Then let's not forget Tony Abbott and his cohorts waiting in the wings to take over. The question you need to ask yourself: is this stable government?

The ALP on the other hand are more united than in previous times and this is evident from their election launch and ongoing electioneering. It's obvious by my letter which way I'm voting, a stable Labor government who have all the Australian people in mind not just an elite section of the community.

Jan Gulliver, Lyneham

Poor old Malcolm Turnbull managed to sound prime ministerial in spite of his virus. But his lieutenants Morrison and Cormann continue to sound second rate.

One has the mannerisms of a desperate used-car salesman trying to clinch the sale of a clunker, and the other has all the charisma and dynamism of a robot servant; just wind him up and let him run through his routine.

These two are said to be likely contenders for leadership if Mr Turnbull should succumb. Contrast them to Chris Bowen and Penny Wong, who actually have clear and intelligible explanations for their financial policies. I wonder which array of talent the Australian voters will choose?

K.L. Calvert, Downer

Thank God for Peter Martin ("Bulk-billing shows who are Medicare's friends", Times2, June 23, p5) and Dr John Falzon ("Waiting for the wealth that will never trickle down", Times2, June 23, p5)! Two men of integrity and compassion.

Just when we are feeling jaded by one of the lengthiest political campaigns; these two men shine a light on our history. Peter Martin reminds us of the history of Medicare and its political friends over time.

John Falzon helps us to remember the failure of trickle- down economics and how it has reinforced the principle "to those who have much, more will be given and from those who have little, even the little they have, will be taken away". If only we could vote for Peter Martin and John Falzon!

Koula Poulos, Watson

I was in Britain just before the EU referendum and spoke with several people who said they were going to vote to leave. Though hardly a scientific study, I found the majority knew little (and cared less) about the economic ramifications of exiting. Rather, their position was primarily based on a nativist philosophy of keeping England for the English.

Some complained about Polish painters and Czech builders taking "our" jobs. A few expressed concerns about the security threat (referencing Muslims in a "nod, nod, wink, wink know what I mean" fashion) though when pressed they could not articulate how that threat would be reduced by leaving the EU.

To be fair, a couple pointed out the unrepresentative nature of the European Parliament and the unreasonable demands placed on the UK by its continental partners.

However, ultimately I was left feeling their motivation was best captured in the words of my Nepalese driver (who immigrated to England 35 years ago), when he declared: "This was a good country when I came here. Now there are too many immigrants."

Bart Meehan, Calwell

In the early '70s I played cricket for two years in Huntingdonshire, the now-defunct county in the east of England.

My teammates were mostly farmers leading very productive lives, farming very fertile land that once comprised the Fens. When I returned 20 years later, their lives had changed. Most of them were receiving "the set-aside", which was money paid under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy not to farm their land. Then I visited a winery in Kent that was not allowed to plant modern grape varieties, but made to keep outdated grape varieties for their wine. They had the expertise but were not allowed to modernise.

Is it any wonder that such people hated the EU for its policies that were designed to protect French farmers?

Neville Bleakley, Chifley

For any independent nation, mutually satisfactory agreements on free trade and commerce are acceptable, but the abrogation of sovereignty, the loss of control of immigration and tolerably stable and sensible jurisprudence, were always a bridge way, way too far.

A. Whiddett, Yarralumla

As if leaving the European Union and losing the Prime Minister has not done enough harm to Britain, imagine the consequences of having David Cameron succeeded by the former mayor of London Boris Johnson ("Britain's shock EU exit vote" June 25 p1).

Frankly, if that were to happen, the unlucky British people would end up having their own "Donald Trump".

Sam Nona, Burradoo, NSW

Normally I'd suggest that Maria Greene (Letters, June 24) should take a long walk off a short pier but that statement would undoubtedly draw the crabs onto The Canberra Times' hapless editor.

Australians need to be careful not to sanitise their love of irony, pun, satire, colloquialisms and black comedy (no Indigenous connotation intended) just to appease politically correctness.

That larrikin spirit is a part of the Australian psyche which would be tragic to lose. So, do I really mean that Maria should drown herself?

Of course not; in fact I'd be the first to dive in for the rescue and, considering I saved my own mother's life after a suicide attempt, I probably have more knowledge than some. Australians occasionally exaggerate a phrase, state the opposite of what they mean or even use words that are deliberately provocative in order to underline their point so, yes, it is possible to joke about death without being literal.

Long may it continue.

Bob Thompson, Belconnen

Jack Waterford's article "Pygmies blocking Barr's views of the future" (Forum, June 25, p1) about the Barr government was brilliant.

As a 66-year-old retired male, I have always voted Labor at the federal and ACT level. I have been closely following Barr's performance and now think he has lost the plot.

Andrew Barr shows contempt to the people of Canberra, is a disgrace to the Labor Party and has to go.

Been in power too long and now too arrogant. Made a monumental ego-driven error in supporting light rail with astronomical increases in our rates in recent years, which hurt lower income people. Good riddance.

Geoff Clark, Narrabundah

Anyone reading Jack Waterford's description of Andrew Barr as a giant among pygmies would be worried about how tall the pygmies were.

In the view of many the pygmies would have to be about one metre for Andrew to be a giant. The only larger-than-life accomplishments Barr has to his name are sky-high rates, house prices, 1800 homeless people, largesse of community land to clubs, wasteful light rail and Majura Parkway over time and budget.

Howard Carew, Isaacs

I totally agree with Mike Quigley ("Colossal mistake: new blast for NBN", Times2, June 23, p1) that the Coalition's preferred fibre-to-the-node model for the NBN is a "colossal mistake" in the medium and longer term.

Look at it this way: a fibre-optic cables could be seen as a huge, 12-lane freeway; the copper wire to the premises as single-lane dirt road. Between the two is a "choke-down" system – a bit like a toll booth in reverse – that is expensive to run (ie, the "node"). Inevitably, the dirt road (the copper wire) will quickly succumb to the combination of traffic stress and the weather (water getting into the copper wire through the degraded-by-age insulation) and will have to be replaced.

Would it be wise to replace the worn-out dirt road (copper wire) with a new one that will inevitably suffer the same fate? Or would it be wiser to build a road (fibre-optic cable) designed to carry the traffic being fed into it for a very long time? In the first case, the rate of traffic flow at the destination (premises) would be no faster than before.

With the latter, several times faster, with much broader bandwidth and with almost zero rate of degradation with time.

As Tony Windsor has said: "Do it one, do it right; do it with fibre."

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

Recently British scientists transmitted data down a fibre optic cable at 1200 times the speed of the present ADSL, so Labor got it right with its fibre to the premises broadband plan. As NBN data rates are only limited by the equipment at each end of the fibre optic cable. The Coalition said they would deliver NBN faster and cheaper than Labor. So why, after three years and more than double the price, do I hardly know anybody who has the NBN?

I live five kilometres from a major city telephone exchange so I am interested in upgrading to the NBN.

At a recent NBN promotion at our local shopping centre I was told I was not on their roll-out list, and may get it in the next six years!

Clive Broomfield, Queanbeyan, NSW

The ACT Auditor-General's recent report on Canberra's light rail project highlighted the project is forecast to deliver only 50¢ of transport benefits for every $1 spent. However, that point would not have surprised anyone who had bothered to read Table 29 on p103 of Capital Metro's Light Rail Business Case.

Because light rail costs so much more than bus rapid transit it really only stacks up from a cost benefit perspective where the line links an appropriate combination of high-population-density neighbourhoods and desirable destinations so as to ensure adequate passengers numbers in both directions throughout the day.

Sadly, however, that is not the case with the proposed Gungahlin to Civic line, where apart from week-day afternoon peak periods north-bound trams will run from Dickson to Gungahlin with very few passengers.

It might also surprise Canberrans who have unquestioningly accepted the ACT government's light rail hype that there are plenty of examples of failed light rail projects, where the total costs have proved to be significantly greater than the benefits.

Bruce Taggart, Aranda

David Caldicott and Michael Thorn's opinion piece ("A 'thriving' night-time culture comes with costs", Times2, June 24, p4) gets stuck into Gwyn Rees from Clubs ACT for his opposition to the government's latest attempt to address alcohol-related harms by further trading hour restrictions and fee increases for liquor licensees.

They go so far as to suggest that Mr Rees was "cherry-picking" data to argue his case. Dr Caldicott and Michael Thorn might also be more open with the Canberra public by drawing the relevant observations that the harms data they rely upon to prove their point has occurred under the government's more severe licensing regime introduced in 2010.

Under a model where the police control the regulatory playing field, and within a policy prescription they clearly support, that has failed in every other jurisdiction in Australia where it has been tried.

Rather than support their argument, it seems to me the data only goes to prove that the government's model, supported by the health lobby, has failed, will continue to fail, and it's about time they fessed up to that "inconvenient truth"!

Tony Brown, Fadden

Norman Abjorensen ("The history wars rage on", Forum, June 25, p6) highlights the different opinions of Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull regarding whether or not Australia was settled or invaded. To settle the argument we may be better served to note the writings of some-one who was there at the time.

Watkin Tench a captain of the marines who arrived in Botany Bay in 1788 writes that in the first six months "the Aborigines were able to kill or severely wound 17 Europeans (including Governor Arthur Phillip himself) with no loss to themselves".

This hardly appears to be the action of locals greeting new settlers. Given that the Aborigines were only armed with wooden or stone weapons against the muskets of the Marines, I would

suggest that their response relates more to a perceived invasion.

C. J. Johnston, Duffy

In the midst of the current federal election and the brouhaha over the impact of negative gearing on house prices, I note that recent sales of land in Throsby have hit the record price of $1142 per square metre for a whopping 250-square-metre house block ("Canberra land prices may have peaked", June 23, p4).

When we bought our 1200sqm block of land in Canberra in 1974, we paid around $5900 – no auction, no private developer involvement, just over the counter. The then ABS CPI index all groups was 15.8. Today (March 2016), the CPI index sits at 108.2. This places that 1200sqm block at around $40,400 at current CPI-adjusted prices.

Based on recent Throsby sales, this same block (if you could actually find a 1200sqm block) would cost you around $1,370,000. By way of similar comparison, the house we had constructed on our 1974 block cost us around $45,000. Based on the same CPI movement, the current construct price would be around $308,000, which appears to around the average cost for three-bedroom home today on your own land.

That simple back-of-envelope analysis suggests the real cost of getting into your own home today has little to do with negative gearing and a lot to do with engineered price gouging related to the cost of land, the main perpetrator appearing to be the ACT government and the Land Development Authority holding back on land supply, ensuring a massive undersupply of land to meet demand.

Peter Toscan, Amaroo

The ACT government's recent survey on the future of the arboretum canvassed a list of possible attractions. Oddly, it did not even mention a possible "boutique hotel and conference centre", which arboretum managers were spruiking in the Canberra Times on June 6. Was the survey a sham?

Louis Young, Duffy

TO THE POINT

The Canberra Times wants to hear from you in short bursts. Email views in 50 words or fewer to

letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au

LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

I have just received my leaflet on the ACT budget and am surprised at the lack of government transparency: no mention of government debt levels or how much interest is owing. Nor is there any detail on how much our rates are to go up to fund any future surplus. Its selective content seems to read more like party political propaganda than an honest account to the people of the ACT. Frankly put, we need better government.

Steve Butterworth, Griffith

WHAT OF PREFERENCES?

Thanks for publishing the Senate candidates for the ACT ("Meet the ACT Senate candidates", Forum, June 25, p1). However, in this expected very close election, even more importantly maybe is to know where their preferences will go. Will the CT publish candidate choices to enable truly informed decision-making?

Heather Sorensen, Kambah

HOPELESSLY AT SEA

A ship doesn't go to sea before it has been launched, whereas the various party election campaigns had been hopelessly at sea for weeks before they were belatedly "launched".

Len Dixon, Ainslie

SELLING MEDICARE

Mr Shorten's proposition that some business person would be dumb enough to buy a guaranteed multibillion-dollar loss-maker in Medicare may ultimately match the legendary folk legend status of US equivalent of "I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell".

Gary Thompson, Canberra City

TURNBULL'S BREXIT

The referendum that led to the calamity that is Brexit resulted from the inability of a conservative prime minister to lead the less rational elements of his own party away from a very bad idea. Australians who are considering returning the Turnbull Liberal government should take note.

Tony Judge, Woolgoolga, NSW

MUCH BALLYHOO

Like a lot of readers, I don't know whether to laugh or cry over the histrionics surrounding Brexit. On the positive side for world trade, it does appear that sales of Palmolive have not been impacted by the all ballyhoo.

Michael Doyle, Fraser

SIMPLY WONDERFUL

Boris Johnson prime minister of Britain and Donald Trump US president? Oh what a wonderful world.

Gordon Edwards, Page

CALVARY HOSPITAL

I fell asleep reading on the ACCC website the long list of complaints and fines against Calvary Hospital. Who's in charge up there in the ACT?

Philip Fowler, Goulburn, 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.

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