It seems difficult to understand why death duties were abolished in the first place. Still, consider the case of those who have worked the family farm from childhood and then throughout the declining years of their parents' lives, yet stand to lose their heritage and livelihood. How is that equitable to the farmer or profitable to society?

Corporations avoid such taxes. To my mind it seems simple. To tax all income seems a good starting point. Large inherited windfall gains are rapidly redistributed and captured in other taxation nets unless wisely used. If wisely used they contribute to GDP and generate income tax for yet another generation.

Gary J. Wilson

The federal government voted down their own bill to start reining in corporate tax dodging last week. One major oil company paid only $248 tax on $1.7billion by shifting profits offshore and intends to move $60billion offshore over the next 25 years.

Incredibly, the anti-corporate tax avoidance bill was voted down after the Senate added an amendment to make sure all major corporations have to disclose the tax they paid.

What about the ordinary tax payer who has submitted tax returns and paid tax for most of their life? How will disclosure help us and our communities?

Richard Larson, Watson

The Canberra Times editorial on high-level residential towers in Gungahlin (November 15) was to the point.

At first glance the average reader would think well of the idea. Gungahlin is tipped to reach a population of 60,000.

On second thought, the fact remains that what Gungahlin needs is commercial, not residential, infrastructure. Residential means that more people will have to commute to Civic, adding to traffic congestion. Commercial means that more Gungahlin residents will have work opportunities close to where they live, reducing congestion.

As I understand it, the land was originally meant for commercial only. I guess our present Labor government's obsession with infill changed the original decision.

This is very much a government that takes one step forward and two steps backwards.

Howard Carew, Isaacs

Thanks to Georgina Connery (Sunday Times, November 16, p11) for advising that our local government is considering cuts to aged pensioner rebates.

Before making the drastic decision to cut our pensioner rebates Mr Barr, please think about the next election and the large number of ACT pensioners who rely on these rebates to help put food on the table.

A cut in rebates could make swinging voters think Labor is taking from the poor to give to the better off.

Ken Wood, Holt

Rein in the planning Leo Dobes ("Invasion of the McMansions", Letters, November 15) writes hopefully about avoiding Hardin's "tragedy of the commons" as he sees the growth of oversized houses throughout Canberra, swamping the city's leafiness and gradually turning the "Garden City" into a concrete jungle. He hopes that the ACT government will "pick up on the vibe" before the tragic destruction of the "Garden City commons".

Unfortunately, he has little chance of the current ACT government even understanding what he is talking about as any resemblance of sound overall professional planning of our fine city has disappeared without trace some time ago.

A couple of recent examples demonstrate the problem. Planning Minister Mick Gentleman approved a Territory Plan change to pave the way for 11,500 homes in west Belconnen without even referring the matter to the ACT Parliament's planning committee ( "New suburb sparks egg farm odour stink", November 14, p1).

This was followed by the Planning and Land Authority approving new high-rise buildings in Belconnen just three weeks before new planning rules come into force that would automatically disallow them ("Three new high-rises to tower over Gungahlin", November 15, p8).

This country's capital city deserves better than this, especially if it is to survive as Burley Griffin's Garden City in the future. There is a desperate need for truly professional city planners to be given control of this extremely important aspect of Canberra's development.

The developer-driven, political, planning has to stop.

Murray Upton, Belconnen

What a storm in a tea cup (Letters to the Editor, Sunday Canberra Times, November 15, p18). This latest criticism, invoking the SS in Germany in 1933, takes the "cake". No doubt I am not of the same intellectual capacity as letter writer Bill Deane. My grasp of the philosophical implications of his letter would be tenuous at best. In short, Mr Deane would gladly denigrate Annabel Crabb even further by insinuating that I represent the TV audience Annabel deserves.

You would have to be blessed with superior intellect to appreciate that an incisive political question, in a TV program involving a politician's family recipes and cooking prowess, would definitely serve this community's complex social needs. We really do need to probe this shocking lack of investigative journalism in more depth.

In the meantime, Annabel, please keep bringing to our attention a new dimension to those hapless politicians from all sides. I know they are only human (not like Mr Deane et al) with foibles, failings and subject to the vagaries of human nature, but you get stuck into them. It will spur them on to more impressive decisions, agreeable of course to both sides of politics.

But wait, I think I see a wicker basket on my front step. I must take a break from considering the unanswerable problems of this world and see if I have a visitor, come to comfort and encourage me in my daily struggles.

B. Chadwick, Mawson

While most Americans rightly deplore the death of innocent people in the terrorist attacks in Paris last weekend, why is it, as a society, they continue to oppose the introduction of tougher gun laws?

Every week, almost five times the number killed in Paris die as a result of gunshot wounds, with more than 30,000 dying every year. At the same time, it is reported that annual expenditure on homeland security in the United States is $50billion.

Surely there is something wrong with their priorities.

Ian De Landelles, Hawker

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