 16), and the Canberra Times editorial of April 13 ("NSW Coalition has convincing mandate", Times2, p2), NSW Premier Mike Baird has no mandate for any particular policy. In NSW, the Liberals and Nationals won just 46per cent of the primary vote, only marginally more than Labor and the Greens combined, never mind the remaining 9per cent for other parties and independents.

A two-party preferred result is meaningless when five non-LNP/ALP MPs were elected. This is similar to the position that the federal government finds itself in (and in most other Australian parliaments): the only mandate these governments have is a mandate to form government.

It is then their responsibility to develop budgets and other legislation, and get those through their parliaments (including their upper houses).

The East West Link fiasco in Victoria, and the ACT Liberals' threats to Canberra's light rail project, demonstrate that big-ticket, generational projects need a different approach – consensus politics, not pendulum politics.

Getting things through on a knife-edge obviously makes those policies extremely vulnerable to future reversal, which is wasteful, not good government, and contributes to economic and social uncertainty. If our current crop of politicians are not mature enough to be able to negotiate and co-operate with each other, then they are not serving us well.

Which raises the question: who are they serving?

Peter Marshall, Captains Flat, NSW

Jessica Irvine's well-balanced piece "No magic pudding on tax" (Times2, April 15, p4) ends with a puzzling statement: "We need a competitive company tax rate..." Competitive? Does she mean lower tax rate? If so, lower than what? Singapore, Ireland, Luxemburg?

If nothing else, what the Senate economics committee is showing is that it is not our company tax rate that is the cause of the massive corporate tax avoidance; it is the companies' ability to take advantage of our complex, sloppy and biased tax legislation that is the problem.

What would be the point of lowering our company tax rate "to be competitive" if companies continued to be able to show that they have no income to declare in Australia?

We need to modernise our taxation system to reflect the reality of our own domestic economy and our place in the global economy. We don't want to get into a beggar-thy-neighbour tussle with countries that offer low or negligible company tax rates.

John Rodriguez, Florey

I've long thought a transaction or Tobin tax a good idea. It might slow down share trading to the extent that more shareholders had a chance to know what they were doing.

The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility has its origins in exactly this kind of thinking. Shareholders ultimately own and hence are responsible for how the corporate world behaves. If shareholders leave trading decisions to computer-driven algorithms running at faster than the speed of thought, what chance have they of making decisions for the long-term good of the company, let alone for the common good?

Jill Sutton, convener, ACCR, Watson Julian Robinson (Letters, March 15) suggests that a financial transactions tax is an idea whose time has arrived. But we need to be careful where this idea might take us. A FTT can take many different forms, including the bank account debit tax that Australia charged on all bank accounts with a cheque facility between 1982 and 2002. Before you know it, it might be added to all financial transactions – every time you take your money out of a bank account, use a credit card, pay your rates, etc. Once the government finds a new way to get your money into their coffers, who knows where it might end.

Roger Dace, Reid

Telling lies in order to secure employment constitutes fraud, warns Gordon Fyfe (Letters, April 16), and government departments are now being encouraged to prosecute exaggerating job seekers ("Fake CV claims could mean fraud charges, public servants told", April 14, p1).

So what is the difference between lying to a selection panel and the electorate when both make a decision on selecting the best candidate? Is it too much to have the same standards, and sanctions, applied to our politicians as they expect from the public service?

Tim Herne, Calwell

I can understand Kevin Andrews not wanting to attribute too much importance to individual leaders of Islamic State ("We are at war with Islamic State and Defence Minister Kevin Andrews should know its leader", canberratimes.com.au, April 15). We have been at some pains to kill Islamist leaders, from Osama bin Laden down. But someone else always takes their place, often a more able person who has learnt from their predecessor's mistakes: in this case, the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi made way for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In confronting Islamic State, perhaps we should adopt the Labor Party's current attitude to the government: leave the leader where he is; he may be our best asset.

Michael McCarthy, Deakin

I agree it's not time to cut Australia's aid to Afghanistan ("Gains will be lost" by aid cuts, April 15, p6). Withdrawing our troops did not mean "mission accomplished". The Taliban recently attacked the office of the Attorney-General for Balkh province, in Mazar-e-Sharif. This was previously considered a safe province in northern Afghanistan.

Much remains to be done. Australia's aid helps the poorest of the poor to access basic services such as healthcare, education and financial services.

An average Afghan income in 2013 was US$685, or about $13 per week. Through small loans like $150, Afghanistan's women can create their own jobs and incomes.

We should not balance Australia's budget on the backs of Afghanistan's poor.

Peter Graves, Curtin

The unfortunate faux pas committed by Woolworths in relation to Anzac Day must be equalled or excelled by whoever approved the use of poppies as a symbol of Anzac Day. Poppies, lest we forget, grew in the Flanders fields, are symbolic of the battles of the Western Front, are associated with Remembrance Day, November 11, and have nothing to do with Gallipoli. The appropriate symbol of remembrance for Anzac Day is rosemary, which grew on the Gallipoli peninsula.

Roger Quarterman, Campbell

At first I was dismayed by your report on the demolition of our old family home in Red Hill ("$4m mansion gets flattened for a new family home", April 15, p2) but then, reflecting on the monstrosity a wonderful house had become in its latest incarnation, I am left to hope that the new version will be more sympathetic to the original design of the house.

The architects for the original house were Malcolm Moir and his wife, Heather Sutherland, not Malcolm "Thorn" as stated in the article. The brief was very simple – a modern house that could get every available bit of sunlight during winter; in other words, it was a "solar passive" house although that concept wasn't designated at that time.

There was a large orchard on the second block that did not need watering and there was a rainwater tank for the vegetable garden.

The alterations done in 1988 totally destroyed the logic of the house and turned everything round to the south. The heating bill must have been astronomical. There were other tragedies – the side lawn with the large Canadian spruce used as the Christmas tree was replaced by a stand-alone four-car garage. And it was never called "Linview" either by my parents or the Shanahans. It was usually referred to as "Fort Tregear" for its art deco lines and site on top of the hill. The house features in the book 100 Canberra Houses by Tim Reeves and Alan Roberts.

The new owner is correct when he says it is the most beautiful block in the world. Let's hope the new building will do it justice.

Gail Tregear, Red Hill

Hmm ... the appropriation of a sacred event (Anzac Day) by corporates ("Anzac memories mined for profits", April 16, p2). Where to start regarding Christmas and Easter?

Fr Peter Day, Queanbeyan, NSW

RECOGNISING A RORT

If I were (God forbid) a politician of any persuasion, I would never, ever, under any circumstance, use the word "rort" to describe the actions of people of the non-political classes. "Pots and kettles" appears to provide an appropriate aphorism. Brave move, Senator Abetz (Letters, April 15).

Tracy Giurietto, Burrill Lake, NSW

SLAVERY OF CHILDREN

Not content with bombing Gazans back to the Stone Age and subjecting them to daily humiliations and collective punishment, Israel employs Palestinian child slaves ("Child labourers reap grim harvest on Israeli-run farms", April 14, p7). Moral destitution!

Albert M. White, Queanbeyan, NSW

QUITE A REVELATION

The use of the word, or rather non-word, "relevations" by Anura Samara (Letters, April 14) is, in itself, something of a revelation.

Andy Millar, Weston

MULTINATIONAL RIP-OFFS

Why is it that most companies trading in Australia are able to pay their fair share of tax, but not "multinationals"? Why is an international agreement required to stop this rort?

Parliament should make multinationals establish legal onshore companies that pay normal tax.

Adrian Gibbs, Yarralumla

A TRULY REMARKABLE STEED

Fred Barnes (Letters, April 15) rightly pointed out that General Bridge's horse Sandy was remarkable in that he was the only Light Horse waler to return home. On his death, Sandy's hooves were mounted and used as inkwells and paperweights. Sandy must have indeed been a remarkable horse as, as it's said that some six or more of these authenticated hooves are now in various collections.

Dallas Stow, O'Connor

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