As part of the negotiations between the AWU and the company, had the one-off payment not been paid then I would expect there would have been other negotiations for a higher employee wage increase, with each employee then required to pay the AWU their union fees.

A one-off payment is nothing more than a simple process that satisfies everyone, especially the construction company who was also able to negotiate other worker trade-offs that provided millions of dollars in savings and completion of the job well in advance of the specified time frame.

The royal commission is nothing more than a Liberal Party "witch hunt" against the AWU and Bill Shorten in particular.

Jack Wiles, Gilmore

Congratulations to the Canberra Times for highlighting the trashing of our parliamentary system by Bronwyn Bishop, our current Speaker in the federal parliament with the articles by Irfan Yusuf ("Speaker or cheerleader for Abbott's regime?", Forum, June 20, p7) and Judith Ireland ("Speaker Bishop should give politics a shake", Forum, June 20, p2).

Impartiality in the chair is central to the workings of any parliament. Question time is much lampooned by all the media as indicative of the failings of our political leaders to be mature and responsible.

Yet Bronwyn Bishop is allowed to trash this important office on a daily basis. Her arrogance and sense of self before all else beggars belief.

This bias shows total contempt for our democratic principles and parliamentary processes. By being so biased in expelling members during QT she is thumbing her nose at the taxpayers and Australian citizens who have voted into office Labor politicians to represent them in the federal parliament. Her ability to get away with this is tolerated and even supported by Tony Abbott. Her attack on Gillian Triggs on ABC TV was an absolute joke. It was the height of hypocrisy and arrogance. The media has a vital role to play in protecting our democratic processes. The current vacuum in that area is atrocious.

Patrick O ' Hara, Isaacs

The central message of Pope Francis's encyclical, "Laudato si" is directed to humans everywhere and not just to Catholics or Christians. It is that we can, and must urgently transform our relationship to nature and our understanding and care about "the common good.

The Pope's message deserves wide discussion by all Australians and could perhaps help us through the current political quagmire.

Kitchen Table Conversations are relatively new tools that are being used widely to engage ordinary people in time-limited discussions about issues that matter to them.

Each conversation needs a host, a scribe, six to 10 participants, a few simple ground rules and a starter question. The starter question for this purpose could be "What changes do we want to see in Australian society by the year 2035 and how will we get there?"

The 183 pages of the encyclical are too long for general use, but its central messages could be distilled in a brief overview for pre-reading by invitees to the discussions. The discussions could be initiated by churches, synagogues, mosques, schools, unions and NGOs around Australia.

We urgently need a new Australian story. We have been brainwashed into believing that the modern economic framework is the only one that makes sense.

Francis gives the lie to that. The problems facing humanity are dire but soluble. Until we accept those two realities (both dire and soluble) we will stay locked in to the current story.

Bob Douglas, Aranda

Attendance at two films screening now in Canberra offer important insights into our psyche. One, The Emperor's New Clothes, is about the rapid acceleration of inequality in Britain and the other, Walking the Camino, follows the spiritual and physical struggles of particular people on an ancient pilgrimage route in Spain. I saw both films: the former was attended by six people whereas the latter was viewed by a packed audience.

Added to my weekend experience was Geraldine Doogue's Saturday Extra interview with a senior economist from the IMF on Radio National. This interviewee was quoting an international study which shows that inequality is bad both for growth and sustainability.

The problem for the human species, as I see it, is how to transform our obsession with the nuances of our personal lives into energy with which we can face the very well-documented and urgent challenges we now share.

Jill Sutton, Watson

I do not agree with Frank Marris (Letters, June 19) that the Whitlam government had no effect on the status of British subjects and Australian citizens. I was in the RAAF at the time and I recall that all the British "foreigners" had to get naturalised to be in the Australian Defence Forces. They acquired dual citizenship.

I had at the time, and still do have, a Latvian citizenship. The Whitlam government decided to recognise Russian sovereignty over the Baltic states. Consequently, I became a communist Russian citizen serving in the Australian Defence Force. Fortunately Malcolm Fraser restored the status of the Baltic States. Obviously, a government can change the rules for citizenship as it wants. However, it will be a big worry to me, and could be to all holders of dual citizenship, if the status of a citizen will be left to the whims of a single individual.

John Simsons, Holt

The ACT government's Active 2020 strategy to nurture and support increased participation in sport and fitness activities is the type of far-sighted vision that makes the ACT a great place to live.

However, exactly how Andrew Barr's myopic decision to impose after-hours pay parking at the Civic Pool car park will help to implement this strategy is inexplicable. Contrary to the best advice of the econocrats, swimmers and other pool users do not park adjacent to the pool in order to avoid walking to the intersection, waiting at the traffic lights, crossing the road, walking down the street and going down the stairs to the underground car park simply to deprive the National Convention Centre of parking fees.

They park beside the pool to get in and out as quickly as possible on these cold, wet winter nights. If this decision to target people who seek to improve their health and fitness stands, the small number of pool users who park beside the pool will pay. But if one or more forgets to pay the parking meter once too often, and gives it all away, we will all pay.

We will pay in increased healthcare costs, reduced workplace productivity, more work days lost to illness, and increased disability and aged-care support costs. And we will pay many times more than the pittance raised in parking fees. This decision displays all the economic lunacy, social vandalism and political death wish of Joe Hockey's first budget, and if allowed to stand it will draw the same level of contempt from ACT voters at the next election.

John Collis, Narrabundah

Jamison Centre now has a speed limit of 40km/h, which is a good idea for safety; but does the street surrounding the centre, Bowman Street (which is about 700 metres long) really need 20 x 40km/h signs?

Steven Hurren, Macquarie

TO THE POINT

The Canberra Times wants to hear from you in short bursts. Email views in 50 words or fewer to

letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au

SUPERMARKET BATTLE

Brilliant! The ACT government does not have the gumption or wisdom to stop Woolworths from building a large supermarket in the Giralang local shopping centre, so the SupaBarn in Kaleen group centre, only one kilometre away, is selling out to Coles ("ACT supermarket swoop", June 20, p1). No bets on who will win the battle for market share.

R.I. Boxall, Hawker

PAYING FOR RAIL

Sorry, David Parson (Letters, June 22), but how are we all going to pay for light rail if it's not through increased rates, driving licence fees, registration fees, parking fees and any other fees and charges the ACT government can think of?

Col Whittaker, Torrens

POLITICAL RISK

I fear the ACT's government's obsession with their little train tracks is going to allow the Opposition to do "a Bradbury" and sweep into power. Quite sad, really.

Kim Fitzgerald, Deakin

IDEA WITH MERIT

The man whose vote was required to give ACT Labor the government at the last election and who has gone on to promote light rail as payment for his support, at least shows that occasionally he has an idea with merit.

Shane Rattenbury's initiative to allow for deceased people in the ACT to be buried without a coffin is progressive, popular and, as a result, affordable, unlike his light rail.

Rhys Stanley, via Hall, NSW

SHORTEN SUPPORT

Attention the Coalition. Please keep denigrating Bill Shorten. I will be even more determined to vote for him, and will try to convince all my pensioner friends to do likewise.

F. Moore, Melba

OPPOSITE WORLD

Education Minister Christopher Pyne has said the government believes it has a particular responsibility for independent schools that it doesn't have for public schools ("Rich parents asked to open wallets", June 22, p1) What?

We seem to have slipped through to my son's "opposite world", where up is down and bad is good. And the government wants to fund non-government schools, but wants parents to pay for government schools. No, just no.

Kylie Evans, Murrumbateman, NSW

No doubt, user-pays for high-income earners to send their kids to public schools will have the full support of the Greens given their support for much the same public policy for pensioners.

John Passant, Kambah

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