I recommend to those who have a valid reason, to fight it all the way. I went to court in May after reasonable challenges were denied and won a non-conviction order. My genuine mistake was parking in a Civic disabled bay that was not marked with the blue and white painted symbol that ORS's website advises all disabled bays have, making them easily distinguishable.

The reply to my first appeal was that ORS didn't rely on this information on its own website, but on the Australian road rules that require this painting or a sign on a pole. Going back to look, I found there were signs, partly obstructed by trees on both sides. The bay was quickly painted to match the website advice.

My appeal following the painting resulted in ORS claiming that it was nothing to do with my fine but was routine maintenance.

A Google map from 2009 reveals there had not been routine maintenance since then, nor has an unpainted bay a kilometre away been painted as part of routine maintenance. Thanks to my not giving in to an unethical fine, ORS didn't get its money, other drivers won't make the same mistake, and disabled drivers will easily see it's a bay for them.

Estelle Blackburn, Queanbeyan West

What a great place for a child care centre (Sunday CT, page 3). Right next to a licensed club. Very humane. Patrons playing pokies will now be able to park their kids at the centre instead of leaving them locked in a car.

Ken Wood, Holt

Elephant in the room The response of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Iranian nuclear accord was hardly surprising. His exaggerated rhetoric would have us believe that the coming together of former enemies was a huge mistake and a long-term threat to world peace. I would have expected Tony Abbott's response to be more balanced. He began by saying he cautiously welcomed the accord, but hastened to add that his emphasis was more on caution than on welcome. In his next sentence he stated how catastrophic it would be if any Middle Eastern country had nuclear weapons.

Hello, Tony. There is already one such country: Israel. It is high time the rest of the world named the elephant in the room and ceased being complicit in Zionist propaganda.

(Bishop) Pat Power, Campbell

I ask your indulgence to express my thanks that during the recent very cold weather, with little or no wind and scant sun, our city was still able to function normally thanks to fossil-fuel generated power from interstate – power available 24/7 at reasonable cost whatever the weather.

It cannot be replaced by wind and solar and their supporters should stop pretending it can, at great cost to the rest of us. Coal and gas are here to stay folks, so get used to the idea.

Doug Hurst, Chapman

Greg Combet, architect of the Green Energy Finance Corporation, has challenged the Abbott government's justification for stopping the green investment bank from backing wind energy and household solar projects, in keeping with the Coalition's environmentally nonsensical policy of sabotaging attempts to replace polluting fossil fuel derived power with clean renewable energy (Clean energy driver rejects Coalition's investment claims, CT, July 14, p1).

An analysis by the Australian Conservation Foundation, using federal budget data, indicates that the fossil fuel sector is set to receive a whopping $47billion in federal government subsidies over the next four years, supporting the establishment of huge environmentally destructive open-cast coal mines, while investment in renewable energy has fallen by 70per cent since the Coalition came to power. The chief economist of the International Energy Agency has declared that public enemy No.1 of renewable energy is fossil fuel subsidy.

Australia is high on the international list for both per capita greenhouse gas emissions and opportunities for mitigation of climate disruption and lethal heating through multiple clean energy resources at lower cost and better employment potential than fossil fuels.

Why do we elect such a myopic government with a low environmental IQ which disregards the health of the natural world and of future generations? Here's to Greg Combet for future PM!

Bryan Furnass, Hughes

Julie Gray (Letters, July 17) is not happy with the wind turbines in the Lake George area. What is different about the turbines at Lake George when residents in other areas love their turbines and the clean energy they produce?

I have visited many areas in Australia and overseas where the wind farms have been working well without complaints for many years.

The Esperance coastline in Western Australia and Blayney in the Central West of NSW are excellent examples of wind farms working successfully without a barrage of whinging locals. The 3000 wind turbines between San Francisco and the Canadian border are also popular.

I feel it is the paranoia of Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey causing their supporters to agree with their outlandish thoughts on renewable energy.

Robyn Lewis, Raglan, NSW

No one will forget the travesty of the pursuit of Peter Slipper through the courts by his former Coalition colleagues while they scrambled to repay their excesses and rorts of their travel expenses. Slipper was refused the opportunity to follow their lead to repay the $950 he'd misspent on cab fares. It isn't enough that Bishop, who has demonstrated too often that she hasn't a non-partisan bone in her body, is simply allowed to pay a small fine and refund the money she spent on her "joy ride" to Geelong. If ever there was a need for a royal commission it is now, and it should focus on the uses and abuses by all parliamentarians of their travel expenses.

Obviously, some members and senators need reminding that the age of entitlement is over.

W.Book, Hackett

A spoiled brat tennis bad-boy getting turfed out of his $10,000-a-night penthouse in the United States is hardly worth reporting.

At 22, a normal person would have grown up, but not Tomic, who appears he has no intention of doing so.

Instead he has chosen to remain a spoilt cretin into the near future and beyond, rather than being a role model to young people.

D.J.Fraser, Mudgeeraba QLD

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