Labor's Bill Shorten and Penny Wong strongly echo the government's goal (in the words of reporter David Wroe, "Shorten, Wong visit Korea's DMZ", canberratimes.com.au, September 27), of "forcing the Kim regime back to the negotiating table".

Would that be the same table that Donald Trump has totally trashed with the only tool he knows how to use, namely bullying, in his quest for the only thing he's interested in, namely domination?

Negotiation is indeed possible, as is the cessation of provocative military moves by both sides.

But until Australia comes out with some real peace talk and insists on military de-escalation by both sides, then we are part of the problem, not the solution.

Whatever Australia does, this most grave situation demands discussion in our parliament. That is avoided at all costs however because such a democratic process would expose the shallow rhetoric that is dressed up as foreign policy.

Sue Wareham, Medical Association for Prevention of War, Cook

Kathryn Kelly (Letters, September 27) takes a very one-sided and historically inaccurate view of the situation in Korea.

She claims that "North Korea was devastated by the US in the early 1950s", completely ignoring the fact that it was the UN (of which the US was just one of about 30 contributing nations) that was responding to an unprovoked invasion of South Korea by North Korean forces on 25 June 1950.

She also implies that North Korea is justified in feeling threatened by the US forces arrayed against it.

But not a word about how South Korea might feel threatened by having over a million men, 4000 tanks and 13000 gun/rocket launchers just 70 kilometres from their capital — all pointed south.

And of course, now nuclear weapons.

Given that North Korea invaded the South and has maintained that warlike stance for over 60 years, perhaps Ms Kelly might care to consider just who is responsible for the ongoing tensions on the peninsula, unless her preferred outcome is that the South simply acquiesces and its people get to share the lifestyle of their northern cousins.

Kym MacMillan, O'Malley

The reported undertakings by the gas producers "to provide enough gas to cover a predicted shortfall in 2018 and 2019" sounds like an excellent outcome ("PM guarantees supply", September 28, p14).

But it is just a Band-Aid to the gas supply problem and electricity supply in general.

The supply agreement, as stated, has a ceiling. If, once again, domestic needs expand, there is no guarantee of supply despite the implication that the increased domestic demand will be met by increasing production.

The industry undertaking to regularly report supply details to the ACCC are inadequate. The changing maximum flow and processing rates, transport capacity, and also the estimated reserves for each site are essential to enable realistic national planning.

Moreover, the intelligence from your editorial of September 26: "Having entered into long-term and fixed-price agreements with other countries in order to guarantee their energy security for at least a generation, the Howard government and its successors painted themselves into a corner" remains unaddressed.

As written, supply agreements to other nations (China and Japan) are not commercial contracts but sovereign treaties.

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

With the government, by its own figures, managing to spend $400,000 per offshore detainee per year, it has now cost us $192million to prolong the suffering of the 120-strong Rohingya contingent among the 2000 languishing on Manus and Nauru for four years.

Compare that to the $20 million Australia has offered in emergency aid for the current Rohingya exodus from Myanmar ("Australia softens Rohingya UN resolution to accusations of 'whitewashing"', canberratimes.com.au, September 28).

And then, unbelievably, the Rohingya contingent appears to have been been offered $25,000 each to resettle in the places they fled.

Australia's human rights credentials are in tatters.

Tim Macnaught, Narrabundah

Same-sex marriage is an ethical/human rights issue, not intrinsically a political issue. Unfortunately it is being politicised by religious conservatives on both sides of politics.

Susan MacDougall, Scullin

The reciting of the Lords Prayer by our politicians is a total farce. ("Time to end parliamentary prayer", September 25, p.19.

Re: The Our Father "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Either heaven is also corrupt and greedy, or Christian prayers haven't been working for the last two thousand years.

Re: "Give us this our daily bread".

Our daily bread seems to be greed, lust, lies and materialism.

Foreign aid is being constantly cut by our current government.

Re: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against."

I don't see too much forgiveness around.

Refugees and our indigenous people aren't being given too much.

The unemployed are seen as the product of their own making.

There is no forgiveness there.

Re: "And lead us not into temptation."

The western economy is based on temptation.

Re: "Deliver us from evil. Amen." Sorry not working.

Still our politicians go through this meaningless ritual every morning.

The religious lobby really should have more respect for their "Lords Prayer".

Hypocrisy abounds.

Patrick O'Hara, Isaacs

It is not true that maximum temperature on Saturday, September 23 (30.2oC) was Canberra's "hottest ever September day"; or that "a 52-year record was smashed" ("Canberra records its hottest ever September day", canberratimes.com.au, September 23).

The weather station site at Canberra airport has moved at least four times since records commenced in 1939.

Average September maximum temperature at the original RAAF-base site to 1972 (when it moved south to the middle of the airport) was 15.8oC; from 1973 to 1996 (when it moved north to the met-office) it is 16.0oC; from 1997 to 2004 (when it moved south to the current site) it is 17.3oC; and at the current site it is 18.0oC.

No valid trends are evident in maximum temperature data at any of the four sites.

However, due to site changes alone (and not the climate), average September Tmax has shifted-up by 2.2oC!

Unless site changes and other factors are accounted for (the changeover to the automatic weather station and small Stevenson screen in 1996; and placement of vertical wind-profiler radar arrays on concrete or gravel beds too close to the screen in 2005, and at the current site in 2010); there is no valid record September temperature and no valid climate-related trend in maximum temperature data.

Dr. Bill Johnston, Cook

I write in response to the letter from James Bodsworth ('Reading, not understanding', September 27).

I live in a complex of 75 units comprising four buildings. The account from ActewAGL for the quarter ending August7 for common area lighting for Building D was four times the amount for the same period in 2016. The managing agent queried this account; the meter was reread and the original reading was confirmed.

The executive committee then checked the meter reading and this showed the ActewAGL reading was incorrect.

A phone call was made to ActewAGL Customer Service and following a discussion with a staff member it was agreed that an email would be sent from the executive committee with a photo of the current meter reading attached.

An adjusted account was issued promptly, a difference of almost $2000.

S. Campbell, Chifley

John Warhurst, writing on the dual citizenship tangle in parliament ("Celebrating the magnificent seven", September 28, p.18), concludes that "the positive lesson regarding their personal circumstance should strengthen our understanding and appreciation of Australian multiculturalism".

That's nothing more than a woolly pup to chew on.

The present nonsense of eligibility for office could be satisfied by legislation which, upon a candidate's election, automatically abrogates the holding of other citizenship: Upon entering Parliament they have legal allegiance to Australia alone; and yes, exiting Australia on a foreign passport is denied.

Itinerants apart, what Australians aren't migrants or their descendants?

(Original Australians, tenured for 60,000 years, sensibly viewed themselves and the land as one). Our culture is continuously changing; very rapidly so over the past two centuries.

Distasteful cultural practices have been winnowed out along the way, especially in relation to their impacts on women.

Warhurst built his article towards a finale: "Australian multiculturalism".

This is both a distortion and a distraction; and does he imply that our culture may be under threat from a lessening of net migration?

Crosspollination, good and bad, thrives in Australia's cross-border traffic, be it transient or permanent.

Is Warhurst promoting ever-increasing numbers, countering Dick Smith's plea for rational debate on the population issue?

If so, and if he has an open mind, Doug Cock's People Policy should interest him. It still presents well-credentialed social/economic/ecological options for the dilemma of Australia's future.

Colin Samundsett, Farrer

By striking out the appeal against using the advance to the Minister of Finance, the High Court has once again given money powers to the government at the expense of parliament.

It now seems that the definition of "urgent", a necessary condition to be met if the advance to the Minister for Finance was to be used to fund the same-sex voluntary survey, is entirely in the hands of the government.

The funding was urgent, according to the Minister for Finance, and according to the High Court, merely because the government wanted the survey results before the end of November.

Why that date was so urgent was not explained.

Nor did the High Court ask.

Why the government did not seek an additional appropriation to fund the survey – it certainly had time to do so – was also not explained.

Although the answer is easy: the government knew a bill of this sort would not be accepted by the Senate.

As is well known, parliament was originally established to control the king's spending.

That seems to have been forgotten by our High Court.

The court should have realised that spending is urgent when the need is pressing and the government does not have the opportunity to obtain parliament's approval for that spending.

Tony Harris, Narrabundah

I note that our PM is blaming everyone for the shortage of gas ("PM pressures gas companies — Energy Crisis growing as States take the heat", September 26, p.1).

Perhaps our PM should examine the geology below his Sydney Harbour-side house for an easy solution. Some of Australia's best quality (clean) coal seams lie at shallow depths below Sydney Harbour and the CBD. The coal is ideal for coal seam gas (CSG) or (coal bed methane — CBM) and even underground coal gasification (UCG) exploitation — of course all aided by fracking technology.

If CSG and fracking is good enough for Chinchilla then surely it should be good enough for Sydney.

Or is there a NIMBY problem?

P. R. Temple, Macquarie

DOUBLING UP OR DOWN

So Twitter is apparently going to "double down" with 280 characters rather than 140.

Will this mean President Trump's tweets will have details rather than rants? Will the English language regain the use of vowels? Will the tweets have enough room to convey messages of value or just rhetoric? Will we just get twice as much to ignore? I can hope for a better world now.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill, Vic

OFF LIKE A CRACKER

Here's hoping Kim Jong-un calms down before Guy Fawkes Night.

M. F. Horton, Adelaide, SA

FED UP WITH PREACHING

The AFL decided to change their logo in support of gay marriage and were surprised many people objected, reversing the decision after one day. The NRL followed with the dumb decision to politicise its biggest event of the year with some obscure American rapper promoting gay marriage. I am fed up with the preachiness that has crept into my once apolitical pastimes and I know I am not alone.

H. Ronald, Jerrabomberra, NSW

ABBOTT AND HIS ANTICS

Tony Abbott is a passionate advocate of free speech, as long as he agrees with what's in the speech.

Thos Puckett, Ashgrove, Qld

BUDDHISM A PHILOSOPHY

Many thanks to Alastair Stewart, (letters, September 28), for reminding us that Buddhism does not recognise a single God or god-like being, and therefore should not be listed as a religion. I was aware that it is really a philosophy but I was quoting Hugh Mackay from his recent article in the latest issue of the magazine of St James' Church, Sydney.

Robert Willson, Deakin

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