He has implied that he (and, presumably his government) would be happy with a 20th-century rather than a 21st-century rail service.

Granted, any improvement is better than none, but why settle for second-best at a time when it is so cheap to borrow money, and it's especially acceptable if it creates Mr Morrison's "good debt".

Various ACT governments have been very good at settling for the second-best, cheaper option, then having to upgrade it at significantly greater expense than if it were done right in the first place.

Gungahin Drive and Horse Park Drive are just two examples of where this has happened or will happen.

The ACT government should be joining forces with the Victorian and Queensland governments to persuade the NSW government to co-operate in building a 21st-century very fast train (VFT — like the latest TGV models in France or the new VFT network in China) linking Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane.

Building it is not going to get cheaper, and interest rates cannot stay so low for much longer. Now is the time.

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

Like Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, my wife and I recently took the Sydney Xplorer.

There are two parts to a Sydney Xplorer trip from Canberra to Sydney.

Part One has slow, steam-era tracks from Canberra to Goulburn.

Upgrade that to fast welded-rail tracks and our rail woes vanish.

Part Two has fast welded-rail tracks from Goulburn to Sydney.

Canberra was founded as a small enclave in the huge state of New South Wales.

Hence funding priorities by the NSW government favour NSW (not ACT) works.

Much of the Barton, Kings and Federal highways remain as two-lane roads.

From Campbelltown to Central Sydney Xplorer was non-stop.

Best of all: country and suburban trains have separate tracks.

We went from Campbelltown to Central in 35 minutes.

Please don't knock Sydney's sky-high house prices.

The NSW government gets millions in stamp duties.

One benefit is old suburban trains were scrapped.

In their place are sleek 8-car, two-storey trains.

New CBD skyscrapers grow like mushrooms.

The best cure for Canberra blues is Sydney.

Graham Macafee, Latham

The Commonwealth and the ACT are pursuing the "normalisation" of development in Canberra's Central National Area, sneering at the concept of an exemplarily national capital.

It began in 2005 with a politically directed "Canberra Central Task Force".

Unique "Civic" became cringing "City", without public consultation. The "Griffin Legacy" plans appeared, in which "land economics" dominated responsible planning and design.

Constitution Avenue, City Hill, and West Basin were "rezoned" from national-capital and civic uses with fine landscaped settings, to high density commercial and private-residential.

Canberra airport was sold off and removed from the control of the National Capital Authority, resulting in a development imbalance, and major traffic problems.

An intrusive extension on the important Vernon Circle facade of our fine Supreme Court is proceeding after land earmarked for the extension was sold off.

Now, the Commonwealth is selling key buildings in the National Triangle itself. The important West Block, and Anzac Park West and East are included, with private residential the preferred use.

National capital uses found (and financed) for those buildings in their preserved and restored forms.

Annexes for the National Library and National Gallery of Australia could work for Anzac Park West and East, realising Griffin's vision for the northern lakeshore.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

Re: "ACT roo cull will crossover into NSW", May 16, p.3.

This article reports the cull numbers will increase this year and have also increased for the past four years.

Could the ACT Minister for roo culling, whoever that may be, advise by what year the cull numbers are expected to be reduced?

If we are in fact losing the battle, perhaps we should hand the land back to the roos for they are obviously winning the war.

Or, are we in truth actually involved in a growth industry?

C. J. Johnston, Duffy

How bizarre to read your article "Unsustainable labour challenges leave vegetable supplies to rot" (May 15, p.5) when we know there's a pool of thousands of strong young refugees on temporary protection visas desperate to work but banned from even casual employment.

They are bored stupid watching TV or playing cards all day in overcrowded flats, scraping by on minimal welfare. All they want is to be the productive new workers the country needs; not least our vegetable growers.

Tim Macnaught, Narrabundah

Watching Craig Reucassel's "War On Waste" (ABC, Tuesday, May 16) reminded me of a wise old man who used to say, to anybody listening, that "affluence causes waste".

Could that be our problem?

It seems to me that we have become a very wasteful society at every level.

The question is: how have we got to this point? Producers (farmers) blame distributors (supermarkets) who, in turn, blame consumers (us, the mums and dads and their families). Whatever.

We certainly can not afford to maintain this culture of utter wastefulness. Not financially or environmentally nor socially.

We should go back to the good old days of "waste not, want not" and we should thank Reucassel and the ABC for showing us that side of us we would much prefer not to acknowledge.

John Rodriguez, Florey

The recent screening of the documentary movie The Red Pill at the Sydney University and the attempt by radical feminist groups to stop its viewing has laid bare feminism as an ideology devoid of not only equality but reality.

The movie is about Cassie, who identified as a feminist before her journey of discovery when she began making the documentary on men's issues and the men's rights movements (it is not just one group).

In short, rather than finding men and the men's rights movement to be oppressive, sexist, wife-beating rapists as feminists would have us believe she found their concerns and issues to be real yet totally ignored by most and outright denied by feminists.

Cassie has said all her feminist beliefs about men were challenged to the point she could no longer call herself a feminist.

So why are feminists so desperate to stop its viewing?

Because it can only increase the stampede of women who believe in equality departing from the ranks of feminism.

Or perhaps because it puts at risk the tax-payer-funded arrangements they have for their "women's issues only" feminist groups; they certainly don't want to share funding with any men in need.

Damon Fraser, Weetangara

The Coalition continues to proffer ersatz "solutions" to housing affordability that tap dance frantically around the elephant in the room: price. They pretend that putting more money in potential home buyers' pockets will do anything except further exacerbate already-stratospheric prices. Meanwhile, they preside over historically low wages growth and practise a determined bastardry in relation to their own employees' financial betterment.

In this context, increasing housing affordability means nothing less than reducing inflated house prices. Any other outcome is just Coalition weasel words and crocodile tears.

But how can we expect them to act against their own financial interests such as by reforming negative gearing and capital gains tax liabilities when so many of them are complicit in, and beneficiaries of, this taxpayer-subsidised rort?

In his excellent column of April 15, Crispin Hull outlined a range of measures that would go a long way to addressing this area of profound government policy failure and make housing more affordable. As he predicted, none of them appeared in the recent budget. Knock me over with a feather.

David Jenkins, Casey

While I recently waited in the supermarket queue my impatience grew as my stomach growled in hunger. I felt annoyed as I looked down at the food in my trolley, because I wanted to be at home cooking my dinner rather than waiting to be served.

As my stomach continued growling in hunger, I tried to stop myself feeling annoyed by thinking about the people suffering hunger pains in Africa.

With 20 million people currently facing a famine and starvation crisis in the countries Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria, the hungry, growling stomachs would be deafening across Eastern Africa at the moment.

The $303 million dollars Malcolm Turnbull heartlessly cut from the AusAid Budget last week could have gone a long way to preventing one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes from engulfing Africa.

Mr Turnbull, is there really anything left in the AusAid Budget to cut? Mr Turnbull, when will you recommit Australia to the UN Millennium Declaration?

Mr Turnbull, when will you ensure Australia contributes our fair share towards achieving the first UN Millennium Development Goal – eradicating extreme poverty and hunger?

Mr Turnbull, please don't cut another $303 million from the AusAid budget.

Elisha McMurray, Reservoir, Vic

Adrian Jackson (Letters, May 16) thinks that the French company ran the Hazelwood plant down and abandoned it without building a replacement plant.

The Victorian government forced the closure by tripling the royalties on brown coal, making the plant uneconomic.

On top of that the Renewable Energy Target (RET) made it impossible for the plant to function profitably. The RET requires grid managers to use renewable generated electricity in preference to fossil-fuelled.

There is a substantial fine for not using the mandatory amount allotted, which provides considerable incentive to use renewables.

No business will build a coal-fired plant while the RET is in effect as things are at present!

Britain has come upon the same problem and is subsidising fossil-fuelled plant(s) to make up for the losses that would otherwise have accrued while operating in an uneconomic fashion forced upon them by the mandatory use of subsidised, expensive, intermittent and therefore undesirable renewable generated electricity.

Private generators are not charities and must make a profit to continue operations.

While the RET is in operation we are going to see reduced reliability and increasing electricity price! Just look at the blackouts in SA and the price increases locally since the Hazelwood plant closed down.

John McKerral, Batemans Bay

It was quite touching to hear Dr Ken Henry AC, formerly Secretary of the Department of the Treasury, currently NAB chairman, repeatedly and sadly intone to Leigh Sales (7:30 Report, May 16), "We really have no option" but to pass this tax on to clients.

As I said, "touching" – in the hip pocket sense, of course.

He would put the touch on every one of NAB's clients.

Gary J.Wilson, Macgregor

The territory-sanctioned slaughter of healthy eastern grey kangaroos will soon begin in earnest. The government has been very busy reworking various instruments of legislation and management plans to ensure that it is finally capable of conducting a cull that is not deemed unlawful and illegal. Vale transparency, accountability and parliamentary scrutiny.

Chris Doyle, Gordon

It is good to see the ACT government exploring ways to improve the train service to Sydney. There is a significant problem, however, the nine stops to accommodate NSW travellers. Any negotiation with the NSW government must result in some non-stop services if the time is to compete with the road coaches.

David Purnell, Florey

Andrew Barr says it takes four hours by rail to travel between Canberra and Sydney. [He] wants to reduce this to two hours and is prepared to pay for the ACT's part of the line and rolling stock. He needs to convince NSW to do the rest. The conservative government in Canberra will have nothing to do with it.

Ken Morehouse, Wangaratta

Regarding Roger Clement's letter (letters, May 17) "Get cracking Mr Barr". Roger, nothing will be happening soon, if at all in the near future, because Chief Minister Mr Barr has to complete the "Rattenbury Tram Set" and will need all the money to complete the commander's request.

Mark Urquhart, Palmerston

I wonder why James Allan (letters, May 17) (only) says that God has allowed his representatives to rape little boys "for decades". I suspect that the revelations of a current royal commission are but a recent sampling of a pattern of sexual abuse that has existed for a very great deal longer than decades.

Peter Moran, Watson

A fundamental qualification for marriage is gender difference. A key feature of reality is distinction and difference in all of life, including on the sporting field.

Try mixing up Essendon and Collingwood players all in rainbow-coloured guernseys and see if they make any progress.

David D'Lima, Sturt, SA

Lately, the Brumbies and the Raiders are underperforming at the weekends.

Could the reason be that the players are believing what they read and say about themselves in The Canberra Times during the week?

R. J. Wenholz, Holt

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