Unlike the confused, disingenuous, pretentious, anti-Griffin, but oddly adored Sydney and Melbourne buildings, the Northbourne ''towers'' and their architectural cousins are fine and legitimate examples of their era, reflecting the aspirations of an emerging national capital. Canberrans can learn to love them, too.

Egged on by glazed-over light-rail zealots and salivating developers, in a blind frenzy of over-densification and land value ''capture'', the government wants to replace the ''towers'' and their neighbours with closely placed high-rise flats. Doesn't anyone in Katy Gallagher's team have an eye for design, and a sense of true value? The unique '60s buildings, if renovated, would become probably the most sought-after residential properties in Canberra, even as individual dwellings - like the treasured ''brownstones'' in New York, some of which are kept for public housing, innately respected by their occupants. Save Northbourne Avenue!

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

One can only admire Brendan Long (''Brave Marist old boys have support of others'', Times2, June 13, p5) who as a ''committed Catholic'' still trusts the Catholic Church. However, I do assure him that not only does the ''wide Marist community stand by those who were [abuse] victims'' - the whole community does.

Brendan Long's commitment is even more admirable when read alongside Richard Ackland's article ''Abusers by their conspiracy'' (Times2, June 13, p1). This article seems to say that the Catholic Church is just another human organisation, run by humans whose main concern seems to be the holding on to power. In my religious days I was always taught you ask yourself the question ''What would Christ do?'' I am sure most of the players mentioned in Richard Ackland's article did not ask that question - or if they did they ignored the answer.

Geoff Barker, Flynn

Thank God for Dr Brendan Long for his balanced article in relation to the inquiry into the criminal activities of a few Marist Brothers.

What is not being reported during this unfortunate and unsavoury episode is a history of a truly remarkable order of dedicated religious teachers who for over two centuries have educated innumerable young men and women all around the world.

Unfortunately, as is the case in most media reporting, the emphasis is on the sensational. I was saddened to read the grilling that Br Terry Heinrich has been subjected to during this process. Terry, like most of his contemporaries, is a humble man (maybe naive in this dog-eat-dog world) who had dedicated his life to educating young people. I feel privileged to have known Terry for nearly 60 years, having spent five years as a classmate and he being headmaster of Marist Canberra when two of my sons were attending.

While I am certainly horrified by the actions of a minority of these teachers, it is totally unfair and unbalanced to label all religious teachers with the sins of a few.

Brendan Ryan, O'Malley

Congratulations to the ACT government on pushing ahead with the light rail in the face of so much uninformed protest.

Democratic leadership is about visionary planning and decision-making (a good example is the National Arboretum).

I only hope the Australian government will follow with the sensible development of a fast train system - despite the efforts of the trucking lobby to keep investing taxpayer dollars in the bottomless pit of expensive highways.

Bruce Boyd, Aranda

The problem with public transport is that relatively affluent people don't like to use it. And Canberrans are relatively well-to-do.

Who wants to get on a bus or a tram and share the air with all the sneezing commuters? Only if you can't afford or are unable to drive your SUV to your place of work.

Two government initiatives can persuade commuters on to public transport: (1) a higher than $20 a litre price of petrol in current prices or (2) parking fees greater than $15 an hour in current prices. Petrol at the moment is very cheap, just look at the number of gas-guzzling four-wheel-drives on our roads.

An increase in petrol excise is not available but parking cost increase is an option for the ACT government. Parking fees could be raised until the use of cars for commuting was almost too expensive. Such high fees may yet have to be set to pay the interest on the $700 million-plus loan incurred to finance the trams as well as the other upsides: a surge of revenue from increased public transport use as well as a reduction in unemployment due to the need to hire additional parking inspectors to police the new regulations.

H.M. Kowalik, Deakin

Regardless of the merits of renewable electricity generation, claims by people such as Peter Campbell (Letters, June 16) that renewables push prices down are incorrect, particularly with solar generation.

In its recent price determination for domestic ACT electricity, the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission notes feed-in-tariff costs of $21.83 million for 2014-15, of which $13.96 million is for the small-scale scheme and $7.87 million for the large-scale scheme. The total feed-in-tariff costs represent 8.80 per cent of total network revenue for only about 2 per cent of total electricity generated.

In other words, these renewable schemes cost ACT electricity consumers $21.83 million more annually than would be the case without them. The position was made clear by the pricing commission's senior commissioner Malcolm Gray (''Household power bills to rise 4.3 per cent, gas prices to jump 14.5 per cent in Canberra'', canberratimes.com.au, June 13) when he said, ''I don't think anybody tries to make a secret of the fact that solar energy is more expensive than energy off the grid, energy off the transmission network.''

Not only is solar energy expensive, it is unreliable. That is not to say it should not be used but people must be honest about the cost, particularly on people with limited finances. The question is whether on balance producing such a small amount of electricity for such a high cost is justified.

Graham Downie, O'Connor

Environment Minister Greg Hunt has delayed the approval of Adani's Carmichael Mine application in Queensland's Galilee Basin. It remains to be seen if he grants approval in due course or whether he rejects it.

Minister Hunt has a truly awesome responsibility and here are three cogent reasons why he should not approve the Adani proposal:

1. The company is very seriously untrustworthy.

2. Approval will irreversibly damage the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef.

3. The prodigious amount of coal planned to be mined, exported and burnt will generate so much CO2 that the global economy will collapse and the world may even become uninhabitable for human life.

This is the conclusion of IMF head Christine Lagarde and he knows it too, even if some of his colleagues don't. He has a far bigger responsibility than any of them and we look to him acting as a world statesman.

Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe, Hackett

Back in March, a friend and colleague was cycling, as he did several times a week, through suburban Belconnen to visit another of my colleagues who is severely stricken with Parkinson's disease. A dog, which was not on a leash, ran in front of his bike, causing him to fall. The fall broke one of his legs. He was admitted to hospital, where he suffered a bout of pneumonia and a series of infections, exacerbated by his long-term but until then well-managed diabetes.

My friend died last week. Just because a dog was not on a leash on the shared path, as clearly required by ACT regulation. Dog owners, like everyone else, need to think of the consequences of their actions.

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

''We are so utterly familiar with what I will call 'parliamentary self-government' that we somehow forget that it has been a thing of slow and sometimes painful growth; that it has come from below, and not from above. You cannot create a democracy as quickly as you can create independence. There are still too many influential people who forget that the granting of political independence is not an end in itself.

''It is, indeed, a beginning, just as capable of producing a new tyranny as it is of producing an independent community of free men. Indeed, we all know of more than one case in which independence has been followed by either chaos or something singularly like dictatorship. There are lessons here for all of us.''

That is taken from ''The Battle for Freedom'', Jefferson Oration, by Sir Robert Menzies, at Monticello, July 4, 1963.

I would like the Prime Minister and his cabinet to read and cogitate on that speech, certainly before they make any decisions about overseas military interventions. Iraq perhaps!

John F. Simmons, Kambah

Please, Tony Abbott, don't repeat what former prime minister John Howard did (cosy up to the Americans) and send Australians off to an unauthorised war in Iraq (unauthorised by the UN). We all know what happened to that.

Phylli Ives, Torrens

I follow The Canberra Times' editorial cartoonists with amazement at how well they can integrate complex and diverse issues in a single compelling image. Pat's Obama in Iraq dilemma (Times2, June 16, p1) is at the contemporary leading edge of the sorry saga of US interference in the Middle East and seems to sum the situation and options with the precision of a UAV drone strike.

What a wedge the US faces, getting into league with Iran, its enemy for 30 years, to wage a proxy war against militias and militants financed and backed by its Saudi ally. George W. Bush has so much to answer for.

John Henderson, Isaacs

Perhaps, H. Ronald (Letters, June 16), the reason The Canberra Times has chosen not to assign greater prominence to allegations emanating from the show trial into ''union corruption'' is that it finds no novelty in reporting on allegations that have been raised and disproved at least three times in recent decades, indeed twice in the last three years. I am surprised that Ronald, as a self-professed ''news junkie'', missed the story on those occasions. If there was an inquiry into corruption at the big end of town, involving colourful business identities, very large sums of money and the purchase of political influence for corporate and personal profit, that would be not only newsworthy but long overdue. The current brouhaha is to real news what twice-warmed-over bubble and squeak is to real food.

Paul McElligott, Aranda

The brief item ''Babies sent offshore'' (June 16, p4) said, ''Babies and their families are being moved to Christmas Island detention centre … At least five two-month old babies, their siblings and parents were forced to leave Adelaide's Inverbrackie detention centre at 3am on Wednesday.''

My eyes focused on the words ''3am on Wednesday'' and I wondered what draconian nation would do that to such helpless people. Then the horrible truth dawned.

Bruce Kennedy, Melba

I never expected to find myself agreeing with Clive Palmer, but he is right when he says, ''Direct Action … is a waste of money by politicians who don't care about the average Australian, let alone the climate.'' (''Senate guard ready to serve and protect'', Times2, June 16, p5). As Palmer has so unambiguously acknowledged his responsibility to protect both the average Australian and the climate, he will doubtless be keenly interested in the results of our current Clean Energy and renewables legislation.

After two years of operation, the results of this integrated package of legislation are clear:

■ Total emissions from electricity are down by 10.3 per cent.

■ Carbon pollution per megawatt hour is down by 5.7 per cent.

■ Uptake of renewable energy has risen by 37 per cent.

■ Our economy remains strong, with an impressive annual growth rate of 3.5 per cent.

■ Inflation remains low at 2.9 per cent, with carbon pricing contributing less than 0.25 per cent.

■ Though still too high, about 6 per cent, unemployment has not worsened.

Retention of the legislation will allow us to meet and even exceed our current emissions reduction target at minimal cost and without broader economic impacts. It will also allow us to keep pace with emerging international effort and reclaim our once-proud reputation as an intelligent, progressive and responsible nation.

I await Palmer's announcement that he will oppose repeal of the Clean Energy legislation and actively support the Renewable Energy Target.

Felix MacNeill, Dickson

It will come as a surprise to some, but not all, that spiritual graces can come to prisoners, even those on death row. Yes, it's commonly alleged they get religion to save their lives. But in 2011 Gary Haugen, a double murderer on death row in Salem prison, Oregon, dropped his appeals and asked to be executed. A second death-row prisoner, Jason van Brumwell, an accomplice of Haugen, also asked to be executed. The prison governor halted all executions while he held office. On May 28 these two inmates plus two others received the Sacrament of Confirmation from the local bishop.

What has this got to do with anything? It may just be that if spiritual enlightenment can come to death row, it is as least as likely that it can come to schoolchildren through the chaplaincy service.

Colliss Parrett, Barton

ALAN JONES BLOOPER

At the risk of generating disillusionment in the esteem H. Ronald gives to Alan Jones (Letters, June 12), I can advise that ''conservative spruikers'' do engage in ''scurrilous nastiness and appalling language''. Just Google ''Alan Jones blooper''.

The several examples provide an insightful contrast to the so-called ''on-air'' persona and actually prove Pat's editorial cartoon (Times2, June 9, p1) is not wide of the mark as claimed, but actually spot-on.

Mark Boscawen, Calwell

COST OF GOVERNING

I read Julie Novak's article ''Exposing hidden costs of governing'' (Forum, June 14, p9) with morbid fascination. Towards the end I found a sentence which actually says something. It reads ''Most present services and transfers do not conform, at least very neatly, to the economic definition of a public good.'' It is just plain wrong.

Jim Jones, Charnwood

CLICHES NEED REVIEW

Film and book reviewers seem drawn irresistibly to three words: dystopian, iconic and eponymous.

Reviewers apparently think that using these words confers erudition and understanding on their opinions. Not so. They are cliches that signal only intellectual pretension seeking to disguise threadbare superficiality. They should be purged from your columns or at least sent on a very long vacation.

G.J. Barker, Red Hill

DAM THE EXPENSE

I am impressed with the strength of Katy Gallagher's claim (''Light rail alone unlikely to lure private equity'', June 14, p1) that the government ''would not tolerate'' a cost blowout of $600 million to $900 million for Capital Metro. Can anyone in this town with even a scant memory take this claim seriously if they cast their mind over the Cotter Dam extension cost debacle.

What was it? $140 million to $400 million - can't quite remember.

Scott Rashleigh, O'Malley

CENTS AND SENSIBILITY

Just wondering if those who are unhappy at paying one or two cents extra when prices are rounded up to the dollar, are equally unhappy when prices are rounded down by the same amount to the nearest five cents?

Frances Cornish, Spence

WORLD CUP PREDICTION

I consulted the Delphic Oracle about which country would win the soccer World Cup. It replied that the winner would play in green and gold and would have the southern cross on its flag. I was overjoyed at this news until I had a close look at the constellations in the blue part of the Brazilian flag.

David Goss, Woonona, NSW

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