However, because it requires a modicum of subtlety not to conflate this issue with the related one of refugees, even the Greens won't touch it for fear of being labelled racist.

Traffic congestion, creaking infrastructure, bursting schools and hospitals, unaffordable housing, ecological destruction and strains on our resources are all driven in part by the almost 200,000 immigrants who arrive each year. Why do we take in this many people?

Because it automatically gives a bump of 2 per cent to GDP, which for some reason we still use as a measure of our success as a society.

It is time Australia had a mature conversation about the number of people we can sustainably add and not get mixed up in the other conversation about our humanitarian responsibilities. All of us know that Sydney and Melbourne have been turned into unlivable, sclerotic messes of traffic and mortgage stress. As a native-born Canberran, I fear it is slowly going the same way here.

Gray Charlton, Narrabundah

Who cares whether the "tradie" in the Liberal Party commercial is fake or not. What is important is that the ad is both shameful and awful in its purpose. The ad asks people to believe that the Labor Party is declaring "war" on banks, negative gearing, goodness and dinky di-ness.

This is about as low as any political party can go in its efforts to win an election. Who in their right mind is going to believe a tradie, or for that matter anyone, "loves" their bank? Former Tourism Australia boss Scott Morrison failed with his "Where the bloody hell are you" ads, and the Liberals have failed dismally with this piece of nonsense.

E.R. Moffat, Weston

When I read that the Australian Sex Party had been ordered to take down its "Screw the major parties" and "Tax the church" signs ("Sex Party ordered to remove 'offensive' signs", June 23, p5) I felt myself back in the Australia of my youth, when guardians of public morals regularly banned books they deemed offensive.

But then I read the article "Seselja hits out at abortion clinic protest laws as an attack on freedom" (June 23, p1) in which the senator is reported to have said that "the laws were incompatible with freedom of speech and religion and should be changed".

Now I eagerly await reading that Senator Seselja has criticised the censorship of the Sex Party's signs on the grounds that it is incompatible with free speech.

Fred Pilcher, Kaleen

The Australian Medical Association, which has supported most of Labor's health policies, has categorically stated that the basis of Labor's claim that the Coalition will outsource Medicare payments is "in no way" a privatisation of Medicare.

Malcolm Turnbull on Monday's hostile Q&A program, emphatically stated that Medicare will never ever be privatised.

In desperation, Bill Shorten, Labor's advertising, the union's $35million advertising blitz, and 20,000 hardened unionists all perpetuate the lie that the Coalition is privatising Medicare. Voters should be offended by this insult to their intelligence!

Johann Sheller, Forrest

David Pope's editorial cartoon (Times2, June 23, p1) on Medicare excelled. He understands that the freeze on GPs' rebates will inevitably reduce bulk-billing and increase co-payments. It is a pity that Peter Brent ("Fictions rule campaign trail", Times2 June 23, p1) thinks that ALP claims about Medicare privatisation are nonsense.

Brent does not understand that privatisation is not just about selling government assets. Any withdrawal of government support that leads to increased private payments meets the definition of privatisation.

Tony Harris, Narrabundah

Jenna Price's article about privatising Medicare ("How Coalition is already privatising Medicare", Times2, June 21, p5), quotes an RMIT academic saying "Australians have not benefited"from the privatisation of Telstra. Nonsense. When Telstra (and Australia Post) were the Postmaster-General's Department, they were not regarded as business undertakings with consumers of their services paying for those services; taxpayers were subsidising them quite heavily every year.

With privatisation, consumers now pay for the services they get, rather than taxpayers – so reducing taxes below the level they'd otherwise be, as well as conforming with the "user pays" principle that makes for a more efficient economy.

R.S. Gilbert, Braddon

If more than one male a week was killed, hundreds injured and thousands terrified by their violent female partners, Alan McNeil's comments (Letters, June 22) might have some point. Until then, it is inexcusable for men to make light of the violence perpetrated against women in our society. It is just as appalling for someone to advise women to "grow up" and "try smiling for a change" – as they are being bashed and their children terrorised by their violent male husbands andpartners.

Bill Handke, Kambah

I'm not so sure that Eddie McGuire's comments about Caroline Wilson were sexist; at least to begin with. Wilson has been quite critical of McGuire, and McGuire doesn't like that one little bit.

I suspect he was having a go at her journalism, not her gender. But one thing I am sure of is that McGuire's "apology" was no such thing.

It was one of those Tony Abbott apologies where he expresses regret if anyone's delicate sensibilities were upset by anything he said. That's not an apology.

Eddie McGuire is too arrogant to genuinely apologise to anyone.

S.W. Davey, Torrens

Whenever I read the bizarre reasoning of the anti-live export brigade (Letters, June 20 and 21), I am reminded of the old UN joke on the confrontation between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus. As the story goes, the UN intervened and listened gravely to Greece and then Turkey, and then moved a motion to censure Israel! A rational response to this would be to use economic, cultural and especially immigration sanctions against those countries to force them to adapt to Western civilised sensitivities. But no, the anti-live export brigade respond by attacking Australian farmers.

These ignoramuses don't really care that the abuse happens, and that without sanctions the abuse will continue in the absence of "Australian" animals, but gleefully seize any chance to attack the economy of their own country and people who don't vote correctly.

Christopher Smith, Braddon

What's wrong with this country, when we can send animals on journeys of weeks on end and treat them as worthless creatures in conditions that reflect so poorly on our need to make a dollar over any other consideration? We ought to be ashamed.

Our callous rural industries need to be made to toe the line and act as decent human beings and not to regard the care of our animals as of little interest.

Rex Williams, Ainslie

David Z. Hughes (Letters, June 21) conveniently overlooks that when a Christian of Anglo-Celtic origin – regardless of his gardening skills – murders someone in cold blood to fulfil his ideology, the word "terrorist" is not immediately and arbitrarily applied, nor does the event trigger a widespread anti-Christian campaign across the Western world.

Modern language usage also happens to make a clear distinction between "apologetics" and "contextualisation".

Luca Biason, Latham

The recent vandalism of the Hughes bronze sculpture (lady in pearls) and now the theft of a bronze fountain from a front garden ("Huge solid bronze fountain stolen from front garden", June 22, p8) must not be tolerated in our city.

It is interesting to visit Rapid City, South Dakota, where on the corner of each city block they have a full-size sculpture of one of the past US presidents. There's no vandalism throughout that city! Why is it that they value and respect their publicart?

What can the schools and the ACT government do to instil some long-overdue community pride in our public art? I know that there are some sculpture works around our city that not everyone finds aesthetically pleasing, but I dread to think what vandalism would have been carried out if there were statues of our past prime ministers on the corners of on our city blocks.

Come on, Canberra, we can do better than this.

B. Flint, Greenway

Contrary to Graham Downie's claims (Letters, June 17), the ACT government's proposal to provide green bins for garden waste are not a "cynical" ploy but an important new service that the people of Canberra have asked for. A green waste bin will be a convenient way for Canberrans to keep their backyards beautiful and to help keep our streets neat and tidy. It will make it easier for households to collect and dispose of leaf litter that can clog stormwater pipes and pollute our waterways. It will also reduce the amount of garden waste that goes to landfill.

The only responsible way to deliver a green bins program is a phased rollout. We're making sure we get it right by conducting a pilot in one region before a wider rollout, just like the recycling bin rollout. It will be an opt-in scheme, so those that don't want bins won't have to have one. There will be a one-off, cost-recovery fee of $50 and bins will be collected every fortnight. Concession cardholders will receive their bin for free.

Meegan Fitzharris, Minister for Transport and Municipal Services

TO THE POINT

PRIVATISED MEDICARE

If the payment system for Medicare is privatised, surely it will mean an increase in costs. What company would run the system if they could not make a profit?

Hugh McGowan, Holt

EDDIE'S WATER JOKE

I can only imagine the world being a better place if Alan McNeill (Letters, June 22) were held under water for a few minutes. But don't worry, Alan, grow up, keep on smiling; it's just a joke.

Robert Patch, Kambah

Alan McNeill (Letters June 22) reckons there would be no outcry if Eddie McGuire's joke had been about a man. I agree, and also not funny. Perhaps McNeill could substitute an Indigenous person, refugee, drug addict, or a cat for Caroline Wilson. For some, the impulse to snicker returns. Easy from a privileged position.

Susan Archer, Yarralumla

I could not have said it better, Alan McNeill, particularly when Caroline (Ms Precious) Wilson's) own radio team had expressed the exact same sentiment. Get over it.

Kerri Crowe, Calwell

For decades I believed that the man who shot Liberty Valance was the bravest of them all. That accolade must now surely go to Alan McNeill.

Ken Brazel, Weston

TALK ABOUT INFERIOR!

We've received a Labor Party card lambasting the Liberals for the "inferior network" that they are making of the NBN. This from the people who are foisting a 19th century transport system on Canberra!

Charles Hirst, Latham

UNBELIEVABLE OCCURRENCE

I am watching on my iPad something unbelievable occurring in Britain and wondering whether the unthinkable could occur in the US in November.

Justin McCarthy, Chapman

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