I am a conservationist who spent about 15 years working on biodiversity policy in the Commonwealth government and who greatly values our native plants, animals and micro-organisms. Indeed, as most of our considerable biodiversity occurs nowhere else, Australians, I believe, have a unique responsibility to protect it.

I am also a cat owner, and I believe a responsible one. My cat is chipped, desexed and stays in at night. I live in Downer, which is neither a nature reserve, nor adjacent to one. However, I have never been surveyed about my opinions on cat containment and I do object to those who are purporting to state that along with other Canberrans, I have no problem with forced cat containment, because I do.

A policy of cat containment assumes that people have both the space and funds to afford to build a suitable structure and this is most certainly not the case. The issue is the presence of feral cats.

I can support compulsory cat containment in suburbs that are close to nature reserves but certainly not across the entire city.

I would much rather that those who are expending efforts to force cat containment throughout Canberra started to deal with the underlying cause of the greater threats to our biodiversity – and that cause is human population growth.

N. Hardy, Downer

I concur with Jon Stanhope that the security of our unique fauna must be defended ("Keep capital's cats contained to curtail killing", Times2, April 1).

Foreign species brought to Australia since European settlement have had, and have, an ongoing disastrous impact. Foxes, rabbits and cane toads are major, albeit unwitting, mistakes, as are dogs and cats going feral.

We can do more before we, cat owners, are detained in cages with our pets. Removing the 20 million predatory feral cats in Australia is surely a higher priority. Domestic cats are fed at home, not voraciously hunting to survive.

Over years, any two cats of mine have killed on average one bird a year and a skink or two, instead proudly bringing in (introduced) mice.

One solution is to address consistently de-sexing domestic cats. ACT law requires de-sexing cats before three months old, but cannot be regulated, as cats, unlike dogs, are not registered as in other states. One result is unwanted kittens, and entire toms are known to roam far; de-sexed cats stay near home. So, I suggest introducing registration, ensuring dependable de-sexing, with funds raised allocated to increasing the feral cat, dog, and fox elimination programs.

Marilyn Truscott, Waramanga

The statistical assertions made by Annette Smith (Letters, April 2) about the effectiveness of aerial culling at Tempe Downs don't stand up.

I don't see that a fly past after culling would be an effective measure of the success of the cull in terms of the immediate death of the victims.

From an aeroplane, you could tell if a horse was on the ground making gross movements (eg trying to stand up but couldn't) but you would not notice a horse that was wounded but still able to move freely at that time but which would die of septicaemia days later or which was too wounded to move at all but which would still take hours to die.

Her suggestion that horses culled fare better than those which are not because the latter will die of arthritis, cancer and drought, seems like a suggestion that we should kill all animals and, perhaps, all of us because that is the way we all die.

An aerial cull in the Kosciusko National park can't be effective because there are so many feral horses outside the park that will just walk in, that the effects of culling will not last long.

Stan Marks, Hawker

In her defence of the "humaneness" of aerial killing of horses, Annette Smith (Letters, April 2) lauds the fact that in the 2013 NT shootings "the mean time to death was eight seconds". But the time to death was over 60 seconds for nine of the horses shot and the "mean chase time" was 73 seconds.

I can't imagine the stress caused by having a helicopter chase you at low altitude for over a minute, being shot up to four times then enduring another minute of agony as you bleed to death. No matter the dollar cost, there has to be a better way to reduce the numbers of animals when necessary.

But what also disturbs me about Annette's letter is her claim that wild horses "will not be loved" (she means not loved by humans). The affection between mothers and their foals is clear and I'm sure that intra-species bonds are at least as important to the horses than any love from a human that they may experience in captivity.

Mike O'Shaughnessy, Spence

I have no objection to the home of a pensioner being taken into consideration in any pension assets test but the value of the home should be related to its original purchase price and not to its current value.

If a pensioner bought their home 30 years ago or more, probably at a time when it was not categorised as a "desirable inner city residence", it seems far from fair to expect them to sell up and move out to the sticks just to save the government a few pension dollars during their final years. If the government is that desperate it might consider recovering all pension payments from the estates of deceased pensioners.

Roger Dace, Reid

It is a pity Andrew Barr and co do not show the same enthusiasm about the cleanliness of our city as they do about their cardboard train.

Have they travelled the Parkway recently to see the rubbish strewn on the side of the road?

In town the weeds and graffiti are disgusting. If the morons who deface people's property were not given a slap on the wrist, they might think twice about it. All of them have their own tags so it shouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to track them down. If they were given weekend detention cleaning up the mess, we might have a better looking city.

It is also the home owners' responsibility to have the outside of their property (fences) cleaned of the eyesores people have to see everyday. It is not fair but who is going to do it? They will wait forever for the government to do it.

We need to show visitors we have some pride in our town.

B.M. Cooke, Latham

John Warhurst's article was an interesting read ("Greens increase power base", Times2, April 2).

I think he is overstating the Green position; while they have won an additional seat, the demographic base of the Greens is very limited. The actual Green vote across NSW fell 0.4per cent and in the upper house 1.6per cent. Federally the Greens are at risk of losing a Senate seat to the ALP if the ALP picked up a bit more.

John identified the protest tradition origin of the Greens and the public perception of them as extreme

I am not sure the idea of an ALP-Green "coalition" is comparable to the LNP in anyway. There are differences between the Liberals and Nationals but they are closer to the ALP than the ALP is to the Greens. John's point about a block of five leftish Greens and independents in the assembly for future elections is valid, although as the ALP is finding out in Victoria (upper house) it may not be that happy for the ALP.

The Greens are good at blocking, not supporting. It arises from the Greens' fundamentalist view of a "right versus wrong" political spectrum.

M. Gordon, Flynn

I am responding to the article by John Warhurst ("Greens increase power base", Times 2, April 2, p1). John is right when he suggests that Greens will be a stronger political force in the future. However, Greens have not played their cards well in the past. Greens destroyed the good opportunity in establishing an ETS during the Rudd government knowing fully well the Coalition views on this matter.

Rudd's model wasn't perfect but we would have been in a better position on environmental issues today. That's why many Australians take the Greens as "either naively unrealistic or dangerously extremist".

Sankar Kumar Chatterjee, Evatt

Thank you to former NCDC chief Tony Powell (Letters, March 27) for raising the absence of any planning policy justification for the Downer rezoning decision.

The Downer Community Association considers the high density RZ5 decision to be completely inappropriate. There has been no evidence presented to the Downer community to validate such a decision. Controls are being put in place to bump up the price for developers on community land the Government owns, such as the site of the former Downer Primary School.

The former school site is more than one kilometre from the nearest proposed light rail stop at the end of Swinden Street. Many of the residences at the development have been designated as being for the elderly who would find such a walk difficult.

If the government were serious about enhancing the light rail project, it would be acquiring land along the Northbourne corridor as previously proposed by the association.

The Downer Community Association, together with the Dickson Residents Group, has argued that it is essential a halt be called to the piecemeal developments in our two suburbs and they be replaced by a holistic look at the future of the inner north.

On the former Downer school site the frustrating thing is that the Downer community supported moderate scale development as long as there was room on the site for greater community services and facilities as well as support from the government to get the now abandoned Downer shops up and running again.

Diane Fielding, convener, Downer Community Association

Your editorial "Conversation about tax we need to have" (Times2, March 31, p2) mentioned that the government's tax discussion paper had raised the idea of indexing individual income tax rates to wages growth. When the Intergenerational Report is forecasting that an increasing share of our population will be living off non-wage incomes, it isn't obvious why wages growth would be a sensible basis for indexing their tax rates.

It isn't even obvious that indexation of individuals' income tax rates would be a good idea at all. In an age where budget deficits seem to be a problem, any source of increasing revenue for the government that doesn't require a difficult political passage through an ever more populist Senate might even be thought a good thing.

At the least, in a system where expenditure requires annual budget allocations, adjustments to tax rates should be considered as part of each year's budget rather than occur automatically.

Greg Pinder, Charnwood

The reported support of some of Canberra's business community for a convention centre as a higher priority than a light rail ("First stop convention centre", April 1, p1) is welcome, but only in the sense that a replacement convention centre has a lower capital cost ($1 billion v perhaps $500 million).

Neither is likely to be a good use of Canberra taxpayers' money. We know the Labor/Green position is to commit to the light rail before the next ACT election. Presumably business support for the convention centre is designed to encourage the Liberals to commit to funding a convention centre, as a competing vision to the light rail.

Neither proposal has been subject to a rigorous cost-benefit analysis that compares the proposals with alternate uses of our money (including leaving it in our pockets to spend as we wish).

All three main political parties seem intent on committing to their vision using other people's money (unfortunately ours). Hopefully, these are all "non-core" promises. But even better would be for one or all of the parties, or perhaps a new party, to commit to "not commit" our money until after we have had a chance to vote.

B. Paine, Red Hill

I was gobsmacked to read that two-thirds of the residents in Yarralumla, Curtin and Deakin are in favour of the proposed brickworks development ("Canberrans back altered brickworks plan", March 30, p3).

Having been one of those who door-knocked around the suburb of Yarralumla with the Yarralumla Residents' Association petition, I can assure your readers that I found only one resident who was in favour of the development and one who did not want to sign.

But as it turns out, there is an explanation for this huge disconnect: the telephone survey did not explain the issues of doubled population, doubled traffic volumes, almost no change to shopping facilities, or school capacity, or parking space, the massive excavation involved in removing hill tops, the abandonment of Canberra's own planning principles, one could go on.

How long will the LDA continue to insult the intelligence of Canberra's citizens and in particular the intelligence of Yarralumla residents, by pedalling this kind of telephone survey as a mandate for virtual open slather on its proposed development?

Peter McGhie, Yarralumla

Minister Rattenbury is concerned prisoners at Canberra's jail are sharing needles. This is the rationale to support his desire for a needle exchange program.

Might I suggest a simpler and far less controversial method of preventing inmates from sharing needles. It is quite simply the prevention of needles getting into the jail in the first place.

Jim Coats, Fadden

RETHINK REQUIRED

Like Jon Stanhope, I feel that destruction of this corridor in support of the light rail project needs rethinking. Stage 1 does not add any significant travel time difference because of all the stops, and is less likely to be used, like the buses.

Russ Morison, Theodore

BEDS TO BARGES

Retention of substantial flower beds has been a popular feature of Floriade. A possible method to generate such beds remotely would be to grow them in barges and locate during festival at lakeside venues.

Ken Murtagh, Turner

COPING STRATEGIES

For DMO staff struggling to come to terms with the impending demise of their organisation, there will be a ceremonial reading of all parts of the Capital Equipment Procurement Manual. This will be held as an eight-hour session every weekend for the next 50 years.

John Howarth, Weston

VALUE OVERLOOKED

J. Robbins (Letters, March 31) implies immigrants are a burden on this country, a myth sustained by misunderstanding. I am a Kiwi grandmother, employee, partner and daughter-in-law to Australians. My value to them is more than just my financial contribution but I don't have the right to vote.

Jenna Gray, Banks

FINDING FREEDOM

Unfortunately, Abu Bakar Alam (Times2, April 1), in several countries non-Muslims do not have the freedom to practise their religion wherever they want, a freedom you enjoy in Australia.

Ken McPhan, Spence

LOOK AGAIN

I have just read the terms of reference of the Child Abuse Royal Commission. I want to know why it is not investigating the Immigration Department.

Jim Jones, Charnwood

POSITIVE THOUGHTS

I always am amazed when so-called experts tell us the reasons we need to wipe out animals and "illegal" refugees, unless the so called "illegal refugee" plays sport well. Perhaps instead of being so negative and destructive these people should respect people and animals that inhabit this earth.

Lorraine Wood, Theodore

MY KNIGHT

A knight on a bicycle knocked on my door. His name was Dominic and he had cycled from Civic in his lunch break with my lost wallet. He found it at the Cotter recreation area where we had taken some foreign visitors the day before.

David Williams, Watson

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au

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