For the last year I have been researching the use of cheap building components imported from China. While we don't know yet whether the new cladding on the outside of the recently renovated 24-level tower was a contributor to the fire, recent fires in Dubai, France, and Melbourne point to the possibility that it was. The Senate Inquiry into Non Conforming Building Products, due to report in October this year, heard from the Director, Fire Safety, Metropolitan Fire Brigade in Melbourne who said the 2014 fire at an apartment block in Docklands could have "claimed hundreds of lives".

The reason? "The fire started on a balcony from an un-extinguished cigarette ... This set fire to the cladding, and the panelling itself allowed the fire to travel the full extent of the building— 23 levels in 11 minutes. That is something we have never, really, seen before."

Aluminium cladding is meant to have a fire-proof core. Recent imports from China have had a highly combustible core. It's impossible to tell from looking if it's fire-proof.

How soon before we see a fire like that in London here?

Marilyn Chalkley, Wright

The loss of (at least) six lives in the inferno at London's Grenfell Tower — and injuries to around 75 — is a terrible thing; and I firstly want to acknowledge that.

I am sure, however, that an aspect of this event will generally escape the attention and curiosity that it surely demands.

A 1970s vintage 100-metre high-rise caught fire at about 1am, and was dramatically gutted by the blaze over a period of fully 10 hours. At 11am, the London Fire Brigade reassured the public that it was not at risk of collapse.

On September 11, 2001, both the World Trade Centre main towers (WTC 1 and 2), and a third skyscraper, the 47-storey headquarters of the WTC precinct (WTC 7), all collapsed within a few hours of becoming involved in fires over a small minority of their floors.

Both the iconic towers were designed to withstand airliner impacts. The third tower was not struck by an aircraft.

The Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth have campaigned over many years for a fresh and independent investigation as to how all three towers fell.

The appropriation of 9/11 as the precipitating event to a new war, and also for the initiation of the nebulous and ongoing "War on Terror", should compel us to be at least very curious about the seemingly fleeting reality of fire collapsing steel-framed towers.

Ross Kelly, Monash

The London inferno where several lives were lost should be an example to Canberra developers.

Due to the height of the 24-storey Grenfell Tower firefighters were unable to safely enter the building to treat the fire and rescue the people trapped in the building.

This is not beyond happening in Canberra and the ACT Government should take heed and lower the height of its future building (approvals).

Anne Prendergast, Reid

Dr Douglas Mackenzie (letters, June 12) is doing his cause no good by making ridiculous statements.

The past six decades have not warmed at an unusual rate or to an unusual degree. Three periods during the last 150 years have warmed at the same rate (approx. 1.6 Deg C/century) as the recent warming, 1860 — 1880, 1910 — 1945 and our recent period 1975 to 1997.

This is the same rate as shown in an IPCC assessment report. The Central England Temperature series shows three times the recent rate of rise over a 30-year period in the 1600s, during the Little Ice Age, and the rate of change at the end of the Younger Dryas period was greater at times than in the present period.

As far as the temperature reached goes, the Medieval, Roman, Minoan and Holocene Optimum periods were much warmer than the recent warm period without man's assistance.

Three-quarters of the hundreds of studies around the globe using disparate proxies have found that the Medieval Warm period, just 1000 years ago, was between .75 and 3 degrees C warmer than the present warm period.

According to two MSU, satellite, data sets (UAH & RSS) as well as 4 radiosonde (weather balloon) data sets, there has been no rise in trend of global temperature since 1997 during which time we have experienced over 30 per cent of the atmospheric CO2 increase that has occurred since the end of the Industrial Revolution.

Ice melting, seas rising, more or less precipitation, more extreme weather etc. may or may not be as a result of warming but says nothing about what caused that warming and in no way incriminates CO2.

John McKerral, Batemans Bay, NSW

I'm intrigued by the psychology of denial. Is it a deep internal conflict that expresses itself in phrases like "I don't question the science, but ..."? Or in claims of "technology neutrality" associated with demands for coal, or attacks on the "ideology" of others while ignoring or twisting the science. Or worse, maybe they are just lying through their teeth, or have sold their souls. Remember, we're talking end of civilisation here. Not trivial.

Eric Pozza, Red Hill

Patrick McArdle (Letters, 15 June) says that "at Merici [school] there is no ambiguity about the fact that women can achieve excellence in all areas." Is there a Canberra school at which there is no ambiguity about the fact that men can achieve excellence in all areas?

Leon Arundell, Downer

Jorian Gardner's article "See our cachet crumple", (June 14, p.18), makes sober reading.

However, rather than making marketing a priority, perhaps it would be better to put the effort into removing unnecessary obstacles in the way of creating new attractions.

One glaring example of this is the wasted opportunity of making Canberra the Classic Car Capital of Australia, with displays on many of the grassed venues around the lake.

Over the years, these once very popular displays have been emasculated by the onerous conditions enforced by the NCA, with the acquiescence of the ACT Government.

When I tell my interstate friends of the crazy conditions such as not parking under trees, for fear of root compaction, having to pay for parking police in attendance on a Sunday and so on I can see in my friends' eyes the confirmation that Canberra is indeed a blinkered, narrow-thinking community.

In complete contrast to Canberra's attitude, one of the world's premier classic car shows is held at Pebble Beach, California. And where is the venue? On the pristine fairways and greens of the prestigious Pebble Beach Golf Club.

That's right, thousands of visitors admiring hundreds of cars and, over the years, raising millions of dollars for charity.

If it wasn't for the NCA and ACT government's lack of vision, the foreshores of Lake Burley Griffin could be the Australian equivalent.

Geoff Nickols, Griffith

Drug Free Australia's Drug Advisory Council kicks an own goal in calling for "higher penalties for possession and use of cannabis" (letters, June 13).

Sure, we want to make cannabis less accessible to young Australians but you won't do that by ramping up the very measures that have ensured the profitability and availability of that drug.

The assertion that cannabis is a gateway to harder ones has long been discredited. The link is sociological, not pharmacological.

Yes, many if not most users of amphetamines or heroin started with cannabis but to assert that cannabis caused the uptake of hard drugs is as meaningless as saying that water or soft drinks are gateways.

Kids inclined to risk-taking or to cope with their inadequacies try dope for social reasons. Their entrepreneurial peers, being defiant or being cool, flog it to them.

Through that same network the novice will be introduced to a smorgasbord of other drugs.

Criminalising dope is a price maintenance system that guarantees profitability. The experience of law enforcement is that a market based around the direct selling between peers is all but impossible to disrupt.

More hard-hitting messages will only serve to produce a new generation of cult reefer madness videos.

Bill Bush, Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform

Is there one thing that Colliss Parrett said about cannabis (letters, 13 Jun) that can not also be said about alcohol?

No matter what you say about the bad effects on physical or mental health or social harm, alcohol does more damage than cannabis.

Furthermore, if you want to quote statistics, more people who take harder drugs and cause trouble have started on alcohol than on cannabis.

By his own arguments, Mr Parrett should be advocating prohibition of alcohol. He won't do so because none of his arguments are actually very compelling, the scientific evidence is very weak, and the numbers of alleged sufferers statistically insignificant.

Want the government to save a whole lot of money? Then leave the dope smokers alone.

S. W. Davey, Torrens

Unless the ACT Government releases plans for public housing Denman Prospect, they risk facing significant community pushback.

One only needs to look at the recent public housing fiasco in Wright to see that people do not like to be kept in the dark about these decisions. In the Wright case, the ACT Government Cabinet made a decision to put public housing on community use land in 2015, but did not inform residents about the decision until March 2017.

By keeping silent on the intended purpose for the land for such a long period of time it not only gave residents false hope that they would receive desperately needed community facilities on the land, but also denied them the opportunity to make a fully informed decision when purchasing their home.

Contrary to what Andrew Barr and the ACT Government have said in the media, residents of Molonglo are not NIMBY's who hate public housing.

There was virtually no opposition to the public housing in Coombs because the housing locations were released well before the suburb was developed. There were no surprises and nobody got anything different next door to what they had been promised.

I encourage the ACT Government to learn from their mistakes and to release a full and detailed plan of the proposed public housing in Denman Prospect, like they did with Coombs.

When people are paying $1000 per square metre they deserve to know what is being built next door.

Peter Hosking, Wright

The Canberra Times report ("Documents 'do not exist' for LDA deal", June 12, p.1) avoided, in typical Canberra bureaucratic style, the question of which person or persons decided that the Land Development Agency would buy the Williamsdale property without complying with policy on the necessary documentation?

Only individuals with names and human bodies can be accountable for an decision. "The Land Development Agency" or "the Board" are not satisfactory answers – they are just shields for individuals to hide behind.

The passive voice is another bureaucratic favourite for hiding accountability: why say "a decision was made" rather than "(name here) decided". Why say "the Land Development Agency admitted it made a mistake" rather than "(name here) admitted that they made a mistake or deliberately decided to not comply with the rules". Why not say whether the responsible minister, (name here) knew about and agreed to the non-compliance with policy?

Mike Rzechowicz, Duffy

POLITICAL SCORING

As Minister for Health, Tony Abbott was notorious for not having read his briefs, preferring a few dot points to bluff his way through while scoring political points. It seems nothing has changed. Some people never learn.

David Weeden, Evatt

COALITION OF COAL

According to James Massola's story "Clean Energy Target heats up party room" (June 14, p4): "The Prime Minister, who has the backing of senior conservative ministers such as Barnaby Joyce and Mathias Cormann, carefully left the door open to coal remaining in the nation's energy mix during question time." Is that why they are called a "coal"-ition?

John Milne, Chapman

Peter Baskett (letters, June 15) asks which of we two, McKerral of Mackenzie, will take the "high road" and which the "low road". I don't know about high or low, but I'm taking the road along which scientific evidence and reasoning take me.

I think that I might just get to "Scotland [the truth] afore he".

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

Tony, Tony, please go away! Preferably back to your electorate where you might be able to do something useful such as making sure there are no potholes in your Constituency. In your spare time you could enrol in an introductory reading course at the local TAFE so that you can peruse the Finkel Review all by yourself.

John Galvin, Weston

Will the Coalition fink out of Finkel? (Thos Puckett, letters June 14). Clearly they are still finking about it.

Don Burns, Mawson

A QUESTION OF POWERS

The separation of powers is a pillar of the rule of law and democracy, enshrining the core principles of all Australian values.

By effectively advocating against it in a bid to arrogate arbitrary powers to himself, Peter Dutton fails to meet the very standards he seeks to enforce on others.

Luca Biason, Latham

The very concept of giving Peter Dutton, an individual, the ability to cancel Australian citizenship is anathema to justice, civil liberty and freedom.

It is an insult to democracy. It must not happen.

Gerry Gillespie, Queanbeyan, NSW

DECLARATION NOT COOL

Note to Jorian Gardner, VisitCanberra, Andrew Barr and The Canberra Times ("Canberra is not the 'Cool Capital'," canberratimes.com.au, June 14). Any person, business or locality that declares themselves (or their friends) cool is inherently uncool.

D. Keenan, Fadden

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