Meanwhile the impending arrival of the new breed of batteries for rooftop and large-scale energy storage has many thinking the game has changed.

Terry Werner, Wright

Doug Hurst's comments on our reliance on coal and gas are valid. But no one is pretending the current generation capacity of solar and wind will meet future electricity and heating needs.

As solar and wind generation capacity is expanded and geographically dispersed, and new power storage and sustainable generation technologies brought on-line, clean energy systems will increasingly be capable of reliably powering the grid and heating our homes.

In regard to cost, in 2014 the International Energy Agency reported that PV solar and wind turbines are very close to parity with coal and that generation costs are trending lower. This will enable additional solar and wind farms to be built around the nation to mitigate local weather conditions while overall costing no more than coal.

Our gas prices are set to substantially rise to a global rate, changing the dynamics of household energy use to favour electricity.

As recently occurred in South Australia, clean sustainable energy generation will continue to replace coal-fired power plants as they reach the end of their economic life. The complete transition from dirty to clean power has started.

While it will take decades to complete, I give thanks it is under way.

Tim Herne, Calwell

In Relax magazine (Canberra Times, July 19), the article describing "the powerhouse women of the ABC" gives far too much credit to the named women as the ABC's contribution to the "NEWS leaders", as they were called.

What they are doing is no different that what has been dished up for decades, all contributing to what has been the ABC's noticeable left-wing bias now so well entrenched, a clear level of arrogance in excess of any ABC male presenter in living memory and a degree of rudeness that does them no credit at all. The real story, on the other hand, more than often ends up as a low-priority casualty.

Alan McNeil, Weetangera

We refer to the article "Heavy police presence as opposing groups converge" (Canberra Times, July 20). We attended the march to Parliament House and the rally and the only clashes we saw between the 30-odd Stand Up! Australia folks and the 100 or so anti-racism counter demonstrators were verbal exchanges.

It is true that before the march left Questacon a fellow threw a punch at one of the anti-racism group but we didn't know who he was and assumed he had come to provoke trouble. We did not see him again. He was hard to miss, for he was conservatively dressed with short back and sides and the shiniest brown shoes you ever saw.

We saw no punch thrown by anyone after the rally, when both groups quietly dispersed. Only one Eureka flag was present, held by an anti-racism protester.

The Eureka flag cannot be claimed by racists and right-wing bigots because of the egalitarian ideals of those who fought under it at Ballarat in 1854. There were people from 22 countries among the miners and their families who fought for equal rights and representation, chiefly the right of all adults to vote. The "Eureka spirit" is commonly invoked as a synonym for democracy, for a "fair go" for all, and that is as it should be.

It says a lot about the health of democracy in Australia that at Sunday's rally in Canberra there were fewer than 40 anti-Islam folk, they were not all from Canberra, and our anti-racism citizens outnumbered them by about three to one. There was a large police presence, who did their job well.

Pete West and Mary Martin, Queanbeyan

Bishop Pat Power's assessment of Israel as "the elephant in the room" (Letters, July 19) is an unbalanced simplification of the situation in the Middle East. Israel is a small area largely surrounded by hostile forces whose hope is its destruction and against whom it has had to fight for survival.

Benjamin Netanyahu's concern about Iran's nuclear program is understandable given that background and Teheran's satisfaction with the outcome of its negotiations with the United States ("Historic nuclear deal no guarantee of peace", CT, July 18, p14).

It is quite appropriate for our prime minister to show caution when responding to these developments. Julian Said (Letters, July 21) presents a more complete picture of the Middle East situation which Bishop Power may find of interest.

Eric French, Higgins

Well said, Bishop Pat Power. Let me add to your comment that people like Tony Abbott, in many ways political neanderthals, dependant entirely on what the US and the Israel lobby dictate, therefore Australia will only accept the fact that 300-plus nuclear warheads are stored in Israel when the first one is sent to some distant target on the whim of a rational leader like Netanyahu. "We have the capability to take the world down with us," Israeli historian Martin van Creveld said in 2003.

Let us hope, Prime Minister, that it does not land in your electorate of Warringah. That would be something of a harsh reality check, even for you.

Rex Williams, Ainslie

The issue with Shane Rattenbury's draft law outlawing anti-abortion protests near clinics is not whether those opposing abortion are right or wrong. The issue is whether those wishing to protest have the right to express their view or not. In other words, the issue is one of free speech.

You can't argue that the protesters' right to free speech would remain because they could still express their view elsewhere. If the draft law wouldn't interfere with their free speech, then neither would a law stopping them expressing their view outside their home, or banning them from expressing it to certain people.

Nor can you seriously argue that the possibility of offending or upsetting the patients provides a good reason for overriding the protesters' right to free speech. The right necessarily entails the possibility of offending or upsetting others. If it didn't, it wouldn't mean much and very few opinions could ever be expressed.

Mr Rattenbury, for instance, would probably be prohibited from protesting against battery egg farms.

He needs to admit that his draft law would deny the protesters' right to free speech and acknowledge it is little different in substance from the Commonwealth government's law to stop those working in refugee camps expressing the view that human rights are being abused there.

Greg Pinder, Charnwood

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