The pool site was identified at the time of self government as "Public Land, Sport and Recreation Reserve", in the Territory Plan. This classification gave the site certain statutory protection under legislation, currently the "Act Planning and Development Act" 2007.

Section 316 of the Act specifies that Public Land has to be managed in accordance with the management objectives applying to the area and a Public Land Management Plan for the site.

The management objective for Sport and Recreation Reserves is "to provide for public recreation and sporting use of the area". Section 323 of the Act outlines the public consultation processes required to prepare a PLMP. The plans and any changes, can be disallowed by the ACT Assembly. Plans were initially required to be developed as soon as practicable after the land became Public Land. For the pool that was in 1988. If there is a PLMP for the pool, it should specify how the site is to be managed as a swimming facility.

To change that to allow for a stadium would require the agreement of the assembly. If a PLMP does not exist, then all ACT governments since self government appear not to have complied with the legislation.

With an ACT election later this year, it may be the time to seek the views of candidates on the future of the pool and its land management plan.

Gina Pinkas, Aranda

Heritage land grab

While the ACT government appears to be listening to the public on some matters such as the proposed western Greenway development ("Government learning to listen at last?", Editorial, Times2, July 4, p2), it appears to have a tin ear when it comes to the unsolicited proposal to grab heritage listed land around beautiful Manuka Oval. The opposition is also remarkably silent on this proposal too. Both parties are well aware of the public opinion against the proposal.

Nick Swain, Barton

Artefacts scandal

The multi-million scandal of stolen Indian artefacts purchased by the Australian National Gallery is far from over.

Former High Court Justice Susan Crennan's report into the uncertain provenance of artefacts the gallery holds, which it released in February, "found 22 objects from the gallery's Asian collection had 'insufficient or questionable' documentation" ("Two more antiquities may have to be returned by the National Gallery of Australia", canberratimes.com.au, July 5).

As the then arts minister George Brandis said in 2014, "There couldn't have, in my view, been a sufficient level of confidence in the provenance of the object to make the decision to acquire it at the time appropriate" ("NGA removes Dancing Shiva from display", canberratimes.com.au, March 26).

Later that year Director Ron Radford's consistent reticence on the matter was typified as "stubbornly defiant" ("Shiva clouds Radford's legacy", Editorial, Times2, September 13, 2015). Radford, then 65, retired.

The issue of "due diligence" had already been hinted at in "Gallery to face moral dilemma over Shiva", March 26 (p3). The possibility of criminal nonfeasance, or even complicity, remains to be fully investigated.

Gary J. Wilson, MacGregor

Academic discourse

The article "Brexit vandals not at the gates but close to power" (Times2, July 4, p5) by Mathew Davies, head of International Relations at ANU's Coral Bell School of Asia and Pacific, must surely represent the nadir of dispassionate academic analysis published in The Canberra Times? For someone claiming to uphold the importance of facts in political debate, Davies' emotional vapours over the Brexit result was completely devoid of any. If this is what now passes for academic discourse at my old alma mater, I can only presume the great Coral Bell is turning in her grave!

Fortunately, your correspondents, notably Alan Cowen and Bernard Davis (Letters, July 2) and Jenny Goldie (Letters, July 4) who highlight the undemocratic nature of the EU and its appalling negative impact on ordinary working people, provide much more accurate fact-based analyses of the Brexit result.

Greg Ellis, Murrumbateman, NSW

Massage industry

I would like to add a massage industry voice to the article "Parlour mistreats Filipino workers" (July 1, p1) which reports on the Salvation Army's call to address the abuse of massage parlour workers entering Australia under 457 visas.

Around the country, an escalation in the violation of human rights in the areas of fair work conditions, which includes the illegal sex trade, prevails in massage parlours that operate under the ruse of legitimate massage services.

Importantly, there has never been a shortage of qualified remedial and therapeutic massage therapists in Australia and it is highly questionable if any of these unfortunate girls have legitimate remedial or therapeutic massage qualifications.

There are now an estimated 25,000 therapists in Australia because anyone can hang out a sign and offer massage with no or limited training. The ease of entry into the Australian massage sector under 457 visas may be one of the main reasons for the exceptional growth of quasi-massage services which seems to correlate with the 2012 introduction of Temporary Work (Skilled) (Subclass 457) visa.

The Temporary Subclass 457 stipulates that the visa holder is confined to working for the nominated occupation and sponsor. This is a significant disincentive for workers to leave an abusive employer for fear of losing their visa. It can only make them more vulnerable to abuse, especially if they have poor or no English language skills and little understanding of laws protecting workers and standards for work conditions.

The new National Code of Conduct for Health Care Workers also appears to be having limited effect because, of the 25,000 massage therapists in Australia, around 10,000 are not part of an association, and fall outside the scope of this program.

In this environment, the most powerful weapon we have as a sector is to encourage health consumers to avoid massage services with practitioners who are not holding professional qualifications and who are not members of a professional association. The Australian Massage Directory of AAMT provides a list of accredited legitimate therapists.

Tricia Hughes, CEO, Australian Association of Massage Therapists

Why, in my 50 plus years of voting, were Saturday's queues vastly longer than ever? I don't buy either of the Electoral Commission excuses. One that the new Senate paper took so much longer to complete or two that they needed to reduce the number of polling places to ensure security of the boxes. I can't even see a justification for reduced locations saving a piddling proportion of the cost of the election.

During an earlier federal election we had American neighbours who were fascinated by it, so I offered to take them with me when I voted. They asked how long it would take and were surprised when I told them about 10 minutes if I timed it well.

On the day, one of the Americans came with me and there was a short queue but we were indeed out within about 10 minutes. She was amazed at how smoothly it all went, including a polling official letting me take a non-voter through the process.; except for looking over my shoulder when I had the pencil in hand. She asked me how come the lines are so short when we have compulsory voting.

I pointed up the road and told her there was another polling place at a school about 2km away. She told me that in America they have nowhere near enough polling places; that a typical waiting time is two hours but it can take all day, and discourage people fromvoting.

John F. Simmons , Kambah

As I arrived at the polling booth on a very cold Saturday morning, after a long eight-week campaign between uninspiring choices, I noted there were no police, no military or gangs bullying voters. Instead there were party faithful politely handing out how-to-vote cards and some half frozen mums who'd been up since before dawn to run a sausage sizzle for their children's school. We live in a great country.

Bart Meehan, Calwell

There are opportunities in a hung Parliament. A deal with Nick Xenophon and Independents could allow Malcolm Turnbull to modify conservative policies he accepted as part of the deal to claim leadership of the Liberal Party. NXT's Policy Principles (https://nxt.org.au/whats-nxt/policy-principles/) are more palatable to the average punter than the Greens' agenda, so Turnbull could replicate Gillard's deal making prowess without sacrificing more moderate Liberal values and support with such a deal.

The enraged baying from the conservative right and their media cohorts for abandonment of "the Liberals' base, Liberal principles and Liberals' party colours" (Andrew Bolt), would follow any deal-making, but Turnbull has to confront this group at some stage and stare them down if he is to seek legitimacy as a leader.

Robert Luton, Sutton, NSW

"Hung Parliament"! "Minority government"! The sky will start falling any minute now!

No, it won't. Australia will have another opportunity to engage in mature, multi-party government just as most of the democratic countries in the world do. The idea that chaos will ensue if neither Labor nor the Coalition is able to govern in their own right is a selfish, paranoid furphy peddled by the two major parties and apparently swallowed by most of the media.

The government formed after the 2010 election was highly successful and passed much progressive legislation. Conservatives didn't like it, but we know that they would have "sold their a..." for the chance to form a "minority government".

The simple fact is that voters are increasingly disillusioned with the Labor and Liberal parties. The politicians need to grow up and get used to it.

Steve Ellis, Hackett

Here's my tip for Election 2016, folks: neither LNP nor ALP will muster enough seats to form a majority in their own right. The independents will split 50/50 between them (Katter/McGowan and Wilkie/Bandt) and the 2 Xenophon reps (Sharkie/Broadfoot) will then sprint straight up the middle and choose Australia's next government.

Sharkie and Broadfoot may sound like Tolkien characters, but if they've been chosen by Nick X, they are probably solid citizens with a social conscience. Indeed, Sharkie has comprehensively rolled her former boss in Mayo, the obnoxious Jamie Briggs, on local issues like healthcare. My sense is that the X team will pick the Shorten ALP over the now highly-fissile Turnbull/Abbott LNP.

In these circumstances, minority government may not be such a bad thing: Australians can learn from Scandinavian politics. Instead of panicking about not having a major party in control, we might welcome a bit of real democracy where decent citizens have the casting vote.

Julian Cribb, Franklin

Failure to lead

The answer to the question of where did Malcolm Turnbull go wrong is, in the opinion of this suburban-dwelling Canberra resident, quite simple – he failed to lead.

When elected by his party to replace Tony Abbott as Liberal leader, Turnbull was, according to every opinion poll, kilometres ahead of Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister. When announcing his challenge to Abbott, Turnbull correctly stated the need for a change in the government's direction.

But there was no appreciable change of direction. Cowed by his fear of conservatives in his party, a fear no doubt increased by the continuing presence of Abbott, Turnbull refused to put his stamp on the government.

Liberal and Labor supporters noted the lack of change and Turnbull's appeal evaporated.

Still he refused to lead. He did not steer the good ship Liberal on the course he had espoused, but allowed his conservative party colleagues to dictate the bearing.

Leadership demands courage and with his failure to lead, Turnbull lost the support of voters who place a greater value on moral courage than political ideology. Even if the coalition forms government, Turnbull's position at the helm is at best tenuous. He can change this only with the courage he has so far lacked, and to lead his party and the country in a far more liberal direction.

Graham Downie, O'Connor

Mediscare campaign

The "success" of the so-called Mediscare campaign demonstrated two sad facts; a sizeable part of the voting public is cognitively deficient, and a sizeable proportion of our elected representatives is corrupt. What other conclusions are possible when the leader of the opposition, Bill Shorten, garners votes by telling bare-faced, obvious lies, and his colleagues applaud him for his success in having done so?

For the little it's worth, I have always tended to support the ALP. No more!

Ian Cowan, Turner

Lack of faith

The Prime Minister vehemently claims his government lost votes in the election due to Labor's Medicare scare campaign. Yet, throughout the campaign the Prime Minister continually stated Labor's claims were false. Perhaps it was not Labor's claims that lost the PM votes, but rather our lack of faith in the words of Liberal politicians. History suggests this is more probable.

C. J. Johnston, Duffy

Long queues

It isn't just the management of supply and distribution of absentee and other ballot papers in Rob Oakeshott's and other electorates which apparently needs to be looked at closely following the federal election.

Another unprecedented anomaly, based on long established expectations, in the performance of the AEC at this election was in the persistent length of queues in some polling places.

I know for a fact that waits of the best part of an hour applied all day in some centres in Sydney, owing to the shrinking of local alternatives.

It is true that the platform of one side of Australian politics is to make us as awful as the USA in all ways and at all costs (witness the electoral queues there), but it will be a sad day when the AEC is not well funded enough to carry out its critical duties in a fine, fair and fearless way.

Alex Mattea, Kingston

SOPHIE GONE - AGAIN

The best result from the election, irrespective of the final outcome, is Sophie Mirrabella got turfed for a second time.

Linus Cole, Palmerston

ELECTION LOSER

And the loser was: Mr Jobson Groath!

K. Beckwith, Bruce

HANSON'S RETURN

Just when I thought that, with Clive Palmer's political demise, sanity would return to the hallowed grounds of the Australian Parliament, here comes Pauline Hanson in all her glory! I am really confused – should I laugh or cry?

Marian Moldoveanu, Frankston, Vic

VOTE THE DONALD

I note with interest that Canberra MP Gai Brodtmann won a third term. Although she's a worthy local representative, I had hoped for a diversity of choices. Pauline Hanson would have gotten my vote as would have Barnaby Joyce followed by Bob Katter. I looked for Donald Trump on the ballot paper, but alas, Canberrans are so narrow-minded.

Gerry Murphy, Braddon

WINTER BLOSSOM

At the Campbell Primary School polling booth a prunus tree was in full blossom. On July 2. Is this a record?

Ron Walker, Campbell

JOHNSON'S RETICENCE

I trust the solecism in the editorial "Britain EU retreat a shambles" (Forum, July 2, p6) is only a temporary lapse of the writer's feel for the English language. "Mr Johnson's reticence to prosecute..." should surely read "Mr Johnson's reluctance to prosecute..." or "Mr Johnson's reticence in his prosecution of..."

Bill Deane, Chapman

FAIRFAX ENDORSEMENT

Does Emperor Rupert own Fairfax now? What else could explain the editorial "Stronger, more effective government" (Times2, July 1, p2) that so strongly endorses a vote for the Liberal National Coalition?

J. R. Huggett, Bruce

CSIRO SITE SOLD

Sold for a ridiculous $20 million ("Campbell CSIRO site sold for $20 million", July 2, p8). A travesty. I wish the CSIRO, the rabbits and tussock would remain in residence.

Jean Doherty, Ainslie

BACKSTABBER HENDY

I doubt Peter Hendy will be holding any more clandestine meetings in Queanbeyan to backstab a Liberal leader. If he does I doubt anyone will turn up!

Dave Eriksson, Jindabyne, NSW

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