Try "massive motorsport fail and another kick in the teeth of the one time believers from ACT Labor".

Labor has also announced a motorsports package that would give $200,000 to Canberra's kart racing club for upgrades to the Circuit Mark Webber track, and $400,000 over four years for subsidised motorsports training which is fine but the ACT did have a location for driver training and education as well as a world class proposal ignored by ACT Labor prior to the 2008 election.

They would also explore whether the ACT could bid for the World Rally Championships and Asia Pacific Rally Championship Series; a specific agenda of Mr Gentleman's. But there was no money for the construction of a new dragway in Canberra, something long lobbied for by motoring enthusiasts and others, including independent Joel McKay.

The motorsports announcement was made by Labor's Mick Gentleman, who is a rally driver, and Sports Minister Yvette Berry.

Michael Attwell, Dunlop

The fiscal irresponsibility evident on the multiple road-sign election signs questioning rising rates is breathtaking.

I have been heartened however by the editorial comment in "A tax worth voting for" (The Public Sector Informant, October 2, p2). It deserves wider notice. The review "Australia's Future Taxation System" by former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry emphasised the importance of removing inefficient taxes, and replacing them with taxes which do not distort and which are hard to evade.

The ACT, a jurisdiction pre-eminently dependant on land taxes, was the first (and bravest) of the Australian states and territories to take Dr Henry's advice literally, gradually removing inefficient taxes and charges such as stamp duty while raising land taxes to meet budgetary requirements.

Can we assume that the Parties and individuals promoting lower rates/land tax are proposing to reintroduce the abandoned charges? Or do they have a Magic Pudding approach to fiscal stability – which will inevitably result in insufficient revenue to pay for essential services in health, education, justice and the like?

Given the current bidding wars I am suspicious.

Marie Coleman, Watson

Robert Wilson (Letters, October 2) appears to hold the same belief that many other misguided people seem to – that it is a fair process to put a vote on a minority's civil rights to the majority. He asks: "What could be fairer?" I'll tell you what could be fairer: securing the human rights of a minority by showing leadership and doing so through parliamentary process. That's a large part of what government is for – making sure that human rights prevail in respect of groups that would otherwise be repressed.

Voting on civil rights in a plebiscite outside of constitutional necessity hasn't happened before. It shouldn't happen here — can you imagine the example we are setting to other countries who would love to breach the human rights of a minority by means of a majority vote? Religious people understand the rights of minorities when it comes to other societal classes and groups but suddenly lose the plot when it comes to equal marriage. In this way they "out" themselves as people who consider repression of LGBTI people acceptable and as people who haven't progressed past cherry-picking from the Old Testament. They need to put down the religious text and get acquainted with the science of their own species.

Regardless of what marriage has meant over the centuries — and that history has been misrepresented and rewritten by the conservatives too — we change. It's the 21st century and over time many things have changed, thank goodness.

Marguerite Wilson-Foreman, Queanbeyan, NSW

Having had the pleasure of a visit from an ACT government representative threatening exorbitant fines for every day of non-compliance over the presence of a handful of signs advertising the unlikely availability of our business' services over a long weekend earlier this year, of the same style and similarly placed to any of the thousands currently littering the landscape, I would like to know how the massive influx of revenue will be spent and assurances that ACT taxpayers will not be liable for the fines incurred by their newly elected representatives.

Alternatively, an explanation of why anyone should pay any regard to laws applied with such an egregious double standard would suffice.

James Allan,Narrabundah

Storms are an inevitable part of our weather patterns. Looking at the damage being caused by trees during such storms in residential areas, I suggest governments should engage appropriate services to cut down trees that threaten damage/injury/death — both in public areas as well as in the backyards of houses.

N. Grover, Chapman

Bring back checkout staff a reader says

The reason that is being given for the rise in shoplifting (adding millions of dollars to the costs of retailing) is the ease with which it can be done in the self-checkout area. The self-checkouts have been made available (at some cost for extra equipment) to save having to employ extra shop assistants to handle the purchases of their shoppers.

I refuse to use them because I don't want to do the job which should be available to a job-seeker.

The big retailers could save the cost of the equipment and the shoplifting by doing away with self-checkouts and employing more shop assistants, and society could be saved the cost of policing the thefts caused by placing opportunities for theft in the way of people with psychological disorders and/or lack of money due to not being able to get one of those jobs.

Prices need to go up to accommodate the cost of the losses to theft. It seems to me that this cost saving on employment is having a major flow-on into the community, and the retailers will make up the deficit by increasing prices, so we, the public will be paying all the way.

Margaret Lee, Hawker

I would have thought Nicholas Stuart should be able to do better than his scattergun criticism of light rail ("A line going nowhere", Canberra Times, October 4, p16).

In his article Stuart contends that "it would be better to pay" to get out of the light rail contract "than be bled dry for years to come."

Nowhere does he explore the actual cost of breaking the contract or the consequences of doing so. It is pretty clear that those legally contracted to build the light rail would have an extremely good case for substantial compensation should the contract be broken by an incoming Hansen government.

For a $710 million contract expect a couple of hundred million dollars damages plus costs awarded against the ACT after a protracted legal case. This will probably chew up most of the ACT's transport budget for the next decade.

The damage to the ACT's reputation will be much greater.

We will be ridiculed in the Federal Parliament where both sides are advocating infrastructure spending.

Our name will be mud in the corporate sphere.

What reputable business will bother to tender for a major ACT infrastructure project when it is likely to be cancelled by an incoming administration?

Mike Reddy, Curtin

I would like to think that most Australians follow the golden rule, "When in Rome do as the Romans do" when travelling overseas and that they remember at all times that they are guests in someone else's country and behave accordingly.

I know there are some who don't – more's the pity.

As for that group of silly men who thought it was appropriate to strip down to their undies/swimmers with the Malaysian flag emblazoned on the back – well – words fail me.

Some people are saying thatwhat is offensive in Malaysia isn't necessarily so in Australia.

Sorry, I would be offended if a group of overseas travellers pulled that stunt here. If they did, it wouldn't be Malays – I have lived there for a short while, and travelled back several times since – as the Malay people are far too polite to behave in such an appalling manner.

Carolyn Doyle, Banks

Congratulations to Bill and Pat Rhodin and their family on the beautiful floral explosion known as Tulip Top Gardens.

An inordinate amount of hard work over the years has resulted in what must be one of the most colourful and satisfying public garden displays.

For those Canberrans and visitors less than satisfied with the present-day Floriade in Commonwealth Park, make the short journey out to Sutton and experience the visual beauty and tranquility of TulipTop.

You won't be disappointed.

Brian and Pat Watson, Red Hill

Nice try Mr Allan (Canberra Times, Letters, October 4), using the costs of new power stations to push the economic credentials of wind power. This is, of course, a complete Furphy.

The relevant comparison is with existing sources of power.

Existing coal/gas power stations produce electricity at between about $30 and $60 per Megawatt hour (MWh), compared with Mr Allan's figure of around $80 per MWh for wind. This is why the 'more renewable energy is better' argument needs to be tempered.

Even if Australia moved to 100 per cent "renewables' tomorrow, it would have no measurable effect on the world climate and would not "save the Great Barrier Reef".

Michael Warrington, Garran

How deeply unedifying that the Federal Attorney General and Solicitor General have ventilated their differences publicly.

Whatever the truth of their respective, doubtlessly esoteric, arguments, brawling in the public domain has, whether they like it or not, diminished their standing.

Before the last election both sides of parliament pledged to govern for all, not just for themselves.

What a hollow, empty promise that has turned out to be.

A. Whiddett, Yarralumla

Lifeline's Tracey McMahon is understating the "perceived hypocrisy" of introducing the "Play Within Your Limits" program in clubs, where gamblers, comfortable in their addictive millieu, via incomprehensible tortuous logic, will use "toolkits" as a one-stop, cure-all, mental health shop (Vikings and Lifeline collaborate to reduce problem gambling, Canberrra Times, October 5, p.6).

Albert M. White, Queanbeyan

While the National government is making at least a token effort to reduce the alarming rate of gun proliferation in Australia by declaring an amnesty on unregistered guns (Canberra Times, September 14), the Eurobodalla Shire Council is encouraging gun ownership by allowing gun dealers to promote their newest/latest firearms and ammunition to amateur hunters at Narooma's annual celebration of hunting animals (HuntFest).

Susan Cruttenden, Dalmeny

THE ALEPPO THING

And now for the latest news – The Aleppo thing is sometimes squeezed in between the World Cup Qualifier and the "game last night"; that is if Brad and Jen have split again, all else being good and the refugees are quiet and sleeping.

Gary Frances, Bexley

ON TRACK

Thousands of people will soon abandon their local clubs and flock to Civic to play poker machines at the Canberra Casino. The proposed Light Rail system seems to be an ideal method of transporting them.

Tony Langer, Chisholm

ONLY DOUBLED

Wow, the O'Loughlins and others can rest easy, their rates haven't tripled after all, they've only doubled.

Fred Barnes, Bruce

OLD IS BEST

On Wednesday of this week ActewAGL installed a shiny new electricity meter at my house. I did not ask for it. That same afternoon a small but noisy thunderstorm passed overhead and the new meter panicked and cut off my electricity. My old one wouldn't have. How do I get it back?

Frank Cassidy, Kambah

A TRAM QUESTION

Could anyone answer, how come if the Labor team thinks that the "Tram" is a brilliant idea and it is what Canberra needs, why I never see them advertising it as their campaigning slogan?

Kim Black, Monash

GREAT MINDS

The first two sentences of Justin McCarthy's letter (Religious Cure, October 6) are, word for word, also the first two sentences of a letter I sent on October 4. While I don't recall ever meeting Justin, clearly we think eerily alike. Great minds and all that.

Fred Pilcher, Kaleen

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.

Keep your letter to 250 words or less. References to Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).