The outcry against this first step is, I would suggest, mainly aimed at making later steps more difficult for future governments.

And can I suggest that when anyone tells us: "This change is costing me $100 a week, boo-hoo!", before we shed a sympathetic tear we should ask: "How many hundreds does that leave you with?"

Jim Jones, Charnwood

Robyn Lewis (Letters, June 3) is being a bit unfair on Sarah Hanson-Young when suggesting she would be "more aware of the real world" if her super "operated on the same lines as ordinary wage and salary earners".

Ms Hanson-Young arrived in Parliament after the introduction of the 2004 revised scheme. This is well aligned to current superannuation practices of employer contributions into a conventional accumulation super account.

The same can't be said of Julie Bishop who will eventually be a recipient of the very generous earlier pollie scheme. Perhaps even more generous if Barry Cohen, John Moore and two others win their High Court case for bigger pensions and more free travel.

Bill Blair McKellar

The then executive of the Christian Brothers certainly knew that Brothers Keenan, Seery and Hills were paedophiles when sending them to St Edmund's College under the supervision of Brother Landener, headmaster 1960-65 ("Fresh claims of abuse at school", June 2, p1). The Royal Commission identified these three in its Case Study 11. Keenan had interfered with boys in 1940, 1941 and 1946.

The Superior General of the Christian Brothers offered Keenan a dispensation to leave the Order but Keenan refused to accept it. In 1954 Seery received a canonical warning and a censure in relation to a complaint that involved a girl.

In 1956 Seery received another canonical warning and a censure for more child sexual abuse. In 1956 Hills received a censure for immorality and abuse of children. The Christian Brothers recklessly allowed these paedophiles to continue teaching in their schools without informing the pupils, parents or police.

The Christian Brothers concede their past handling of such cases was flawed ("Officials turned blind eye to abuse", May 18, p2) and that "what happened 25 years ago is not what the community or we would accept today". As a student at St Edmund's when Landener was headmaster, my parents, brothers and I knew then such activity was criminal and would not have accepted it.

Jeremy McGrane, Kingston

The cost of providing a garden waste bin service city-wide in Canberra has "not yet been determined" ("Garden waste bins, at last", May 28, p1), according to ACT Municipal Services Minister Meegan Fitzharris. Perhaps she should seek advice from Capital Metro. Capital Metro is able to determine the cost of light rail that will be used by an unknown number of people. We know how many households there are in Canberra.

Surely a reasonably accurate costing can be determined using the ACT ratepayers database and analysing costs to NSW councils of green waste services. We're talking a few $100,000, not the billions that light rail will cost; but we are going ahead with light rail anyway but only a "pilot program" for green waste.

Heidi Davis, Flynn

Australian of the Year David Morrison is making a fool of himself with his campaign to end use of the word "guys" because it excludes women. Any woman who jumps on this bandwagon will be making a fool of herself too.

What Morrison should have done first was to consult some of the women who use language professionally. Actresses, authoresses and editresses decided long ago that the male forms of their working names included them too, and no one objected. So if a woman wants to be one of the guys, she has only to decide to be one.

After that, Morrison should have looked back on his own career. Any Chief of Army knows that the Constitution refers to the Governor-General only as "he" – yet Chief of Army David Morrison was perfectly happy to have all the armed forces commanded by a Governor-General who was a woman. Quentin Bryce was definitely one of the guys back then, with no need to make any sort of politically correct changes. David Morrison would be well advised to follow his own precedent, and to do so very quietly.

G.T.W. Agnew, Coopers Plains, Qld

I agree with David Morrison about getting rid of the the term "guy", although guy is not as bad as "buddy". To address a group of men and women formally, it's ladies and gentlemen, and for an informal address folks is fine. The RSL and Father Bob McGuire uses comrade or comrades in their speeches.

Adrian Jackson, Middle Park, Vic

I write regarding the recent killing of Harambe the gorilla at an Ohio zoo. Especially noted are those who have immediately taken arms against the parents of the involved child.

What is the real reason for their anger? Is it really the fault of the parents? Those who made the call to shoot Harambe? That a human life was considered more valuable than Harambe's?

Or, is there a deeper issue: Are people angry that the world we live in has the audacity to present us with such confronting, difficult and threatening moral dilemmas?

If so, please, do not take this out on the parents of the child. If the world we live in presents us with such harsh and unforgiving circumstances, even the best of parents with the purest of love and intention cannot prevent such things.

Hannah Weickhardt, Harrison

If we applied Arthur Schuster's so-called logic (Letters, June 1) to humans we would have to kill thousands of healthy people in case some die in the future. I'm sure Mr Schuster, as others, would find that approach, if applied to humans such as himself, appalling yet we happily apply it to the kangaroo. And as much as dying from health related illnesses or old age is normal in humans so it is in the life of kangaroo.

Life is not a bank deposit, securing against the future. It is much more complex and compelling for the individual animal than Mr Schuster obviously conceives. The problems he mentions (car accidents and drought) can be resolved or at least mitigated if we simply think it worthwhile. And that's the rub. We don't think the kangaroos worthwhile so instead of asking ourselves, for example, how we can reduce accidents and effects of drought, without further killing (as we would do for humans) we simply demonise the kangaroo, see them, instead of our actions, as a problem, and look to the gun as the most effective solution.

Carolyn Drew, Page

No Tom Middlemiss (Letters, June 1), Ian Jannaway was not arguing against an individual having to apologise for a wrong committed by another person.

Rather, he was being critical of the Victorian Premier for choosing to apologise, on behalf of previous Victorian governments, to those convicted of being homosexual. In doing so Mr Jannaway trivialised the issue by comparing the then "crime" of homosexuality to "speeding on a penny farthing". He was also critical of what he perceives as society "pandering to minority groups". He also argued that such an apology was "revising history". What rot!

Revising history would be to say that no such victimless crimes or convictions ever occurred.

Would Mr Jannaway also be critical of the Rudd government apologising to the Stolen Generation; a church official apologising to child victims of institutionalised sexual abuse or the judiciary and police apologising to someone who was wrongly jailed for a crime they didn't commit?

If the answer is yes, I'd suggest that he is the type of white, male, heterosexual who feels that his voice goes unheard at the expense of "minority groups with loud voices". If the answer is no, I'd suggest that he is simply intolerant of gays and lesbians.

Ross Pulbrook, Wyong, NSW

If privacy is indeed a "fundamental pillar of an official statistical system", then can Chris Libreri (Letters, May 27) please explain why the Australian Bureau of Statistics is ignoring the Australian citizen's right to privacy in their decision to retain individual's identifying data in this year's Census? The reassurance by Libreri and the ABS that this information is protected by stringent security measures pales when one considers that this information has in the past been destroyed after census data has been collated. Why the questionable change to the anonymity of the census? The ABS should disclose the true reason behind this Orwellian collection and retention of personal data rather than assure us that this process is necessary for our own society's good. Past censuses have no doubt provided accurate demographic information without retaining our personal information. In contrast, surely the ABS realises that any data collected from this census will be compromised by the likely possibility that people will falsify their responses due to their desire to protect their identity which will now be permanently linked to their personal information, thus rendering the entire exercise a waste of government resources at the very least.

Also, why will the ABS issue comparatively astronomical fines to people who do boycott the survey - $180 per day for non-compliance compared to a one-off fine of $20 for failure to vote in a federal election, effectively forcing the majority of citizens of this supposed democracy to comply – a worrying precedent to say the least.

Grace Moscaritolo , Isabella Plains

MESSAGE OF MEANNESS

The Coalition's key message for this Federal election is coming across strongly: wehave to live within our meanness.

Max Foster, Melba

CANADA SHOWS THE WAY

What an excellent letter from Lucille Rogers (June 2) highlighting how Canada's new PM is showing the way with progressive policies. Both our local and federal politicians have entered politics in order to enhance their own lifestyle and live for free off the taxpayer with no regard for the country, the environment or for future generations.

Bobbie Pinkerton, Farrer

DUO'S SENSIBLE CHOICE

I've been hoping to hear from Gerry Murphy or Brian Hatch about the record high temperatures we've been having. But Gerry has decided to work on his political zingers (Letters, June 2), while Brian's keeping his head down.

Very sensible of them.

S.W. Davey, Torrens

PENSION CORRECTION

Wrong, Fred Barns (Letters, June 2). The public service defined benefit pensions are not unfounded as you and many others seem to think. The pensions are funded by employer contributions made on behalf of public servants during their employment. Just like everybody else. The employer contributions were part of their salary.

Anne Willenborg, Royalla, NSW

CABINET KNOWLEDGE

If I have sunk low in the eyes of D.J. Fraser (Letters, June 2) so be it. I can cope. Yes I do expect a senior cabinet minister to have intimate knowledge of something as important as superannuation if this is what he or she is referring to. Surely the whole of cabinet should be involved in such an important economic policy with far reaching outcomes.

Janet Reynolds, Greenleigh, NSW

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