Let's hope ABC management gives thought to the social aspects of its many programs such as Tony Delroy's Nightlife and Overnights presented by Trevor Chappell and Rod Quinn.

Including listener input and various expert local and international interviews, reports and stories, these shows serve many listeners such as those living with chronic pain and other health conditions, veterans unable to sleep because of PTSD, truck drivers, shift workers and people who may be socially isolated.

Governments and other groups are working to address mental health issues. Hopefully they will recognise the importance of ABC programs in assisting many Australians, often in ways that may not be obvious.

Geri Badham Waramanga

If nothing else, the initiative to cut the ABC budget has smoked out fascinating information about this bloated organisation.

Louise Evans' comments ("The ABC has flab to be cut" Canberra Times November 24) was a telling account of a lazy culture that should alert even the most ardent defender of the ABC to a situation that needs correction.

Rather than encouraging the ABC to be better, on the weekend Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek worked themselves into a lather against the cuts in front of a cartoonish throng of activists. They say you can always judge a person by the company they keep and if this group is an indication of the ABC's coterie of friends one can only presume that the allegations of left-leaning bias are well founded.

H. Ronald, Jerrabomberra

In civilised cities, governments provide a reasonable means of travel for citizens, irrespective of whether or not the transport system runs at a profit. This is because many people are unable to drive a car for a variety of reasons, such as poverty, blindness or other health problems, or being too young to hold a licence.

With ageing of the population more people will be in this group. Thus we need to get over expecting a public transport system to pay its way – most don't.

I chaired the Conservation Council's Sustainable Transport Working Group some years ago. It was then believed the National Capital Authority, which controls development along Northbourne Avenue, would not permit bus lanes down the median strip. Perhaps this has changed, but if not, it is pointless for people to persist in wanting them.

That leaves light rail as a solution to the growing traffic congestion, pollution, unnecessary greenhouse emissions etc. on Northbourne Avenue. In any case, plenty of overseas studies show that light rail is preferred over buses as a means of transport and that people will use public transport when it is the quickest or most convenient way to travel. With past federal governments paying the bills, Canberra has had the luxury of a road system that few, if any, cities of comparable size have enjoyed. This has been to the detriment of public transport.

If population continues to increase which, regrettably, it is likely to do while we have governments that want it, use of light rail can be expected to increase. My main concern about its success is that it must be accompanied by a good, integrated, feeder bus system.

I know Simon Corbell understands this, since I've heard him volunteer it, as do The Greens. I am not so sure about the Liberals or much of the community.

Julia Richards, Kambah

Capital Metro Minister Simon Corbell is keen to use a report on the economic benefits of the Epping to Chatswood rail line in Sydney to support his case for light rail in Canberra ("Corbell clips ticket on transport report", November 20, p2).

Unfortunately, such a comparison makes as much sense as comparing Sydney harbour ferries to Lake Burley Griffin ones.

Unlike in Canberra, rail provides the only realistic way for many Sydneysiders to get to work; private cars are only an option for a slim minority of business district workers. New rail means significantly better travelling access for many, hence the accompanying development and economic benefits. In Canberra, light rail is, at best, a marginal improvement to the existing bus public transport system (and is in some respects, such as route flexibility in the suburbs, inferior).

The same "improvements" promoted for the Capital Metro, such as savings in trip times, could just as easily be achieved with the existing bus system by providing the same priority to bus lane and traffic signals that would have to be afforded for light rail.

The simple substitution of one form of public transport (bus) for another (light rail) without any other Sydney-like transformational reasons for people to leave their cars at home means there is also no reason to "upgrade" our public transport system from buses to trams.

David Brudenall, Palmerston

If sport is a metaphor for life then our community standards are certainly on the decline.

Just because they play their game with great skill does not mean our elite sportspeople have too much going for them upstairs. Nor are they necessarily role models for anything other than self-obsessed and self-important bad behaviour.

The after-match interviews with an oxygen-deprived player seldom makes for riveting television and often as not leaves the player looking like a real goose. Players, coaches and commentators compound their discourtesy to their sport(s) by condoning the so-called "professional foul".

However, the summit of sports stupidity must surely rest with sports administrators. The most recent example is the dismissal of the Brisbane Roar coach, who concluded last season with a premiership and after a few losses is discarded. When did he stop being a good coach and when does the light shine on the players?

This coach always impressed as a thorough gentleman and one who made media personalities look good because he was articulate and knew what he was talking about.

Winning is everything, or so it seems, a notion that conveniently ignores the reality that only one team can win.

Losing is an integral part of life and sport teaches you that, or it should. Sadly, sport is teaching our community less than it used to and bit too much of the wrong stuff.

Peter Funnell, Farrer

Irfan Yusuf's defence (The Canberra Times, November 24) of links between halal certification and the funding of terrorist organisations lacks one crucial element: a defence.

He does not deny that organisations involved in halal certification have been linked to terrorist organisations in the United States, as I pointed out in my opinion piece on this topic last week.

He does not deny that the organisation that does the halal certification of Vegemite has publicly advocated for Islamic law to be brought into Australia, nor does he offer any suggestions as to where, exactly, the money collected for halal certification in Australia ends up.

Instead, he launches into a personal attack on me, suggesting that I should be focusing on the downturn in the mining sector, a key local industry, instead of talking about my constituents' concern about halal certification.

Yet even a politician can walk and chew gum at the same time and so, while drawing attention to my constituents' concerns regarding halal certification, I also have been working with businesses, industries and families in my electorate to address a range of other concerns, including economic issues and the downturn in mining.

Yusuf's feigned concern for the people in my electorate would perhaps be believable had he not referred to them, as he did before the2010 election, as "alien and ugly-looking creatures with tattoos running up and down their arms" and claiming that "95 per cent of them cannot read. And their English vocabulary is generally limited to words consisting of no more than four letters."

George Christensen, member for Dawson

Recent correspondence questions the extent to which Senator Zed Seselja has been supporting the interests of Canberra households affected by the Mr Fluffy disaster.

Perhaps, at an appropriate time, members of the Liberal Party may wish to reflect on whether Gary Humphries would have done better. Possibly what the ACT needs is astrong independent candidate.

In view of the fact that he seems willing to pronounce on matters of public importance, one wonders whether Malcolm Fraser would be interested in chucking his hat in the ring in that role. Overlooking the unpleasantness in 1975, his views seem to coincide with those of the majority of Canberrans and he would be a shoo-in.

Martin Butterfield, Carwoola, NSW

Why has it taken Katy Gallagher and her team so long to accept the major problems that have been obvious to most of us with regard to our poor hospital system in Canberra?

These nursing changes she is nowincorporating were normal andexpected practices in the past. Nursing was a respected profession where nurses worked as a team, patients' needs came first and it was not someone else's job to provide certain care and assistance.

If the current model does not work, change it. The government has forgotten that the word "nursing" means treatment, tending and nurturing. It's not just a business.

A. Crowe, Cook

A week ago the Abbott government could at least claim its refugee policy had stopped the loss of life at sea by turning back the boats. The success of this mission was dependent on the largely unpublicised increasing of direct refugee intake from the camps in Indonesia.

Refugees decided it was a better bet to queue for up to 18 months inthat country to gain access to Australia in the manner dictated byour government. That hope of anorderly passage to asylum in Australia has now been quashed with Scott Morrison's announcement that those applying to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees after July will not be accepted, and those applying before that date will have long delays.

Has success gone to Morrison's head? Why is he undermining the very basis on which his successful stop-the-boats policy stands?

I predict a renewed wave of boat arrivals as refugees, with no hope of success elsewhere, will again take to the only means left to them to get to our tragically unwelcoming country.

Robin Trinca, Narooma, NSW

The ABC's main historical reason for existing is that it provides a service to rural areas where commercial operators can't easily make a profit.

If Mark Scott's first reaction to afunding cut is to reduce rural services, either he is incompetent or he is acknowledging that the ABC's core reason for existing is no longer valid, and the ABC should be sold off.

Samuel Gordon-Stewart, Reid

I have recently returned from the Apple Isle. I would like to thank the local carrier staff for managing the delayed and cancelled flights and theemotions of some passengers.

The storms that hit Melbourne delayed the flights out of Hobart, causing passengers to change airlines. This had a flow-on effect for those with connecting flights. Not that it mattered, as by the time I reached Melbourne, my Canberra connection had also been delayed and then at the last minute cancelled.

The planes were packed with people and with them came the carry-on luggage. There is only so much carry-on space and it looked tome that we ran short.

Does the current carry-on size andweight baggage limit accurately reflect a plane full of people or, as with most things, has there been abitof size creep?

Maybe it's time for the airlines to enforce the limit, so when you have afull plane, there are no problems.

Joe Murphy, Bonython

The news that Unity Mining proposes to resume mining at Dargues Reef Mine near Majors Creek using cyanide leaching as the extraction process raises two linked questions about the feasibility and safety of the enterprise.

The first is to ask why there is even a proposal to mine here at all?

According to the company's website, it is only profitable to mine the ore body if the concentration of gold is more than six grams per tonne of rock and at today's price of gold.

When operated in the 1870s the mine yielded about 14grams per tonne, but the remaining ore is down to 6.3grams per tonne — only just worth mining if the price of gold stays high.

This is a common feature of all metal ore bodies today because the easy stuff has long been worked over, and what is left needs far more energy to extract.

To get the gold at Dargues Reef the solid rock will have to be crushed to fine sand, which will take a great deal of electricity. Because it must be ground so fine it will also take a great deal of cyanide solution to reach the fine particles of gold, and then the waste solution must be stored for the five-year life of the enterprise and eventually disposed of.

This raises the second question. How can the company ensure no spillage from the holding site will occur?

The question for Unity Mining to answer is how it can avoid "unseasonal" or exceptional rainfall at Dargues Reef over the next five years?

Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe, Hackett

TO THE POINT

In my opinion, if the government of the day and its supporters are not complaining about the ABC, then the ABC is probably not doing its job properly. I came to that opinion when Paul Keating was a government minister and complained vociferously about the ABC.

John Simmons, Kambah

Despite risible spin doctoring, ABC funding cuts represent a brazenly broken promise. It flows from the moral and intellectual vacuum of one-dimensional right-wing politics, where any viewpoint that doesn't agree with conservative rhetoric is dismissed as left-wing bias, rather than being considered as possibly fair-minded comment.

Ian McFarlane, Wallaga Lake

Tony Abbott's gall in claiming he hasn't lied to the electorate is both breathtaking and puzzling ("Tony Abbott denies breaking promise on ABC", CT online, November24). Does he simply go to confession, fess up and walk away, freed from the sin of blatant lying?

Patricia Saunders, Chapman

Chris Lathbury (Letters, November24) is probably correct in suggesting Senator Seselja has just been having a rest these past 14months. Not surprising really, poorold Zed must have been exhausted by all that effort to oust Gary Humphries.

Rob Ey, Weston

I think Mathias Cormann and Joe Hockey deserve big cigars for selling off Medibank Private and ripping off the contributors who have built up the reserves and assets over many years. I wonder how much flogging off the ABC and CSIRO would raise.

John Popplewell, Hackett

Asylum seekers are not illegals, and there is no queue. They are merely seeking to escape from injustices in their own countries, only to face worse injustice in our country, for which there is no redress.

Phylli Ives, Torrens

Our PM has excellent speech-writers, but who decides where his ums and ers should go?

Barrie Smillie, Duffy

Amen to Judy Kelly's letter "Why are Bookplate insolvent?" (November24, p3). To lose a Canberra icon such asthe Bookplate is difficult to understand.

Dave White, Deakin

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