We should be guided by the compassion and values that this matter has stirred in so many Australians. We must redouble our efforts to rid the world of capital punishment. Most importantly, we must restore our own standards on the upholding of human rights, which so regrettably have deteriorated over recent years.

Jonathan Miller, Curtin

One can easily criticise the Indonesians for their lack of compassion, their barbarism, and their corruption in the execution of rehabilitated Australians, Chan and Sukumaran. One can also point a finger at the AFP for unnecessarily causing the Bali Nine to be arrested in Indonesia, rather than on return to Australia.

There are strong words from the Australian government but its actions will be little more than a slap on the wrist with no lasting effect. Nor do I expect the government to involve itself in any meaningful search about why and what can be done to prevent such future atrocities. The answer lies with an objective examination of the drug laws. It has been a high price to pay for ignoring the obvious.

B. McConnell, Giralang

The execution killings in Indonesia of two Australians were carried out on the order of new Indonesian President, Joko Widodo. He and his cohorts have demonstrated how tough and cruel they are in rejecting all legal argument and, in the end, clemency.

The imposition of capital punishment for drug crimes is not permissible under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Indonesia agreed to when they joined in 2006. The Indonesian government and military certainly have form regarding cruelty and violence.

This is surely an appropriate time to refer Indonesia to the International Criminal Court for involvement in the murder of five Australians at Balibo in 1975; plus more recent atrocities committed in East Timor and West Papua. And one must not forget Bali. Successive Australian governments and Foreign Affairs gurus via the Australian Federal Police, have rejected all requests to properly investigate the Balibo murders and hold Indonesia to account. Obviously this reluctance is about trade and good relations with them. So what, higher principles are at stake here!

Russell Paul, O'Connor

While I share the widespread regret at the execution of the two Australians and others, I do query the repeated assertion that the death penalty does not deter those contemplating capital offences in the future. Some will proceed regardless of risk but there is no way by which those who may have been deterred can be identified.

If deterrence is effective, even to a small extent, there will be some gain (albeit unwarranted) from this sad situation.

Eric French, Higgin

Unless we are making a case that Australians should, by their nationality, be above foreign laws, the whole dissatisfaction with Indonesia over the Bali Nine executions can only be in relation to the barbarity and irreversibility of the death penalty as a form of punishment.

So we can safely assume that representations on this issue are about to be made to our biggest trading partner, China, and our most important military ally, the United States, the two most sensationally brutal nations when it comes to death rows and executions.

Or will principle always take second place to lucre and facile mateship between nations?

Alex Mattea, Kingston

Australians are justifiably appalled at the callous and chaotic way Indonesian officials treated those they wished to execute, while the Indonesian government makes every effort to save their own citizens on death row in other countries. Such hypocrisy!

While we feel revulsion at what happened, is there anything positive that can come out of this tragedy? Our two Australian boys would want those prisoners they were helping, in their former prison in Bali, to continue their rehabilitation. Let's put our heads together to think of ways to make this happen in their memory.

John Davenport, Farrer

With regard to Tim Lindsey's article "Seven reasons why killing's wrong" (Times2, April 30, p1), could I just add an eighth? We are all human beings.

K. Simon, Watson

This week, Egypt hanged five people for the crime of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood. Will we withdraw our ambassador from there in protest? No.

Will we recall our ambassador to Washington when America next executes someone? No. Get over it, Australia.

If the drugs carried by the Bali Nine had got into Australia, then potentially hundreds if not thousands of people might have died from their first "hit". For two to die in order that thousands might live seems like a fair swap to me.

Ian Jannaway, Monash

The present outbreak of violence in Baltimore underlines, tragically once again, just how deep the lines of racism undercut modern US society. So often these outbreaks have occurred over the years. Did Martin Luther King die for nothing? Was the Civil War fought for nothing? Is there any hope for the nation which prides itself on being 'the land of the free', but which is a group of states anything but 'United'.

The shadow cast by those slave traders hundreds of years ago is just as dark now as it was then.

Matthew Higgins, Ainslie

I'm waiting for the first letters criticising the mother in Baltimore for giving her son a well earned clip across the ear, and insisting she be charged with assault, after his participation in the riots in that city.

Alex Wallensky, Broulee, NSW

D.J. Fraser (Letters, April 29) seems to have oddly reversed the very point being made by the Australia Defence Association. Anzac mythology on all sides hampers due consideration of Australia's future strategic security risks.

Ideological mythology about World War I being a "foreign war" somehow divorced from Australia's then strategic interests is just as conceptually simplistic as traditional jingoist myths about the "nation being born at Gallipoli".

Neil James, executive director, Australia Defence Association

Peter Harris (Letters, April 29) is correct to point out that we had no national flag prior to 1953 and that the Australian red ensign was the only option to show patriotism before that. In my recollection, however, it was relatively rare for that option to be exercised. When I was flag monitor at my primary school we sometimes flew the red ensign but mostly it was the Union Jack, as was the case generally (oh, and we also were constrained to swear a weekly oath of loyalty to "my country, the British empire").

What an old crock this makes of the argument that because our Diggers fought under that flag, it is inviolate and therefore there should be no change to eliminate the anachronistic nature of the current flag.

The fact is that before 1953 no Digger fought under what is now our national flag.

T. J. Marks, Holt

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Jack Waterford's last Wednesday column ("My hard indigenous lessons", Times2, April 29, p1).

It took me back to when I was auditing in the Aboriginal Health area with the Australian National Audit Office in the mid to late 1990s. Like Jack, I did not know much about Aboriginal Australia until I went to indigenous communities in urban, rural and remote areas, looked for myself, talked to Aboriginal people and listened. I remember being very upset when talking about the progress of an Audit on Aboriginal Health (The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program, ANAO Report No 13, 1998-99).

The Audit Report included a 'History of the Commonwealth's role in Indigenous health' (Appendix 2). One notable reference was to the approval by the Commonwealth Minister for Health in March 1973 of a national campaign to raise the standard of Aboriginal health in 10 years (AAO Report 13, p122). Now 42 years later, where is that improvement?

Let's see if anyone in government finally gets Jack's message to look, talk, listen and do more!

Gordon Carey, Wanniassa

In the brief news item 'Aboriginal marchers blocked from parade' (April 26, p4) the indigenous would-be marchers and their supporters were described as protesters. It appeared to me that they just wanted to march behind the other contingents, as they had done in recent years. They only 'protested' (with a peaceful chant) when blocked from marching by a line of police, one of whom pushed a photographer back into line. It was obvious that they weren't there to detract from the solemnity of the occasion or to create a scene.

While the Australian frontier wars from 1788 until the early 20th century are recognised by academics and historians as wars, the government is apparently still suffering from "Windschuttle" denial.

Former enemies including Turkey are, quite rightly, included in the march. What is the problem with allowing the First Australians to march and commemorate their tens of thousands of war dead?

Michael Nelmes, Spence

Mount Painter Nature Reserve, along with others, is to be closed between April 30 and July 31 2015 each night from 5pm to 7am ("Licence to kill: 5000 roos to be culled", April 27 , p3). This amounts to access being denied to the reserve for a quarter of a year.

The hill has been a part of my life for a long time now and is central to my work. Why does the hill have to be closed for so long?

Chrissy Grishin, Cook

LOST THE PLOT?

I wonder if the Prime Minister has lost the plot. Does he think that calling his ambassador to Indonesia will force Joko Widodo to back off? Please look into your backyard, Tony Abbott, before brandishing the morality sword.

Gabriel Garrigues, Giralang

REDIRECT AID TO NEPAL

Australia must respect Indonesian sovereignty by allowing them to look after themselves. Stop sending aid to Indonesia and redirect it to Nepal where it is really needed.

Bruce A. Peterson, Kambah

DRUG SMUGGLING TRAGEDY

Sadly the media hype surrounding the Indonesian executions this week overlooks the real tragedy arising from drug smuggling. My heart goes out to Chris Davey (Letters, April 30) and his family.

Janne Blunden, Hughes

I understand the outcry about the execution of two young Australians. I more than understand their parents' anguish. I too have lost a child. My daughter died of a heroin overdose two years ago at the age of 19. She is still the missing part of our hearts.

Kathryn Shugg, Kambah

BEATIFICATION?

Given the astonishing depth of feeling surrounding the execution of Chan and Sukumaran for the attempted smuggling of eight kilos of heroin, feelings absent from the 1986 execution of Barlow and Chambers – remember them? – and their miserly 145 grams, will the pair's beatification take place before or after their state funeral?

Bill Deane, Chapman

WELL DONE RICKY

I haven't seen any of the "experts" calling for Ricky Stuart's head recently. They must have decided that he can coach a bit after all. Well done to Ricky and the Raiders.

Brian Smith, Conder

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