Australians are drinking less alcohol overall than any time in the last 50 years (ABS 2015). Consumption has not doubled since the 1980s, as he reported [and the ABS national accounts suggest]. We all love a villain, but family-run Canberra wineries and others like them around the country, are definitely not it.

The harm of alcohol abuse is part of a complicated picture requiring targeted strategies.

Suggesting these can be solved by a blunt tax mechanism does a tragic disservice to victims of violence and abuse.

Tony Battaglene, chief executive, Winemakers' Federation of Australia; Nicole Cosgrove, manager, government relations, Winemakers' Federation of Australia

ACT Chief Minister, you need to get your government busy developing new infrastructure proposals to be added to the federal government's 2017 budget list instead of whingeing you did not get a fair share.

While I agree the Barton Highway should be dualled, that proposal has not cut the mustard.

One such proposal, which is dear to our PM's heart, would be for pumped hydro/renewable energy scheme using the existing three water supply dams on the Cotter River.

Corrin, Bendora and Cotter Dam are stepped up in altitude from the Murrumbidgee River to nearly 1800 metres above sea level; already well supplied with major electricity infrastructure; blessed with some existing pipelines that could be used at least for part of the pumping and generation infrastructure; on the same river, sharing common water quality and ecology; readily accessed and have available a skilled local workforce of engineers and catchment management specialists; local for Snowy Hydro Corporation so it can assist with design, construction and operation.

Pumped hydro works best if complemented by a ready source of renewable energy such as wind or solar.

The ready availability of the electricity grid would allow solar or wind power generated anywhere in the eastern states to be sourced for the purpose. But it is also possible to include wind or solar power generated on the Brindabellas or elsewhere locally to be applied. So please get on with it, Mr Barr. We all need the jobs and the reduced carbon emissions.

Roger Clement, Googong

In response to Eric Hunter (Letters, May 16), I certainly do believe that everyone has a right to free speech, including Yassmin Abdel- Magied, however not everyone has to agree with what has been said.

I did not intimate that Yassmin had no right to voice her opinion, just that it was a highly insensitive way of gaining some free publicity to further her own career.

Being Australian born she would have been aware that Anzac day is rightly or wrongly revered, it also does not exempt her from being an ingrate. If Eric thought that I was being "vociferous", he "ain't seen nuttin" yet!

Mario Stivala, Spence

In seeking to tackle the insuperable contradictions ignored by Christians for thousands of years and raised by Stephen Fry on Irish television two years ago – that their all-powerful and loving God either directly administers, can't be bothered averting, or is powerless to prevent the obscene amounts of suffering and misery visited upon innocent victims every single day – Reg Naulty (Letters, May 15) tells us that, "Being a conscious part of this wonderful world is worth any price, even that of pain."

Would Junko Furuta agree with you on that point Mr Naulty, were she alive today to have an opinion? I wonder what Elisabeth Fritzl thinks, seeing as she survived her 24-year ordeal at her father's hands, though several of her children did not.

What about the child in the so-called "pogo stick" abuse case or the Yazidi girls kidnapped by ISIS and sold as sex slaves?

Nothing life has to offer could ever make it worth enduring the unimaginable horror and pain that the children I've just read about suffered, and a God who would allow his own representatives to rape and pillage little boys, untrammelled for decades and supported by the church hierarchy, sounds to me a lot like one that doesn't exist.

All that "life after death" shows us is that some people will believe just about anything.

James Allan, Narrabundah

Adrian Gibbs' tongue may have been in the vicinity of his cheek (Letters, May 15), nevertheless, the need for a "nice cool empty planet" to go to "when this one becomes even hotter, and even more overpopulated" is worth contemplating.

Putting the "hotter" issue aside for the moment, let us consider the "overpopulated" aspect. A paper by Crist et al in the April 21 edition of Science suggests the size and growth of human population contribute substantially to loss of biological diversity.

The need to provide ever more food for the ever-growing population exacerbates biodiversity loss despite our best efforts to protect it. According to the paper, the only solution to sustaining biodiversity and human wellbeing is through actions that slow and eventually reverse population growth. These include investing in universal access to reproductive health services and contraceptive technologies, advancing women's education, and achieving gender equality.

Jenny Goldie, Michelago, NSW

Bryan Furnass was a regular and much missed contributor to these columns until his death in March. One of his major passions was the promotion of ammonia as a clean, renewable fuel. He would be delighted to know that CSIRO has taken up the same cause (ABC News: "CSIRO breakthrough could turn renewable hydrogen into export boom"). Note that smelly ammonia has become "renewable hydrogen"!

Adrian Gibbs, Yarralumla

Behind Australia's complex and incessantly challenged media ownership laws lies the same basic concept driving all anti-trust legislation: horizontal monopolies in private industry are not in the public interest.

A private media monopoly would constitute control of propaganda, control of all the information available to the public for it to make political decisions, excepting possibly the government media, whose independence and financing are also incessantly challenged.

Our complex media ownership laws have already deviated sufficiently from their original purpose. I fail to see any viable rationale for the story "How Dastyari could broker constructive change to an Australian media landscape under heavy fire" (May 15, p17).

The suggestion that "Dastyari and his cohort [the select committee on the Future of Public Interest Journalism] might usefully give attention to the sort of tax incentives available in the US to encourage philanthropic and private section support for public interest journalism" is the height of naivety. It would only legitimise bribery by vested interests.

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

The Canberra Times editorial of May 15 praises the Turnbull government's budget for taking the middle ground from Labor. As a reasonably middle of the ground voter, I am less than impressed by the budget.

It does nothing to deal with climate change which is the most urgent issue of our time. The pleas for action from Pacific Islanders are being ignored as well as the dying Great Barrier Reef and killing off of investment in the renewables sector drives one to despair. It does little to assist young people or low-income families. It is a smoke-and-mirrors budget that should not appease anyone.

Robyn Vincent, McKellar

The federal government knows the banking system is too expensive. Their concern has taken the form of a bank levy on the five main banks. Unfortunately, the bank levy is a Band-Aid solution and fails to address the excessive cost of financial markets.

Free markets are a good way of allocating resources and money markets are no exception. However, our money markets cost too much because they sell the wrong thing. Money markets put a value on money tokens by paying interest on deposits. That is, money tokens have a value irrespective of the use of the money. Rather than paying for money tokens, we can pay for the use of money tokens and save the cost of interest.

When a bank makes a loan, they create new money tokens. On repayment, they destroy the same number of money tokens they created. The cost of interest arises from the continual creation and destruction of money tokens.

Instead of borrowing money from banks a community can borrow the money directly from the community. The borrower and lender agree on a fixed payment for the use of the money. Payment can be in fixed inflation-adjusted payments greater than the amount invested or in discounting payments for goods and services.

Any community organisation can do the same, as the loans do not create new money. The approach makes for competitive money markets where the product is the use of money.

Using this method means cost-benefit analyses no longer include interest.

It means our communities can build more infrastructure for the same cost while providing good stable returns to savers.

Kevin Cox, Ngunnawal

With the airing last Sunday night (May 14) of "Killing Joe" on Prime's Sunday Night, I was reminded among other things of the impending demolition of the duplex at 79 Antill Street, Downer, where Joe lived and died in 1997.

The impending demolition of this property was reported on inThe Canberra Times of February 3, 2017.

Joe was by all accounts a wonderful, loving, clever and talented young man who was much loved by his family and those who knew him. He had a bright future and life ahead of him. His family has, understandably, been devastated ever since by Joe'sdeath and the loss of their eldest son.

I don't wish to enter into the circumstances of what led to Joe's untimely death, as these are not only repugnant but are on the public record. Suffice to say that, 20 years after the event, the case still raises important issues.

I have walked past 79 Antill Street. It is a pity that the building could not have been retained and refurbished and used as, for example, a resource centre in relation to domestic violence in memory of Joe. If the demolition does proceed, perhaps the ACT government might see fit to place a plaque on the spot or nearby in memory of Joe.

Such an initiative may require the consent of Joe's parents, but under all the circumstances I think it may be an entirely appropriate thing to do.

David Cummins, Kambah

I note with interest that poor sick Cardinal George Pell managed to fly to London recently despite his illness. A flight of about three hours.

Now he has said that he can't fly back to Australia because he's too sick.

Well, George, I'm happy to say I've found an itinerary for you to fly back to Australia so that you can face those allegations of child abuse. If you follow this itinerary then no flight is longer than three hours and you'll see some pretty interesting places too. Just pack your bags and fly from Rome to Istanbul to Teheran to Dubai to Kolkata to Bangkok to Singapore to Bali to Darwin to Cairns and finally to Sydney. And, hey presto, you've done it. If you want I'll carry your bags too, George.

(Yes, I was bored and it's cold outside!)

Doug Hodgson, Pearce

RAPIDLY CONFUSED

Re: "ACT government unveils free trial of green and black rapid bus services" (canberratimes.com.au). Can anybody explain why I would catch a free rapid bus service from Belconnen to Gunghalin when we are building light rail from Gunghalin to the city. Belconnen to the city makes sense, Belconnen to Gunghalin I don't understand.

Gordon Edwards, Page

TEST FOR HUMANITY

Australia has a large Christian community and the country was built on Christian ideals. If there is money to spend on drug testing of people on welfare why don't we put it into something productive like creating new jobs or providing training for them? Kicking people when they are down is both un-Christian and un-Australian.

Audrey Guy, Ngunnawal

OFF COURSE

Sam Carter says the Brumbies are going to have to stick to what they're doing. ("Brumbies fail to fire", May 13, p102) Please don't, Sam. For heaven's sake, do something different.

Brian Wenn, Garran

DARKER CORNERS

The Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sex Abuse has been excellent, but sex abuse in families hasn't been exposed.

Rod Matthews, Fairfield, VIC

HOPPING TO IT

What is it with certain like-named NRL players that they deem it acceptable to stick their fingers up at certain dates and bend the rules? Fans should be hopping mad.

Linus Cole, Palmerston

SMARTER SOONER

The New Scientist reports that a company has launched a smart bus service in London that adjusts its route depending on traffic and passenger demand. The app will allow the driver to change the route in real time. I am not sure if such developments affect the utility of a fixed tram network but it looks to me that it will, and quickly. Uber is just the beginning.

Steve Thomas, Yarralumla

HERITAGE WITHERS

Have you see the new ACT Law Courts being constructed right up to Vernon Circle and towering over City Hill? What's happened to the subtle Griffin-Mahony heritage slowly feathering the building heights away from the roads? This feathering lets light in, sound out, and gives opportunities for softening.

John Skurr, Deakin

SO SILENT, SISTER?

The sisterhood have fallen silent. What the devil are they up to? Has the battle of the sexes really been won? Second conundrum: have stiff white collars and golden braided epaulettes fallen out? Where are the religious speakers on Anzac Day of late?

Barrie Smillie, Duffy

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