The cruelty goes on and on, mental and physical health deteriorates, and nothing is done. Even if the "US deal" goes through, it will take a long time and will not provide a safe haven to everyone on Manus and Nauru.

Should some get to the US eventually, they may never recover from the trauma they have suffered. And what of the fate of the others? And why does Australia continue to refuse New Zealand's offer to take 150 asylum seekers?

This policy of deterrence is a prolonged torture which is unjustifiable. We would be shocked if criminals in our prisons were treated like this; why are we not shocked that innocent people are treated this way?

They must be brought to Australia, given the treatment they desperately need and allowed to pick up the pieces of their lives as well as they can. Furthermore, they should be compensated for the harm done to them, for which Australia should take full responsibility.

Clare Conway, Ainslie

Blood on our hands

I am beyond appalled at the slow and tortuous journey towards death by the hunger-striking asylum seeker detained on Manus Island, recorded by Michael Gordon (Forum, February 18, p.4).

How is this different from murder — instigated by Australians?

Offshore detention on Manus Island and Nauru is a policy justified on the grounds that it will deter future asylum seekers from undertaking possibly fatal boat voyages. But how hollow is this justification when it results in a more agonising death than drowning?

This policy causes horrible deaths. It enables torture. It has trashed Australia's reputation as a country of the "fair go". It denies asylum seekers their human rights.

It repudiates our international responsibilities.

I feel helpless in the face of bi-partisan political support of this inhumanity. I am unbelieving at the ineptness of a government whose refugee policies make our country beholden to the US.

I can only wonder at the continuing refusal to accept help for detainees from our generous and more humane neighbour, New Zealand. I fume at the inability of our politicians to earn their salaries by failing to find humane ways to help those who seek our help, and who prefer to spend their energies on the scare campaign of border protection.

All Australians are guilty of "murder" done in our name.

Thea Fisher, Kambah

No commute sympathy

I have absolutely no sympathy for Shannon Griffith ("Runaround for Murrumbateman parents", February 18, p.8) and her four-hour daily commute.

Shannon chooses to live in Murrumbateman — in NSW — and not in Canberra, and yet wants the convenience of having her children attend ACT public schools and – for herself – working in Civic.

She also sends her youngest child to childcare in Yass.

In other words, Shannon chooses to make the daily commute to Canberra (and Yass). Shannon could just as easily choose to live in Canberra and avoid the commute.

And there is another aspect to this. It is the rates (and other taxes) paid by ACT residents that pay for ACT public schools – the schools that Shannon wants to send her children to. By living in NSW, Shannon pays no taxes that go to the ACT Government to pay for the schools she wants her children to attend.

There are thousands of NSW-resident children attending ACT public schools. It is right that ACT public schools should preference against non-Canberrans where there are enrolment pressures.

Don Sephton, Greenway ACT

At least Hanson listens

My husband is a tradie employed by a business.

For the past 25 years he has worked 55-hour weeks to make his salary liveable.

We get no government handouts nor assistance and his wage with all that overtime would just put him in Senator Xenophon's target range to pay the increased medicare levy.

We are not well off , do not take lovely overseas holidays or buy all the latest technology, we cannot afford it.

We do our best to save for our retirement so as not to drain on the taxpayer.

We were brought up to not expect everyone else to pay for our lifestyle.

We are furious that Senator Xenophon wants to target workers like my husband and that the Prime Minister would even consider the idea.

Labor also seem to always want to target people on modest incomes who work long hours just so they can live modestly and we have had enough.

Politicians wonder why voters are switching to Pauline Hanson?

It is because she listens.

Michele Chapman, Macarthur

Not a good look

The end of another ANU Orientation Week. Learned young men and women from here and abroad soon to become pillars of their communities?

Apparently not, judging by the discarded detritus I witnessed on my Sunday morning walk.

Food, water and juice containers, beer and spirit bottles, smashed and intact through Hobart Place and the length of University Avenue through the Campus.

Along Rudd St towards the UniLodge garbage bins are available on most corners.

Please, show some respect for your new temporary home and to the locals and tourists who enjoy our Civic Centre.

Alan Sinclair, Canberra City

Relocation 'costly' according to Barnaby Joyce's own report

I refer to your story ("Bush towns told to bid for agencies", canberratimes.com.au, February11).

The relocation of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) from Canberra to Barnaby Joyce's electorate will cost Australian taxpayers $26million and the agriculture sectors many millions more.

That's not only my view; it's backed by Minister Joyce's own economic study of the relocation. A report he tried to hide from the Parliament and the community.

The Senate committee will further canvass the very real concerns the agriculture, crop protection and veterinarian medicines sectors have about the relocation.

Barnaby Joyce is trying to turn the inquiry into one about decentralisation. Moving an important agency out of Canberra and away from the Parliament and its customers (the chemical medicines companies) is not a regional job creation plan. Rather, it's a plan to destroy farm productivity and a threat to human and animal health.

Joel Fitzgibbon, shadow minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and shadow minister for Rural and Regional Australia, Cessnock, NSW

Deep hypocrisy

After trying to sneak through a move of the department to the airport just two years ago, the Secretary of Immigration and Border Protection is once again seeking to disadvantage thousands of Canberra residents and employees.

Residential developments in Belconnen and Gungahlin will see Canberra's northside population grow by over 10,000 in the next five years. Despite this, by its own calculations the department is going to spend $255million to move more jobs to the airport than is operationally necessary.

Whenever a Commonwealth agency puts jobs further away from where people live, it increases infrastructure costs to the ACT government as well as transport time and cost for all Canberra residents from increased traffic congestion.

There is a deep hypocrisy in the Commonwealth government seeing no problem in relocating the APVMA to regional areas, but refusing to converse with the ACT government on employment matters local to Canberra.

The ACT should be given a seat at the table with the Commonwealth about all major relocation activities.

It is vital for the sustainability of Canberra that employment in Belconnen and other town centres is maintained and increased over time.

No other major employer is as hands-off with local authorities as we see with the dismissive attitude of the Commonwealth government towards the ACT government.

Kim Fischer, Florey

Climate clarity

John Passant (Letters, February18) says the need for urgent action to address climate change and the threat posed by fossil fuels is "becoming clearer and clearer".

Yet the Hawke government in 1989 was sounding the alarm on climate change and the need for urgent action, taking a lead role internationally on theissue.

Maria Taylor in her 2014 book Global Warming and Climate Change: What Australia knew and buried describes how public knowledge about the risks posed by climate change was well developed in 1989 with the assistance of "greenhouse" conferences, popular science books, government documents, and a steady stream of media articles.

Maria also describes how the 1990s brought the increasing influence of neoliberal and free market economic policies, with industry concerns about economic "costs" entering public discussion, and "debate" being initiated.

History shows it can take 30 to 100 years between first early warning signs and subsequent effective action to protect public health and the environment. Consider the inertia associated with tobacco, asbestos, halocarbons and the ozone layer, radiation, or overfishing.

With climate change, the task is complicated by climate lag effects and the deeply embedded nature of the fossil fuel economy. Iconic wind turbines won't be anywhere near sufficient. The necessary redesign of growth-oriented societies challenges the "business as usual" growth and consumption assumptions of political parties, national governments, multinational corporations, and many people generally. I doubt the need for such deep change is "becoming clearer and clearer".

Murray May, Cook

John Smith (letters, February18) argues since our power stations only produce 0.4per cent of the world's carbon emissions, there is no point in trying to clean them up.

I could say the same thing about donating blood.

Whether I do or don't donate makes virtually no difference to the Australian blood supply. However, many Australians donate because together we make a major difference.

Australian efforts in carbon abatement lag behind many other comparable countries. We need to decide whether we want to be leaners or lifters.

We must decrease our own emissions as quickly as is practical, and encourage others to do the same.

The Coalition government is working in the opposite direction in both arenas.

In his Kitchen Cabinet appearance, Andrew Robb boasted that the original overthrow of Turnbull not only stopped effective action on carbon emissions in Australia, but also helped sabotage the Copenhagen Conference.

Tony Abbott went around the world proclaiming "Coal is good for humanity" and Malcolm Turnbull in his recent Press Club speech used our exports of steaming coal as justification for new local (slightly less dirty) coal-fired generators. Smith claims renewables were partly to blame for South Australia's two recent outages.

But what about the other causes? Failures of gas generators to do their job prolonged the first event and caused the second.

The way the National Energy Market works clearly needs improvement.

Paul Pentony, Hackett

When people rant about coal, is it metallurgical coal, without which we would have no pig iron and hence no steel (exports 222million tonnes) or thermal coal exports (333million tonnes) or domestic thermal coal consumption (63million tonnes)?

John L. Smith, Farrer

Unwelcome trump

What's in a name? Oxford Dictionary cites the usual well-known meanings of the word "trump"– a trumpet or its blast, defeating a rival at cards, outwitting an opponent etc. But how apposite in these strange times that it also gives the meaning "to break wind audibly".

Robert Taylor, Hawker

Turning brass into wood

In Sunday's Super Quiz (February 19, p.44) an "Easy" question is "To which section of the orchestra does the saxophone belong?" and the given answer is "Brass", which is incorrect. Their sound is produced by a vibrating reed, not the player's lips, so they are woodwind.

Mark Chapman, Palmerston

New CT challenge

I had such fun writing my own clues for the seven missing ones in Saturday's quick crossword. Is this to become a regular challenge for CT puzzle lovers?

Ann Goleby, Gowrie, NSW

NDIS and tax cuts

Parliament has just had more debate over funding the NDIS. We know the politicians' views. It would be nice if the big banks and corporates would state why tax cuts for them are more important to society than cuts to the welfare budget to fund the NDIS.

Digby Habel, Cook

Big tram spend-up

The economic genius who heads up the ACT government will have spent at least $2 million on that ugly container terminal. But don't worry about such insignificant sums; we have Rattenbury's tram coming!

Eric Hodge, Pearce

Upholding tradition

Give recognition to ACT Legislative Assembly members for upholding the tradition of "If it moves shoot it (kangaroo cull), and if it stands still chop it down (Northbourne)".

Bruce A. Peterson, Kambah

ACT comes first

Hey Zed. What comes first? The ACT or the Liberal Party? I think we know the right answer. I'm not sure you do.

Doug Hodgson, Pearce

Gnomes beware

Canberrans with Aboriginal garden gnomes should watch out now for Bec Cody.

Peter Sesterka, Hawker

Burra now 'remote'

I find it disappointing that those of us in the Burra valley, just 40 minutes from the centre of Canberra, will not be eligible for NBN fibre. Instead we will be expected to use SkyMuster, the satellite system intended to bring internet to remote rural locations.

Sarah Hairlyn, Burra, NSW

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