At the recent Ginninderra candidates' forum hosted by Belconnen Community Council, a member of the audience asked ACT Legislative Assembly member and candidate Chris Bourke what plan he or the local party had to reduce the party's reliance on poker machine revenue.

Puzzled, he asked what she meant. She said she was referring to the revenue the party received from poker machines at the Labor clubs. Bourke flatly denied that the Labor Party benefited financially from gaming revenue and said the government benefited only from taxes that the clubs paid.

It is disturbing that Dr Bourke was not prepared to acknowledge the Labor Party's links to poker machines and what ANU researchers referred to as "a direct conflict of interest".

Karina Morris, Weetangera

How does rise rate?

For electors bewildered by claim and counterclaim on rates, light rail costs etc, first, recall the incessant cry of "triple your rates" (if Labor/Greens formed government) from the Liberals in the 2012 election campaign. Then, compare your rate notice from then with your most recent.

If your rates did in fact triple since the last election then the Liberals demonstrated great economic and political foresight and deserve your support. But if your rates nowhere near tripled, you may instead assume that the claim either originated from extrordinarily incompetent forecasting, or was a lie using a figure plucked from the air, and conclude Liberal claims in the current election regarding the light rail cost and its effect on future rates are of similar reliability.

My own rates rose by a fraction of the predicted amount, but others should do their own calculations and vote accordingly.

Terry Georg, Kingston

Arrogance's day done

When an incumbent government becomes indifferent to the electorate, convinced of its own destiny to rule and does dubious deals to retain office, it does not deserve to govern.

There is more to the ACT election than rates, and the ridiculous competing priority of trams over hospitals, education and basic services.

To many this election is about the arrogance of the Labor/Green coalition and their perceived notion of their right to govern.

I share the views of other letter writers, a change is not only desirable but essential. A clear, loud and unambiguous message to this out-of-touch coalition is well overdue. It is time!

Ken Stokes, Wanniassa

Discrimination unfair

I refer to your report on public service vetting ("Bureaucracy's blind eye", September 29, p1) and discriminatory practices in the recruitment process in the Australian Public Service.

There is one more issue that needs attention to be fair to the recently arrived skilled migrants, who despite having permanent residence cannot enter the APS as most agencies now require Australian citizenship.

Newly arrived skilled migrants have to wait four years until they become citizens before qualifying for an APS job.

This blanket citizenship prerequisite is restricting many skilled migrants from getting public service jobs. The Public Service Commissioner should look into this as well as security vetting and remove the citizenship requirement unless there are valid reasons.

Having a permanent residence should be sufficient for most jobs in the APS. Several contractors without permanent residence work in the public service alongside APS counterparts, so why should citizenship be a mandatory requirement?

This is clearly double standards. Restricting entry only to citizens in the APS is another discriminatory practice faced by qualified and experienced professionals. It's time for a review by the Public Service Commissioner to remove all discriminatory practices in the APS recruitment process.

Zafar Ahmad, Theodore

Improve the buses first

As a regular bus user and resident of Tuggeranong, I have been following the ACT election campaign with interest. While not an opponent of light rail in principle, I find it hard to support as an option for Canberra given the current state of the bus network. In my experience, buses frequently do not run on time and routes servicing the same areas are timetabled to leave the interchanges and major timing points at the same time. For example, on weekday afternoons, the routes 65, 66 and 67, all servicing the Chisholm shops, depart Woden interchange at 4.34, 4.35 and 4.34 respectively, arriving at the Chisholm shops at 4.59, 4.57 and 4.59 respectively.

This scheduling can be very frustrating, particularly if a preceding connecting service is running late. Fortunately, during peak hour, the wait for the next service is only 20 minutes (the wait on the weekends is 50).

However, I find it bemusing that these routes depart simultaneously and concerning that the light rail network would be managed by the same organisation as part of Transport Canberra.

With no bipartisan support for light rail, debate concerning its overall continuing benefits and the reality that the project brings no immediate, and unclear, long-term benefits to Tuggeranong, I believe it would be better to develop the existing bus network.

Improving service delivery would help to increase patronage with a focus also required on generating widespread community support for future public transport developments, light rail or not.

Naomi Tarrant, Chisholm

David Campbell's article ("Hey Malcolm, how would you feel if you and your family were locked up in a detention centre?", Comment, September 30, p16) was thoroughly disingenuous.

Campbell's aim is that asylum-seekers on Manus and Nauru be given preference over millions of other asylum-seekers; however, rather than reveal that aim he chose to mislead readers with irrelevant "what if" questions.

He did correctly identify three options for potential asylum seekers: (a) escape temporarily to a neighbouring country; (b) escape to a staging post, hoping to be resettled eventually; and (c) be smuggled by boat to a faraway rich country.

Here are my what-ifs: what if faraway countries accepted asylum-seekers taking option c? A flood of asylum-seekers would then choose that option, causing an enormous waste of money which could otherwise be spent on effective asylum relief, and causing many deaths at sea.

Eventually option c would necessarily close. This is precisely what happened regarding Australia; similar events occurred in Europe in 2015 and 2016. How would Campbell feel if he were an option a or b asylum-seeker, and option c was not closed? Would he think it fair if option c asylum-seekers were granted immediate citizenship of a rich country while he waited in poverty in refugee camps? No, he wouldn't – because it wouldn't be fair.

Australia has a practical and moral responsibility to continue to refuse to allow asylum-seekers on Nauru and Manus to enter Australia. Instead, it should swap them for asylum-seekers in other asylum centres, and then bring the latter to Australia.

Robert James, Melba

Sceptics energised

Oh, the deviousness of those dangerous renewable energy sources. First we have all those wind farms in South Australia creating cyclonic winds that knock out the state's power supply. And now we've entered our annual period of so-called "daylight saving" when we defy God's law by forcing the sun to stay in the sky for an extra hour each day just so the greenies can justify the investment in solar energy. It's time to go back to lovely "clean" coal and also build some beautiful, environmentally friendly nuclear power stations now that carbon dioxide and plutonium have been shown to be harmless to human life (they have, haven't they?)

Steve Ellis, Hackett

It is far from clear to us what role SA's radically increased reliance on renewable energy played in its recent storm-induced statewide blackout.

However, we can deduce that, along with some other states that have set similarly ambitious renewable energy targets, there is an element of ideological purity involved.

This is risky at a time when we cannot say for sure how secure predominantly renewable energy systems are, but when we do know for sure that they are substantially more expensive than traditional energy sources.

It is hard to see this being good for new investment in South Australia's already struggling economy.

Here in Canberra, we have a government that shows every sign of being driven in a particular ideological direction.

We are being bled dry with harsh revenue measures, while the territory budget continues in deficit. There appears to be an ideologically driven focus on human rights and related issues that increasingly skews government administration in many different areas away from the sensible centre.

There are vanity projects being undertaken at the cost of core municipal functions.

And now we have a renewable energy target of 100 per cent by 2020, coupled with the Greens' fanciful notion of banning natural gas from new developments within the next decade.

Can we really risk making our energy supplies less secure in Canberra's very cold winters? Do we really need to make doing business in Canberra so much more expensive than it already is? When ideology replaces good government, that government must go.

Michael and Christine O'Loughlin, Griffith

ACCC nonsense

ACCC Chairman Rod Sims says "it makes no sense" to oppose the proposed change in our competition law, to make unlawful anything a large firm does that has the effect of lessening competition (Canberra Times, September 29).

With respect, as a former deputy chairman of that organisation, I emphatically disagree. The change itself is nonsense – because competition is all about beating your competitors; and the introduction of an "effect" criteria in the legislation means that, if a firm succeeds in doing something quite legal and fair (for example, negotiating a low price for its inputs) that is so successful it has the effect of lessening its competitors' ability to compete with it, it is acting unlawfully and liable for a heavy fine!

How ridiculous; it's like saying that competitors in a foot-race should never win and should go on running for ever.

This highlights a fundamental defect in our present competition law: that by trying to protect the competitive process but penalising success in that process, it's discouraging competition.

Our competition law should simply outlaw unacceptable conduct.

R.S. Gilbert, Braddon

Going off the rails

Brendan Halloran (Letters, September 29) is one of several who complain of "Richard Dennis' pro-light rail opinion piece" ("Population growth and the tram: If you don't build it, they're still coming regardless", September 23).

Dennis did not say light rail was a good idea. He said it was an expensive solution to Canberra's current problems, but one that might make sense if we intend to increase these problems by heavily populating and densifying the northern approaches to Canberra.

He suggested light rail, however, would not be necessary if only the major parties could wean themselves off their obsession with growing Canberra's population as rapidly as possible. That's why he pointedly remarked that Canberra does not have to double its population, and that we would not even be considering this expensive option if the two major parties were not locked into "bipartisan support for such population growth".

Jenny Goldie, Michelago NSW

WRONG ON RENEWABLES

Three things are inevitable: death, taxes, and H.D.Ronald being wrong on renewable energy.

Doug Hynd, Stirling

ROY'S TRIP

Given Wyatt Roy is currently unemployed, one can only assume his foray into Iraq is either an audition for a position as a war correspondent or as a tour guide for extreme risk takers.

Ian De Landelles, Murrays Beach, NSW

ABSURD ALTERNATIVE

The ACT government bans greyhound racing and offers dachshund racing as an alternative (September 30). How absurd.

Nick Corby, Hawker

BARR'S CLAIM

Today I received a letter from Andrew Barr, saying that his team is "standing on its incredible achievements, like delivering 100 per cent renewable energy by 2020". When can I expect the government to provide my new 100 per cent renewable-energy-powered car, hot water system, space heater and kitchen stove?

Leon Arundell, Downer

POLICY IDIOCY

More emergency departments, as a headline-grabber, is fantastically appealing; as policy, it is hare-brained idiocy ("Liberals promise $2.1m for GP clinics", September 30, p4).

Albert M. White, Queanbeyan

FULL MARKS

Fantastic work by the Auditor-General, Dr Maxine Cooper. Some one has to keep the b's honest. Her report into the operations of the LDA clearly proves a need for constant survelliance of Barr and his cronies, inside and outside government. She is certainly fulfilling her brief.

Heather Mc Millan, Greenway

APPALLING CONNECTION

That three senior members of the government go around the country trumpeting a connection between the recent power failures in SA and that state's significant reliance in renewable energy is simply appalling. Not even Don Quixote, at his worst, would have blamed the windmills for the bad weather.

John Rodriguez, Florey

THE DONALD

Donald: trumpulant.

Annie Lang, Kambah

BLOWN FUSE

Political debate generated by the SA blackout is less than illuminating.

M. F. Horton, Adelaide, SA

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