The failure of the Australian Tax Office to police employer superannuation contributions is a failure of senior ATO management. In the last few years the Commissioner of Taxation has sacked thousands of workers and cut the ATO's workforce by over 15per cent.

More is to come. These cuts have weakened the capacity of the ATO not only to catch big business and billionaire tax avoiders and evaders but also to ensure 2.4 million workers (and ultimately all taxpayers) were not ripped off.

As a former Assistant Commissioner of Taxation it seems clear to me the current Commissioner of Taxation has failed in his duty to protect ordinary workers.

I call on him, and the gaggle of executives he has gathered around him who are currently destroying the ATO, to resign immediately.

John Passant, Kambah

Employers stealing the superannuation of their employees is not a bug in the system. It's a feature.

Most superannuation entitlements are because of the superannuation guarantee. But these entitlements are often not protected under industrial law, and if not part of an applicable award or agreement can't be enforced under such an agreement.

Instead the employer need only worry about liability for the superannuation guarantee, a liability that arises from uncorrected shortfall in superannuation payments. But there are too few Australian Taxation Offices to police all the dodgy employers.

The employee can't directly demand proof that the super contributions have been paid and can't treat non-payment in the same way as non-payment of wages.

If employees were stealing $3.6billion a year from employers no doubt police action would follow. But there's no similar risk for employers.

Christopher Hood, Queanbeyan

If you believe our PM all unionists are corrupt, lying psychopaths.

Yet once again we are seeing how the business community rips off its employees.

Banks, 7/11s, Woolworths and Coles have all been caught out.

The biggest rip off of all is superannuation. [But] not a dicky bird from the PM.

Roger Laws, Bonython

This government and its right-wing business colleagues are so focused on vilifying the union movement there seems little energy or appetite left over to express outrage and take action about the alleged rorts and dishonest dealings of rogue employers.

Where is the comprehensive investigation (dare I say it — a royal commission) into employers who fail to pay award wages and correct superannuation, who engage in sham contracting, who behave in a form of slaving, and who appear to act with impunity in their exploitation of workers?

The small numbers who have been caught and prosecuted and the [low] risk of any sanction still makes such behaviour highly lucrative.

Annette Gilmour, Melba

It's distressing to hear of a death caused by a cyclist riding too fast (The Canberra Times, 5/12/2016, "Tuggeranong woman's dog run over").

Offroad paths can't be assumed to be safe. When two or more parties traverse the environment, they constitute traffic, with potential for conflict. It's also important not to overreact to such an incident. A cyclist travelling too slowly is a danger to themselves as well as those around them.

Asking cyclists to dismount for a short stretch is unrealistic, as is a separate path for walkers and another for cyclists, since experience shows neither restriction is respected, by either; or their children or dogs.

Paths with good sightlines are vital, as is a culture of good traffic manners.

It comes down to consideration for other people.

Rosemary Sharples, Penshurst

As a regular of the shared paths, both as a cyclist and pedestrian, I have to agree almost entirely with Patricia Worthy ("Ring those bells", CT Letters, Dec 5) — there are certainly a good number of discourteous cyclists.

[But] pedestrians are not always perfect.

There are those with buds in their ears, preventing them from hearing my bell, the groups of recreational walkers who occupy the whole path, and, most dangerously, the dog owners who, unlike Ms Worthy, do not have their dogs on leads.

Few dog owners seem aware it is a legal requirement to keep one's dog on a lead in all public places except designated areas.

About two years ago a friend died as a result of an uncontrolled dog knocking him from his bicycle (septicaemia following a broken leg).

More recently, I was forced to dismount and ask an owner to control his dog before I could continue.

John Rogers, Cook

Riding a bike at 50km/h on any shared recreation path is potentially lethal!

If that is the allowable speed on our paths it needs urgent review.

Fred Barnes, Bruce

Maybe the [bicycle bell] problem lies with Terry George's (Letters, Dec 6 2016 ) ears. Do we need more musical cycle bells? If bells were more musical; rather than the cacophony Terry fears, a mobile two-wheeled harmonium could grace our shared pathways.

Matt Ford, Crookwell

Head, but no heart. That's the Finance Department in assessing the important matching Anzac Park East and West buildings ("Knock them down", December 6, p1).

If the west one can be refurbished for long-term use, then so can its neglected eastern counterpart.

It should become a budget hotel, particularly enabling Australians of modest means to enjoy up close, the National Capital they paid for.

Oh, and for those wanting twin world war monuments at the bottom of Anzac Parade, then the west building could be named WW1, and the east WW2.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

Your report "Hoops out of bounds" (December 6, p6) made me think immediately of that great Canberran Gus Petersilka who died in 1994, but whose legendary battles with the bureaucracy meant we now can enjoy sitting lawfully outside a cafe to drink our coffee (truly).

The Farrer cafe owner, Alex Piris, ought visit the modest bronze plaque in the footpath on Bunda Street, Civic, outside the former Gus Cafe, and be inspired by Gus, to keep up the fight.

Gus once had a sign "Do it now. Tomorrow there may be a law against it."

T. W. Campbell, Bruce

The Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) is currently conducting the 2016 Client Satisfaction Survey.

DVA has become aware of a scam asking clients for their personal details from a caller claiming to be conducting a survey on behalf of DVA.

Any such requests are a scam and are not legitimate. The official DVA survey will not ask for any personal information beyond confirming your name and, where a carer/spouse is completing the survey on your behalf, their relationship with you.

If you should receive one of these calls hang up and report the call to Scamwatch on 1300 795 995.

Ray Payne OAM, Veteranweb Network

Your article (December 5) on the death of motorcyclist Jamie Hughes on Saturday, October 4, 2015, when he hit a pothole on Oallen Ford Bridge brought back memories to me.

I drove over that bridge the previous day.

The pothole a metre wide, which the article says caused the accident, wasn't there, or any evidence of it. It must have formed very quickly.

Stan Marks, Hawker

Damon Fraser's letter "Equal in Opportunity" (November 29) made me laugh out loud. As a woman who has enjoyed a career in IT spanning 40-plus years, I disagree with Mr Fraser's closing sentence that the men in IT outperform the women in IT when judged on merit. On what measure, you have to ask?

Mr Fraser has provided neither a definition of meritorious performance nor any evidence to support his claim.

A. M. Tarry, Giralang

Concerning Murray Upton's letter (December 3) on antiseptics, I recall that in the 1930s, "iodine" (iodine dissolved in alcohol) was the staple for cuts and grazes. Agonising sting. Then came Dettol, and in the early 1940s, Acriflavine, comfortably painless and a strong yellow die.

In the '60s, when I asked for it from a Canberra pharmacist, I was referred to Betadine, iodine again. No pain, plenty of stain though. Seems to work pretty well.

Jack Palmer, Watson

Shane Rattenbury's message the ACT is showing other areas of Australia how to reduce emissions ("ACT leading Australia on climate response", December 3, p24) is misleading essentially because it compares the total amount of electricity the ACT has contracted to receive from renewables with the ACT's total electricity supply. The reality is that the electricity supplied at night generally, if not exclusively, has been sourced from non-renewable sources.

Comparing the emissions generated by producing the electricity that has been actually consumed in the ACT with other jurisdictions would be more accurate and less flattering to the ACT.

Bruce Paine, Red Hill

For a long time I've been a fan of SBS's TV news.

But now I find it almost impossible to watch thanks to its wholesale slaughter of the English language.

I'm not talking about reporters from non-English speaking backgrounds, whose English is generally impeccable, but those who seem to be speakers of English as their first language. We're rightly concerned about the decline in our maths and science educational standards, but we should be equally concerned about our performance in English.

Knowledge of basic English grammar should be a prerequisite for jobs in the media, journalism and advertising – and teaching.

Fred Pilcher, Kaleen

News may be slow to reach Casuarina in the Northern Territory, but surely Harold Gotting (Letters, December 5) knows by now the Australian Government, with the support of the ALP, refuses to bring the refugees to Australia.

And while I have some sympathy with Gerry Murphy's suggestion (Letters, December6) that rubber bullets be used to control LNP and ALP MPs' thuggish behaviour during Question Time, I suspect that there may be some constitutional problems with the idea.

Peter Marshall, Captains Flat

I would like to point out to Harold Gotting (Letters, December 5) that the activists in Federal Parliament can't open their doors to "refugees/asylum seekers" and offer hospitality because the latter can't come to Australia.

The disruption to Parliament is nothing compared to the disruption to their lives in our concentration camps.

Felicity Chivas, Scullin

What else can you expect from a politician [Barnaby Joyce] whose only achievement to date is his threat to euthanase Johnny Depp's dogs?

John Galvin, Weston

MILK SOUR

My daughter and a friend attended the spilt milk festival on Saturday. Tickets were over $200 each. They had to wait 45 minutes to enter; there were long queues for food and drink. It was advertised with art and culture of which there was very little, according to my daughter.

W. Cook, Monash

LOST OPPORTUNITY

I'm worried about the intergenerational transfer of traditions among the hoods of Canberra's south. There may yet be a few windows to smash and walls to deface in the Alexander and Albermarle buildings, but this government offers no guarantees this crop of vandals' kids will have the same opportunities.

Matt Gately, Rivett

FLYING BLIND

As a proud geologist I didn't like the comment by Gerry Murphy (letters, December 5) "There are none so blind as those educated in geology and geophysics". There are none so blind about the materials, structure, and history of our planet and its hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere than those not educated in geology and geophysics.

Max Brown, Mawson

Is Gerry Murphy (To The Point) saying his unsupported denials of climate change are justified by "those educated in geology and geophysics" not knowing what they're talking about, or that his own education in these fields entitles him to say "Ain't so" without a reasoned counter-argument?

Mark Chapman, Palmerston

RESPITE AT LAST

It seems odd that the rising of Parliament for its summer recess is said to herald the silly season when in fact it affords some respite from inanity.

M. F. Horton, Adelaide

VILE SENTIMENT

Gerry Murphy's (Letters, December 5) advice to shoot protesters with rubber bullets is violent, irresponsible and extremist.

Shame on The Canberra Times to publish his vile sentiment and thus endorse police violence against protests based on human rights and democracy.

Joyce Wu, Lyneham

WHITES IN CROSS HAIRS

The UN special rapporteur on racism appears to be a global white basher.

Rod Matthews, Melbourne

RUNNING EMPTY

John Key, Malcolm's best mate, is resigning. He thinks "he had nothing left in the tank". Malcolm never had a tank to start with.

Mokhles Sidden, South Strathfield

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