Surely, rather than just pressing on, the rethink now should review the whole 'City to Lake' project concept. If one doubted the wisdom of a real rethink, your other front page news that the Auditor-General is investigating poor decision-making in land purchases for nearby developments ought to prompt a more prudent approach.

Helen Swift, Farrer

In the article "Cash woes hit youth mental health service" (June 18, p7), it is stated that "keeping people well in the community, keeping them out of hospital provides better outcomes".

Unfortunately such a statement ignores the nature of severe mental illness.

In the ACT, Headspace provides care for young people with low to moderate illnesses, but not children. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services have the responsibility for the care of children and young people with moderate to severe mental illnesses. Insufficient funding for Headspace will send more young people to CAMHS.

The categories, low, moderate and severe occasionally refer to degree; usually they refer to the nature of the illness. "Severe" describes specific illnesses where normal functioning may be extremely limited. In such illnesses, early intervention, according to experts, may be only supportive, not preventative. Crisis intervention can become inevitable because a person may not be able to acknowledge any illness. Delusions, if they were recognised as such, would not be delusions. Such illnesses are life-threatening and require intensive treatment. Treatment in the community means daily home visits (expensive to fund) and long hours when family members are left to provide care beyond their capacity to give. In the ACT, we need both home-based and inpatient treatment for mental illnesses in a specialist adolescent unit. It is hypocritical to laud treatment in the community when ACT resident teenagers with severe mental illnesses are sent to interstate units for inpatient care.

Sheelah Egan, formerly president, Canberra Schizophrenia Fellowship

The late Neville Gare was indeed a giant in the evolution of national park management in Australia ("Scaled peaks of conservation", June 17, p8.) His pioneering work in developing many of the national park management principles followed today must never be forgotten.

He was tireless in protecting the new Kosciusko National Park from the many threats it faced from ill considered developments, illegal grazing and feral animals.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, the national park is still under threat from the NSW government's unwillingness to tackle the vexed but urgent job of controlling the number of feral horses in the park, aided and abetted by a vocal but misguided pro-horse lobby group.

Numerous authoritative

scientific studies have shown the damage feral horses have done, and continue to do, to the fragile alpine environment. Sphagnum moss beds, creek and river banks, stream crossings have been damaged.

Weeds have been spread. Legally declared wilderness areas have been compromised.

Currently the NSW national parks service is preparing a draft wild horse management plan. Unfortunately this is likely to be compromised by the pro-feral horse lobby who are insisting that, unlike feral pigs, goats, deer, foxes and cats, feral horses are not to be shot. In reality there is no other decent way to remove feral horses from protected areas. Spurious arguments about some kind of unique heritage value of feral or wild horses abound. In reality horses used in the high country were owned, bred and trained by drovers, hobbled at night and shot when they were of no further use. Let's remember and honour Neville Gare by returning pragmatic management techniques to the Australian Alps.

Timothy Walsh, Garran

Craig Cormick ("Why emotions blind us to science and facts", Times2, June 20, p5) would have us believe that anyone who objects to the spread of GM crops is letting their emotions cloud the fact that peer-reviewed science has declared them safe. Furthermore, such overly emotional people share a mindset with people inclined to conspiracy theories and/or have faith-based world views.

Just to make sure a majority of the reading public is on the side of GM crops, Cormick adds in an aside that his emotionalism theory also applies to other scientific issues like climate change, with the implication being that the only people who don't believe in the science of climate change are those people who don't see the wonders of GM crops. However, one doesn't need to especially emotional, religious, given to conspiracies or be a climate science denier to see that the science of GM crops which says they are safe to eat is unrelated to the question of their impact on on agriculture. One need only look at the destructive impact which the spread of GM crops has had on traditional farming communities in many Third World communities to see how their introduction has led to wholesale impoverishment of local farmers who become dependent on crop conglomerates for seeds because GM crops do not regenerate naturally.

Cormick's basic premise that in a world free of emotionalism there should be "no more debates... over the safety of GM foods" is itself unscientific. As Thomas Kuhn explained 50years ago, the one thing real science can never do is stop pushing at the edge of the prevailing paradigm.

Greg Ellis, Murrumbateman, NSW

Craig Cormick's article has misleading statements supposedly made in a report by a very respected Science Academy. He does not cite the report and for good reason. It says 'no substantial risk', which is very different from 'no risk.' And there are many ongoing concerns also mentioned. A good overview can be read on http://www.farmweekly.com.au/news/agriculture/cropping/general-news/gm-report-finds-no-substantial-risk-to-humans/2752929.aspx for more detail.

Daniel Henshaw, Red Hill

The ALP's universal health insurance program known as Medibank, the forerunner to Medicare, began 41 years ago to the day before this double dissolution election. Coincidentally it was a key component of the 1974 double dissolution. Subsequently, within just 18 months the Coalition, having fought this initiative every step of the way, promised the electorate that it would maintain Medibank and then immediately set about dismantling it.

However, it allowed the rump of that organisation to remain as Medibank Private, the nation's not-for-profit health fund which very quickly outperformed all the other major private health funds to become the largest and only national health insurer.

Just four years later, Medibank Private was the only surviving remnant of those heady days when all Australians briefly had access to universal health cover. But, as luck would have it, the skills acquired by the Medibank Private organisation before and through those years became the springboard for the resurrection of the ALP's universal health insurance program in 1983, which is still with us, at least for the time being, as Medicare. Experience has clearly shown me that the Liberals will always diminish Medicare. That is what they do. They sing the song of market forces, economic truths and private sector superiority.

Strange then that Medibank Private, without the salary and bonus excesses we see now, and with nothing more than a very dedicated sense of purpose, thoroughly and comprehensively outperformed all of our private sector health fund competitors. It would be too easy to return the payment functions of the Medicare program to the far less efficient private health funds, no matter what assurances may be given to say this will not happen. And then no amount of continuing to call it Medicare would mean they haven't dismantled it yet again to the benefit of one or more of their lobby groups. Health policy is not just about health services, healthy choices and looking after ourselves and others. Something that you just have to throw money at. Effective health policy management is a major and very significant economic lever. And when it comes to treating health policy as an essential element of overall good economic management, the Liberals simply do not get it. They never have.

John Evered, Bowral, NSW

I laughed at the recent news articles proclaiming Malcolm Turnbull saying that the Liberal Party would "never, never" privatise or sell off Medicare.

I don't know how he can foresee what may or may not happen in the future but he certainly can't predict what may happen under future Liberal governments.

Hans Zandbergen, Kingston

The endless federal government assault on Canberra and its citizens obliges Zed Seselja to make himself invisible most of the time, but he becomes briefly omnipresent for elections, as demonstrated both in 2013 and at present.

How appropriate then, that his campaign launch for a second Senate term ("Mathias Cormann and Zed Seselja launch ACT Liberals federal campaign", canberratimes.

com.au, June 19) was held at a cinema complex currently showing Now You See Me 2.

Terry George, Kingston

Malcolm Mackerras has long voiced his objection to the new Senate rules claiming they are unfair and that the Electoral Commission adverts are somehow a lie. To my knowledge he has never clearly stated what the perceived unfairness actually is, or what the alleged AEC lie actually is, or what the implications are. When I saw Mr Mackerras's latest article ("A dishonest Senate system", Times2, June 17, p1), I thought that he would at last spell these things out but all I can see is more statements of objection.

There is a brief mention that in ACT elections, voters are told to put numbers 1-5 where he believes that a 1 on its own is valid. Is this the lie? What are the implications? Can anyone else explain what he is on about?

Bruce Cotton, Jerrabomberra, NSW

There is a historical reason for the ACT's formality rules being more liberal than what is stated as ballot-paper instructions. The Australian Electoral Commission set out what the Hare-Clark ballot paper would look like in the 1992 official plebiscite publication but did not specify what would be accepted as a formal vote. In 1994, the Legislative Assembly decided unanimously to accept as many votes as possible as formal, and exhausted votes were minimised when papers for anyone elected cannot be transferred to continuing candidates.

While the Senate ballot-paper is unnecessarily cluttered through the continued presence of party boxes, after 80 years of unjustifiable punitive restrictions it is now fairly straightforward for electors to make their actual views known as a formal vote: marking six candidates' names or one party box is enough.

However, it is more helpful to concentrate on how electors can make the most of their vote, by continuing to number until they regard all the remaining candidates or parties as unworthy of being assisted in any circumstances. Where someone votes for a party achieving one or several quotas of first preferences, a fractional part of that vote may later become exhausted if there are no further preferences for candidates in other parties or groups.

Bogey Musidlak, convener, Proportional Representation Society of Australia (ACT Branch)

Andina Faragher (Letters, June 20) makes the point that the man shot by police in Sydney was wrongly described by police to have an "intellectual disability" rather than a mental illness. What I want to know is – why on earth does it matter? I remember very soon after the incident, a senior police officer defended the shooting, saying inter alia that the man had recently left a psychiatric institution. Apart from being a dreadful breach of his privacy if it was true, how is it relevant to police shooting him three times? There hadn't even been time for a calm evaluation of what happened but already police were covering up and giving excuses.

Jennifer Saunders, Canberra City

They were both middle-aged women who had served their communities well. One shot and killed outside a library in Leeds, her killer quickly apprehended. The other knee-capped and stolen, her assailants still at large.

In one community there has been widespread condemnation of a brutal murder. In another, ours, there has been little public outcry or lament to confront another senseless threat to our cultured society.

Desecration of public art is a brutal statement, implying that culture does not matter, and that mob rule prevails. The public artwork at the Hughes Shops, Stepping Out (Lady in Pearls), was highly regarded. Stepping Out was our mother, sister, daughter. She spoke for and to us all; her community adorning her with seasonal motifs and occasional political statements. Now she probably resides as a trophy in a vandal's yard, melted down for scrap or simply tossed into a pile of shame, the result of an over-charged alcohol or testosterone-fuelled romp.

As a cultured and respectful community, we insist our political leaders and authorities take this theft seriously committing to a thorough investigation, to locate and return Stepping Out and to ensure those responsible are admonished.

David Whitney, Ainslie

So, Hans Zanbergen (Letters, June 17) suggests people taken by surprise by a man running amok with an assault rifle should be be brought down by one or more of the threatened persons. Imagine a shocked victim taking on a madman wielding a military automatic, or semi-automatic, long arm with a puny sidearm, the former with a huge magazine full of bullets. I know it happens on TV, but it is not very realistic.

The alternative seems to be, as Mr Zanbergen seems to suggest, that all people attending social functions should carry their own cumbersome assault weapons. That doesn't sound like a civilised society to me.

Chris Woodland, Bawley Point, NSW

MONEY FOR WHAT?

We have heard a lot, this election cycle, about Jobson Groath but this seems to be at the expense of the previously perennial Laura Norder.

Is the money for one the money that was for the other?

Brian Wilson, Tuggeranong

TO SUMMARISE

Given that political parties now cynically hold their "launches" at the end of campaigns in order to maximise access to the public purse, perhaps they could at least rename them "summaries". Such a description would be more accurate.

Ian De Landelles, Murrays Beach, NSW

GOOD AUSTRALIANS

Michaelia Cash appeared on Annabel Crabb's Kitchen Cabinet on June 16. I had to check on i-view to be sure I heard her correctly, but she definitely said it. "Like all good Australians, we have family in England." So the rest of us aren't "good Australians"?

Hopefully this is not the view of the majority of her political allies, but it certainly says something about her.

Vicki Stirling, Scullin

REPLACE ROUNDABOUT

Now that lowering Parkes Way has been found to only have a benefit/cost ratio of 0.5 ("Rethink on City to Lake project", June 20, p1 ( the same as light rail), I hope the ACT government will also reconsider the associated replacement of the roundabout at the Parkes/Corrinderk intersection with traffic lights, which necessitates moving the existing sediment pond into Glebe Park. Glebe Park is already down to one eighth of its original size.

Chris Emery, Reid

THAT'S FUNNY

I have followed the adventures of the ABC's Rake with fascination for years. Then a friend told me it was a great Australian comedy. I had always assumed it was a documentary.

Julian Cribb, Franklin

TROVE FUNDING

I don't believe that the Government, or Malcolm Turnbull, withdrew funding for Trove at all (Letters, June 20). My understanding is that the National Library made that decision, after deciding where it would make cuts to manage its budgeted income.

Fred Barnes, Bruce

HARMLESS JOKE

The brouhaha over the joking comments by Eddie McGuire demonstrates clearly what we have become in this super-sensitive, over-the-top, politically correct country. What if it had been a comment about a man? Not a squeak, a harmless joke as it was this time as well. So grow up ladies and try smiling for a change.

Alan McNeil, Weetangera

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