Simply raising the cost of parking to "ration demand" and encourage "churn" (increased turnover of parking spaces) is not likely to get people to change their behaviour – at least, not without a lot of anger, annoyance and frustration. Such nudges only work if there are viable alternatives and if people have the discretion to change their behaviour. In the real world – as opposed to the world of economic theory – the complexity and demands of people's lives, especially people with family responsibilities, mean car use is a necessity, not an option.

Even with improvements in bus services, Canberra's design means that, for many people, public transport cannot take the place of private vehicles.

It is difficult to see how increasing the price of parking will be to businesses' benefit, if the cost of parking encourages customers to cut short their shopping trips. The cost of "churn" will be annoyed and frustrated shoppers. And, presumably, fines will also increase for those all-to-frequent situations where anticipated parking times are exceeded due to circumstances beyond your control, such as appointments running late.

Karina Morris, Weetangera

Doesn't the ACT government realise that not everyone lives in the ACT? There are no trains, or even buses from Bungendore or Yass to Belconnen that arrive before lunch, for example. Raising prices for those who commute ("Parking fee rise to encourage vehicle 'churn", May 31, p3) just hurts working people and ruins the facility of nearby streets as new freebies are sought. Are we supposed to bicycle? On the Barton Highway? Or is it really about a green socialist agenda and money?

J. Thompson, Yass, NSW

Westside welcome

The article "Westside Container Village 'a damp squib': NCA" (May 30, p1) demonstrates lack of understanding by some politicians and authorities on what young people want in Canberra. I attended the National Car Rally and was impressed how well Westside was used for service crews. Families were able to talk to drivers who were lining up for street food alongside spectators. It was brilliant and I heard one boy say: "Dad, this place is cool. Can we come back?" This is why Nick Kyrgios and my daughter, Caroline Buchanan, support initiatives like Westside.

Well done, ACT government.

Laurence Buchanan, Kambah

I moved here from Sydney with my family a few years ago and have taken some time to adjust to the "unique" way of life. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the capital. But, one of the most difficult parts of my move has been adjusting to the lack of variety and interesting urban spaces in Canberra. Since opening, Westside has been a breath of fresh air for Canberra. While I understand the project has had some construction difficulties (which construction project doesn't run into difficulties), the project clearly aims to set up a new mixed-use events platform that incorporates small business incubation. What a great idea.

Wake up NCA, Canberra needs variety.

Elizabeth Jarvis, Mawson

National Capital Authority chief executive Malcolm Snow is critical of the west basin container village ("Westside Container Village 'a damp squib': NCA", May 30, p1). He has raised valid concerns. It is could be argued that while the structure is a funky addition to the lake foreshore, it looks tacky and is out of character with other buildings.

The lake foreshore areas are a most valuable precinct and go to the heart and soul of Canberra. In this respect, the Chief Minister Andrew Barr's proposals for the "City to the Lake" require careful consideration. In particular, the proposal to privatise public foreshore land for commercial and housing developments should be rejected. West basin open spaces belong to the whole community and should remain so.

Brian Brocklebank, Bruce

Affordable housing

John Malouf (Letters, May 28) is right. The government is clearly profiteering from new land sales here. It's got to stop, and I'd go further than John's supply-level remedial suggestions. To deal with our dire housing affordability problem, new land in good supply should only be sold to bona fide owner-occupiers (clearly defined by government) – one good-sized, well-orientated block each, in an attractive estate that is not, as at present, designed and built with costly over-the-top infrastructure (another profiteers' playground).

Why should genuine prospective new house owners pay our inflated retail prices for land, and houses built by profiteering spec builders (small or large)? The owners can have exactly the habitat they want, designed and depicted in great detail beforehand via brilliant 3D technology (no more pretentious misleading display homes loading up costs), and built for good competitive prices that include only reasonable profits for the well-qualified hands-on professionals and operatives who deliver it?

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

Dollars or sense?

Thank you Peter Cook (Letters, May 29) and Gary J. Wilson (Letters, June 2) for raising important points about the Manuka Occasional Child Care Association, Telopea Park School, and Canberra Services/Canberra Club land deal. I usually agree with our current government's decisions. But on this one I feel pretty worried. TPS has the lowest student/land ratio of any government high school in the ACT. If the current land deal goes ahead that ratio will be even lower. At a time when we are all concerned about lack of exercise and rising obesity levels, surely those tennis courts should be retained for use by TPS students.

Education has the potential to be a transformative experience. That was the message Julia Gillard so powerfully delivered during her time in government. And she followed up with policy, resources and commitment.

Effective education is a social good. Gambling? Not so much.

The government's current plan appears to privilege a gambling venue over an educational environment. That does not accord with the values of the Australian Labor Party I know. Please Minister Burch and Chief Minister, reconsider this issue.

Sarah Cowdery, Barton

Directors of Australian period drama should spend more time watching their grandmothers knit. A proficient knitter loops the yarn over the point of the needle by simply twirling their index finger. Lifting the hand off the work in progress to wind the yarn around the needle with an action like winding in a fishing line is the knitting equivalent of playing the piano by poking at the keyboard with two fingers.

As a knitting scene appears to be mandatory in every Australian period drama, the informed viewer is inevitably distracted by the cack-handed knitting style of characters who are clearly meant to be proficient knitters, such as Doctor Blake's housekeeper, Jean, and Phryne Fisher's loyal sidekick, Dot.

Will the National Program for Excellence in the Arts provide funding for remedial knitting classes?

Marlene Hall, Kingston

Rights for roos

Respected wildlife specialist Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe has responded to an open letter by some 50 international academics, writers, lawyers and artists calling for immediate cessation of kangaroo killing in Canberra nature reserves with an article ("Writers removed from reality", Times2, May 29, p1) arguing for roo population control by the bullet.

It seems that his arguments for population control apply just as well to that other Canberra mammal, humans. Yet, Canberrans would not condone marksman death squads combing the suburbs at night.

Tyndale-Biscoe stepped around the main point of the open letter, a call for innovative new approaches to roo management. Reducing current bias towards pest control and strengthening respect for animal rights will be a useful start.

Chris Klootwijk, Macarthur

The political rhetoric of a balanced budget is sheer fantasy ("PM's decade of deficits", May30, p1). Tony Abbott spent the 2013 election campaign excoriating deficits, but the takeaway from his prime ministership is that he proved the contrary; deficits don't matter.

The demand side of the GDP accounts – government spending and consumption expenditure – are growing faster than their long-term average.

By contrast, the supply side – real private investment spending – is expanding below its long-term average.

The main implication is that Australian production, jobs and incomes are at risk.

Rather than allowing the Australian economy to harvest the living standard gains of saving, capital accumulation and innovation by cutting government spending and taxes, the Abbott government has declared a debt party.

Victor Diskordia, McKellar

Cool heads prevail

Thank God the cooler legal heads in cabinet prevailed on the question of citizenship rights of Australians merely suspected, but not necessarily found guilty in any court, of being associates of terrorism.

We have to hope the government will not cave in to the hardline opportunists in the right-wing rump of the Liberal Party, and their irrational and irresponsible urge to be seen as "tough" against people supposedly "committing treason", without regard to proper process, natural justice, or the rule of law.

Trevor Wilson, Holder

Repentance lacking

When I was a member of the Catholic Church, I was taught that sins could not be forgiven unless there was true repentance. Some of the Catholic laypeople and clergy from brothers, priests, bishops and maybe even cardinals have committed or been complicit in sexual abuse sins and told lies about them, covered them up, shifted the clergy around the parishes and spent large amounts of money on defending the church against victims to protect the perpetrators.

So it seems there has been no true repentance for these sins and, therefore, one can only conclude these people are not too fussed about meeting their maker in the afterlife, which makes me believe they did not believe in a god in the first place, but were just there to wield power and influence on other members of the Church.

Frederick Slinn, Fisher

Pluck of the Irish

Now that the people of Ireland have given the ALP permission to support gay marriage in Australia, it may be worth the party considering how else to garner their support in settling policy on other tricky issues. Could Ireland, for instance, be inveigled into helping the ALP settle its attitude to asylum-seeker policy by considering a referendum on another question on which the Labor Party cannot make up its mind, namely whether innocent children seeking asylum in Australia should be locked up indefinitely in prison-like centres in foreign countries, where they are exposed to sexual abuse and suffer psychological harm.

If that should prove too big an ask, perhaps Tanya Plibersek, relieved by the Irish of the need to move at national conference against a conscience vote on gay marriage, could move instead for a conscience vote on asylum seeker policy, so that members of the caucus who do not, as a matter of conscience, support the Labor Party's current policies, which lead to children being locked up indefinitely, exposed to sexual abuse, suffer permanent harm and, in some instances, attempt to kill themselves, can express their dissent. Assuming, that is, there are any members of the caucus who actually object to the existing policy.

Jon Stanhope, Bruce

If people like Peter Waterhouse (Letters, June 1) cared to consult a dictionary, they would find there are several definitions of "marriage" besides the legal (or otherwise) union of a man and a woman. For example, "any intimate union" (Macquarie) , the king and queen of the same suit in card games, marriage of music and drama in opera, and even two economic ones concerning mergers of businesses and offsetting of buying orders (Macquarie and World Book).

Janet Thompson, Garran

Peter Waterhouse (Letters, 1 June) says that allowing same-sex marriage renders existing marriage covenants "insufficient, inferior and invalid".

I can assure Peter that my marriage will not be affected in any way by the marriage of another two people, regardless of their sex. If I receive a gift, that gift is not diminished if someone else gets one, too.

Kylie Evans, Murrumbateman, NSW

A leader unites

If AFL fans and the media wonder why Adam Goodes is sometimes jeered by spectators, as he was against Hawthorn in round 8, they need only revisit Sydney's match against Collingwood at the MCG in 2013. On that night, Goodes was called an "ape" by a 13-year-old female Collingwood fan. Instead of showing the girl understanding, Goodes turned her into a villain and himself into a victim and martyr. He missed a chance to enhance his reputation as a leader.

At the SCG on Friday night, Goodes again diminished his reputation by provocatively performing an aggressive war dance towards Carlton supporters, for which he has been both lauded and criticised. Adam Goodes has been a wonderful ambassador for Indigenous Australians and Australian football, but those two episodes have not brought him credit. Leaders unite people; they do not divide and antagonise. I would rather Goodes use his status to bring Australians together in the interests of enhancing the respect Indigenous Australians deserve.

Mark Slater, Melba

Reasonable doubt

Greg Cornwell (Letters, June 1) seems to think that referring only to people found guilty beyond reasonable doubt as those who should be subjected to the death penalty somehow justifies his support for this barbaric practice. Does he not realise that all sentenced offenders have been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, including the very significant number of those who were executed and subsequently found to be innocent?

I have to say to I have some reasonable doubt about either Greg's logic or his knowledge of the criminal law in practice.

David Biles, Curtin

BRING ON UBER

On Monday morning, a colleague was unable to get a taxi to take her from Fairbairn to Woden. Although the taxi was prebooked, no taxi would accept the job – apparently, all of them were sitting in line at the airport waiting for the morning flights. This refusal takes the gloss off their case for remaining a protected species. Bring on Uber.

Joe Murphy, Bonython

FEELING INSECURE

Normally I agree with Waleed Aly's contributions, but not with "Let IS recruits come home" (Times2, May 29, p4). If I had faith in the various security and police forces, the abilities of magistrates and the effectiveness of monitoring, then perhaps I would. However, recent cases like siege gunman Man Haron Monis and serial rapist Adrian Bayley do not inspire any confidence in our broken and disjointed system.

Ric Hingee, Duffy

ULTERIOR PLAN?

Now is probably not the time for Civic swimmers to buy new bathers ("Efforts made to plug major Civic Pool leaks 34 years ago, reports show", June 1, p1) . Cynics may well say that ACT government comments suggest that the pool's days are numbered , especially as it sits on such beautiful valuable land with a then-surplus car park alongside. Ripe for the development of revenue-generating units perhaps?

Paul O'Connor, Hawker

MUSIC LESSON

In his article "Child Support writes to dad 37 times in one day" (May 29, p1), Noel Towell wrote "with the frenzy of correspondence reaching a crescendo on 2013". Please advise him and the rest of your staff that "crescendo" means "rising towards a climax". Towell should have written of "the crescendo of correspondence reaching a climax".

Michael Travis, Bruce

HUMAN RIGHTS

H.Ronald (Letters, May 30) appears unable to grasp the simple fact of international law is that everyone on earth has the absolute right to seek asylum from persecution in other countries; the "solution" is not for us to jail and further persecute human beings, but to admit they have been persecuted by other governments in the first place and until that ceases globally, there will be refugees.

Marilyn Shepherd, Angaston, SA

AWB SCANDAL

Removing citizenship from Australians who give "comfort and aid" to Australian enemies seems easier then punishing AWB executives who paid $300million to Saddam to buy bullets to shoot at Diggers.

Ben Gershon, Curtin

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