She therefore should pay back, with interest, the $32,000 that taxpayers have spent on the boyfriend's travel between 2015-17 when she had him designated as a family member for the purposes of claiming domestic travel expenses.

While the current parliamentary travel entitlement rules may be interpreted, technically, by her to allow this to happen, many voters would not find it acceptable that a mere boyfriend can enjoy significant taxpayer support.

Will the too cute by half excuses for inconsistent, irregular and questionable behaviour from senior Coalition cabinet ministers ever end?

Sue Dyer, Downer

While I have no interest in Julie Bishop's boyfriend, including his personal financial affairs, I also have no interest in funding his role as her boyfriend. ("Julie Bishop defends omission of boyfriend from parliamentary records", March 1, p.5).

Anyway, what kind of self-respecting man would want the cost of his romantic interests to be met by everyone else?

And what kind of woman would think that he is her kind of man?

John Richardson, Wallagoot, NSW

In normal business if you have a claim for travelling you pay it yourself and claim it as a tax deduction.

Isn't it time the elite born to rule in parliament started doing the same?

If they want to take a chauffeured car a couple of hundred kilometres to catch a plane instead of using the train to get there or god forbid drive themselves, then let them pay for it and convince the tax office it was a legitimate work expense.

B1 and her helicopter fiasco, Barnaby Joyce and his similar rorts and now B2 and her travels with non-partner, David Panton. When is enough enough?

Tony Magrathea, Dicky Beach, Qld

If parliamentarians, sorry ministers, according to Malcolm Turnbull, are to set themselves up as paragons of virtue, can we expect parliamentary sittings to become more than personal slinging matches? At least Barnaby brings colour to the boredom, shows how life is – our blunders, our lusts, our mistakes that sometimes step over the line. Who, if we are honest, can claim our own purity?

Revelations of overclaiming entitlements, succumbing to the influence that wealthy people offer, find some attraction to those we work with on a daily basis, is not new. Who is not guilty? It seems to be the price only some people pay to be in public office.

Why then, should Barnaby be a scapegoat – in the hotseat others have managed to avoid?

Liz Lanigan, Braddon

To those that argue that our massive immigration program (200,000 per annum) is having no impact on house prices, hospital wait-lists, school crowding, traffic congestion, carbon emissions, degradation of our natural environment etc. etc.

I would ask would they agree then to 5 million or 10 million new arrivals each year? They say of course not. That would have a deleterious effect.

Reminds me of a famous Churchill anecdote (which delicacy prevents me from elaborating).

We have established there is a number at which an outcome will occur, we are merely quibbling over that number.

We are being hoodwinked by big business and vested interests. We need to dial overall immigration back to sustainable levels, and increase our refugee intake.

This is not about race.

Sydney and Melbourne are lost. Now we need to save our other cities, including Canberra.

Gray Charlton, Narrabundah

We can now see what Point Park, recently renamed Henry Rolland Park, will look like – an overdesigned, over-concreted area, with little hope of a shady tree to sit under in the next 10 years.

In the light of the CSIRO research results showing some suburbs in Canberra are much hotter than others because of lack of trees, and houses being built to within an inch of their boundaries, surely it is time the ACT government understood how essential it is to keep green spaces near the city centre.

Yet they are still planning to extend the concrete board walk around West Basin.

The proposed Lake infill of 2ha should be stopped, the Lake foreshore left with soft edges, the private apartment blocks abandoned, and the park left for the public to enjoy.

Penny Moyes, Hughes

Woolworths' half-yearly profit has risen to $969 million (up 37.6 per cent) allegedly because its supermarket sales rose by 4.9 per cent.

The report says nothing about the contribution to profit made by Woolworths' 75 per cent interest in about 12,000 poker machines. According to Wikipedia, these machines return a net revenue of $1.2billion per annum.

I note the article "Woolies staff spying on gamblers" (February 28, p.1) and wonder how much of their profit really comes from the pokies.

Fresh Food People or pokies profiteers?

James Gralton, Garran

Graham Downie and Bill Meani (Letters February 26 and 27) further expose facts of light rail madness.

What are the chances we may soon see something like the following in your classifieds section:

FOR SALE: Light rail system. Brand new under warranty some carriages unwrapped many available, more shipments arriving through 2018. Large quantity of concrete ready for crushing (suitable for filling in parts of Lake Burley Griffin). Tons of steel rails for Street art projects. Pick up only ONO $1 oops $1B, prefer cash!

Contact Andrew or Shane London Circuit ACT.

Brian Hale, Wanniassa

Bravo Nic Stuart for throwing some cold water over the current wave of China-phobia ("Between the devil and the South China Sea", February 28, p.19).

The most pungent thing he said about the South China Sea is that it is hard to see why it is an issue. It's a quarter of the way around the planet from us; even further from the USA.

China can't get into or out of the Pacific Ocean without passing through a palisade of US allies.

On the other hand I can't see why the other countries involved, apart from Vietnam, can't be accessed from the Pacific side.

Are we really going to rile China for the sake of Vietnam?

S W Davey, Torrens

I'd just like to give a great big shout out to all the cyclists around Lake Burley Griffin who yelled abuse and became irritated with the walkers who took part in Gift of Life's DonateLife Walk on Wednesday morning.

Are you proud of your behaviour?

You, or a loved one, may need an organ one day.

This free event helps raise awareness of the importance of organ and tissue donation and involves thousands of Canberrans every year.

Kim Donaghue, Red Hill

Dr Simon McCredie (Letters, February 28) raises issues about the evidence base questioning prostate cancer screening.

Yet the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has a May 2016 statement on its website saying that "prostate screening in men using either the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test or digital rectal examination is highly unreliable and not recommended."

This is consistent with National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines.

The statement says: "The harm of a false positive vastly outweighs the possible benefit. For every 1000 men aged 55-65 who had an annual PSA screening test, 87 will have learned they had received a false positive after an invasive biopsy. For every 1000 men screened, 4will eventually die of prostate cancer and only one man will possibly be saved."

There is a downloadable two-page fact sheet on the RACGP website spelling out the numbers.

Murray May, Cook

Westerners consume three times as much food and energy as their poorer counterparts. That's why they are fat slobs andwhy the earth is paying for it big time.

The mumas and papas eat too much of the wrong foods and they can't cook anymore because they weren't taught as part of growing up.

Convenience food high in salts, sugars and man-made fats has become the norm and children take on their parents' mantle and their diabetes.

When the obese move about they must travel in air conditioned environs in order to not overheat. This is turn uses up vast amounts of energy because most air conditioning systems are reliant on non-renewable sources and are big eaters of energy.

Travelling might be one of life's little pleasures but for most Westerners it is at the cost of the planet. We are fat, grotesque slobs who don't know when to stop and we export our culture and our obesity like a plague, which is why nations like China and India are witnessing a terrifying growth amongst their middle and upper classes in the same maladies we Westerners accept as part of our overindulgence.

If you want to help the planet turn off your air conditioning and start walking the talk or at least walking.

Adam Bonner, Brogo, NSW

Nick Haridemos ("ACT hunter poses with slain baboon", February 28, p2), I suppose, sees himself as a brave white hunter when he kills African wildlife that is no match for a modern high-powered hunting rifle.

This is especially the case when the animal concerned is stationary, like the baboon that he shot, or slow moving, as an elephant usually is.

As a former target shooter who could more often than not hit a 15-centimetre-diameter target from 600 metres with an old 303 rifle, I can confidently say that it would take no great skill to make kills such as these.

The hunts may be licenced or within quotas, but, especially in the case of animals such as the elephant, killing the animal for bragging rights is just adding more pressure on their overall dwindling numbers.

Poachers take no notice of licences or quotas.

Perhaps Mr Haridemos also sees the fenced-off building at Curtin shops as a sort of trophy, but is not content with its present stature and wishes to make it taller and much more prominent.

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

I refer to the letter from Dennis Fitzgerald relating to teacher workloads ("Let teachers teach", February 27)).

My late wife loved and was utterly dedicated to her job as a primary school teacher, but it took a terrible toll on her health. Very few days went by that saw her working normal hours. Instead, she would almost invariably leave home around seven and get home sometimes way beyond six, having, as Mr Fitzgerald has noted, dealt not only with the children in her care but also a variety of tasks I knew to be administrative. Occasionally, too, she would bring the administrative stuff home.

I pleaded with her constantly to take a stand, but so (inadvisedly) loyal was she to her profession that she refused to do so.

I really do hope that Dennis' letter rings a much needed alarm bell within education management.

The profession, particularly the teachers, is in desperate need of it.

Robin Poke, Hughes

Surprise, surprise! Home owners can't win on housing affordability ("Costs cancel out stamp duty cuts", Feb. 22, p.1).

Even if prices come down, interest rates will go up.

Dramatic reductions in prices can lead to the dreaded negative equity syndrome (value less than debt).

Also, the Housing Industry (includes real estate agents) involved in affordability must be a contradiction in terms. But thinking outside the box, and "cutting the cloth" can help.

Here, bona-fide owner-occupiers only (not just first-timers) could purchase the front half of a new block of government-subdivided land, with an exclusive agreement to purchase the back half later for a pre-agreed price, and to pay the rates on the full block from day one.

The purchaser commissions (competitive tendering is best) a presentable liveable "starter home" at the front, sufficient for initial needs, and completes the sale and expands, if necessary, on to the rear land after say, 10years.

The back part, which stays on the government's books as a better than liquid asset, can be used by the purchaser for recreation, gardening etc from day one.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

CORPORATE LEECHES

Full marks to Andrew Wilkie and the whistleblowers from the Woolworths pokie behemoth. The more such corporate leeches are exposed for sucking the life-blood of pokies addicts from, in most cases, the most disadvantaged areas, hopefully the greater the possibility that our law-makers will be forced to face up to this growing cancer.

Phyllis Vespucci, Reservoir, Vic

REASON FOR ENTRAPMENT

Those concerned about the welfare of kangaroos trapped in Lake Wally overlook the fact the reason they are trapped is our town council's development of the foreshores.

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

WELCOME TO OUR WORLD

Re "Canberra family finds amosite-contaminated brick on cleared Mr Fluffy block", February 28, p1). Sadly all I can say is "Welcome to the world of more than 1000 Mr Fluffy families; you've also been screwed by the ACT Labor/Green government". I wonder how many other purchasers of "ex" Mr Fluffy blocks are going to find themselves in a similar situation.

Kathleen Read, Gundaroo

JOCKEYING FOR POSITION

It's not surprising that Russia has heavily involved itself in Syria. After all, didn't the US heavily involve itself in Iraq? Two can play at that game (and probably feel they have to).

Michael McCarthy, Deakin

TAXING TIMES

In his letter on company tax (February 28) Douglas MacKenzie is either misleading the reader or displaying ignorance. He quotes total revenues for all the companies he fingers and then calculates the tax they pay as a percentage. That is either dumb or mischievous. Businesses pay tax on net profit, not total revenue nor gross profit. It is business accounting 101.

Colin Toll, Bywong, NSW

WEALTH GLITCH

Profits rise rapidly, while wages flatline.

The share of GDP going to workers is the lowest it has ever been.

Income and wealth equality is widening.

Trickle down? Trickle up!

Chris Pratt, O'Malley

CONFUSION REIGNS

Perhaps Alex Wallensky (To the Point, February 28) can clear up a confusion. Does he think Turnbull is at fault to suck up to the US President because that is what Gillard did, or was Gillard just fine because it is OK for Turnbull to do it? To say "someone else did it" is not a defence, only a precedent.

Mick Callinan, Waramanga

ANOTHER TRAM LINK?

I wonder how much of Sunday's unprecedented flooding around the Northbourne Ave, O'Connor, and Southwell Park area was caused by the blocked and missing drains as a result of the tram construction?

Robert Nelson, Kambah

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