Surely the safer option would be to allow these terrorists to fly to their Islamic State terrorist brothers-in-arms and, once they have left Australia, cancel their passports so that they can never return and will hopefully perish where they fight. One aspect is certain and that is that Australians will continue to enjoy the lifestyle to which we are accustomed and have fought for in two major world wars and will never be cowed by the cowardly, balaclava-wearing jihadist.

N. Bailey, Nicholls

Two people have died in terrorist attacks in Canada. That is more than unfortunate. But what on earth is going on that governments and the media are making such a meal of this?

If today is a typical Aussie day, three people will die on our roads. It's interesting to imagine an Australia where the Prime Minister addressed the nation - evincing both a firm resolve and a controlled anger - after every road fatality.

Ross Kelly, Monash

M. Silex (Letters, October 22) asserts that the Canberra Times survey of opinion on the light rail project, with a sample size of 6000, is more accurate than the Metro Agency Survey, with a sample size of 1000.

That is true as far as it goes, but the margin of error for the smaller survey is about 3 per cent, while the Canberra Times survey has a margin of error of slightly over 1 per cent, an improvement in accuracy of about 2 per cent.

As Silex is a strident spruiker of conservative causes, it seems unlikely that his/her assessment of bias in either survey is objective.

David Roth, Kambah

I'm no lover of the Australian Christian Lobby, but to slam the Hyatt for booking them for a conference does nothing to advance the arguments of ACL's opponents (''Hotel defends booking by anti-gay lobby'', October 22, p8).

Just the opposite in fact; it says as much about the detractors' own lack of tolerance and intellect as it does about the fundamentalist views displayed by ACL.

Nor should Mr Shorten pull out from giving a keynote speech. It's a great opportunity for him to argue vigorously on behalf of the majority of Australians who are in favour of total gender equality and against all the other narrow, bigoted views espoused by the Lobby.

Mind you, I don't imagine he is capable of reaching the soaring oratorical heights displayed by the recently departed E.G. Whitlam, but he should give it a go.

Eric Hunter, Cook

While the list of great achievements bestowed on us during Gough's reign has been filling the media and reminding us of more optimistic times, one important one in Canberra seems to be missing. The Parliament passed in June 1973 the Maternity Leave (Australian Government Employees) Act 1973. The Act provided for the first time for women employed by the Commonwealth, 52 weeks' maternity leave with 12 weeks on full pay. The Act also outlawed discrimination because of pregnancy and provided rights to preservation of employment and status. My daughter was born two weeks later.

Many Canberra parents and their children owe a big thanks to Gough and his team for this, at the time cutting edge, legislation.

Gina Pinkas, Aranda

For those who lived through the years of the Whitlam Government the media coverage has been fascinating.

Two questions about that time nag me and I have never heard a convincing explanation of them. One is the fact that Whitlam announced that Australia recognised the brutal annexation of the three Baltic Republics, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, by the Soviet Union, against the wishes of their peoples. Why did he do this?

It caused great hurt to many people of those countries who had settled in Australia. Those who praise the record of Whitlam in government seem to overlook this issue.

And why did Whitlam refuse to allow Vietnamese who had supported Australian troops in that country to find refuge here after the fall of Saigon. They were left to face retribution from their new masters.

Robert Willson, Deakin

Gough's uniqueness was the energy and vigour that bubbled out of the man. I met him in old age, shaky on his pins, when he occasionally came to sit in the library of civilised University House where he was an honorary fellow.

I once quizzed him as to why, after his dismissal in '75, he did not pick up the phone immediately to Buckingham Palace and ask the Queen to accept his advice that the governor-general be dismissed forthwith?

Gough came alive: ''Well, after the letter at Yarralumla, it took a couple of hours to get back in my office, and then I did ring Buckingham Palace. HM's private secretary answered and said to me, but Prime Minister [note that] - it's 2am in the morning here in London, and I couldn't possibly rouse HM before 7am!''

Five hours later and it was all over. International datelines rule, even as great men rise and fall. I'll always be grateful to him for unforgettably enlivening my young life.

C. Lendon, Cook

Which is the more ''ethical'': a company that employs thousands of Australians, directly and indirectly, in producing legal and necessary products which will fuel Australia's and other economies and people's lives for decades, or a university which enthusiastically supports government policies that will substantially reduce access to a university education for everyone but the wealthy?

I know which I would choose.

Is it purely coincidental that the ANU has made its highly publicised, self-righteous, tokenistic decision on divestment at the very time that a very bad smell surrounds its disgraceful, self-serving support for the Americanisation of our university system?

If the ANU really cares about social responsibility it would be far better to revisit its support for decisions made in its own backyard than rushing into rather silly, undergraduate decisions regarding its investment portfolio.

Richard Moss, Chisholm

It defies reason for the Australian National University to defend the withdrawal of its academics from a public forum on terrorism on the grounds that having a Hizb ut-Tahrir representative on the panel ''changed the nature of the debate from an open academic discussion into a political discussion about the actions of ISIS'' (''ANU defends staff no-show in terror debate'', October 22, p11).

By its very definition, Islamist terrorism is a religious-based phenomenon that is impossible to divorce from its political dimension.

Were the ANU's actions a calculated political response in line with the federal government's own intention to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir?

As one of the academics in question, Professor Clive Williams, recently wrote in this newspaper (''Hizb-ut Tahrir ban would serve no purpose'', Times2, October 13, p5): ''It seems therefore that the government's kite-flying about proscribing Hizb ut-Tahrir is largely a political exercise serving no practical purpose. It may also be intended to distract from the government's inappropriate and costly military reaction to the unwinnable war in Syria and Iraq.''

Vincent Zankin, Rivett

Antonios Vlachos (Letters, October 23) is undoubtedly sincere in his view of the best place for the Elgin marbles, but there are some things he may have overlooked. Agreeing the Parthenon marbles belong to all of us and moving 49 per cent of them from London to keep with the 49 per cent in Athens amounts to a monopoly.

Nearly 7 million people each year visit the British Museum compared with a little over 1 million visiting the Acropolis Museum, where they are charged 5 Euros entry fee. The BM is free. If the BM marbles are spirited away, that's a lot of people disenfranchised. The current arrangement seems like a good compromise.

And when can we hope for an exhibition in Australia?

Roy Darling, Florey

Based on a non-binding vote to recognise Palestine by 274 of the 650 members of the British House of Commons, Alan McNeil (Letters, October 21) writes that it's only a matter of time before Palestine is recognised as a country. The problem is that simply recognising a Palestinian state isn't going to create a Palestinian state, or, for that matter, peace in the Middle East. Simple recognition does not meet the prerequisites of a state under international law. The only way to achieve peace and a Palestinian state is for a negotiated settlement based on Israeli withdrawals on the one hand and Palestinian recognition of Israel's right to exist in peace on the other.

Mere recognition is counter-productive, because it may encourage the Palestinians to believe they can achieve their goals without making the compromises necessary for peace.

Athol Morris, Forde

I'm sure many others will join Ed Dobson and Robert Willson (Letters, October 20 and October 23) in calling for the National Gallery's new director to overturn his predecessor's flawed decision to scatter the institution's European works across the country.

One of the exiled works is Jean-Antoine Houdon's marble bust of a girl. It is a superb example of Houdon's mastery, and it is time that it, and others which seemingly did not fit Mr Radford's particular vision, were brought home.

Peter Fuller, Chifley

LIGHT RAIL TOO COSTLY

D. Shirley and Barbara Preston (Letters, October 22) should listen to various economists and high-level Treasury officials before joining the ranks of the economically challenged who want to consign Canberrans to increased taxes and charges to support light rail.

Ric Hingee, Duff

TEXTERS BEWARE

I swear I will ''shirt-front'' the next person who bumps in to me while they are walking along the footpath texting.

L. Christie, Canberra City

WHITLAM A STATESMAN

For all Gough Whitlam's faults, he was a statesman and a man with a wonderful capacity to see what Australians could achieve if given the chance. The blatant right-wing bias of Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones (''Remembered by the right with praise and scorn'', October 22, p3) reminds us how prejudiced and lacking in imagination the Abbott government is.

Alison Chapple Macquarie

I think Gough Whitlam's greatest gift may have been his ability to bring out the truth and the best in all of us. Sadly, in these moving circumstances, yet predictably, in Andrew Bolt's case that amounted to a chance to demonstrate that his heart is as shrivelled, derivative and graceless as his mind.

Felix MacNeill, Dickson

ABBOTT LACKS COMPASSION

Tony Abbott can feel anguish at the fate of the victims of IS aggression. He can empathise with the Canadians over an attack in Ottawa.

He is unable to feel it in his heart to embrace the refugees from his mentor's misguided attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan and accept responsibility, as Malcolm Fraser did for our complicity in the Vietnam debacle, thus allowing Vietnamese boat people unfettered entry to our shores.

George Beaton, Greenway

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