I thought management had progressed beyond 19th-century thinking, but unfortunately not. I can only assume that Mr Lloyd received his management training at the Jurassic Institute of Management Education.

His management philosophy seems to be a combination of Dickensian thinking underpinned by crude, simplistic assumptions about human behaviour and motivation.

I spent half my working life in the private sector working overseas for large international corporations in electronics and aircraft engineering and the other half of my working life in the public sector.

In all that time I never came across a working colleague who deliberately set out to do a bad day's work. So I suggest to Mr Lloyd, build on the idea that public servants want to do a good job. Thrashing people or threatening to thrash staff seldom stimulates, encourages or motivates responsible professional staff.

Further advice: most people work within a system. Systems dictate not only productivity and output but also human behaviours and how people respond within the system. If the system is well designed and fully understood by those using it, the end result is a win-win for staff, clients and customers. People are motivated by success and achievement.

Mr Lloyd suggested that in the private sector, "some companies actively manage out the bottom 10 per cent of performers every year". I would suggest he think carefully before advocating this management practice (If my memory serves me correctly, the giant energy company Enron – and some other very large American financial institutions – had that as part of their HR annual strategy, and look what happened to them!)

Leadership and management styles are pervasive characteristics within an organisation. It is essential to have the right style for the right organisation. The wrong style, for the wrong organisation, at the wrong time, always guarantees failure.

Mike Flanagan, Farrer

The Land Development Agency's backdown on the Yarralumla Brickworks development to a sensible height and density as noted in Meredith Clisby's article "Brickworks development backdown" (August 28, p1) is extremely welcome. Height and density building reduction is now desperately needed in West Basin. West Basin is used by Canberrans and importantly by visitors to our national capital.

The LDA proposal for a dense mass of apartments has caused the loss of one of the most popular and lively tourist activities – the paddle boats and bike hire.

For many years this small enterprise has been used and valued by countless visiting school groups, tourists and Canberrans.

Arising from the West Basin development and most damaging to Canberra will be the impact on Commonwealth Avenue from City Hill to Capital Hill that is the most important stretch of avenue in the city. The proposed apartments will not only block views across West Basin to the mountains from the northern extent of Commonwealth Avenue but the apartments will be right in the face of those travelling on the avenue.

Penny Moyes, Hughes

Hearty congratulations to Yarralumla residents for achieving a dramatically downscaled brickworks development. However, the plaudits to the ACT government for listening to residents' concerns are somewhat frustrating as a Campbell resident.

Many Campbell residents complained about similar issues of building height, scale, traffic and infrastructure for the Section 5 Development – but the drive for the "Grand Boulevard" of Constitution Avenue prevailed. The selected option was one of three that did not include resident preferences for reduced height and dwelling numbers.

There have been so many ACT ministers responsible over time that it is difficult to assign responsibility, but certainly none listened – and the NCA of the day played its role too. Reid and Braddon, you are next.

Oh, for one-sixth the number of apartments (80 not 500) and three storeys not eight. Or if only the Governor-General still lived in Campbell, perhaps we might have fared better. The final snub will be for Constitution Avenue to be dug up again in a couple of years' time to squeeze in a light rail service. Perhaps that will save us from the new Civic night-time parking fees when we venture into town for dinner – unless the fare is similarly over-priced.

Mark Anderson, Campbell

Of course the Yarralumla Residents' Association ("Brickworks reduction appeases residents", August 30, p9) was not motivated by the potential decline in Yarralumla's property values, only by saving the golden sun moth, the grasslands, and protecting the GG from the hoi polloi. Good luck to the young, the ageing, people on average earnings, etc, in finding affordable accommodation.

B. Paine, Red Hill

An excellent editorial supporting Peter FitzSimons' new approach to promoting our final step to independence ("Fresh face can refresh republic cause", Times2, August 28, p2). I think an intermediate step could be introduced in the lead-up to the next election if the Prime Minister of Her Majesty's Australian Government and/or the leader of the Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition would forego the ego trip of being the sole arbiter of who is to be nominated to be the next governor-general. In the lead-up to the next election, each party leader should be asked to give a personal undertaking that if elected prime minister, then the next time the vice-regal position is about become vacant he/she would put the nomination to a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament for approval by a two-thirds majority before submitting it to the Queen. Furthermore, to avoid any possibility of an embarrassing failure, the person would only be put forward with the prior agreement of the leaders of the other parties.

It seems to me that there is no point in trying to go the final step of a referendum to remove the need for the monarch to appoint the governor-general until after Queen Elizabeth dies. Too many Australians across the political spectrum have an emotional attachment to Her Majesty and their emotions need to be respected or the case for having an Australian as both the de facto and the symbolic head of state will probably descend into a verbal slanging match.

John F. Simmons, Kambah

Since the introduction of parking fees at the National Library in October 2014 ($2.50 an hour, $10 for four hours), the number of people coming through the front doors has shrunk by about 50 per cent, and the number of requests for books from the stacks by about the same percentage. During the weekdays, apart from school holidays, the vast parking areas, which used to be so crowded, are simply full of emptiness. By contrast, on Saturdays, when parking fees do not apply, these areas are again full, and the reading rooms overflowing.

What does this tell us about the folly of parking fees for this building? The authorities should be reminded that most of the long-term users of the library are either students or retired, non-salaried academics and researchers who are either building up the education of the nation or making a contribution to research. Why should they be penalised for their contribution? Why should their learning and research be cut short by the movement of the clock's hands? And why should the library, already buffeted by government budget cuts, be further penalised?

In this age of digitalisation, it should not be beyond the wit of administrators to institute a less punitive system for library users. The latter should not be driven to the extreme of breaking a leg to earn a free disabled parking spot.

There are many possible solutions, but one would be to re-utilise a section of the Patrick White lawns beside the library for accredited users, as opposed to short-term visitors and tourists.

After all, Patrick White would have been shocked to learn that it was in his name that the nation's intellectual life was being impoverished and that its springs of enlightenment and learning had been diverted to the greening of his lawns.

Ann Kent, Forrest

The Department of Finance should bear a measure of responsibility for the failure of the AFP's software acquisition and the associated financial and productivity costs ("Finance pulls plug on $145m AFP plan", August 20, p1).

In the 2007 budget, the AFP was allocated some $70 million to build SPECTRUM, the overdue replacement for PROMIS, and to roll it out from 2010.

That sum was adequate for the development work and the acquisition of associated hardware and software.

In the late 1990s, the AFP had self-funded and built PROMIS (then state of the art) for about $10 million, and had an excellent record in software development and adaptation. SPECTRUM was to be built in-house. In July 2007, when the allocation should have started to flow, AFP hired expert developers to facilitate an immediate start.

The methodology proposed in the bid to government was similar to that used for PROMIS, an incremental build/user-test approach generally known as "Agile", which supports fast and reliable production. However, when its detail emerged, the $70 million allocation included a condition that the project must comply with the "Gateway" process, a restriction that could only have been interposed by Finance. Gateway played an important role in overseeing some types of ICT acquisition but was fundamentally unsuited to an Agile project, and had the effect of suffocating SPECTRUM.

After several months of AFP attempts to comply with the imposed condition and to have funds released, the expert developers had to be sacked, having cost a substantial amount but not having been permitted to commence production.

AFP bore the associated loss. Further attempts to animate the project and meet Gateway requirements led ultimately to a decision to outsource, at a vastly increased prospective cost. Eight years from the intended start, five years after intended delivery, the plug has been pulled. There have been some notable failures in ICT acquisition by Commonwealth agencies. SPECTRUM need not have been one of them. Meantime, AFP operational effectiveness is impaired by sub-optimal technology, apparently until at least 2019.

Chris Whyte, Higgins

It's hard to decide whether the Abbott government was trying to implement Stalinism or Nazism in its ironically named Operation Fortitude, which caved so meekly to public opinion ("Border farce: PM, police feel heat over visa checks debacle", August 29, p1).

This government is dangerously un-Australian, to use one of its own terms.

We can be thankful that the implementation this time was more Keystone Cops than Brownshirt. What next?

Terry Werner, Wright

If you make a former policeman a minister of the Crown, give him a former policeman for a CEO, dress all the staff in black shirts and give them guns, what do you get? A good imitation of Mussolini's Blackshirts, who went into the streets to rough up anyone who looks different.

Anyone who studied history, as a previous PM urged, would know this. Welcome to Abbott's democracy.

Geoff Gosling, Wamboin, NSW

The most likely victims of the aborted Australian Border Force operation in Melbourne would have been overstaying backpackers. Perhaps the Border Force managers just misheard the minister and thought that their job was to protect Australia against tourism.

Tony Judge, Woolgoolga, NSW

In 1978, a friend who had left Pinochet's regime in Chile said: "Don't be complacent, it can happen here". Many seemingly minor issues over the past 18months have reminded me of her words. What was announced to happen in Melbourne last Friday was beyond the pale. There may have been a retreat on this occasion (and thanks to those who made their feelings clear) but many of us are worried about how easy it is to lose our liberties one small step at a time.

Catherine Stein, Rivett

It is irrelevant whether Mr Abbott knew of the planned Operation Fortitude in Melbourne. The culture he has created during his leadership and the type of people he has employed to carry out his mission means that these type of operations will be conceived.

The climate of fear, the war-mongering, the metadata retention, the secrecy surrounding refugees and their detention, the demonising of refugees, the censoring of the ABC and SBS and the arts, seems to be turning Australia into a police state.

Surely the major parties should stand up in Parliament and explain why we are going to war in Syria and what the strategy is for a peaceful resolution in the Middle East. And why we are committing millions of dollars to fight overseas when we don't have enough money to fund our vital education and health needs.

We need to hold the government accountable for its actions, we can't just sleepwalk into another war.

Thankfully, Melbourne stood up to the latest transgression by Mr Abbott and his accomplices. I hope this gives courage to all of us.

Lucille Rogers, Kingston

Manson MacGregor (Letters, August 28) misunderstands the main point of my letter (August 25), which was that Mikayla Novak was incorrect in saying that the fear was irrational that "low-priced imports from China could undercut the pay cheques of Australian manufacturers and their unionised workforces". In the past, the outcome from cheap imports was loss of industries and jobs, and workers suffered. The fear of current workers that the same will happen with the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement seems sane to me. It is a matter of values.

Like many economists and the current federal government, Ms Novak and Mr MacGregor appear to be concerned only about money and the short term. Anything else, such as the loss of jobs by others, the appalling and sometimes dangerous conditions in the sweat shops of Asia, and the contribution to global warming of bringing the imports to Australia seem not to count.

I think otherwise.

Julia Richards, Kambah

BE PATIENT TO TOURISTS

Perhaps Jayden Lohe (Letters, August 28 ) should walk 1.6km in someone else's shoes. Tourists are unlikely to be familiar with the local public transport. Cashless systems such as in Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast lock the uninitiated out and, very likely, darken their perceptions of these places. Unless card systems become universally available, let us show a little patience and understanding toward people who are our guests.

Russell Morgan, O'Connor

The recognition of urban public transport cards between cities would make the plea by Jayden Lohe, for buses to become cashless, so much easier to achieve.

An eTag for vehicles is recognised on any Australian toll road, irrespective of issuer, state, operator and toll fee structure. If it can be done for eTags, why not similar simplicity and convenience for public transport card users?

Roger Shelton, Spence

CHALLENGE TO LIBERALS

I congratulate the Labor Party on embedding the republic in its policy platform. As to the Liberals, I challenge Chris Pyne or Malcolm Turnbull to move a similar resolution at their next parliamentary party meeting. Failing that, their party's position looks like a kneejerk reaction to Labor's decision.

Bryan Lobascher, Chapman

Here is a simple test. When Australia plays England for the Ashes, who do we want the Australian head of state to be supporting?

Ian Bigg, Monash

PROJECTIONS CORRECT

I'm not sure where Stephen Jones (Letters, August 27) gets his information from, but despite the limited computing power available at the time, even the climate projections from the IPCC's first report in 1990 are proving to be remarkably accurate.

James Allan, Narrabundah

CITIZENSHIP AT RISK?

If Peter Greste is a dual national (Australia and Latvia), and, if he has been convicted of supporting a banned organisation (Muslim Brotherhood), would he be subject to the proposed new Australia citizenship rules which would have his Australian citizenship stripped automatically?

Mick Gallway, Flynn

KEYSTONE REVIVED

It is so tempting to compare Friday's Border Force shenanigans in Melbourne with the Keystone Cops. Unfortunately that would be according it a comical air, far less incompetent than one would be entitled to assume.

Peter Edsor, Bungendore, NSW