I assume that this structure would stand somewhere between 65 and 85 metres tall. I also note with interest that immediately after the approval of Geocon's Infinity project in November last year the height limit for all new constructions in Gungahlin was reduced to 25 metres.

It will be interesting to see how Empire Global will squeeze 26 stories into 25 metres ... or perhaps the deal will be achieved with some sleight of hand. Dare I mention the Brumbies!

Peter Toscan, Amaroo

18C not the problem ...

Amanda Vanstone ("Speaking up is not racist", November 7, p12) decries "gratuitous nastiness ... when directed at people (because of) race or colour".

These views indicate Amanda is essentially a decent person, so I am a little bemused when she goes on to criticise minority groups who react angrily when they are insulted or vilified. Amanda seems to think that changing Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act will solve some perceived restriction of free speech. I'm not so sure, especially given the recent example of the Federal Court's decision to throw out the long-delayed case against three Queensland students who were pursued under the act because they complained for not being allowed to use an Indigenous-designated university computer laboratory.

The problem was not the wording of the act as such, but the bureaucratic procedures required of the Human Rights Commission (including sometimes needlessly long, drawn-out negotiations) and, in this case also because the Federal Court delayed hearing the case for an inordinately long time. That the court finally threw out the complaint and that most other complaints have also failed (Andrew Bolt being the one notable exception) seems to indicate to me that the act itself is no limitation on free speech.

Eric Hunter, Cook

... unless it snares you

Though hardly a ringing endorsement for freedom of expression I was pleased to read The Canberra Times editorial supporting the inquiry into the Racial Discrimination Act ("Freedom of speech inquiry is welcome", November 9) in light of the exoneration of the QUT students and the case against Bill Leak. Both these cases enjoyed the glare of the public spotlight but it seems there are many more that are reconciled in private.

How many good people have paid go-away money under these circumstances? Indeed how many more good people have faced an odious star chamber where some unworthy claimant is cosseted by the system while a faceless bureaucrat wrings an insincere apology from a hapless citizen who has no means to defend themselves?

How does a robust democratic society get to this point? Perhaps the answer might be in our universities which are ostensibly institutions of intellectual diversity where free and robust debate should be hallmarks of their culture. Regrettably reality is quite different.

Our universities of today are too often places where suffocating political correctness in all its forms thrives and where the default position is censorship of unwelcome views. Wonderful preparation for the leaders of tomorrow!

Is it time to start rating our universities on the extent to which they promote intellectual diversity and freedom of expression?

H. Ronald, Jerrabomberra, NSW

Bumpy can be beautiful

The speed bumps, that G. Evans mentioned (Letters, November 10), could perhaps serve as a metaphor for life. They are there for a reason, to help keep us safe. The road speed bumps may add about 30 seconds to our journey and perhaps give us time to smell the roses. We could leave home a minute earlier and allow time for the speed bumps , and likewise apply this idea to life in general.

David Sykes, Holt

Garema Disgrace more apt

I recently visited Civic after an absence, and noticed that Garema Place and the surrounding area is no longer as clean, bright and prosperous as I remembered it. I would describe it as run-down and seedy. I found myself wondering whether there might be a town-planning descriptive term, "Socialist Squalid". If so, the local government has achieved it. Not good enough for the National Capital.

Mike Heath, Greenway

Trams will be ACT's Trump

So, Chris Hunter (Letters, November 11) awoke with a sense of disbelief on Thursday to news of Donald Trump's win. I remember feeling the same a few weeks back when the ACT, a constituency as well educated as any in the world, re-elected the tram coalition.

Barr/Rattenbury will no more solve the Gungahlin congestion problem with their tram than Trump will bring back the jobs of the unskilled white workers of the rust belt. They offered fantasy in place of reality and aspirational bunkum in place of logic, just like Trump, and Canberra fell for it. Americans will realise by the next election that Trump hasn't delivered.

It will take a little longer here but, once the tram starts operating, people will see quickly enough that they have been sold a pup. We will still have congestion, probably worse than ever, and people will wonder, as they see the tram roll by, empty outside peak hours, what they got for the billion dollars they paid for it. We can't criticise the Americans.

Stan Marks, Hawker

A light on injustice

It was good to see large Australian concert halls, including the Sydney Opera House, filled with people interested in injustice and wrongful conviction last week, wanting to hear the lawyers who fought for justice in the Netflix series Making a Murderer.

I hope David Eastman is heartened this interest, with the series and lawyer tour raising awareness of flaws in the justice system, including in forensics and through tunnel-vision and misconduct by police and prosecutors.

Estelle Blackburn, Barton

If the incoming Trump administration goes ahead and implements its anti-science and climate change denialist policies, other countries will have two choices: first, they could roll over and likewise renege on the grounds, that without the US, it is pointless to proceed with the Paris Accord to limit global temperature increases; or, secondly, individual countries could double down on their efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to seek to persuade the Americans to accept the science and do likewise.

The second approach should be the only acceptable option and Australia, if need be, must play a lead role in exerting maximum pressure on the US to do the right thing for the sake of the planet and our children and grandchildren.

Dan Buchler, Waramanga

Widespread support

Commentators say that Donald Trump won the US election because he was supported by white working-class male voters. Others say that most of Trump's supporters were outside the "wealth zones". But exit polls suggest that Trump's support was wider than this, and, indeed, there are not enough white working-class males by themselves to have gotten Trump across the line.

According to exit polls, 42 per cent of women, 49 per cent of college-educated white voters and 60 per cent of women without degrees voted for Trump. It is apparent that Trump's appeal was widespread. And yet, 61 per cent of respondents to exit polls said that Trump "was not qualified to be president"!

John Casey, Curtin

The screaming class

Donald Trump's election was a surprise but probably not a shock. There is a lot of anger and fear in the American Rust Belt. In fact, so much that they were primed to be conned by someone willing to echo their feelings and give them villains to blame. As Michael Moore said: they wanted to throw a Molotov cocktail at the establishment, not realising that in many cases it's the thrower not the target that gets burned.

The saddest thing for the rest of the world is that Trump's election has empowered not the working class but the screaming class (those commentators on all sides of the political spectrum who bellow about the innocuous and inconsequential) and the fringe politicians waiting in the wings for their moment to strut their manufactured rage across the stage.

Bart Meehan, Calwell

US on the move

Donald Trump's victory is due to his trips to America's devastated industrial heartland. So devastated is the industrial heartland that 43 million Americans are dependent on food stamps. Cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Akron have became ghost towns.

Fast-reverse to the 2012 Mitt Romney versus Barack Obama contest for president. Big business gave $1billion each to the Democratic and Republican parties. What I wanted in return was for the winner to run dead on job-offshoring and the minimum wage. The result? Among other things, that apart from Mack trucks, all US vehicles and parts are made (with cheap labour) in foreign lands.

In Australia, only 10 per cent of vehicles are made in Australia. The rest are imported. If Trump is as good as his word he will put a tariff on imported goods. Will Turnbull or Shorten put a tariff on imported goods? The only job that both men will protect is their own.

America is on the move. Australia is moribund.

Graham Macafee, Latham

Pollies be warned

The US election results should be a warning to our federal and state politicians. The majority of Australians want to see strong border protection and strict immigration policies where only immigrants who will accept our culture and obey our laws are welcomed.

We need stronger law enforcement and punishments in protecting our families from criminal recidivists and drug pushers.

Instead of governments kowtowing to unions and minority groups, we want to see them help expand small businesses and manufacturing. We want to see large overseas businesses that sell products here and online pay their fair share of tax.

Bruce Hambour, North Haven, SA

Rules-based rubbish

During the ABC's 7.30 Report coverage of the US election I heard the US described as in some sense the champion of a "rules-based" international order no less than three times. Leigh Sales, the presenter, Malcolm Turnbull, the PM and Kim Beasley, ex-ambassador all used it. I was and remain astonished that the US, of all countries, can be seen in such a light. What rules were the US championing in Vietnam? In Nicaragua? In Afghanistan? In Iraq?

What rule enables them to kidnap people and keep them imprisoned without any shadow of legality for years? What rule empowers them to attempt the assassination of leaders of foreign countries? Whatever phrases come to mind to describe US behaviour abroad, "rules-based" is surely one of the least appropriate.

Gordon Soames, Curtin

The 'voiceless' revolt

I am tempted to agree with the simplistic notion that ignorance and stupidity led to Trump's victory. But it's much more than that – it is a consequence of division, exclusion, prejudice, stereotyping and bias that renders people who are different from those in positions of power and leadership – a very narrow demographic slice of the population – as inferior.

Humans can assess members of in-groups (us) and out-groups (them) in a nano second. We are primed to categorise, label, stereotype. And when people don't feel heard for long enough they revolt. They cause chaos, they gather together and find ways to claim power. The Brexit shock, the rise of Hanson, and now the results of the US election confirm that. As the world becomes scarier and less tolerant, the automatic priming in our brains becomes more acute.

Fear informs our judgments of people, and we are more likely to dismiss and devalue them and their needs, interests and aspirations.

The US results are in my view the predictable result of a divisive, divided and intolerant society, and is a call to action for us here in Australia.

There has never been a more important time for us to recognise and galvanise to cultivate a cohesive and inclusive society.

Deborah May, Ainslie

Clubs are Trumps

Perhaps we do not have to worry too much about President-elect Trump. He has become a politician, and thus will break most of the promises he has made to get elected.

James Gralton, Garran

I see that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, so the system actually was rigged in favour of Trump.

Paul Pollard, O'Connor

In 1933, Adolf Hitler's party came to power under a nationalist theme of making Germany great again. Six years later the world was at war. Scary, isn't it?

Steve Hart, Hawker

Well, at least Donald Trump won't be in a position to start World War III until after Christmas.

Michael Duffy, Curtin

Please, please, America – whatever you do, DO NOT assassinate President Donald Trump!

Fred Pilcher, Kaleen

I wonder if president-elect Trump will now divest himself of his business interests, or shelter them behind a blind trust. Somehow, I think not.

Jennifer Saunders, Canberra City

After Wednesday's frightening result, it is imperative the Wall be built now. Am entreating Canadian friends and relatives to have it erected on the 49th parallel.

John Freeman, Narrabundah

Unrestrained sarcasm

I'm honoured John Passant (Letters, November 9) found time to comment on my not very inspiring letter of November 5. I will pin it on my cork-board under the heading "Nasty Dinosaurs" for the edification of my family on what bitter, unrestrained sarcasm looks like.

Frank Scargill, Macarthur

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