It needs to be remembered that, in relation to their proposed redevelopment of Manuka Oval and the surrounding precincts, GWS and its developer partner Grocon are likely to be in it only for the money. There are unlikely to be any altruistic motives.

GWS is not a local football team in the way the Raiders or Brumbies are. It has no inherent attachment to out community.

GWS plays just three games a year in Canberra because the ACT government pays it big money to do so, reportedly more than $750,000 a game.

While the GWS-Grocon redevelopment proposal no doubt has some merit, the ACT government needs to acknowledge that theirs is not the only possible proposal, nor possibly the best one.

The government should call widely for possible expressions of interest for the redevelopment of Manuka Oval and surrounding precincts.

GWS-Grocon would be free to lodge – as would other developers – such an expression of interest, or not.

Then, having done so, should it decide to proceed, the government should select the proposal that is in the best interests of the ACT as a whole, not the financial interests of one possible commercial beneficiary.

Don Sephton, Greenway

The controversies surrounding the Manuka Oval development proposal and the light-rail development show how the lines between planning and property development have been blurred by the Barr government ("Minister met with husband over bid", April 9, p1).

One can justifiably ask whether the property developers are driving planning. Manuka Oval is a failed site as a major cricket/AFL venue simply because of the lack of parking facilities and public transport access. Stand by for the pronouncement of the low-capacity, low-speed, light-rail network as the solution to all objections to high-density development in Manuka.

The new town of Molonglo is the best choice for the development of an AFL/cricket stadium of the future.

A glance at a road map shows that Molonglo will have the best accessibility from all the other towns in Canberra, and now is the time for successful planning of the venue.

A. Smith, Farrer

The stories surrounding the ACT government's dealings with GWS lobbyists make one feel like we are swimming in murky Panama waters.

The government can move to clarify the murk by telling us all about its plans for the Manuka Oval precinct, and its financial commitments to GWS.

Marguerite Castello, Griffith

Your article about a housing crisis in Canberra ("Housing crisis is close to home", Forum, April 9, p3) ignores the main reason for the crisis.

Sydney has 10 times Canberra's population. But Canberra's home prices almost equal Sydney's. Why? The NSW government doesn't own most vacant land. The ACT government owns most vacant land.

In Canberra, the ACT government chokes the supply of building land to maximise leasing profits. Welcome to Moscow by the Molonglo, where Comrade Barr puts profits before housing people.

The solution. Comrade Barr could make billions by privatising vacant government land.

Graham Macafee, Latham

There are a lot of roadworks going on around North Canberra at the moment, involving men pushing tubes down holes on one side of the road and watching them come out the other side.

On Friday morning at 8.30, this was happening at the intersection of Majura Avenue and Officer Crescent in Ainslie, next to Dickson College.

This is one of the busiest places in north Canberra during the morning peak hour. College students alighting in Officer Crescent had trouble using the pedestrian crossing, and half of Majura Avenue was closed.

Why did this have to happen at this time? Wouldn't 9.30am have been a better time to start work at that location?

Lynne Bean, Watson

Kevin Cox (Letters, April 5) is heading in the wrong direction with his call for more nebulous complications within the Senate voting system.

It is important to acknowledge the recent freeing of electors from a longstanding imposition if they want to set out their own numbering of the order in which candidates can be assisted by anything unused of their vote.

Nevertheless, the Senate ballot paper will continue to be unnecessarily cluttered by the presence of party boxes that discriminate against independents and other ungrouped candidates.

Our Hare-Clark system has brought fairness to all candidates and prevented larger parties from undermining their supporters' efforts in Legislative Assembly elections.

Since its inception, there haven't been rafts of opportunists trying to register catchy party names because now a serious party constitution is required and there has never been a chance of turning the contest for the final place in each electorate into a lottery.

Keep things simple when giving electors an effective vote and there will be no clamour for constant changes to voting arrangements.

Bogey Musidlak, convener, ACT branch, Proportional Representation Society of Australia

Despite Kevin Cox's assertion (Letters, April 9), membership of political parties by senators is recognised at section 15 of the Constitution, which deals with the replacement of sitting senators who die, resign or are otherwise unseated during the course of a Parliament.

Paul E. Bowler, Holder

No, Kevin Cox, I haven't missed the point of the Mackerras/Day constitutional challenge to the new Senate voting rules. The High Court is not going to reject the rules on the ground that they provide for the election of parties rather than people.

On the other hand, however, Cox's proposed alternative rules would have electors voting for a person who would then decide who else should be elected.

That is clearly inconsistent with the constitutional requirement that senators be directly chosen by the people of the state voting as one electorate.

Frank Marris, Forrest

Michael Calkovics (Letters, April 4) is absolutely correct in quoting me that, last year, the number of European wasp nests reported in Canberra was at a 30-year high.

By the end of the season, there were nearly 1000 nests reported to my wasp hotline.

The average number of nests reported annually is about 500, but this year appears to be the lowest for the past decade.

I would like to think that our efforts last year resulted in the sharp drop in wasp activity in 2016, but weather and other factors have probably played a greater role.

Calkovics' efforts to control wasps locally with insecticide-impregnated bait stations is the best strategy.

However, he has chosen an abnormally wasp-light year to assess their efficacy in Lyons.

A newly developed bait station available to the public was recently registered for use by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority and, using a registered insecticide, could significantly reduce suburban wasp populations.

A simple trap using PET bottles and an easily made honey bait can also be deployed to capture large numbers of wasps throughout the season at very low cost.

Significantly, this trap and lure also catch large numbers of queens in spring, thus reducing the number of potential nests.

I am concerned that the current European wasp hotline contractor, which is also charged with identifying insects and spiders in the ACT, is now run by a local pest control company and that it advertises wasp control at reduced rates on its website.

The hotline has until now been a free, science-oriented, entomological advice service for the Canberra community (originally provided by the CSIRO's Division of Entomology and, for the past 10years, XCS Consulting).

Wasp nests were treated or removed for research or display at no cost to the householder. For the past 10 years, pest-control companies offered reduced rates to the public using the hotline.

Dr Philip Spradbery, Yarralumla

Your article "Women falling back in PS roles" (April 11, p1) is mind-boggling. Until the feminists (or the Public Service Commission) find a way for men to bear children and until they convince large numbers of women to put their careers before their families, women are likely to remain in a minority in the SES. I am amazed that so many men want those jobs, spending half their weekends at work, crawling to the Minister and sucking up to the Secretary. Perhaps women just have more sense.

The article also talks about women being disproportionately hit by recent redundancies. Given that most of them were voluntary, that seems to have been their choice.

Equally interesting is the point that women outnumber men overall in ongoing positions in the public service by 22,132 positions. I don't see a campaign to get the number of men overall in the public service up to equal the number of women.

Perhaps because gender equality policies and legislation is about equality only in the Orwellian sense that some people are more equal than others, and women are more equal than men.

J. J. Marr, Hawker

You could say that the Greens/ALP are in fact calling for an extension of the Royal Commission into corrupt union practices. For what is the Australian Banker's Association but a union?

No matter how Steven Munchenberg, dressed in his fancy suit, tries to spin the issue, the purpose of his organisation is to act collectively for the common good of its members. If his fellow unionists engage in dodgy practices, they should be brought to book, just as any other shonky unionists should be treated.

Mike Puleston, Brunswick, NSW

Apparently Rupert Murdoch's Newspoll has found the main political parties to be neck and neck in the race to win the 2016 election – whether it be held in July or later.

Oh pleeease spare me!

In the last umpteen pre-election surveys, Newspoll has reported inexplicable surges in the popularity of one party or the other as ballot day approaches, and in all but the Julia Gillard fiasco of 2010 it's been well wide of the mark.

The rival political parties must be so thankful, however, that the same Mr Murdoch has been there to help them out every time, offering access to his other business – an extensive (and soon-to-be even more extensive) media network – only too willing and able to help them advertise their socks off to win the unexpectedly close people's vote.

What was that they said about "Vote 1: Self-interest?"

John Clarke, Pearce

I am intrigued by how often Mikayla Novak's diatribes against government intervention are followed by a story on the BusinessDay page of the latest rip-off of customers by business. I realise, Dear Editor, that you are obliged to "balance" Richard Denniss' columns, but surely there are right-wing writers out there who can produce more nuanced and internally consistent arguments.

Kevin Rattigan, Berremangra, NSW

Congratulations and thanks to Jack Waterford for his article, "We need a war against corrupt conduct" (Forum, April 9, p1). It was a powerful reminder of the escalating disclosures of entrenched, systemic corruption throughout society.

Certainly, the establishment of a standing "federal commission" against corruption would keep the ball rolling.

That would be useless unless we address the "mysteriously unfinished prosecution business which has been allowed to wither".

Contrary to the standard political justification for preserving the status quo, "That will not drive corporations overseas. We need rather more directors and executives behind bars." It's a big ask but that's up to the coppers and the prosecutors and yes, the judges and juries too.

Don't hang the whistleblowers and the hackers and the journos out to dry.

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

As someone who once scribbled the odd strategic document I chuckled when I read the importance Michael Thomas placed on the solemn reference to climate change in the Defence White Paper ("Why CSIRO climate cuts could threaten security", Times2, April 8, p5).

Trust me, the authors put that in not because they really believe there is a pressing security risk from climate change, but because it is one of those things that must go in these days, tick it off and senior management is happy, never to be seriously considered again.

I would have been far more convinced had Thomas raised the genuinely important problem of the lack of strategic fuel supplies that threatens not only Defence capability, but our ability to function as a nation. Another casualty of the obsession with climate change?

H. Ronald, Jerrabomberra, NSW

In the attempt to give the Australian steel industry a competitive fighting chance, our politicians could do a lot worse than actually to reintroduce and enforce severe sanctions for all private or public, residential, commercial or industrial construction projects which – in our unique regulation-free environment – continue to treat engineering standards (formerly known as "Australian Standards", or AS) with contempt, whether in design, construction or both.

We have recently had brand new bridges which have had to be rebuilt on the public purse because they were bendy, owing to the inappropriate quality of the foreign steel employed. And brand-new residential complexes around Australia which are feeding a remarkable, globally unique contemporary Australian industry in "building rectification" because they were wholly (minus the water for the concrete) shipped in from China to a price, and not to any standard.

God forbid one should interest any politician in the scandal of increasingly condemnable Australian building standards in the past 20 years. But since there is now so much talk about the survival of the Australian steel industry, here is a way our politicians might kill a second bird – however disinterestedly – with the one stone.

Alex Mattea, Kingston

FINANCE SECTOR SORTED

Wow! Evan Jones really nails Australia's finance sector ("Finance sector out of control", Times2, April8, p4). We need more power to him, lest we go down the US road of total banking corruption. Please keep his articles coming.

Chris Williams, Griffith

WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?

It is great to see Opposition Leader Bill Shorten promise to hold a royal commission into the banks. He has truly scored a major goal when both the federal government and the banks are so vocal in their condemnation of this commitment. Methinks they have a lot to hide.

Roger Laws, Bonython

A FAST-TRACK FIX

I wonder if we invested in something really great – like fast rail between Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra – would the necessary steel production save Arrium and Whyalla? Less road building, road traffic and fewer planes in the air might help save precious ecosystems. An even bigger plus.

Jean Doherty, Ainslie

CAR-FREE MISS OUT

R.S.Gilbert (Letters, 8 April) asserts that in Canberra there are no local markets, due to our "excellent road network". Not everyone can "easily" travel to another suburb to shop, as not everyone has a car. But perhaps such people do not deserve consideration, having made an economically irrational, market-access-limiting "choice"?

G. Burgess, Kaleen

PERPETUAL DAMAGE

I agree with every word Graham Clews (Letters, April 7) wrote with respect to the nonsense of expecting perpetual growth of the economy and population. It must end some time. The lack of attention to this fact will no doubt lead to many difficulties for future generations living in an ever-more-damaged environment. I am an "older Australian" now and I sense I have seen the best of it.

Susan Nancarrow, Reid

START AT THE TOP

Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd talks tough on public service sickies ("Warning to public servant slackers", April 2, p1) . Perhaps he could start with the higher-ups. Michael Lawler's 261 days sick leave (as reported) must be an Australian Public Service record. And all this in Michaelia "live in the real world" Cash's portfolio.

Pete Rainbird, Figtree, NSW

FUNNY CORRELATION

I am yet to meet an animal liberationist who does not support abortion. Funny that!

John Popplewell, Hackett

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