A businessman decided that if he were to receive approval to build a highly polluting industry in Canberra, he could make a fortune. He bought a small domestic airport with a ''flight path'' appropriate for that airport's use, and claimed he therefore had a right to create a massive international airfreight terminal with a large, highly polluting flight path.

He also claimed that people who would suffer from the pollution had no rights because he had informed them of his intentions.

The businessman then built an unnecessarily expensive terminal to cement his claim, and convinced some naive politicians that introducing a highly polluting industry to this pristine city would be beneficial to all its citizens.

Citizens should act now. An international airfreight hub should be banned in Canberra and a curfew similar to those in major cities adopted. Prevention is better than later attempting a partial cure.

Bob Salmond, Melba

I was dismayed to read the misleading headlines in The Sunday Canberra Times saying aircraft noise ''could affect thousands''.

The flight paths illustrated clearly showed that by moving the turning point further north, aircraft would not fly over built-up areas, thereby reducing the impact of noise on the community.

In any case, because of the height of the aircraft flying north of Gungahlin, the noise would have less impact than that generated by buses, motorcycles, other vehicles, chainsaws, etc.

Graham Moss, Flynn

If it's good art, should it matter who created it, even if it was Mephistopheles himself? If the art is bad, by all means trash it. Otherwise, what harm could come from glancing at a landscape on a mural? The frenzy of destroying Rolf Harris' artworks is reminiscent of the book burnings of previous centuries.

Meta Sterns, Yarralumla

The chill winds of economic rationalism and ''market forces'' manifest in ''Malls' bid to evict charities'' (Sunday CT, July 6, p5).

Shopping centre operators, renowned for imposing ruthless small-trader rental conditions - high rents, refit requirements and ''profit sharing'' - seek to conspire with corporate clothing operators who see no ethical problem stealing from the masses.

No more should tossing donations into collection bins be reflex. The Westfield and Lend Lease ''licensed arrangement'' requires donors to be alert lest their good intentions end up in the bins of corporates profiting by proxy from community generosity.

Charity bins help supply clothes in times of hardship. Clothing sold at charitable outlets provides funds to ease citizens' hunger. Charity funds assist with rent, power, school fees, healthcare, transport, carers, and occasional social events.

Society has a moral imperative to care for the less fortunate. Corporate profit-seeking is frequently a reason for the less fortunate being so numerous!

Albert M. White, Queanbeyan

As a frequent user of Canberra's bicycle lanes, and of road edges where necessary, I agree with Ian Pollock about the amount of broken glass to be seen (Letters, July 6).

However, a fair proportion - if not most - of that comminuted glass is the result of people with a grudge against cyclists hurling bottles at the road as they yahoo past to create a patch of mini road spikes.

I doubt that the need for cyclists to swerve - possibly into greater danger - to avoid this hazard would worry or even occur to people like them.

Douglas Mackenzie,Deakin

Marvellous! Annabel Crabb's article ''And now for something completely awful'' (CT, July 6, p2). Without changing a word she likens the Immigration Minister's recent news conference to a Monty Pythonish script. Wonderful reading.

Move over, John Cleese, you are being upstaged by an Australian politician. Unfortunately, Scott Morrison knows the parrot is dead.

C.J. Johnston, Duffy

Poor old Annabel Crabb - in tandem with her fellow left-wing journalists - cannot stand the fact that Scott Morrison has succeeded in repairing the social, safety, security and economic damage caused by the previous federal government.

Brendan Ryan, O'Malley

Jack Waterford (''When enemies become friends'', CT, July 6, p17) is right to lament the cost and lack of useful outcomes of Western Middle East policies.

It might be easy to blame blundering George W. Bush for what has happened. But Jack rightly knows we've been mistaken in how to achieve our goals for a long time.

Long ago wise Lord Salisbury said: ''It is a fallacy to assume that within our lifetime any stable arrangement can be arrived at in the East. The most we can do is provide halting places where the process of change may rest awhile.''

Our policymakers, who apparently have learnt little from history, should heed this assessment. We don't need more money and precious young lives spent with no gain.

That is why the best policy is to create a Kurdish state, see to its security, and let the rest of the pieces look after themselves.

Roy Darling, Florey

Jack Waterford considers that when the Levant comes to the peace table we ''may well think [ISIL] among the most reasonable of the parties involved'' (''When enemies become friends'', The Sunday Canberra Times, July 6, p17).

Justification for his pacific hopes lies in the nature of Sunnism. ISIL is nominally Sunni. Sunnis believe the Koran endorses the selection of leaders by the consensus of (election by) the community.

In contrast with the Shia, who believe in a hereditary caliph or deputy of the Prophet of God, the Sunnis are the democratic republicans of Islam. The Shia are effectively monarchists.

The irony is that ISIL's main supporters are the regional, tribal, hereditary leaders - the new-found royalty - of the Arab League. ISIL's dreams are bound to be usurped well short of the peace table.

These dreams are also bound to be complicated by Syria's ancient history, which predates the Ottoman Empire, the caliphates, and Islam itself - the empire stretched from Libya to the outskirts of pre-Mongol China.

Gary J. Wilson, MacGregor

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