In the last few weeks, Ford CEO Mark Fields announced, "We believe in the industry that there will be a fully autonomous vehicle, probably within the next five years" and Uber have partnered with Carnegie Mellon University in autonomous vehicle research to "enable the safe and efficient movement of people and things at giant scale".

Autonomous vehicles will soon provide safe, efficient, on-demand, door-to-door, 24/7 transport, for up to four people per car in peak periods, reducing congestion and pollution and at a lower cost than private car or light rail.

Either transport experts, think-tanks, bankers and the car industry are all wrong, or the realistically calculated benefit-cost-ratio of Capital Metro will fall from 40 cents in the dollar to its scrap value between 2020 and 2025.

Kent Fitch, Nicholls

There are over 3000 people being displaced as a result of the Mr Fluffy house purchases. A large number of people do not want to go and, in a lot of cases, can't afford to go. The elderly, in particular, who have retired, paid off their mortgages and settled down to the life they deserve are being forced to leave their homes with no hope of purchasing a new one.

These people deserve our respect and support and should be allowed with government assistance to stay in their homes.

Contact your MLA now and tell them it isn't fair and give these people a fair go!

R. Collins, Kambah

I felt compelled to respond to the factually incorrect assertions of Rhys Stanley (Letters, February 6).

1. The majority of GP consults in Canberra are bulk-billed – if Mr Stanley's GP charged him $85, he could simply go and see a cheaper or bulk-billing GP. Nothing or no one forces him to see the GP who charged him that much. The majority of GPs in Canberra who do charge a private fee charge a lot less than $85 for a standard consult .

2. It has been shown in numerous studies that the average GP consult consult lasts 15 to 17 minutes. Mr Stanley wants to be bulk-billed. At four patients an hour, the majority of GPs would therefore earn at most around $145 per hour for their business. Let's not forget the 5000 GPs in Australia who are paid at a lesser rebate and would only generate $84 per hour if they saw four bulk-billed patients per hour. Also remember that all consumables used come out of that income, not to mention staff, insurance, leases, etc.

Compare that to the mechanic who did a standard service on my car the other day – a cheap little Holden – hourly labour $110 and every single consumable charged on top of that. Or the dentist who did a quick scale and clean and charged me over $200 for a 20-minute session. My qualifications – 10 years formal training as a minimum. The mechanic's? Three years' trade. I have no problem with him charging what he does, but do not expect me, as a professional, to charge the same or less.

3. The last point: the incessant rubbish about the "AMA being the money-making union". News flash people: most doctors do NOT belong to AMA. All the AMA can do is suggest a fee and each and every medical practice then makes an individual decision on how they charge. This is a far cry from the strong-arm bullying tactics of unions in other industries. I would love to see what the Labor-supporting unions would do if their members had their wages increased by a total of 2per cent over seven years (as the Medicare rebate has been) or if their wages have consistently been increased less than the CPI for more than two decades.

The time has come for GPs to stop apologising for expecting to be paid properly for the work that we are doing.

If the government is not going to assist the patients by providing an adequate rebate, the patients will simply have to pay out of their own pocket.

Dr Thinus van Rensburg, Charnwood

Where is the justice when a woman who can starve and neglect dogs in her care is slapped with only a moderate fine and allowed to own animals again ("Woman who starved dogs fined, but allowed to keep pets" February 6, p2)?

Canberra's relevant authorities spend thousands of dollars building cases against people who have no regard for animal welfare, in some cases demonstrating the cruellest treatment towards them. The magistrate's ruling in this case is absolutely useless and will do nothing to deter current and future offenders.

As ACT taxpayers and people who care about the welfare of all animals, we demand much better from our legal system. It has a duty of care to make its conclusions and rulings commensurate with the crime. Any person with common sense would never allow this woman near an animal again. Justice indeed.

Alison Chapple Macquarie

Bryan Furnass (Letters, February 7) is one confused character. He wrote that tackling climate change was a greater problem than the imminent invasion of Britain in 1939 was. That is preposterous. Where is his evidence?

He doesn't have any.

Bryan should do some research. It isn't that hard. Look at both sides of the argument for a change. I know that that is against everything he believes in. There is no evidence supporting the shaky proposition that he adheres to so strongly. Has he not heard of the 18-year pause in global warming? There have been over 60 studies attempting to account for it and only natural forces have been found to answer. Odd that, isn't it?

Of course, scientists who have been saying for years that the pause isn't occurring are now involved in these studies, just like the ones pushing anthropogenic global cooling in the '70s switched to anthropogenic global warming at the drop of a hat.

The pause is natural, just as the warming between the mid-1970s and 1998 was natural, non-anthropogenic. CO2 is plant food and has negligible effect on climate; get used to it.

J. McKerral, Batemans Bay, NSW

Has the Abbott government, and its current Foreign Minister, examined the possibility of a prisoner swap with Indonesia, in return for those silly tourists, the Bali Nine. And would the Indonesian ambassador like to initiate negotiations?

Matt Ford, Crookwell, NSW

Toni Hassan's article on the non-government versus government schools topic ("Private pupils the majority", Times2, February 5, p1), presented interesting, almost pleasant, reading. An absence of the thinly veiled bigotry that usually accompanies articles on this issue was a positive.

Toni really didn't say much (perhaps as was her intention?), but did provide us with an interesting set of numbers to take on our headlong plunge into the new school year to revive an old chestnut with the expected usual lack of policy proposals.

Continual reference to Joy Burch talking about our (ACT) students being at or near the top nationally is wearing thin, especially as at national level, our (Australian) students are falling behind their international counterparts. Being the best of a bad bunch isn't good. Our (ACT) students need to be lifted out of that "bad bunch" altogether.

Toni is in the optimum position to have advanced policy ideas really relating to education, not provide a running commentary on SUVs. Her suggestion that the ACT should be uncomfortable about being the first jurisdiction to have a majority of high school children in non-government schools borders on the downright ludicrous. Sadly, an opportunity for education policy gone begging.

Michael Doyle, Fraser

Could somebody please explain to me why my tax dollars are shared with a private school which can afford a $2million entrance when public schools are having their budgets cut?

Pauline May, Lyneham

Tony Abbott must be the second most relieved person in Australia. The most relieved is, of course, Bill Shorten.

Helmut Simon, Watson

As an Australian who can see the world changing around us with climate change, low commodity prices and new ways of doing things using the web, I am really disappointed that we still have a Prime Minister who is stuck in the previous century.

As a member of the progressive left, however, I am delighted that the Liberal Party has retained our best recruiter in Mr Abbott.

Caroline Le Couteur, Downer

I don't think Captain Tony can have much reassurance from the Liberal Party's meeting with the vote being 61 against the spill and 39 for – and one donkey vote.

Not a great comfort for him, I should think, and we can actually thank him for defining for us again the term "pyrrhic victory" – a victory that inflicts such a devastating blow on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat and the resulting heavy toll negates any sense of achievement. So you seem to win when you've really lost.

Brian Millett, Yass

If we assume there was cabinet solidarity, and apply that 40per cent against to cabinet and the parliamentary secretaries etc, then the majority of Liberals don't want Abbott either.

John Passant, Kambah

Tony Abbott's surprise announcement to put the party-room meeting forward to Monday, just one hour after his main contender for the prime ministership, Malcolm Turnbull, had praised him for retaining the scheduling for Tuesday, will go down as one of the most Machiavellian master strokes in Australian political history.

Abbott would rather stick to his ideological guns in pursuing a debilitating and outdated mindset of political conservatism than in allowing a leader of the stature of Turnbull to democratically advance Australia into the 21st century.

Reverend Dr Vincent Zankin, Rivett

So the members of the Liberal Party have cried "peace for a time", paraphrasing that weak-kneed Neville Chamberlain after a meeting with Hitler – and guess what happened to him. But what would you expect from a frontbench that is one of the weakest ever seen, with so many dull, unimaginative and conservative members?

Eric Hodge, Pearce

Is there any truth to the rumour the ADF is about to invade New Zealand?

Maria Greene, Curtin

In a concise and factually correct letter to the editor (February 5), Robert Willson reiterated the point "that we as a nation are borrowing $1billion a month" "just to pay the interest on the debt the former Labor government ran up".

I wonder how many readers (including, perhaps, the governor of the Reserve Bank and secretary of the Department of Finance) were shocked to read Robyn Lewis's correct derisory reply (Letters, February 7) when she wrote: "Move the political focus back to the issues that really matter."

People may think their short-term comforts come first, but without a financially secure Australia, there can be no secure future for our children and grandchildren.

Without a financially secure Australia, there can be little room for flexibility in health, education, pensioner, childcare and welfare policies. Get Australia's financial house in order and then the policies will flow and, "the issues that really matter" will have a secure financial backing.

M. Rowe, Hackett

For someone who believes in civics education, Tony Abbott is doing a remarkably poor job of promoting an understanding of Australia's political system. Firstly, and most obviously, voters in Australian electorates cannot vote for Tony Abbott (or anybody) as prime minister. While political parties often choose to have a leader function as a spearhead in their campaign, the two realities should not be conflated, otherwise civics education is damaged.

Secondly, and this is a more subtle point, but just as important: voters vote for a political party and its leader because of their stated policies and commitments, not because of the leader's name or photogenic nature (or not) or because of the party's pretty graphics. Consequently, when those policies and promises are abandoned, there is nothing meaningful in the claim that an individual was voted in. It wasn't the individual; it was their policies and promises, along with an assumption that they were truthful and meaningful.

An election should be a bit like a marriage. A marriage based on fraud is not a real marriage and will be voided under secular law — and even annulled under church law. Since a commitment made on the basis of fraudulent information is not a meaningful commitment and is not recognised in law, Tony shouldn't be pretending the Australian population's commitment to him as Prime Minister was meaningful.

Marion Barker, O'Connor

H.Ronald (Letters, February 6) echoes the Great Leader's contention that Australian voters are stupid. Both are correct: too often Australians vote against their own interests and elect a Coalition government.

But let me remind H.Ronald of the underlying compact between the lumpen masses and the ruling class that allows capitalism to function: we allow them to profit from the wealth we create with our sweat, and they agree not to grind us too hard in so doing, lest we wash them away in a river of their own blood.

They forget this simple formula at their peril.

Paul McElligott, Aranda

LIVING IN THE DARK

Don't worry Jan Gehl ("Canberra's big flaw can be fixed, says architect", February 6, p6), more and more Canberrans are palely shrinking from your perceived four metres tall, as they creep about in their new developer-produced often-south-facing hutches with internal bedrooms and kitchens, where the lights need to be on all day.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

BACK TO BUSINESS

Let's hope Monday's failed leadership spill will clear the air and allow the government get on with the business of governing. I can see the spectre of Paul Keating's prophecy concerning "Banana Republic" looming closer with each "dethronement".

Betty Hedgecoe, Hawker

NOTHING PERSONAL

Tony Abbott, it's not you, it's us. We can no longer take the policies of your government that make "lifters" of the poor and workers, and "leaners" and rent-seekers of the rich and big business. Don't take it personally; it's the divisiveness of your whole government that is the problem.

G. Hampson, Chapman

CALL FOR MUTINY

Someone in the Liberal Party still needs to step up and stop Captain Abbott's boat for the good of the people, and the good of Australia before he runs us aground with his hypocrisy and poor decision making.

Tom Quinlan, Gordon

SALES PITCH LACKING

Someone needs to let Tony Abbott et al know that if you can only sell your own product by bagging the opposition, it is obvious your product has nothing of its own to recommend it.

Lynn Harden, Campbell

A GAGGLE OF GEESE

The behaviour of our federal political parties is reaching new lows. After the failure of "Big Brother" tactics used to oust and then reinstall Kevin Rudd, we were hoping the Liberal Party had learnt the Australian public still had some kind of morals. But alas, it seems both our major parties are populated by a bunch of honking geese, all noise and no action.

Mrs Helen Morris, Bonython

DANGER IN SECRECY

An excellent letter to the Editor (February 6) from Jane Timbrell warning of the dangers to Australian citizens of the swindle that is the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement must be heeded by us all. The secrecy with which this treaty has been conducted for over a decade is very concerning. By the time we know the terms, it will be too late to change them. Foreign tribunals will decide Australian social policies.

Dr Kristine Klugman, Fisher

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