The ACT government and its Asbestos Response Taskforce say that the surrender (their word, not mine and which means, according to the Macquarie Dictionary, to "deliver up possession of (something) upon demand or compulsion)" of my home was voluntary.

This, as far as I am concerned, is utterly misleading and a total lie.

I never had any desire to surrender our family home to anyone and consider that every single document I've been compelled to sign (under a veiled threat of later resumption at greatly reduced value) was signed under duress.

I attempted to have the government acknowledge that I was signing this way but they refused to accept the letter containing my statement and I had to sign a withdrawal.

Surrender and voluntary are not compatible.

Throughout this appalling saga my solicitor gave me the very best detailed advice possible, for which I am truly grateful, but nothing he could do saved our loved home. I finally lost it on March 9, 2017, just four days short of 53 years of ownership.

Kathleen Read, Canberra

The need for a proper official briefing about ACT government proposals for further public housing development was illustrated by letters to The Canberra Times on April 3.

Jeff Karl complains about "loss" of community green space, but he has the wrong site. The former Holder Primary School oval is not affected by this proposal, as it is next door to the community service site.

I made this mistake too before inspecting the Stapylton Street site.

Holder School oval is the next challenge for the community.

Frank Boddy worries rightly about poor public housing sites being demolished much later at public expense. But no plans have been made public, so we just don't know whether this is a likely outcome.

Better designed public housing is what the Barr government should promise the community.

Trevor Wilson, Holder

The refusal by housing taskforce officials to attend a meeting of Weston residents ("Angry Weston Creek", April 4, p.1) is not surprising.

Any of us who can remember Yvette Berry's sausage sizzle for evicted public housing tenants where she announced salt-and-pepper public housing throughout Canberra on transport trunk roads would think she should be the one to attend.

The ACT government has plucked around $400 million from the sale of public housing and office buildings in the last few years. They have reserved it to finance light rail.

This money should be spent on true salt-and-pepper affordable housing of a high standard.

This affordable housing should be open primarily for anyone with an income not exceeding $50,000 which would end with a lot of people now in public housing and rentals switching to affordable housing.

It follows that the affordable housing should be built on blocks sold over the counter throughout Canberra.

If the blocks were sold for average prices on a 40-year contract for around $80 a week an attractive house should be able to be built for around $200,000 on land that appealed to the purchaser both financially and aesthetically.

This would amount to less than $300 a week in repayments which would put it in the reach of the people on a ordinary wage.

This would let existing public housing be made available to the truly needy.

Howard Carew, Isaacs

The Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission has reported that the structure of tariffs for water and sewerage in the ACT is not delivering efficient outcomes for the ACT.

The commission has also begun its review of water and sewerage prices in the ACT which last time caused a lot of complaints from Icon and the government only. Icon and the government complained that the review was costly and the decision was flawed etc.

To save our money and based on the logic in report on tariffs, there should not be any increases in water prices including for CPI until the inefficient tariff structures are resolved.

If the commission were to increase water and sewerage prices without changing the tariff structures, then we the consumers will be paying an inefficient price and Icon and the ACT government will be benefiting from the inefficient price structures.

I look forward to one essential service price remaining the same which would be a small relief from the increasing cost of essential services.

Adrian Smith, Yarralumla

It's no wonder Coles' life policy business has gone down the gurgler ("Coles' life insurance offer softly dies a natural death", 5 April, p21).

They couldn't even get the name of the product right.

Presumably they were supposed to be selling life "assurance" not "insurance".

The first thing I learnt when I went into the business many years ago was a life policy "assures" an amount payable to a beneficiary, while "insurance" provides recompense for property damage or loss.

Some life companies are adding to the problem by referring to life "insurance" policies while retaining the word "assurance" in their names.

Eric Hunter, Cook

Like licensed poker machine clubs in the ACT, Liberal gambling spokesman Mark Parton needs a wake-up call.

The number of problem gamblers isn't "small" as he claims ("No limits to withdrawals at city clubs", April5, p.2).

The Productivity Commission Inquiry Report on Gambling (2010) found more than one in seven people who play poker machines once a week or more are addictive gamblers.

Clubs have no incentive to restrict the amount of money addicts lose.

The Raiders Sports Club Ltd financial statements for 2016 showed $19.5million of its total revenue of $28million came from gaming.

Addicted gamblers contribute up to 40per cent of the revenue clubs get from poker machines, according to the Productivity Commission.

For people like Laurie, who is quoted in the article, poker machine gambling is an addiction. It is recognised in the international medical literature alongside illicit drug addiction and alcoholism.

We no longer argue about where we draw "the line of where personal responsibility starts and ends" in terms of drug abuse, alcohol consumption or tobacco smoking.

As a responsible society we put in place multiple mechanisms to protect people at risk of harm from these addictions.

Why doesn't Mr Parton want to extend similar protection to gambling addicts?

How could a daily $250 limit on eftpos cash withdrawals adversely affect patrons visiting venues for socialising or entertainment?

Limiting eftpos withdrawals, along with mandatory pre-commitments and restricting the size of bets, will go some way to helping limit financial and personal harm.

The ACT Gaming and Racing Commission should have its own observers in the clubs to ensure staff recogniseand counsel or ban addictive gamblers.

Dr John Formby, Binda, NSW

I call on the Australian and Queensland governments to resign immediately because of the direct contribution their policies to expand coal production and exports have made to the size and strength of Cyclone Debbie. These policies will also ensure the loss of the Great Barrier Reef to bleaching by 2030.

We have known for decades that the size and strength of tropical cyclones are proportional to the sea surface temperatures over which theypass.

We also know that the carbon dioxide from the burning of oil and coal is causing increasing global warming, which in turn results in the significant rise of sea surface temperatures everywhere, including off the north-east coast of Queensland.

This warming has already led to major bleaching events along the Barrier Reef which, if they continue unchecked, are likely to result in the death of the reef by 2030.

Despite all this knowledge of causes and effects, the Queensland and Australian governments have over the past two years given their approvals for the digging and export of coal by Adani from central Queensland for the world's newest and largest coal mine by Adani.

I am personally very sorry for the the six or more people who have lost their lives to Debbie's winds and floods and the hundreds of thousand of others who have had their lives severely interrupted by its winds and rains.

But we have had enough of this gross hypocrisy.

Roger Clement, Googong, NSW

Alan Robertson (letters, April1) and Stan Marks (letters, April2) sum up succinctly the situation with planning in this city and the situation at West Basin.

The ACT government keeps reminding us that they have consulted the public on these disastrous plans for West Basin but this consultation, as it was, is now 10 years old.

We need a new consultation process so people are aware of what they will be losing in the way of parkland so close to the city. It will be another Kingston Foreshore, but worse. The government needs to be upfront with the people of Canberra and tell us exactly what they have in mind.

We are told some items are non-negotiable. How can the public contribute when we aren't told the full story? Is that true consultation?

Penny Moyes, Hughes

I applaud the (Bristol, Britain) grammar vigilante ("'Grammar vigilante' corrects bad punctuation on street signs and shop fronts", canberra times. com.au, April5) and hope (without leaving my armchair) to emulate his successes here in Canberra.

I disagree with his critics who say that punctuation isn't an aspect of grammar.

Grammar is the "art and science dealing with a language's inflexions or other means of showing relation between words".

One such inflexion, or variation, of a word is the added apostrophe s, as in "the vigilante's ambition".

The meaning of and relation between the words "King Charles walked and talked. Half an hour after, his head was cut off" are quite different if the punctuation is omitted.

Michael McCarthy, Deakin

We all knew that the Coalition was a coalition of two political parties – the Liberals and the Nationals. That was 2015.

In 2016, One Nation was invited to join them. This year the NXT has effectively joined them by giving tax concessions to the big companies.

Is it a marriage of convenience? The next federal election will be very interesting towatch.

Sankar Kumar Chatterjee, Evatt

Jan Gulliver writes: "Without 18C we will descend into the slanging match of all matches" (letters, April4).

Previous to 18C, I don't recall a descent to any great slanging matches. Nor do I recall three students being put through the wringer for three years, at costs a judge assessed as being in excess of $200,000, for calling racial discrimination"segregationist".

Bill Deane, Chapman

Shouting at Bill Shorten doesn't cut it. What the nation is looking for is leadership. Malcolm, now is a good time to reflect and change direction before the next sitting of Parliament. Just saying.

Jeff Bradley, Isaacs

LOGICAL RING TO IT

Hopefully the "acceptance rings" that are worn to promote same-sex marriage will not be either pure copper or pure gold, as those un-alloyed metals are useless for jewellery. But when combined, the union of dissimilarity is greater than the sum of the parts, and the resulting alloy is valuable to the craftsman.

David D'Lima, Sturt, S.A

WHEN AGE IS A BARRIER

When do we march on climate change? I'll be there but be sure to have wheelchairs and walking sticks. The young will just let it wash over them – so to speak.

Barrie Smillie, Duffy

THAT'S NO PRAISE

In reference to AMA chief Steve Robson's comments on our medical specialists (letters, April 5).

Self praise is no honour Professor Robson.

Tom Middlemiss, Deakin

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

So, a Melbourne restaurant owner has been found to have underpaid his staff by $2.6 million. Was he able to employ extra people by doing that?

Gary Frances, Bexley, Vic

CHARGE HIM

Michael Costello's cringing — and belated — apology over the gas billing issue (letters, April 6) should not have been published for free. It should have been a paid advertisement.

Don Sephton, Greenway

Mr Costello's apology (ActewAGL Boss Apologises, Page 1, April 6) is months overdue and deliberately understates the enormity of his organisation's failures.

ACT taxpayers and consumers are part owners of ActewAGL, but have been unable to exert any influence on its activities or its governance.

Mr Costello should be replaced.

Chris Smith, Kingston

IS THIS A JOKE?

Bought the Canberra Times on Wednesday. Saw the front page article on the sale of the West and East Blocks.

Checked the date; no it wasn't April 1. The far right idiots who inhabit the Federal Liberal Party are off their meds. What the hell is next? Old Parliament House to be a casino?

W. A. Brown, Holt

OPPORTUNISM STRIKES

The Trump administration has seized on allegations the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad carried out a gas attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the rebel-controlled province of Idlib to push for a further escalation of military conflict in the Middle East.

How obvious is this at a time when Trump needs a boost to his leadership?

Rhys Stanley, Hall, NSW

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.

Keep your letter to 250 words or less. References to Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).