The number of times my wife and I have had to jump out of the way of cyclists speeding down the walking paths around the lake is not only annoying but dangerous.

There are plenty of signs around that indicate that "Pedestrians have right of way" but this does not seem to compute with some cyclists who use the paths as race tracks and some are not even wearing helmets.

Maybe the minister could bring in a rule that ensures that cyclists passing and overtaking remain one metre away from walkers, sound a bell on approach, and pass in a slow manner.

I wonder who would get the blame and pay the costs if there was a collision between pedestrian and cyclists? Maybe the minister would volunteer.

Errol Good, Macgregor

Ms Fenwick has every right to be concerned about run-off from an adjacent remediated Mr Fluffy block ("Asbestos concerns over run-off", canberratimes.com.au, November 29), especially when the Asbestos Task Force tells us that two out of every five remediated blocks are still contaminated by minor (whatever this means) amounts of carcinogenic, asbestos fibres.

All remediated former MrFluffy blocks are being sold to developers and individuals as pristine land, at highly inflated prices, by our Green/Labor coalition government.

We have been bitten twice with this Mr Fluffy saga – let's hope it doesn't happen again down the track.

If it does, who is responsible? The government is unreservedly pocketing the auction bonanza monies!

Surely it is and will be its responsibility down the track for any Mr Fluffy-type incidents that happen as it has unreservedly snaffled the auction money. Governments have now told us twice that there are no problems with MrFluffy – and they were wrong!

P. R. Temple, Macquarie

The battle for West Basin continues to rage.

It will be interesting to see what the new chief of the Urban Renewal Authority, Malcolm Snow (ex-National Capital Authority), decides should happen there.

In the meantime, I recommend that anyone with an interest in the subject should have a look at the ACT government's excellent ACTmapi and in particular its "Historic Plans".

There you will find the Walter Burley Griffin 1918 Plan of Canberra, the last version he did, overlaid on 2017 aerial photography so you can see how Griffin's plan relates to current site features.

Griffin's plan shows a "Garden Circuit", roughly where Parkes Way now is, and blocks of development extending south of it, on both sides of what is now Commonwealth Avenue.

The northern shore of West Basin is a curving "West Basin Boulevard", substantially different to the current shoreline.

Directly behind the boulevard is parkland extending back to "Garden Circuit".

It seems to me that all protagonists should have some regard for the intentions of Walter Burley Griffin, who as well as being Canberra's architect gave his name to the lake which is raising such passions.

Richard Johnston, Kingston

Regarding "Slipping through the cracks" (December 4), absences from high schools have long been the concern of many school staff. Invariably, the task of chasing up these students falls to a designated teachers' assistant, executive teacher or the deputy.

This can be a time consuming effort but one that is extremely important because if students don't attend, they don't learn.

The students' academic progress falters and invariably a sympathetic teacher is recruited to supply in many cases a watered down curriculum in order to raise the students' self esteem, which is the aim for students to want to come to school.

Instead of teachers doing the work, parents should be accountable.

In Britain if parents take their children out of school, they must have the permission of the principal and in extreme cases are fined, and it has been known that parents have been given a jail sentence.

At the same time, some parents need help with this process and this is where the Department of Education needs to intervene. Dare I say in my early days of teaching, schools had a truant officer to check on chronic absences but this method is draconian because it does not involve the school community.

The department needs to assist schools on a needs basis and help with this urgent problem, otherwise these students will continue to fall through the cracks.

Susan Swift, Kambah

Ryan Hemsley raises the question of how much participatory democracy is enough (Letters, December 1).

He recites numerous consultation processes about West Basin, conducted by planning agencies since 1992. He gives no reference to the quality of the process or the outcomes, but has a dig at the Lake Burley Griffin Guardians.

His centrepiece public consultation is the National Capital Authority's Griffin Legacy National Capital Plan Amendment 61 in 2007.

He omits reference to the other three simultaneous Griffin Legacy Amendments which covered Constitution Avenue, City Hill, the Central National Area, Commonwealth Avenue and Kings Avenue.

These far-reaching changes to the National Capital Plan were accorded less than two months for public review by the NCA.

Territories Minister Jim Lloyd then improperly tabled the amendments in Parliament without reference to the parliamentary joint standing committee on the national capital.

The committee subsequently held a one-day inquiry at their own behest and issued a report (March 2007) recommending that all the amendments be disallowed, which the government ignored.

In fact the first Griffin Legacy projects – redevelopment of the Albert Hall Precinct (May 2007), Section 63 City Hill (September 2008) and the Immigration Bridge proposal (May 2009) – all failed to satisfy public consultation processes or obtain approvals.

As Mr Hemsley has acknowledged (Letters, November 21), there are aspects of the West Basin transformation which warrant closer scrutiny. We should be grateful to the lake guardians for their monitoring and advocacy.

Brett Odgers, Swinger Hill

Ian Shepherd (Letters, December 1) and Don Sephton (Letters, December 2) have been critical of Senator Zed Seselja for abstaining from voting on the Labor/Greens/Smith Bill on SSM in the Senate.

They infer that the senator has abrogated his responsibilities to the ACT, preferring his own personally held views on marriage.

But to the contrary, Seselja actually represented the ACT constituents well and with integrity. He had no choice but to abstain. If he had voted against the Bill, as was expected, he wouldn't have been implementing the expressed wishes of the majority of ACT voters who voted "yes" in the postal survey. But if he voted in favour of a bill, scant on protective clauses, he would have abandoned both "yes" and "no" voters in the ACT who were promised that their human rights would be upheld by the Australian government.

The right to responsible freedom of speech, thought, conscience and religion does not need to be feared by the LGBTIQ community when the definition of marriage is soon changed to include same-sex marriage. Freedom does not always equate to discrimination.

Seselja was put in an untenable position by some of his own party and a Senate which irresponsibly failed to incorporate any, not even one, of the thoughtful amendments proposed by George Brandis, James Paterson and others.

The House of Representatives now has a brief opportunity to correct this unseemly omission, and all fair-minded Australians should strongly voice their concern this week to see that it does.

David Renton, Tuggeranong

Neil James (Letters, December 4) sticks his head above the trench on behalf of the USA.

He gave an interesting exposition on history; in high contrast to that by the late American senator James William Fulbright (of the Fulbright Exchange Fellowships).

Fulbright, in his 1966 book, The Arrogance of Power, listed America's intemperate martial adventures up to that time in an opposite light to that of James.

Since then, Fulbright's list could have been updated by incidents like gratuitously invading Britain's colony of Grenada during Margaret Thatcher's time; instigation of General Pinochet's 1973 overthrow of the democratically elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende; the 1989 invasion of Panama and capture of its president Manuel Ortega; and so-on.

Perhaps a friendship is more enriched by acknowledgment of its deficiencies rather than by re-jigging elements of its history. Colin Samundsett, Farrer

In the article ("There's something rotten at the core of Australian banking", December 3, p. 20), Ian Porter argues that the banks are in the business of the "pursuit of profit at any cost", putting returns to shareholders and executive bonuses ahead of all other considerations.

He further argues that returns on shareholders' funds of "14, 16 and 18 per cent" in a low-risk industry like banking are "astronomical" and "extortionate".

Porter also raises the possibility (or likelihood?) that the banks will follow the unwritten rule of calling for inquiries: don't do it unless you already know the outcome; you "write, or heavily influence, the terms of reference" yourself.

This must not be allowed to happen.

Surely the Treasurer and his office are capable of setting up the terms of reference without being dictated to by the banks. If not, one would have to ask: why on earth did we elect you, Mr Morrison?

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

It is ridiculous that some MPs are still proposing to move amendments to the SSM bill in the House of Representatives this week after it have been reviewed and agreed in the Senate after exhaustive debate.

As far as marriage celebrants are concerned one of the criteria from their registration should be that they have to marry any couple who can be married legally under the law.

As far as religious businesses are concerned they should be banned from telling their flock lies like: God created the universe in seven days, that there is life after death and they should acknowledge that the Bible was written by old men in togas and saddles thousands of years ago who had no understanding of science nor little understanding of natural justice.

Further, religious organisation should be taxed and pay council rates just like any other business. Because of the misery religions have cause to so many lives, additional taxes like a church spite tax, a stained glass window tax and a tax on the seating capacity of their buildings should be imposed as well.

Adrian Jackson, Middle Park, Vic

It's disappointing that views on Australia's energy future containing patently false information by the likes of Doug Hurst (Letters, November 29), Alan Barron (Letters, December 4) and Mark Sproat (Letters, December 4) continue to receive exposure.

The following facts are indisputable.

CO2 absorbs certain wavelengths of infra-red light, causing it to vibrate and warm. Earth absorbs most of the sunlight that reaches it and re-emits it as infrared radiation. CO2 along with other greenhouse gasses prevent that radiation escaping directly back into space.

For aeons atmospheric CO2 fluctuated between 180ppm during ice ages and 280ppm during interglacial periods, and remained steady at 280ppm for twenty thousand years prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Since 1750 atmospheric CO2 has risen at an ever increasing rate.

Humans now produce 40 billion tons of CO2 annually, and its concentration has reached 410ppm — the highest it's been in 3 million years and very likely the highest in 20 million years.

These unprecedented CO2 concentrations have been accompanied by unprecedented rates of warming, disrupting weather patterns and changing habitats faster than plants and animals can adapt.

When adding new capacity to the power grid, renewables have undercut coal and gas and now produce the cheapest electricity.

Our knowledge is incomplete, but we understand enough to know that if we don't curb CO2 pollution, life on this planet faces a very real existential threat.

James Allan, Narrabundah

TEST FOR SHORTEN

If our constitution does not have a means of getting rid of parliamentarians who are in league with foreign powers, bring on a referendum.

In the meantime, Bill Shorten needs to show he is in charge and kick Dastyari out of the Labor Party.

Anthony Reid, Murrumbateman, NSW

DEVIL OF A JOB

Being principal at the Brindabella Christian College must be "the devil" of a job.

Ed Highley, Kambah

WARMING EXPERIMENT

Alan Barron (Letters, December 4) wrote: "The claim that humanity's carbon emissions are causing global warming needs to be tested." Well, we are doing that experiment right now on the only habitable planet we have.

Peter Campbell, Cook

MASS IMMIGRATION

Why does Australia have mass immigration? What's the exact purpose of it?

Rod Matthews, Fairfield, Vic

NEW YEAR'S GIFT

If NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro thinks Malcolm Turnbull should quit before Christmas as a gift to the country, will the new year's gift to the country be Peter Dutton?

Thos Puckett, Ashgrove, Qld

KWAUSSIE COSSIE

Like most Aussies I had never heard of the Australian National Dictionary Centre's word of the year "Kwaussie" until announced on Monday, December 4.

Does this now mean that if anyone who is a dual Australian-New Zealand citizen goes swimming they will be wearing a "Kwaussie Cossie"?

Len Goodman, Belconnen

CONFLICTING FORCES

By its nature, the new marriage legislation pits the immovable rock of moral conviction against the irresistible force of the law. Fallout is inevitable.

Eris Kennedy, Wanniassa

DOUBLE STANDARD?

Wasn't it an LNP Coalition government in the NT that signed the 99-year lease of the port of Darwin to Chinese interests? Sam Dastyari's wayward behaviour should be kept in perspective.

K. L. Calvert, Downer

BARNABY'S PAY

Now that Barnaby Joyce has been given a new life will he have his salary reinstated or was it never withheld while the country was bogged down in the High Court?

D. J. Fraser, Currumbin, Qld

SINS OF THE PAST

Meanwhile, in this age of sexual enlightenment and politeness, are aging rock stars going to be held accountable for numerous historical cases of carnal knowledge?

Gary Frances, Bexley, NSW

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