The taxi industry welcomes competition but simply wants a level playing field. If taxis get less work in their 24 hour a day work cycle due to an inundation of Uber operatives then taxis operators will go broke and leave.

Then there will be fewer s taxis and a greater reliance upon unregulated or less regulated Uber operatives to meet what will then be increasing public demands. Will those operatives undertake to see the intoxicated home after midnight? Will they in fact be there today but gone tomorrow? Are these APP operatives prepared and committed to working all hours of the day and night? How much wear and tear on their cars do they expect to be able to tolerate?

Your editorial should have been a caveat emptor, headed "Public should prepare for change" for it is their unrealistic expectations of Uber being available at their beck and call that will not likely be unrealised.

P.M. Button, Cook

Let's have some commonsense and insight from our industry leaders. The Business Council of Australia, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia and the Australian Industry Group have attacked the Liberal opposition in the ACT Legislative Assembly for stating they would cancel the light rail project if elected in 2016 ("Libs warned not to cancel rail contract", September 28, p3) on the grounds that this would cause sovereign risk.

This is scaremongering, and flies in the face of the increasing disquiet that is developing over this project.

It also could be disingenuous, because it has been alleged that these business leaders are to some extent conflicted by their connections to tenderers for the contract. Tens of thousands of Canberrans have by now voiced their opposition to light rail, for good reasons: it is outdated and inflexible technology, and the feasibility and economics do not stack up.

So please don't attack the Liberal opposition for trying to save Canberra ratepayers from this enormous waste of public money. Blame for any supposed sovereign risk would lie fairly and squarely with the current ACT government, which has stubbornly and autocratically imposed this scheme on us without taking into account the evidence against it.

Surely the solution to our city's future mass transit is a radically improved, expanded and flexible bus service, using more, smaller, buses, eventually converting to electric power, based on rapidly developing battery technology, and operating on a wider and denser network.

Sandy and Margaret Paine, Griffith

B. Dudek (Letters, September 30) has not thought too long about the substances of his arguments in favour of delaying the signing of any light rail contracts. Underlying his proposition is the hope that if the opposition wins the next ACT Assembly election it would have a mandate to cancel the contracts. Labor argued for light rail at the last election so presumably has a "mandate" to proceed.

Equally, his "responsible and sensible" course is a recipe for doing nothing. We will simply have a rerun of that argument after, and before, every election on the off chance that power will change hands.

T. Brown, Fadden

The Capital Metro Agency's "new look eNewsletter" is a must read for fans of the ABC's Utopia.

The section "Project Update", in the largest font, reveals that two bids have been received. But no names of the bidders, and definitely no bids.

Presumably they are commercial in confidence, and only for the eyes of the ministers working for us.

The rest of eNewsletter is much more informative – that is if one is interested in, for example, a party at the shops or Canberra's rail heritage. Rob Sitch and the gang could not do better.

B. Paine, Red Hill

WIN local television (broadcast from Wollongong) is spruiking that unless the communications laws are changed that we will lose local content. What a joke, as we lost our local content when they started broadcasting from Wollongong. We no longer have local news at all on Saturday or Sunday. And as an example, Tuesday night's newsreader at 5pm said there was a child falling down a 60-metre cliff at Mount Anislie near Canberra.

There is no cliff; it is Mount Ainslie and it is in the centre of Canberra. So much for their dedication to local content.

Steven Hurren, Macquarie

West Basin is a landscape to be saved. West Basin is a critical lakeshore landscape within the area defined as national significance. Even with a slick new landscaped promenade, alienating the land for private residences should not happen. Once gone the land cannot be retrieved.

Speaking on ABC radio (September 29) Ben Pontin, of the ACT government's Land Development Agency, noted that the basin was under-utilised and that the development would make it "vibrant". How can packing West Basin with privately owned buildings with no public parking make it "vibrant" for the public and visitors to Canberra? The buildings will kill the beautiful vistas from Commonwealth Avenue replacing them with in-your-face 6-8 storey high apartments, kill vibrant free space use in the basin, and prevent the nationally popular Floriade from being held in Commonwealth Park.

The landscaping work for Point Park (at the bridge end of the Basin) is costing $10million and the promenade will cost tens of millions more. It would be better to forgo the landscaping work and use the money for the land bridge.

Keep West Basin with its vistas as "under-utilised" public open space for present and future Canberra community activity venues and informal use.

Juliet Ramsay, Burra, NSW

If Scott Barklamb ('Fossil fuel edict laughable", Times2, September 30, p4) hopes to play the conscience card among the jokers, he would do better to focus less on raising the millions of India from energy poverty – I believe Narendra Modi has some plans of his own here – and worry more about preventing the neighbouring millions of Bangladesh from sinking under the rising tides caused by burning his revered fossil fuels.

Just as the developing world has leapfrogged copper landlines and gone direct to mobile phone technology, they will achieve energy prosperity through modern, inter-linked micro grids, predominantly powered by clean and ever cheaper and more efficient renewables. Unless, of course, Mr Barklamb is actually fulfilling some kind of secret heritage council black ops grant to revive as many discredited canards and cliches as possible within 800 words? Either way, both the many millions of people in the developing world and the many thousands of affected workers in Australia would be well advised to ignore his atavistic advocacy and turn to technologies and industries with a future.

Felix MacNeill, Dickson

In an interesting juxtaposition, articles by Nicholas Stuart ("It'll be steady as she goes", Times2, September 29, p1) and Hugh White ("Payne treading a minefield", Times2, September 29, p4) both related to the coming Defence White Paper. Kathryn Spurling (Letters, September 29) supported the view that "the primary role of the army is to fight and win". It can be argued that this role is really to deter attack. Such reasoning is at the heart of institutions such as the police force and the tax office. Both are resourced on the basis of being capable of effective action when deterrence fails.

In terms of the White Paper, there are two crucial elements: the assessment the threat and the assessment of the resourcing needed to act as a deterrent and counter the threat if deterrence fails. Australia's military deterrent comprises a resourced standing component and a partially resourced reserve capability. Its effectiveness depends on the accuracy of the threat assessment and associated warning times. Linked to this is the accuracy of the lead times required to train forces, acquire equipment and build up stock levels. The complexity of modern arms means such lead times are increasing (although partially offset with training simulators and a responsive defence industry). Stuart suggests that the draft White Paper lacks "insight", while White recommends that Marise Payne "bin it". Rather than allowing the process to be politicised, it is hoped that the minister will accede to the professionalism of our Defence personnel (as argued in Spurling's letter).

Bruce Cameron, Campbell

Bill Deane (Letters, September 29) seeks to lecture us on the alleged virtues of austerity. His example of post-war Britain doesn't quite fit the bill however. In both the 1945 and 1950 British elections, Labour was the winner on its promise for the future – a nation with a national health system and full employment together with welfare from the cradle to the grave. That these goals were not altogether realised is less important than the fact that the British people at the time saw them as a blessed relief from the deprivations of wartime austerity and responded accordingly at the polls.

Mr Deane also cites post-war Germany as an example of a nation rising triumphantly from the ashes. To credit this re-emergence somehow as a tribute to austerity ignores the impact of the Marshall Plan, the great US post-war initiative to help Germany, and more widely Europe, rebuild its economic and democratic bases. That British tradesmen responded eagerly to the opportunities presented, reflects not so much their support for austerity at home but their desire to escape from it.

Eric Hunter, Cook

A "little" economic austerity of the sort experienced in post-war Britain and Germany, judiciously applied, would work wonders for us, says Bill Deane (Letters, September 29). Treasurer Scott Morrison – "work, save, invest" – appears to have the same mindset. Let's think outside that narrow box. Our society needs compassion more now than ever.

Jan Gulliver, Lyneham

While Prime Minister Turnbull was at a national police remembrance day, the share market plunged (again) wiping $55 billion from investors' holdings. How can the economy recover when the Coalition and Labor did (and do) nothing to stop big business sending thousands of jobs to low-wage countries? This enriches them, but impoverishes Australian workers and their families. Poor and jobless people can't buy much. As Big Biz income drops, Big Biz reaps what it sowed. Remember Paul Keating's "Recession we had to have"? 'That won't happen if Turnbull copies Kevin Rudd's 2007 jobs stimulus.

Graham Macafee, Latham

Don't include me

The endearing H. Ronald hopes that Turnbull's Phalanx continues Brer Abbott's fight and that "we may yet be able to get this country moving" (Letters, September 30). Do I detect a note of hubris here? Is H. Ronald using the royal "we" or is H. Ronald indicating that H. Ronald is a soldier in the phalanx? In either case, H. Ronald's use of "we" certainly doesn't include me. H. Ronald also poses a question: which direction will the motion take? I have my opinion on this. I await, with some trepidation, H. Ronald's response.

Dick Parker, Page

I imagine that most of us will have worked in an environment in which some individuals have clearly advanced to at least one level above their level of competence: I suspect that both Tony Abbot and Julia Gillard fall into this category.

Both were very competent ministers but failed to master the necessary oversight skills necessary for a PM. By comparison, both Bob Hawke and John Howard knew how to guide ministers but still allow them get on with their tasks without micromanaging them. Let's hope that Malcolm Turnbull will fall into this latter category.

And as for Kevin Rudd – a category unto himself!

Roger Dace, Reid

Shane Rattenbury is turning the ACTION bus fleet into rolling propaganda for his favourite ideological fixations ("Junk food, gambling among bus ads ban", September 28, p1).

Advertisements for "junk food" will be banned from buses lest children be brainwashed into an unhealthy lifestyle inconsistent with "community expectations and the government's objectives".

The expression "junk food" is a meaningless one and its use shows profound ignorance. There is no such thing as "junk food". There are all sorts of foods with different amounts of the various constituents in infinite variety. They all contain calories and they all make you fat if you eat too much of them. Consider the usual unholy trinity of "salt, sugar and fat".

Salt is perfectly harmless if your heart and kidneys are working well, and even if they are not, excess salt is easily removed by medication. Any effect of salt on your blood-pressure is negligible. Too much sugar puts weight on and is bad for diabetics but that is hardly news to anyone and we really don't have to be told. Fat has more calories and too much of it will make you fat. But then, too much of anything will make you fat. And too much protein is pretty bad for you if you have bad kidneys.

How much is too much fat, salt or sugar? Could Mr Rattenbury and his highly-paid advisors give us some figures? Meanwhile, will they spare us the simplistic and brainless mantra of "junk food"?

Dr Alan N. Cowan, Yarralumla

Parents, not Shane Rattenbury, should be responsible for assessing what food is fed to Canberra's children. For a government overseeing huge increases to residents' costs of living, this is a folly. Sadly, though, I am hardly surprised, because this government seems to in fact be the "nag factor" itself.

As for a meat pie ban at the footy, I want more taste available at Canberra stadium, not less.

Matt Watts, Belconnen

CLOSURE ANNOYING

The main building of the National Arboretum was "closed all day for a private function" on Tuesday! The children's playground and a very small "cafe" remained open, with a couple of movable toilets down in the car park.

Should this taxpayer-funded facility be closed for such "private functions", particularly during school holidays when many families from across the Australia are visiting their national capital?

Keith Hammond, Campbell

THEFT A SETBACK

Brickbats to the inconsiderate person who stole a wheelbarrow from Mount Ainslie recently. The barrow was chained at a revegetation site tended by volunteers of the Mount Ainslie ParkCare group. The unscrupulous thief cut the chain and took off with the barrow, thus depriving the group of an important piece of equipment.

Mt Ainslie Weeders ParkCare group, Ainslie

SEAT BID HYPOCRISY

So Australia is seeking a seat on the UN Human Rights Council in 2019: what hypocrisy, when in 2015 Australia will not ensure respect for the human rights of those unfortunates, particularly the women and children, trapped on Manus and Nauru.

Sheena Dickins, Braddon

MORALLY BANKRUPT

Israel has opened fire on the Gaza Strip on "at least 696 occasions" since the August 2014 ceasefire, the UK government has told its parliament. No doubt all with the approval of the US along with its 66 Security Council vetoes in favour of the inhumane behaviour of Israel. If any country is morally bankrupt it is the US, supported all the way by the obliging Julie Bishop voting against Palestine at every opportunity. However, not with the approval of the Australian people.

Alan McNeil, Weetangera

UBER QUESTION

Is it UberX, uber Black or uber alles?

Colliss Parrett, Barton

PASSING OUT THE PORK

You've got to hand it to new federal Treasurer Scott Morrison for sheer gall. Two weeks into the job, with the economy collapsing under him, he is pork barrelling already! He's spending $70million on a tax office in a marginal Liberal seat, while there are hundreds of empty offices all over Australia, vacated by the 4700 tax office staff sacked by the Abbott/Hockey duo "to save money". Many of these tax experts were snaffled up by the tax avoidance industry.

Morrison has the hide of a rhinoceros.

Richard Keys, Ainslie

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