Those who surrender wholly- owned homes must wait for the whim of the taskforce for the knock-down/repurchase of their properties (no guarantees are given). This may result in a five-year wait during which time the market may rise by $50,000-$100,000 especially with the new rezoned status of the land.

This is inequitable in a scheme vaunted by Asbestos Response Taskforce head Andrew Kefford as being "fair", and is not necessary under the legislation. The intransigence on the matter of a fast sell/clean/resell to owners with say, a one-month turnaround (it only takes a day to knock down a house) is a major problem for owners.

June Cullen, Garran

Reading Emma MacDonald's article ("A home of 62 years, a heartbreak to leave", March 17, p1) about the elderly Yarralumla couple who have been given notice to leave their home by 2020 was upsetting.

A Canberra MLA was asked at a meeting recently how many cases of asbestos insulation resulting in deaths he knew about. He came up with one in Melbourne.

With the couple in question having lived in their Mr Fluffy house for many years and still with no ill effects I cannot see why they cannot live out their remaining years in the same manner.

A spokesman for the ACT government said there might be an unacceptable risk for people doing work around their house. It all seems a bit much.

In the view of many, the ACT government is long on good intentions but lamentably short of common sense.

Howard Carew, Isaacs

There have been a good number of interesting letters, articles and editorials on the pros and cons of the proposed demolition of the Dickson Tower buildings on Northbourne, but Eileen Boyldew's letter (March 16), is the first I've read which mentions the landscaping around these historic buildings. Yes, they were designed to fit into, and be complemented by, a generous amount of open space and parkland, including large trees with wide canopies. Their light sandy and white colour is very natural.

The buildings, three-storeyed, are also a similar height to the larger trees, and in all the photos in The Canberra Times can also be seen lots of sky and, therefore, light. If, as ACTPLA has suggested, only one of the towers be retained, the "and a number of significant trees" bit, would be essential to its integrity.

Urban infill yes, but at least make sure Northbourne Avenue retains some of its beautiful leafy-green and peaceful attributes, please!

A. Curtis, Florey

Strewth, Geoff Barker (Letters, March 17), what a ripper of an idea! Strine has many fabulously descriptive terms which need to resume their place in the lingo if we're dinkum about preserving at least some of our unique Aussie character. One particular American ring-in really gets on my goat – bathroom. Stuffed if I know why anyone other than a complete dropkick would attempt to relieve him/herself in the bathroom when there are bonzer toilets and dunnies to spend a penny in.

Jon Stirzaker, Latham

It should not be overlooked in any discussion about the future of the Canberra City Bowling Club that without the support of the Ainslie Group, Canberra City would have vanished 12 or more years ago. I well remember as secretary at the time, Ainslie throwing us a lifeline when we were at the point of shutting down because we were insolvent.

That said, I would deeply regret Ainslie vacating this beautiful property and having those lovely greens and their surrounds covered in flats. If Canberra City falls, it will be the first domino. Next would be the Braddon tennis club next door. Following that would be the rich prize of Northbourne Oval.

Would the extensive grounds of the Ainslie school then face pressure from the avaricious development lobby? All that green space absolutely wasted!

Canberra City, the tennis club, Northbourne Oval and the Ainslie school comprise a historic precinct in this young city. That the ACT government could allow its destruction is beyond comprehension. Yet wonderful open space in the form of other closed bowling clubs in Canberra has been, or will be, obliterated. So I don't hold out much hope for Canberra City and eventually the others. Nothing is of value in Canberra these days, just money.

Graeme Barrow, Hackett

Managing kangaroos is a tricky business. I've worked with kangaroos in the ACT for more than 16 years as a veterinarian and researcher. I've written scientific papers and I've even published a novel about them (The Grass Castle). The proposed fertility trial ("Roo fertility drug trials to begin", March 17, p1) will work quite well for enclosed populations but it will be much harder with roving, unfenced kangaroos.

Wild kangaroos are flighty and hard to dart. When you fire a dart, the others flee. The main issue will be darting enough of them to make a difference. Then there's the issue of variable efficacy of the drug (six months to six years). And with unmarked kangaroos, how will you tell who's been done? An army of flying ninjas with dart rifles and paintballs just might do it. I will follow this space with interest.

Karen Viggers, Aranda

Ray Edmondson (Letters, March 16) and Penleigh Boyd (Letters, March 18) extolled the underground power supplies for trams in Reims and Bordeaux. Of course Canberra can have a third rail system too. However, there will be a three-fold increase in infrastructure cost (high current switching circuits for the rail segments, insulation from other rails, etc), higher maintenance cost and lower reliability due to dirt, water and ice, and greater complexity.

In Bordeaux, the third rail system is used only in the central district because of the high cost. The trams revert to an overhead supply elsewhere. Canberra tram line is already too expensive compared to rapid transit lanes for conventional or electric buses.

John Simsons, Holt

I wish to bring to Joe Hockey's attention a few salient points about how people like me – supposedly useless and a drain on the economy– have contributed to the modern way of life in Australia.

I was born 1943, started nursing in 1960, married (a geophysicist), produced three children, and raised two (our first died). I have volunteered all my life, beginning with helping the Flying Doctor on mining crews, then with St Vincent de Paul and others here and overseas. At 72, I am still a volunteer. I cook for anyone who asks and I iron for a friend who had cancer everywhere.

I really resent being classed as a drain on the economy especially by a multi-millionaire who wouldn't know how the other part of society works. Hockey and the other members of this dysfunctional government are privileged, spoilt, precious little pains in the neck with so much time on their hands they think they can cure all ills. I have never voted Liberal and after the last 18 or so months of this government I never will.

Hockey should be very ashamed of himself. So should the rest of the "Team Australia" – what an oxymoron.

Good luck at the next election.

Mrs Frances Moore, Belconnen

It was amusing, or perhaps pathetic, to see Senator Eric Abetz pontificating on Wednesday about how the ALP is at odds with "best advice" on the issue of the week, university funding – that of university chancellors, supposedly.

Isn't there a current Liberal leader on record as stating that climate change is "absolute crap", even as the world's whole scientific community conservatively quantifies its catastrophic effects? Given that there is no evidence that this current Coalition – in opposition or now in power – ever taken any action or supported any policy except on the basis of far-right ideology (enough to embarrass even Malcolm Fraser), they could at the very least spare us such hypocritical rhetoric.

Alex Mattea, Kingston

I could allow that Jenna Price ("No-clue Nikolic lunges at academic freedom", Times2, March 17, p5) has the credentials to pronounce on academic and press freedom, but she knows nothing about military service if she thinks that it is based on "blind obedience".

Perhaps she is being mischievous for the purpose of attacking Andrew Nikolic but, if she seriously thinks that, she really should do some basic research. One might point out that, considering the Apple Isle alone,

Andrew Wilkie and Senator Jacqui Lambie are ex-military.

Clearly, it's a hotbed of blind obedience down there.

John Robbins, Farrer

Liberal Party Whip, and approvingly quotes her university's definition of academic responsibility as making a " ... significant contribution to society by drawing on their considerable knowledge and discipline expertise to support public discussion based on evidence, and on reasoned arguments".

Jenna Price, however, oddly ascribes Nikolic's approach to party discipline as being the result of his military training "... where it's blind obedience. So you can imagine, can't you, the kind of behaviour he [Nikolic] thinks is appropriate".

Now anyone, academic or not, with knowledge of military training would surely know that ADF personnel instead obey orders because – having been required to think about it considerably throughout their training – they realise that the complex, high-stress and often lethal activities we ask of our defence force rely utterly on combining mutual trust and individual initiative to achieve the necessary coherent teamwork. Whatever Nikolic may or may not believe, Jenna Price has clearly used only imagination and certainly no evidence to draw her subjective conclusions.

These cascading failures to live up to her own professed academic standards surely also constitute an even more inappropriate example of partisan polemic in public discussion than the one she alleges in another.

Neil James, executive director, Australia Defence Association

When someone condemns an action as being wrong, then it beggars the question of what is the contrary action that would presumably be right.

Gwenyth Bray (Letters, March 16) cites many statistics relating to casualties of the 2014 Gazan/Israeli conflict and, if correct, the statistics are indeed sobering. Ms Bray also acknowledges, in an attempt to be even-handed, that "Since 2001, Palestine [sic] has launched thousands of rockets into southern Israel [and] that the launching of rockets is a crime but so is the disproportionate response from Israel".

I would be interested if Ms Bray could shed some light on what she believes would have been a pro-portionate, and therefore acceptable, response from Israel to the continual rocket and other on-going security attacks by the Gazans.

Joan Foster, Amaroo

Reverend Zankin (Letters, March 17) is entitled to his opinion, but to be so dismissive, bordering on arrogant, of the views of a great Australian hero to many, without challenge, would not be right. It would pay Reverend Zankin to spend some time studying the life and contribution to Australian society by Professor Pat Dodson over many years.

While Professor Dodson does not need me to speak in his defence,his views require serious consideration. He is indeed the father of recon-ciliation and we are grateful to him. The confidence shown by Reverend Zankin in his own opinions is quite offensive when one remembers the disastrous consequences endured by Aboriginal people when we non-Aboriginal people claimed to have all the answers and inflicted them on powerless Aboriginal people. We are still living with the damage we caused. Let us learn from history.

Sue Schreiner, Red Hill

In his article comparing the working lives of office workers and tradies ("A day on the tools beats any desk job", Forum, March 14, p3), Mitchell Browne ended his piece by describing an office worker "glancing enviously out the window at the utes gliding by" as they head home before the rush hour. Apart from the fact I don't think I've ever seen a tradie's ute "glide" (most seem to roar by at least 10km/h over the speed limit), the reason the office worker is still as his desk is that he had taken time off work to meet a tradie at home during the day.

The tradie had arrived over an hour late, had had to go out and get a part, and spent a good deal of the time walking between his ute and the job and on the phone. For no good reason other than tradition, the tradie had parked on the nature strip, running over some valuable plants in the process. And it's because the tradie had charged more than the office worker gets for the same amount of time the job took (let alone lost wages) the office worker is still at work trying to make up time and wages instead of at home reading Les Murray and Peter Carey.

Dallas Stow, O'Connor

Some government organisations are using Facebook and Twitter for their primary feedback (eg, ABC Catalyst) but I don't want to join these. I distrust social media. How many others feel the same?

Online shopping is great but interaction with the stores seems to rely on email or the mobile. I have not had my smartphone grafted to my body yet – it is rarely on – so communication is delayed. How many others are not bonded to their phones?

I encourage all organisations to remember that not everyone follows the fashions of modern communication.

Robert Parker, Curtin

PYNE NEEDLES

So, Christopher Pyne has proclaimed himself a fixer, not a mender or repairer, and he is going to fix tertiary education. Since fix means castrate, is this statement a Freudian slip, a confession or simply lack of sufficient education to be able to choose the right, as opposed to the Right, word? Pyne, or dead wood?

R.D. Blakey, Belconnen

Education Minister Christopher Pyne excitedly told viewers of Sky News that his new higher education package would be a "surprise" on budget night. I could have sworn Abbott promised a government of no surprises.

Doug Steley, Heyfield, Vic

On what planet does a total loss of face and dignity over the Coalition's higher education reforms become a claim that Christopher Pyne saved 1700 research jobs. It is a national disgrace that the man is the education minister.

E.R. Haddock, Weston

Christopher Pyne's repeated difficulty in getting his university "reforms" through the Senate is testament to his poor negotiation skills and his insular views. He should step down from the portfolio, as his "academic performance" is less than satisfactory.

Ross Pulbrook, Wyong, NSW

SOUR GRAPES

Why doesn't it surprise me that the incessant H. Ronald (Letters, March 17) is "married to a woman who eats raw lemons, skin and all"? It would seem he regularly also joins in.

David Jenkins, Casey

Do we really need to know H. Ronald's wife eats lemons skin and all? I know of people who eat raw onions as an apple but not the papery skin.

Jan Gulliver, Lyneham

HOMELY HYSTERIA?

Judging from the photograph of Sylvia and Alan Kelly ("A home of 62 years, a heartbreak to leave", March 17, p1), it would appear to me they are a pretty healthy couple, despite having lived for many years under the so-called curse of being in a Mr Fluffy home.

Makes me wonder if just perhaps a little bit of hysteria has taken over this whole saga.

Byam Wight, Jerrabomberra, NSW

VENUE VANUATU

With Australian aid now beginning to flow to Vanuatu following the damage caused by Cyclone Pam, one wonders how long it will be before the PM or the Immigration Minister suggests Vanuatu is an appropriate venue for an offshore processing centre for asylum seekers.

(Dr) William Maley, Reid

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