These were rituals that have a history for over a century in all similar establishments and are now called hazing, not bastardisation.

The media today, half a century on, will report on these similar practices in universities but will they expose they have been shared practices for decades and active in all of Australia's oldest universities?

It is a long-practised ritual that I understand is a global activity for over a century in Anglo-British universities in Britain, Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand.

There is now a report on the hazing, aka bastardisation, exposing the practice that is occurring in this nation's tertiary establishments.

I wonder whether the state and national governments will impose similar correctional measures applied to RMC and, more importantly, will our media use the same vigour against these establishments as they did to RMC 50 years ago.

I am not a graduate from any tertiary place as I left school at 14, a near universal practice in the 1950s.

But I did survive the fiercest battle in Vietnam that Australians were involved with (Long Tan) and will enjoy my 78th birthday this year.

What life's university has given me exceeds all the experiences gained at any university.

I have always claimed that those who now attend tertiary education are drained of their common sense during their first year and then the space is filled with socialist propaganda.

Robert S. Buick, Military Medal, Mountain Creek, Qld

As highlighted by Alex Mattea (Letters, March 1) the diminishing public face of the National Film and Sound Archive over recent years has become a matter of great concern, and not only to Canberra residents. What was once one of the national capital's premiere tourist attractions now leaves visitors sadly disappointed, as comments to sites like Trip Advisor attest.

As for the other national institutions, cumulative "efficiency dividends" have had a devastating impact. The Friends of the NFSA have long ago drawn these concerns, including the severe lack of parking in the "cinema precinct", to the attention of Minister Fifield, but so far to no effect.

We endeavour to help compensate by offering volunteer services and running public events of our own. Other bodies such as the Canberra International Film Festival have "bought in" to keep the NFSA's Arc Cinema in active use.

The public programs staff at the NFSA are to be commended for maintaining, with limited resources, an excellent screenings calendar, while also mounting the current Starstruck exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

But the NFSA needs to reopen its own exhibition facilities and services so it can restore its proper position as a rewarding place to visit: the visible and accessible embodiment of the nation's audiovisual heritage.

Ray Edmondson, OAM, president, Friends of the National Film and Sound Archive, Kambah

It was interesting to hear Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education and Training, on the ABC breakfast show on March 1 talking about bullying in schools and also to see reported on the same program Michaelia Cash's outburst at Senate estimates.

I am concerned to see that this disrespectful, bullying behaviour is now creeping into ABC TV, the current quiz shows Hard Quiz and Think Tank being cases in point.

I acknowledge that bullying in all its forms is a major problem at all levels in the Australian community and that we need to address this issue.

I was, however, amused to hear that Malcolm Turnbull is writing to schools to ask them to address bullying.

This problem needs to be addressed from the top down. When children observe bullying and disrespectful behaviour they often imitate it.

When will members of Parliament and other community leaders grow up and set good examples on how to treat other people to the whole Australian community?

Gay von Ess, Aranda

Yet again we have the demeaning spectacle of our PM parroting the politics of confrontation with North Korea that emanate from a US leader who is itching for a fight with that country.

In what seems like the international equivalent of advocating torture, Turnbull states, "We need to ... do everything we can to tighten the vice of those sanctions – that is the way to bring North Korea to its senses without conflict" ("Turnbull backs Trump's new North Korea sanctions", canberratimes.com.au, February 26).

Economic sanctions can indeed be a vice, one in which civilians who are already struggling are trapped. The mantra about sanctions bringing North Korea "to its senses" is patent nonsense, devoid of any evidence as to what sanctions actually do and don't do, and who suffers in the process.

In stark contrast, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, who has been urging dialogue rather than confrontation, stated on Sunday that high-ranking officials from North Korea told him their country was willing to start such a dialogue with the United States.

Where is Australian diplomacy on the matter of the Korean peninsula? Where is any attempt to spare civilians from the impacts of the sanctions? Where is the debate in Parliament about this situation? Non-existent on all counts.

Perhaps we should fly a US flag beside the Australian flag above Parliament House.

Then at least there would not be a pretence that we are an independent nation that believes in peace and the protection of innocent lives.

Sue Wareham, president and ACT branch co-ordinator, Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia), Cook

What better way to start a day than to begin it with the news of Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement that Russia now has nuclear cruise missiles that can reach anywhere in the world without being detected by any radar?

And the US (Pentagon) responding by saying it is prepared for any attack with its own sophisticated military weapons (Al Jazeera news 2/3).

Wow! Humanity is certainly putting its intelligence to its best use, isn't it?

Rajend Naidu, Glenfield

Can anyone really blame Michaelia Cash for her outburst? Doug Cameron causes extreme hypertension every time he opens his mouth.

Owen Reid, Dunlop

Warwick Penrose, then a staff cadet at ADFA, with a portrait of his grandfather, Dr August Lyle Buchanan, on the eve of his departure to Gallipoli for the 80th anniversary of the landing in 1995. Dr Buchanan was Simpson's commanding officer. Dr Buchanan's daughter is trying to find her father's medals which were lost in Canberra.

As a cadet at ADFA in 1995 my son, Warwick Penrose, stayed at a friend's house after returning from Gallipoli as an anniversary Army Representative.

Inadvertently, and not missed until the next year when he was posted away, he left my father's original medals behind at this house.

He couldn't remember where.

My father, Dr Lyle Buchanan, 3rd F.A. was Simpson's O.C., and served at Gallipoli from 5am on April 25 1915 until evacuated in late August that year.

He went on to serve in UK hospitals until being sent to France from March 1917 to early 1918.

This included the Ypres and Passchendaele actions. He returned to Australia in 1920 and remained on the Active list until 1939.

There are probably not many children of the original ANZACs left; my siblings and I being three of them.

If anyone has some medals of unknown family origin, all originals had the soldier's name engraved around the rim, as would my father's. If anyone remembers seeing these medals I would much appreciate hearing from them at magpie@ spiderweb.com.au.

They could be replicated but would never have hung on my father's chest as the originals often did so proudly.

Gael Buchanan-Penrose, Veteran, Qld

Having read with interest the articles and letters in the CT for and against PSA testing for prostrate cancer, I felt I had to write in support of PSA testing. I, for one, am extremely grateful to my GP for encouraging me to have an annual PSA test.

My PSA score wasn't high, but my GP noted over several years that the rate of increase was double that expected for a man my age. He encouraged me to see Dr Simon McCredie. I had a biopsy which showed that I had aggressive prostate cancer, Gleeson score 9.

An MRI showed the cancer was still contained within the prostate, and I had a radical prostatectomy. And yes, there are unpleasant side effects as a result of this operation, but there is much that can be done to improve the quality of life post-prostatectomy.

Even though I had complications following my op, I have never regretted my decision to have the prostatectomy. Six years on and I am still alive, cancer-free, able to watch my grandkids growing up and to enjoy life to the fullest.

Without those regular PSA tests there is a good chance that I would not be here today. The risks associated with PSA testing are minimal, and my advice, not based on statistics but on my personal experience, is that all men in the 55 to 65 age group should have an annual PSA test. Better to be the one man in a thousand saved than one of the four in a thousand who will die from prostate cancer.

Bruce Cool, Tura Beach, NSW

I have read with interest the series of letters on prostate cancer over the last few days, including Murray May's letter of March 2 which argues that the PSA test is pretty useless.

In December 2013, my then GP checked my PSA. It was a bit high but nothing to worry about. Then she retired and, in February 2015, I saw another GP and, in the course of the consultation, I suggested that it was time my PSA was checked.

He told me it wasn't necessary. A year later another GP had my PSA checked. It was 24 but should not have been higher than four. A few months later, after a rectal biopsy, it was confirmed that I had a grade 4 prostate cancer which I was unlikely to survive. I am currently undergoing chemotherapy which would have to be the worst experience open to mankind.

It is a great deal worse than the invasive biopsy which Murray May implies is so terrible.

The medical profession will continue to argue about the value of the PSA test and I know that work is underway to develop a better test but had that GP had my PSA checked in February 2015 I would not be undergoing chemo and would not be headed for an early trip to Norwood Park as the centre of attention.

That is my story.

Stan Marks, Hawker

I have been reading a book called Refuge (Betts and Collier, 2017) which Penguin quite justifiably calls "an eye-opening account ... which shows why our global refugee regime is broken and how it can be fixed". Even as a pro light rail person my shock at the loss of our trees in the median strip of Northbourne Avenue has upset my sense of location.

Small wonder then that, when I see, in that book, a photo of a bunch of women returning to what is only a miserable shell of their city, I feel shocked again to my very core for what the world has done to them.

I loved much of the book for its positive consideration of the refugee need for the right to work as well as for refuge, but what really excited me was its proposal for "incubator cities".

Similar to an idea of Paul Rommer's, now chief economist of the World Bank, the book explains that "Such cities need not infringe on national sovereignty, but could be supported on a long-term basis by a consortium of international organisations, multinational corporations, and foundations. While they would take significant investment to establish, by enabling refugees to earn their own living they would be far cheaper than the present [refugee] regime."

Well, as one of the citizens of one of the richest countries in the world, why can't we have one and why haven't we at least discussed this exciting and respectable proposal?

In short, I want an incubator city in Australia.

Jill Sutton, Watson

One hundred and twenty years ago, on March 2, 1898, the Australasian Constitutional Convention agreed that the words, "humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God" should be included in the Preamble to the draft Australian Constitution. That wording received approval from the Australian people voting in the 1899 referendum and it has remained in the constitutional Preamble ever since.

One hundred years later (in 1999), the voters rejected a referendum proposal to replace those words, effectively re-ratifying the existing assertion.

David D'Lima, Sturt, SA

There seems to be an implicit assumption that clubs can't survive without pokies. Not so. When my partner was on the committee of a local ethnic club, the committee voted, against considerable opposition, to do away with poker machines. There are signs in the club informing patrons it is "pokie-free" and asking for their support. And it works.

The hard work of the committee in attracting involvement from the community (e.g. use of the restaurant for functions and birthday celebrations) has resulted in the club doing well.

Paul Kringas, Giralang

A LIE IS A LIE

It is sad retiring White House communications director, Hope Hicks, has admitted she was required to tell white lies. There are no such thing. A lie is a lie. There may be times when answers cannot be supplied for a number of reasons but this should be stated.

The Pinocchios in government must have trouble keeping themselves balanced with the length of their extended wooden noses.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill, Vic

PNG NEEDS HELP NOW

A natural disaster on our doorstep in Papua New Guinea. What is our government doing to help?

On the ground they need expert help to recover and then expert advice to help plan for the next major earthquake.

The slashing of AusAid seems to have meant the slashing of care and responsibility for our neighbours in their time of need.

Kevin McCue, Aranda

CASH NO ASSET

Senator Michaelia Cash has certainly shortened the odds on the next federal election.

A. Moore, Melba

ABBOTT LOOKING GOOD

Could we please have Tony Abbott back as minister for women?

Maria Greene, Curtin

GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

In spite of its protestations the ALP is certainly hoping Michaelia Cash stays in cabinet.

For Labor she is the gift that keeps giving.

Thos Puckett, Ashgrove

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