Assuming the apartments will average two bedrooms, with a need for two cars at least, that will consume 1300 car spaces, leaving around 320 to cover the needs of the hotel, shoppers and visitors, very few of whom are going to walk there but will come by car.

The question remains, on whose lawns are the football crowds going to park?

Paul O'Connor, Hawker

I was surprised, as many of your readers would be, that Ian Warden could write an article featuring the Niagara Cafe in Gundagai ("Niagara gushes at Gundagai", Gang-gang, May 9, p8), and not mention the time that prime minister Ben Chifley knocked on the cafe's door late at night looking for a feed.

I understand that at the time, which would have been in the late 1940s, Chifley was en route from Melbourne to Canberra by road, and passing through Gundagai late at night. Probably in a straight-eight Buick which, I understand, he favoured as a means of transport.

The Niagara looked after him very well, an event that was celebrated many years later. Bob Hawke may have been the prime minister then.

I was last in the Niagara in the early 2000s, and at that time there were many photographs of the celebration on the cafe walls.

Mr Warden, these are the events that make Australia's history.

John Enders, Tura Beach, NSW

Stephen Langford (Letters, May 10) would have us believe that Israel is uniquely perverted in ascribing to itself an ethnic identity, namely as a Jewish state. There are dozens of countries we recognise and accept with a publicly declared identity –Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist.

So why should Israel, the world's only Jewish state, be uniquely denied this choice? It's not like this identity has prevented non-Jews living there from advancing themselves and availing themselves of the same democratic rights that we enjoy here.

Israel is not perfect, but the 20per cent of its 8.5 million citizens who are non-Jews can and do serve as judges, doctors, generals in the military, and are democratically elected to parliament and serve as cabinet ministers.

Equally deluded are Langford's accusations about Israel's West Bank settlements supposedly gobbling up land.

In 2011, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat admitted that settlements cover only 1.1 per cent of the West Bank.

Considering the 350,000-plus dead caused by Muslim infighting across the Middle East and the accompanying flight of hundreds of thousands of Christians, Yazidis and other minorities, Langford can keep his delusional fantasies about the Jewish state.

I prefer to marvel at its social cohesion and ongoing commitment to a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Bill Arnold, Chifley

Despite his Jewish father, Stephen Langford has not learned the lessons of the deeply entrenched state-sponsored, anti-Semitism (racism) that his family and mine experienced in Europe and is now most evident in the Middle East. Israel has survived three attempted invasions over 68 years which threatened its very existence, countless terrorist attacks and over 12,000 rockets from Gaza.

Israel still has close neighbours (Hamas and Hezbollah) who have no intention of accepting the Jewish state, and are sworn to its destruction.

Israel has proposed on at least three occasions a viable two-state solution in Israel/Palestine, where all inhabitants could have lived in peace and prosperity. There would be no settler problem that Langford describes.

Langford also ignores Israel's achievement in providing a home for approximately 586,000 out of a total of 820,000 Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa who had to flee from their homes after 1947, where they had lived for up to 2600 years. This phenomenon bears no resemblance to a "White Australia" policy that Langford seeks to link to Israel.

Israel has the right to defend itself and live within secure and recognised boundaries.

Robert Cussel, Yarralumla

Once again my early morning walk around Lake Burley Griffin was disrupted by silent speeding cyclists who rushed past with centimetres to spare without a warning bell to indicate their presence. Bruce Ryan (Letters, May 8) suggests various alternatives for the shared walking/cycling path around Lake Burley Griffin.

As in many cities in Europe, a better alternative would be to provide separate adjacent paths with one clearly marked for bicycles and one clearly marked for pedestrians This would avoid conflict between the two user groups and would make for safer walking and cycling. The NCA should implement this strategy as soon as possible to avoid future accidents.

Neil Renfree, Hawker

I have walked, jogged and cycled thousands of kilometres around the foreshores of Lake Walter Griffin and Lake Ginninderra ("Narrow path has cyclists and pedestrians fuming", May 2, p2).

Generally, the paths themselves are not dangerous; however, danger and rage are caused by a small proportion of riders who are discourteous and idiotic. These idiots are even more dangerous to other cyclists than they are to pedestrians.

Shouting "passing right" less than one metre from a cyclist being overtaken is not an acceptable alternative to ringing a bell 30 metres before the encounter.

To deter dangerous behaviour I recommend that all cycles, except those ridden by children accompanied by adults, be fitted with registration plates, that speed be limited to 15km/h when passing or overtaking, that path users be encouraged to formally complain about dangerous riding, and that heavy penalties apply for dangerous riding. Cyclists and pedestrians should keep well to the left when being passed or overtaken.

Finally, throughout Canberra many other paths are dangerous because of an appalling lack of maintenance. Trees and shrubs should not exist within one metre of paths, and grass growing in bitumen paths should be poisoned frequently or dug out.

Bob Salmond, Melba

What a breath of fresh air was Nicholas Stuart's article "They're off, with blinkers on" (Times2, May 10, p4). He contends Scott Morrison's budget has no consistent underlying theory. That both parties refuse to admit they have no answer to declining economic activity and instead offer econobabble such as "growth and jobs" to those for whom economics is mysterious. That the world is changing and no one knows about tomorrow. That no party will address Australia's uncertain future, the end of growth, and environmental challenges (eg, climate change). How obviously true all this is. I'd add to that list the unknown socio/economic/environmental impact of our rapid population growth.

Although not explicitly stated, Nicholas is questioning the success or otherwise for Australia of its participation in the globally deregulated financial system. Are we destined to follow Greece, Spain, Portugal etc into public penury before looking for alternatives? As world wealth continues to concentrate at the top and ordinary citizens have less to spend, is it not inevitable that national economies will collapse?

Australia was once prosperous, now our personal debt is dangerously high, and some of us struggle to have a roof over our heads. What has changed?

Vince Patulny, Kambah

Sam Nona (Letters, May 10) is concerned that voters can't make sense of politicians. If you look at the broad picture, it's quite easy. Politicians are criminals who usually don't break the law – or at least don't usually get caught. They tell lies that may be true – that's probably the most effective kind of lie.

Les Neulinger (Letters, May 10) is concerned about the hypocrisy of politicians. But that's the sine qua non of politicians – they couldn't get elected if they showed their true feelings.

It's encouraging that 2.1 per cent of votes in the ACT are intentionally informal ("ACT has most 'intentionally informal' votes", May 10, p1). Unfortunately, this is still well short of the 4 per cent needed for public election funding, although the /total/ informal vote, at 3.8 per cent, is close.

To remove any doubt about whether informal votes are intentional, ballot papers could contain a box for 'intentionally informal'. Such a facility should definitely be introduced if voting becomes electronic and the current methods, such as protest marks and non-sequential numbering, are not available.

Mike Dallwitz, Giralang

I agree entirely with Bill Shorten when he says the Greens are dreaming when they suggest that Labor reach an agreement with them to govern if the election outcome is close ("ALP and Greens put up dukes", May 10, p4). Been there, done that and still licking the wounds.

If the Greens were to knock sitting Coalition members then they might be taken seriously. Guess we'll be waiting a long time for that to happen.

Graeme Rankin, Holder

In all of the debate about negative gearing, it's never mentioned that it costs the federal government nothing; the investor pays whatever tax is payable on the profit he makes, the government's tax "losses" during the period of ownership of the property being more than offset by the capital gains tax payable when the investor sells it.

And please don't argue "but he/she only pays 50 per cent of the capital gain" — because the so-called 50 per cent "concession" is not a concession at all, it's a quid-pro-quo for no longer allowing for inflation when calculating the capital gain. Indeed, it often requires the investor to pay more tax than if the full capital gain were taxed but allowance made for inflation!

True, with negative gearing receipt of the tax is delayed until the property is sold. But that could easily be fixed by requiring losses incurred during ownership to be offset against the profit on resale, instead of against other current income.

R.S. Gilbert, Braddon

Peter Hartcher ("Google to face disruption", Times2, May 10, p1) says "the government projects that the new Google tax – officially known as a diverted profits tax – will raise $3.9 billion over four years".

Peter is incorrect. At p5 of Budget Paper No 2 2016-17 the government says that the tax only starts to bring in revenue in 2018-19 and even then it is only $100 million. It will bring in the same paltry amount, $100 million, in 2019-20. The same budget papers indicate the other $3.7 billion will supposedly be raised over four years by administrative action of the ATO, specifically the new Tax Avoidance Taskforce. This seems to me to be pie-in-the-sky stuff.

If true, why has there not been such a task force operating in previous years? Is this not a failure of leadership?

If the $3.7 billion figure is in the ballpark then it raises questions about the current administration of the Tax Office and the government's decision to cut thousands of jobs from the ATO. If the $3.7 billion figure for the task force is correct then those thousands of staff could have been raising this money in previous years if they had not been sacked.

As for the Google Tax, the budget paper figures of $100million a year from 2018-19 show it is too little too late and does very little to address rampant tax avoidance by big business. It won't recoup anything other than a minuscule amount of that part of the $454 billion untaxed big business revenue attributable to tax avoidance. The Google Tax is another show pony from this pro-big business, pro-tax avoider government.

John Passant, Kambah

Team Pedantry applauds Michael Paluzzo ("Immigration boss declares war on poor writing, with tips from Churchill", May 11, p5). We also salute his acknowledgement of Orwell's fine essay on the topic. The language has moved on since the 1950s so some of the detail in Churchill and Orwell's advice is now a little out of date, but the principles still stand. I hope our politicians are listening – their verbal utterings are sorely in need of guidance – as we'll hear over the next 50 or so days.

I also look forward to the next written offering from Immigration – that's if they ever deign to tell us something.

Eric Hunter, Cook

The distance from Melbourne to Sydney by road via Canberra is 954 kilometres – say 1000 to make calculations easier.

China's China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation is expected to quote $23-28 million per kilometre to lay track for Britain's new HS2 first-phase high-speed (notionally up to 486km/h, but more likely a sedate 380km/h) connection between London and Birmingham. This costing, applied to Australia, would see a very fast train line laid between Melbourne and Sydney via Canberra for $28 billion (taking the more expensive end of the estimate). I appreciate there would probably be added costs for terrain factors, and it does not include rolling stock. Even so, this seems an awful lot cheaper than the $120 billion quoted by government foot-draggers in Canberra.

Even in Europe at more expensive European track-laying costs of $34-53 million a kilometre, total track cost would be only $53 billion as a top-end price. Modern transport infrastructure seems a much better deal for Australian taxpayers than superseded-technology conventional submarines. The long overdue development of a fast train network should be an election issue.

C. Williams, Sidmouth, England

Can the Tram are fooling themselves if they think stopping the tram will "save" the scrappy Northbourne Ave gums.

If the Canberra Liberals get in, they'll be putting a great big road down the middle for their express busway.

Either way, the existing trees are in poor health, and are not being removed but replaced by a different species. It's a pity it's another gum and not a beautiful deciduous species. Can you imagine a magnificent double row of poplars? Or a gracious avenue of gorgeous ginkgos going golden in Autumn?

Robert Henderson, Lyneham

LEGAL CONFUSION

Michael Pezzullo is urging his department officers to improve their written English ("Immigration boss declares war on poor writing, with tips from Churchill", May 11, p5). Does this mean that they will stop using "illegal" to describe people who have broken no law?

Jim Jones, Charnwood

Mike Pezzullo dismisses accusations that losses of experienced staff have diminished corporate knowledge by claiming that "magic" is starting to occur when old and new staff are brought together. Really? Where did he pick up that management insight? The Hogwarts school of management?

Bronis Dudek, Calwell

THE LONG AND SHORT

Has the lack of brevity by many of those who contribute to The Canberra Times letters pages got anything to do with the fact the public servants who make up a large part of its readership lack this ability?

D. J. Fraser, Currumbin, Qld

THEORY UP IN SMOKE

The Canadians say that the Alberta forrest fire will go on burning until it rains. If this fire teaches us one thing, it is that forestry is not a long-term carbon sink, merely a link in an accelerating carbon cycle fuelled by fire. The only certain carbon sinks are hydrocarbons, which remain forever underground.

Lachlan Kennedy, Yarralumla

Professor David Bowman has warned that Australian cities could burn down ("Fire as destructive as Canada's Fort McMurray blaze could happen in Australia", canberra

times.com.au, May 9). So what of the Canberra bushfires of January 2003, the Blue Mountains bushfires of 2013 or the Black Tuesday fires that descended on Hobart in 1967? There is a very long list of bushfires that have impacted on our cities already.

P. Barling, Holder

THE LIBERAL VIEW

One wonders at the mindset of Liberal MPs who cannot get over the fact the party has moved forward from Tony Abbott. Revenge seems to concern them more than getting behind their leader and winning the election. Hope they all get turfed out so we can get true liberal members as per Menzies' ideals.

Heather Sorensen, Kambah

NEGATIVE IMPACT

How is Malcolm Turnbull's policy fair to facilitate "well-off" parents to use negative gearing to purchase their one-year-old child a home when "hard-working" self-funded retirees are forced to withdraw a percentage of their funds each year to ensure there is nothing left to leave their children?

K. Hansen, Red Hill

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).