The enthusiasm is understandable. Yet one must wonder why ACT Labor is willing to forgo such a benefit, such an advantage, if there was even a scintilla of truth behind the insinuations and outright accusations.

One must wonder also at the achievability of the program. There are eight jurisdictions, about 16.5million voters and a likely many more corporate entities across the nation to channel funds into the party coffers. Such a ban would be impossible to enforce.

The only way to minimise the illegitimate influence of political donations is parallel legislation across all jurisdictions requiring timely disclosure of all donations and enforceable by severe penalties ranging from fines, personal and corporate, to loss of seats and, in extremis, incarceration.

ACT Labor's plan to ban developers' political donations is merely tepid air. The developers' major influence is the payment of project fees to a town council imposed upon a minuscule electorate without an adequate income base.

Gary J.Wilson, Macgregor

Eric Hunter (Letters, September 24) suggests that I am trying to blur the republic issue and the same-sex marriage issue.

I reject that accusation. They are clearly very different issues and many Australians who support the republic will also vote no to same-sex marriage.

But one thing the two issues have in common is the matter of a plebiscite. If the immense cost is an issue in the same-sex plebiscite, why is it not an issue in the republic program?

Former PM Tony Abbott was not being devious in pushing for a plebiscite on the same-sex issue. As he asked: "What could be fairer?"

Obviously, both issues will be divisive in society – that is all part of the democratic process and everyone must learn to accept the result, even if it does not please them.

Father Robert Willson, Deakin

Australians are not entitled to adopt an attitude of superiority at taking 10th place in the Global Burden of Disease Study, with significant threats to water from mining and fracking, obesity, deregulation, global warming and minimally regulated work visa holders ("Australia soars in health rankings", September 24, p18).

Albert M.White, Queanbeyan

No surprise that private health insurance membership is dropping and a majority of members believe private health insurance premiums are excessive (Sunday Canberra Times, September 18).

The current arrangements bear all the hallmarks of cosy monopolies where members find minimal differences between health funds; funds compete for members on peripheral extras rather than on the main drivers of higher premiums; and ministers and compliant advisory bodies fail to protect consumers from excessive price rises.

When will ministers and their advisers take a stand and refuse to wave through excessive premium increases by demanding that funds justify their profits after playing hardball with private health providers, and by insisting their prices (including for therapeutic devices) are comparable with the most competitive in the public sector and overseas?

When will private hospitals (and visiting medical specialists, whose services by law are mostly subsidised by Medicare rebates rather than private health insurance) stop taking advantage of delays in the public health system in treating supposedly non-urgent, but often extremely painful conditions, to justify excessive charges?

When will governments force medical colleges, through a combination of sticks and carrots, to train enough specialists to create a competitive market for their services, such as exists for GPs in the larger metropolitan areas (but not yet in the ACT)?

When will the government stop trying to hoodwink the public by claiming that 80per cent GP bulk billing rates, which reflect market forces, prove Medicare is better than ever. These rates mask what is happening in other medical specialties, the vast majority of whose members routinely charge private patients at least three to four times Medicare schedule fees.

When will the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme show some real muscle so that consumers (based on my own experience) do not, under the PBS, pay many times more for the same medicine than when visiting the US?

Something is rotten and it will require more than lip service from our political leaders before consumers can be confident they are receiving value for money.

David Weeden, Evatt

Richard Denniss ("Growth, tram on the way" Forum, September 24, p10) writes that "the world is full of smaller cities than ours that have light rail", and then quotes Potsdam and Bergen as examples.

However, Potsdam and Bergen are just another two examples of how different Canberra's topography is from cities that are using trams. Potsdam has 29kilometres of dual track for seven routes that pass diametrically though the centre of the city.

The catchment covers the majority of the city and the average trip length is less than four kilometres, so the slow speed of trams is not important. When completed, Bergen will have one long light rail line 18kilometres in length that links the airport to the city centre, also connecting to two universities, the railway station and the football stadium. The catchment covers a large proportion of the population because the urban areas extend in a very narrow strip along the length of the line.

Grade separation reduces the number of road intersections and allows trams to operate at 80km/h.

Canberra is a unique city. No matter how many other cities use trams, that won't make them suitable to Canberra.

A.Smith, Farrer

So the 22 high-voltage power pylons blew over because of the state's "extraordinary high" clean-energy targets, did they Mal?

Not even a preschool-age child would buy that assertion, nor even our learned letter writers H.Ronald and Brian Hatch.

How about some true statesmanship Mr Prime Minister, if you're up to it?

Lud Kerec, Forde

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