It's not just that Slovenia happens to have long been one of Europe's most advanced societies and that Kazakhstan is a rich state blessed by the legacy of a peerless Soviet education system, but that we have routinely taken disdainfully to dismiss – in this and other measures of civilisation, out of pure ignorance and smug arrogance – all but the handful of countries in the world which we have traditionally felt to be good enough to be our peers.

It no doubt feels good to be a yobbo but to look down one's nose at everyone else saves a lot of soul-searching.

We need to cease getting our sophisticated ideas of the world from Sacha Baron Cohen.

Alex Mattea, Kingston

Although it is important to have a basic knowledge and understanding of maths it is not as important as many will have us believe.

When students who are not brilliant at maths see or hear these comments they begin to panic and need to be reassured they are not failures.

There are many high achievers who have not even studied maths at HSC level. Those who have been forced to do maths against their will are not happy and wish they were studying a subject relevant to their talent or interests.

There are still many students who are excelling in maths while also enjoying the challenge. These are the students who will use their mathematical ability at the tertiary level.

I feel sure there are many high earners without mathematical talent who have enough mathematical ability to keep a check on their bank accounts and the running costs of their daily lives.

Robyn Lewis, Raglan, NSW

Neither the Coalition nor Labor has retained, nor learnt, from the recent pointless election, nor from the Trumpphenomenon.

Turnbull and Shorten are lawyers, conditioned to debating their opposite number to an expensive, if inconclusive, standstill.

This wasteful theatre has been for their self-aggrandisement and the approval of the party faithful, not for a public yearning for both sides to come together to govern in our collective interests. Both sides promised after the election to act for all Australians; that they had absorbed the lesson of the wastefulness of bickering among themselves. This promise lasted for a nanosecond.

They have only themselves to blame when votes continue to leach to independent parties and erode their base.

A. Whiddett, Yarralumla

While watching ABC News 24 on Tuesday, Bill Shorten came on spruiking, at some length, the "wonders" of Labor's successes in 2016 and interspersed this with some witty dissing of the Turnbull government's performance.

This was followed immediately by the Prime Minister selling his own success with much forced emphasis but little conviction.

In neither discourse was there a word uttered on the environment, which continuesto suffer grievously under each party's perpetual growth agenda.

Their joint performance was, coincidentally, book-ended by the latest news on the Great Barrier Reef (and a reference to Pauline Hanson's idiotic comments in this regard). The juxtaposition was poignant and sad.

Graham Clews, Kambah

As a historian of (among other things) World War II, I find it astounding that the Australian War Memorial should be criticised for mounting an exhibition on the Holocaust. I have at times disagreed with the memorial, but this exhibition is a wholly admirable development and the memorial deserves praise for interpreting a vital aspect of the war.

What were Australians fighting against from 1939 but the Nazi regime that perpetrated that massive atrocity?

Those critics who take a parochial (and perhaps even racist) view of that part of our war history should be challenged. They should be reminded that Australians died to oppose that evil.

Well done, Brendan Nelson!

Professor Peter Stanley, Dickson

I am proud that we have our very own Christmas angels in Parliament ("Refugee protest shuts Question Time", December1, pp4-5), rightly accusing the Coalition and Labor of being world leaders in cruelty because of Australia's treatment of asylum seekers.

As Christmas approaches, may our elected leaders reflect on this time of "peace and goodwill to all men" and release therefugees.

Koula Poulos, Watson

The refugee protest at Parliament House was a great display of democracy, bringing the voice of voiceless refugees to the attention of the wider public. It interrupted for a few minutes the daily posturing of the wafflers and trough sniffers in Parliament and highlighted the lives permanently interrupted on Manus Island and Nauru. This is what democracy looks like.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's description of the protest as the opposite of democracy was bizarre and served to try and deflect attention from the fact that Labor supports these concentration camps.

It shows how far the Labor Party has degenerated.

The labour movement was born out of protest and struggle, and those struggles continue today. The war criminals, human rights abusers and overseers of the concentration camps on Manus Island and Nauru who currently infect the major parties, and some crossbenchers, should take note. The time for playing by their rules is over.

Let's shut down our cities and our parliaments to shut down Australia's offshore and onshore gulags.

John Passant, Kambah

In November, we finally got our land back as part of the Mr Fluffy demolition program. It was a good feeling. It'd been two years of struggle against the Asbestos Response Taskforce: deadlines missed, commitments trashed and courtesy thrown out the window. But that was behind us. Plans were ready. Builders were on board. Digging started.

Then the Fluffy nightmare returned. About 40centimetres down, our builder discovered the footings of the original dwelling – the same one the taskforce insisted had to be razed for the future health and comfort of Canberrans. But with our repurchase dollars safely locked away, the taskforce was done with us. The costs of removing these bits of the affected dwellings are for us to bear – and us alone.

We've long believed that the management of this program is utterly farcical. And now we know that blocks are potentially being sold to former and new owners with remnants of affected dwellings still on site. This is deeply disturbing, and as land auctions continue across the territory, is an important lesson to everyone.

You're on your own.

Ben O'Bryan , Curtin

It's utterly scandalous that there's a longtime fenced-off and unfinished building on the Giralang shops site.

It's been blighted for years – a shocking indictment of the government's letting go of the leasehold system, and an insult to the adjoining, architecturally important, saved-from-closure, and now thriving Giralang Primary School (two of my grandchildren went there).

There's also the demoralising and amenity-depriving effects on local residents.

Enough. The land lease should be immediately revoked and the unfinished structures removed, with all associated costs back-charged to the former leaseholder. Then a proper and binding development plan should be prepared by government (not flung open to the "market") based on providing, predominantly, clear vistas and landscaped pedestrian access to the school, with ancillary shopping facilities and the like, tailored to the properly ascertained needs of the local community throughconsultation.

Necessarily lesser-value leases should then be offered only to bona fide providers and operators of such facilities, who would be required to provide them in a timely way.

We've got a similar situation with the abandoned shops on Livingston Avenue, Kambah.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

Canberra is a step closer towards a comprehensive international airline service ("Qatar Airways checks into ACT", November30, pp2-3).

What we really need, however, is direct flights from the ACT to the US, preferably Los Angeles, offered by the existing trans-Pacific airlines.

I am sure that is a wish of the Canberra Airport, the ACT government and the general public. Maybe not via New Zealand, though, as this might jeopardise current Singapore Airlines arrangements.

Paul O'Connor, Hawker

Your editorial comment on Canberra to Sydney rail travel, that "improvements to the existing rail line could easily deliver faster travel at a fraction of the cost of the endlessly debated high-speed rail link" ("Opportunity too good to miss for Qatar", November30, p16) is probably the most sensible assessment made in any Australian newspaper, let alone the Canberra press.

I say this having led not only many studies sponsored by governments on the matter but also a private sector bid back in 1998. Unfortunately, projects which have proposed to do exactly as you suggest are invariably seen as yesterday's technology and systems.

Australians, it would seem, would far rather do absolutely nothing than something sensible, achievable, affordable, deliverable, and which could reduce travel times for starters to well under three hours terminus to terminus and, with progressive upgrades, under two hours or less. And that is precisely what we have done for the past 20 years.

Peter Thornton, Principal Transportation Associates Pty Ltd, Killara, NSW

It's a bit rich of Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon to point out to parents who have lost a child to a drug overdose that illicit drugs are harmful ("AMA rejects Greens drugs policy", November28, p2). My word they are, and all too readily available.

Dr Gannon would do well to study the operation of the drug market. In doing so, he could do more to promote the wellbeing of his drug-using patients. We radically need a policy that undermines the drug trade rather than one that guarantees its profitability. Consumption of heroin entirely for medical purposes before 1953 was five kilograms per million of population. The National Crime Authority recorded an increase in 1998-99 to 350kg per million, all of it illegal. Criminal intelligence at the time showed the capacity of organised crime to manipulate the drug market.

Bill Bush, Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform, Turner

Am I the only reader of The Canberra Times who found the front-page spread on November30 headlined "VOLLEYDOME: plan to spike major ACT indoor venue" to be slightly over the top?

One had to turn to page6 to discover it is only a proposal, not a decision. Such a proposal, while of interest to some, is not the end of civilised life on Earth as we know it. Our nation and the wider world face bigger issues than the venue for sport and social occasions in Canberra.

Robert Willson, Deakin

MAL DISCONTENT

I liked the Malcolm who used to wear the leather jacket.

Ray Armstrong, Tweed Heads South, NSW

TONY AWARD

We should thank House of Representatives Speaker Tony Smith for his fair and unbiased performance. This week he rounded on the Deputy Prime Minister for using barely disguised four-letter words in Question Time when children were present.

Mr Smith shows class, unlike Mr Joyce and unlike his predecessor as speaker.

Eric Rojahn, Calwell

WINNING ARGUMENT

Federal Parliament now resembles trench warfare, with the government hailing as a "victory" the passage of single piece of legislation. Whatever happened to the concept of governing for all Australians? Passing good legislation should be par for the course if the government's on its game and has taken the people with it.

Barry Harris, Curtin

ARTFUL DODGE

Jack Palmer's suggestion (Letters, November28) that substituting great works of art with expert copies for public exhibition in the pursuit of cost efficiencies defies logic. People want to see the real thing to try to connect with the artist. The glory of, say, a Van Gogh can never be reproduced digitally or any other way.

William Gray, Bungendore, NSW

FIRING LINE

Will Malcolm Turnbull sack George Brandis for directing the former solicitor-general to provide advice that would financially benefit the WA government at the expense of the Commonwealth? Malcolm Fraser sacked Reg Withers in 1978 for orchestrating an electoral redistribution to benefit the government. Brandis should be dismissed too.

Michael McCarthy, Deakin

HOLOCAUST REMINDER

I applaud all the work that Brendan Nelson has done at the Australian War Memorial, including the new Holocaust exhibition ("Permanent reminder of horror of Holocaust", December1, p9). His words that "the Holocaust was possible because of a majority indifference to the plight of a minority" made me think of the plight of our refugees today.

Prue Clarke, Holder

HAIL THE BUS

Transport Minister Megan Fitzharris is in the process of finalising proposals for a tram to Woden ("Time to form next stage of tram plan", November26, p2). I do hope Labor is not going to replace the intertown bus service with the tram.

John Gray, Mawson

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.

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