Mr Coningham's letter clearly shows his contempt for unions.

The simple fact is that if builders, their bosses and the builders' association where serious about safety, the unions would probably not be needed.

His letter is also very good with all the right words. However workers don't want words, they want action.

They want bosses who are committed and serious about safety, from the very start of a job till the end.

It will be great when there is solid evidence of the building employers, and their association, doing so. At this stage there seems to be little evidence. Now, all that happens is that builders are excused and the union is accused of thuggery.

Perhaps instead of "being appalled" some practical action would be appropriate.

Geoff Barker, Flynn

The argument seems to be that we have lots of coal, and coal-fired energy is cheap to produce. There is little apparent concern about carbon dioxide emissions.

But is coal-fired power really so cheap? It has been reported that Tim Buckley, of the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, has pointed out that India has moved to renewables because power from new solar and wind generators is now cheaper than that from fossil fuels.

For example, at the most recent energy auctions, solar was down to 2.44 rupees per kilowatt-hour, compared with the average domestic thermal (coal) price of 3.2rupees. The Indians are saying that they're doing an "unfair share" of greenhouse gas reduction because it's in their economic interest to do so.

China is becoming the biggest investor in renewables and energy efficiency because it sees opportunities for global dominance in industries of the future such as batteries, electric vehicles, wind, solar and hydro.

Australia should also be looking to the future rather than to the fuel of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

The Australia Day Honours List was hailed as the "most progressive ever". I'm feel a sense of despair about the person who wrote that headline. Unless and until there is a 50 per cent representation of women and men, then the list cannot possibly be seen as "progressive".

There is no equality when: (a) just one recipient in the top order is female (and there are 15 recipients); (b) there are only 15 female recipients out of 55 recipients in the next category; (c) there are only 58 female recipients out of 171 recipients (or 34 per cent) in the AM group; and so it goes on.

When one looks at other categories further down the list, the inequality is breathtaking.

For example, the AFSM (Fire Service Medal) shows no female recipients in the state of Victoria. Does this mean there is absolutely no female in that state worthy of an award?

Did everyone in the fire services organisations or at the Honours Secretariat think the announcement with no females would pass unnoticed?

Surely out of six awards, one woman could have been found.

I am tired of hearing that the process responds to nominations received and there are insufficient female nominees.

A system which allows this is flawed.

Helen M. Goddard, Turner

To the very many embassies and groups that sponsored and shared Iftar in the City on June 10 – a big "thank you"!

Your hospitality, food, and culture brought warmth to a cold Canberra evening.

Coordinated by the Canberra Islamic Centre, with "invaluable support by the Muslim community, the embassies of Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and UAE, the High Commission of Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Pakistan" and numerous other Muslim community groups, your warm welcome embraced us for a second year in the spirit of multiculturalism.

With the recent spate of letters to the editor condemning all things multicultural and many things Muslim, you demonstrated clearly that being Muslim and Australian is no different from being Christian and Australian, Jewish and Australian, atheist and Australian ... anything and Australian.

The countless volunteer-hours of cooking (and cooking and cooking!) and packaging, and volunteering on-site means a lot to us.

Thank you; shukran; salamat – for sharing with these Jewish and atheist persons.

Judy Bamberger and Bram van Oosterhout, O'Connor

While the federal government still dithers on energy policy, it is good to see forward-thinking developers such as Stephen Byron showing the way ("Design revealed for Denman Prospect shopping centre in Molonglo Valley", Domain, June 13).

Requiring a minimum of 3KW of solar panels on every house in Denman Prospect may add slightly to the initial construction cost but it will surely pay off in the long run.

Energy bills for those Canberrans without solar will go up by 19per cent next month and will continue rising but the sun keeps on giving us its energy for nothing. Well done Mr Byron, the planet and environmentally aware humans say "thank you".

Mike Reddy, Curtin

I suggest that those Canberrans who "bought" the ACT government's election propaganda about how light rail would reduce traffic congestion should get used to the congestion during the Stage1 construction phase because traffic light priority for trams will mean that that level of congestion becomes the new normal traffic flow on Northbourne Avenue.

Traffic congestion will be further compounded when traffic lanes on Commonwealth Avenue are appropriated for Stage2 and the government implements its Northbourne Avenue Plaza proposal in conjunction with the NCA's "Trammany Hall" proposal to replace Commonwealth Avenue slip lanes and the pedestrian underpass with multiple sets of traffic lights which will all give priority to trams.

Given that Andrew Barr has demonstrated that he can more than match Donald Trump for hubris, I suggest that he should bear in mind Abraham Lincoln's aphorism, "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

Bruce Taggart, Aranda