It was so clearly successful that public pressure resulted in a doubling of the width to two lanes in each direction. It seems clear to me that although this, once controversial, road is a success something else is required to ease the current congestion.

The government has proposed a new light rail system. The opposition has countered that a re-arrangement of the existing bus system would improve the required solution. It is probably right.

In the 23 years that I have lived in this city, I have noticed that the bus system has been altered on an almost annual basis and that this usually does result in at least some improvement. However, in my opinion we have reached the point where an entirely different approach is required.

Trams work well in other cities I have visited, both in Australia and overseas and I believe that the proposed light rail system is probably what is required here.

I hope that like the once hotly disputed "GDE", when it is installed and can be seen to work, we will all wonder what the fuss was about (and no, I do not belong to any political party).

R.N. James, Aranda

Just an idea

H. Selby (Letters, June 9) rightly says in relation to the light rail project that the Liberals "can get rid of the contract" because "no Parliament can bind a successor". Selby also asserts that this will be at no cost to us. I wonder.

Section 23 of the ACT Self-Government Act for example says that the Assembly has no power to make laws with respect to the acquisition of property otherwise than on just terms. Perhaps, and I am no constitutional lawyer, that means that any compensation for cancelling the contracts would involve, contrary to Selby's view, a very real cost to us.

John Passant, Kambah

Joining the dots

I agree with Andrew Gordon (Letters, June 9) about the apparent reluctance of The Canberra Times to "join the dots" on dodgy deals done by the ACT government. These include paying a private entity four times more than initial valuation for Glebe Park land, and seemingly allowing a $7.5 million tax concession on the Brumbies land deal to go to a private developer.

Add to that the excess prices imposed by corrupt building practices and the deal with UnionsACT that creates serious doubt over the probity of the ACT government tendering process.

Little wonder that Simon Corbell refers to the establishment of a local independent commission against corruption as not being a "prudent use of the territory's resources".

Is it because he knows the resulting stench would be unbearable?

Patrick Cormick, Turner

Upgrade a little cynical

Mike Kelly, Labor's candidate for Eden-Monaro, is promising millions of dollars will be spent on upgrading the Barton Highway ("Labor tops Coalition on Barton Highway", June 9, p1) if Labor wins the election. The duplication, including the Murrumbateman bypass has been on the agenda for many years.

So why was the upgrade undertaken not while he was in government between 2007 and 2013? The current splash of cash is just a cynical method of buying votes for his re-election and should be blatantly obvious to all voters not living in the Canberra/Queanbeyan /Yass locality.

N. Bailey, Nicholls

Tolerating intolerable

It is curious to hear it said with surprise that scandals — as revealed by the latest ABC's Four Corners program – are allowed to occur in remote Indigenous communities as they would never be tolerated anywhere else in Australia.

Many outrageous things seem to be acceptable there which would bring the sky down anywhere else. Any outsider who like me has lived in these communities cannot but forever be haunted by the ghoulish unrelieved starvation, disease and neglect suffered by most of the "domestic" dogs. Out "here" it would rival the greyhound racing scandal for systemic cruelty, and draw a fulminating response. And the situation stems not from cultural differences so much as the dysfunction, largely from want for basic services, which is the standard lot of such communities.

Alex Mattea, Kingston

Food falsehoods

Here we go again. The latest barrage of falsehoods, muddled thinking and ignorant claptrap on "junk food" ("Junk food ads in firing line to tackle child obesity", June 9, p1).

It is tedious to have to repeat this, but there is no such thing as "junk food". It is a brainless mantra, forever repeated by the likes of our Assistant Health Minister and other well-meaning busybodies.

Foods contain varying amounts of fat, carbohydrate and protein. Those who simplistically talk of "good" and "bad" foods, "red, yellow and green" foods, etc, are not entirely to blame, because we have all been subjected to ill-informed propaganda by the likes of the Australian Heart Foundation, mentioned in the article. We might recall that that body gave out entirely false advice for many years that eating cholesterol raised your own cholesterol and we should all stop eating bacon and eggs. Eventually a rather muffled "correction" appeared in a small news paragraph. There was however no apology.

Parents have various responsibilities, among which is to control what their children eat.

Children given healthy platefuls of apples and tomatoes, may well prefer "the most disgusting horrid looking things". Though comparing the carrot sticks with the treats they would really like, they have to understand that "there are treats that are better than other treats".

Perhaps our government should stick to the trams.

Alan N. Cowan, Yarralumla

Justice in spotlight

R.S. Gilbert (Letters, June 10) asked, with respect to the ACT budget allocation of $5 million for another David Eastman trial, when we are to be spared from having to paying to satisfy the egos of some government lawyers. The alternative question is when we are to be excused from further payments to cover up an immense corruption of the ACT's criminal justice system.

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

The National Zoo and Aquarium is reportedly upset over the euthanising of Bakkar, the Bengal tiger ("Canberra National Zoo and Aquarium's Bakkar the Bengal Tiger dies", 7 June). But people should remember that Bakkar spent most of his life isolated from his own kind and on display for people to gawk at, from the time he was born in an amusement park.

Using tigers as entertainment props undermines how seriously endangered they are, and allowing close contact to people puts zoo employees at risk.

Tigers are meant to roam far and wide, to seek out mates, to hunt and control territory. In zoos, they cannot engage in any of the activities. Tigers won't be saved by jamming them in zoo cages and forcing them to perform tricks or pose for photos.

Unless habitat protection is taken seriously, coupled with aggressive action to stop poaching, all the zoos in the world won't save this species.

Just like us, animals want and deserve to live their lives as nature intended.

Ashley Fruno, associate director, PETA Australia

Artistic licence

There is something worrying about the artist's impression of residents wallowing in the infinity pool at the Wayfarer Apartments tower ("Wayfarer tower comes home", Gang-gang, June 9, p8).

The swimmers are gazing at the sun either rising or setting behind Black Mountain Tower. But wait: a straight line from Wayfarer Tower to Black Mountain Tower runs 30 degrees east of south.

Even at the summer solstice the rising and setting sun in Canberra are never less than 60 degrees east or west of south.

This raises a serious question: Does the aptly named Geocon have planning permission to realign the earth's axis?

Conrad Burden, Braddon

Barnaby Joyce seems to think it within his personal gift to indulge in blatant pork-barrelling to bribe voters in the New England electorate ("Public servants told it's Armidale or bust", June 10, p1), even when this attacks the integrity of governance mechanisms. The latest example is Joyce's announcement that the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority will be moved to Armidale from Canberra, involving some 175 jobs with, presumably, many more affected when family connections are taken into account. Reasons given for the relocation are paper-thin, failing the sniff test.

Canberra is one of the world's best examples of successful regional development. But the penchant to indulge in public-servant bashing and denigration of Canberra is a free kick for bottom-feeding politicians. Unfortunately, our Deputy Prime Minister falls into this category.

Why isn't Malcolm Turnbull exercising discipline on people like Joyce? Is he complicit in the Canberra-bashing, or too weak to stand up to Joyce? What has Zed Seselja had to say about the Joyce shenanigans, or is he without any influence? If so, why should we vote for him?

Keith Croker, Kambah

Barnaby Joyce has three things to think about in moving the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to Armidale.

Firstly, he hasn't got Malcolm Turnbull's agreement to this piece of blind National Party dogma. In a Coalition government such agreement is, um, sort of, um, necessary. One-sided, arbitrary decision-making is not how any sort of coalition works.

Secondly, he forgets what happened to the Tamworth branch of the Taxation Office. John Howard moved it to Newcastle, saying that government services have to go to where the customers are, and the National Party agreed with him.

Moving the APVMA to Armidale does rather contradict this. Joyce has not explained, for instance, how the APVMA will best serve its own biggest customer – a certain Federal Agriculture Minister called Barnaby Joyce – when the two are 800kilometres apart.

Thirdly, Joyce has obviously not reflected on the National Party's experience with moving the NSW Department of Agriculture from Sydney to Orange. The Nationals never thought about the people they were moving. Those hundreds of people were Sydneysiders, not country folk, and they had a city outlook. So did their children, all of whom grew up to the age when they could vote.

The first political result was that the federal seat of Calare, based around Orange, was narrowly won by an Independent, Peter Andren. He held onto it at the next election with a hefty majority, and kept it until hedied.

So it's almost unbelievable that a National Party MP in difficulties at this election would want to make things even worse for himself at the next one. But it's Barnaby Joyce who is under discussionhere.

G.T.W. Agnew, Coopers Plains, Qld

India knows best

Jeyakumar Janakaraj (Letters, June 8) seems to have missed the point made on several occasions by India's Energy Minister, Piyush Goyal: that India intends to halt all thermal coal imports within two-to-three years. The reason cited by the minister is that solar energy is now cheaper than new coal-fired generation.

Perhaps that is a message that the Australian federal and state governments do not want to hear. However, as Adani is also a provider of high-power renewable solar, it is curious that the company also does not hear the message being sent byIndia.

If India does not want to import thermal coal in two-to-three years' time, why would Adani Australia be concerned about importing thermal coal from Australia? And why would we need a new coalmine? The requirement for high-grade metallurgical or coking coal is understandable.

Perhaps Mr Janakaraj could explain who is right about India's requirement for thermal coal imports – the Indian Energy Minister, or Adani Australia? Or is there another agenda?

It is inevitable that both India and Australia will need to transition from coal-fired electricity generation to renewable energy if, under the Paris Agreement, we are to meet our obligations to limit global warming to less that 2C.

And the sooner we start down that track the better!

Darryl Fallow, Stirling

Reef versus coal

Douglas Mackenzie (Letters, June3) is right about one thing. The Turnbull government is trying to have it both ways – by promoting the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage site for tourism, and demanding references to damage and bleaching from climate change be deleted from a recent UNESCO report. On the other hand, it claims to be a good world citizen and Pacific neighbour by allowing mining of "better-quality coal" by Adani (Letters, June7) at the proposed Carmichael mine, thus lowering emissions.

It would be an ideal win-win situation if we could assist India with its future energy needs, while at the same time promoting renewable energy like solar in both of our countries. It is a question of balance and whether we are prepared to risk further damaging the Reef with this massive project in the Galilee basin. The experience of water contamination by acid from uranium mining at Kakadu, another World Heritage site, should be instructive. We need to get this right – and not just for tourism!

Lorraine W. Ovington, Fisher

Re-election priority

John Warhurst ("Both leaders qualify for PM", Times2, June 9, p1) states that experience both politically and professionally is necessary to become PM, and Malcolm and Bill have these qualifications.

I would suggest that much-needed statesmen are not made by politics but by character and compassion. Politics is the means to put one in the position to govern for the benefit of the nation. Most but not all modern Australian PMs have strove more to be re-elected than to govern. Of the last four, I would suggest only one tried to govern and the other three have strove to be re-elected. So! In my opinion good governance is restricted by, for want of a better name, the re-election syndrome.

Max Jensen, Chifley

PLENTY OF PROMISES

Labor's promises are easy to follow: It will increase net spending and it will decrease net spending; it will cut the deficit and it will increase the deficit; it will return the budget to surplus and it will not return it to surplus; it will cut net taxes and it will increase them; it will protect our AAA rating and it will not protect it. The perfect platform to win an election.

Ian Morison, Forrest

LIGHT RAIL FUNDING

Chief Minister Andrew Barr has proudly proclaimed that the light rail project is fully funded, and therefore all the rubbish about it being unaffordable has been proved wrong. Of course, it is fully funded – by dint of substantial and ongoing increases to a wide range of government fees and charges. This exactly the sort of rubbish that the opponents of the project were predicting.

Roger Quarterman, Campbell

VALIDITY CHALLENGE

H. Selby (Letters, June 9) suggests that an incoming Liberal government could terminate the light rail contract without compensation by legislation. That should make for an interesting court case if Capital Metro challenges the validity of the legislation on the grounds that it effects an acquisition of property otherwise than on just terms contrary to section 23(1)(a) of the Self-Government Act.

Frank Marris, Forrest

CRYSTAL BALL INSIGHT

I realise Andrew Bolt is a talented individual but I had no idea he could see into the future. Does this mean he possesses a conservative crystal ball?

Ross Pulbrook, Wyong, NSW

DRASTIC CUTS

The federal and state Liberal-National parties have been very consistent in implementing a policy of drastic cuts to the public service once they are elected. Will the Canberra Liberals do the same if they are elected in October? It might be a case of voting for "no tram" at the cost of "nojob".

Gareth Rees, Casey

SANTA'S WISH LIST

I assume the birthday cards are just the start, and that I'll be hearing from Santa Seselja in due course about my Christmas wish list.

Heino Lepp, Macquarie

PALESTINIAN HISTORY

Another theory, Gerry Murphy (Letters, June 9), is that Palestinians are descendants of Jewish farmers who didn't leave in 670 and converted to avoid irksome Muslim impositions on People of the Book (www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/The-lost-Palestinian-Jews).

Kenneth Griffiths, Tegal, Java Indonesia

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