Anyone who denies that big donors do not expect and get benefits in return for donations is lying to themselves. Politicians who espouse this are dissemblers. I think it reasonable to say that the public wants to see measures that curtail influence over politicians, rather than measures which invite it. I don't care if political parties want funds to run campaigns. If restrictive measures apply to donations to all parties, then that helps to keep the playing field level.

B Smith, Weetangera

There's something seriously wrong with the ACT's legal system if a man (David Eastman) can be tried a second time for something that happened 25 years earlier, and for which (rightly or wrongly) he was jailed 20 years ago. Although the director of Public Prosecutions apparently doesn't realise that, it seems some members of the legal profession do; as one has said ("Eastman re-trial may be blocked", December 2, p1): "Mr Eastman has already served 19 years in jail. That is more than what most get in the territory for murder. What public benefit is there in re-trying him?"

There should only be a retrial if Eastman asks for it, to try to convince a jury (and the public) of his innocence.

RS Gilbert, Braddon

So now we have the truth; the Gallagher government wants to make an average of $96,000 per Mr Fluffy house by coercively taking it from us at the lowest price ( their UV land rate) and buying it back at the highest premium by rezoning DZ 2 which only they can do and which they wouldn't let us do.

The waiving of stamp duty, help with legal fees and moving costs are costs which none of us should need to be incurring anyway if the job was done properly in the first place. The last time I was stood over and bullied like this was in the school playground when someone stole my lunch money. I fought back then and won. I didn't expect my government to do it to me 60 years later.

It took me a lifetime to gather the equity in my house. How dare Katy Gallagher do this unfair and inequitable thing to me?

June Cullen, Garran

Robert Willson (Letters, December 1) asks about soldiers claiming the honour of being Australia's first returned serviceman.

Thomas Laycock, was not born here but arrived with his mother in 1791, aged nine, and enlisted with the NSW Corps in 1795. He served as a captain with the 98th Regiment of Foot in the War of 1812. He returned to Sydney in 1817 with his wife Isabella, the daughter of Eber Bunker. He was the first European to travel overland through Tasmania. He died in 1823 at his home in Bringelly. His mother, Hannah, was one of the first women to be given a land grant (King's Grove).

Sue Tongue, Narrabundah

Robert Willson (Letters, December 1) suggested that Andrew White, the illegitimate son (born Parramatta 1793) of First Fleet surgeon John White and his illicit affair with convict Rachel Turner was probably our first returned serviceman. However, like White, Second Lieutenant Philip Gidley King (later Lt Governor Norfolk Island and later again third Governor of the Colony of NSW) had an illicit affair while on Norfolk Island with a convict namely Ann Hinet (Inett) who bore him sons Norfolk (born 1789) and Sydney (born 1790). Both boys accompanied King at the end of his gubernatorial posting in 1806 and later, with his support, they became officers in the Royal Navy. Thus it must be said that they were the first Australian-born members of the navy who most probably fought against Napoleon. Like Andrew White, both returned to Australia. They died in 1839 and 1840 respectively. As a post script to both the White and King's dalliances during their postings, both married their true loves once back in Britain encouraging the convict mothers of their sons (Rachel Turner and Ann Hinett) to remain in the colony and marry other convicts. That Turner and Hinett did having and raising other children with their new partners in what was then still a very young colony.

PM Button, Cook

If it weren't before us every day in the columns of this newspaper, you would not believe how crass our ACT government is, with its continued spiel from Simon Corbell and his imported "experts" about how light rail will be the platform for the future development of Canberra (Light rail critical to smart city: expert", December 2, p4).

Yet, in the same edition of the Canberra Times there was a report on where the real promise for this city lies ("Canberra confirmed as leading university town", December 2, p2).

Light rail corridors will not bring the new industries of the 21 century. As has been shown around the world, it is on the perimeters of university towns in those countries with strong economies where new industries develop. Canberra deserves an approach to public transport designed for its unique urban form, not a copy-cat light rail from "70 cities in the United States".

A Smith, Farrer

The article "Figures show Canberra doctors underfire" (November 30, p12) described my role as "the patients' advocate". While I have a legislative function to promote the rights of users of health services in a systemic sense, my office is established to independently and impartially deal with complaints about health services and health professionals. Advocacy on behalf of a person is significantly different in nature to impartial complaint handling and we work hard to ensure that people who approach our office to complain are not confused about this. Similarly, health professionals can be assured that we are not advocates for either party to a complaint and seek to resolve matters to everyone's satisfaction.

Mary Durkin, ACT Health Services Commissioner

The final House of Representatives Question Time for 2014 was an ugly spectacle. Speaker Bronwyn Bishop has lost control of the House because she has lost the respect of so many of its Members.

Barry Evans, Kambah

Joe Hockey says it is "too late" to initiate a tender process for new submarines, as Labor has proposed. This is a ridiculous proposition. A tender process is in effect already under way, with unsolicited offers being lodged from suppliers all over the world. The wide divergence of offers already made simply reflects that fact that the process is undisciplined because the government has not specified what it wants. It is not too late to bring some formality to the procedure and invite offers against a structured functional specification, including the level of local content.

Labor's proposal for an "open tender" process is probably not optimum either. For a project of this size and complexity a selective tender from a short list would save the government and the industry a lot of expense. There is no sense in inviting offers from suppliers who are unlikely to be acceptable.

Graham O'Loghlin, Deakin

I am not sure that Ruth Barson ("Prison continues the cycle of disadvantage", Times2, December 3, p4) actually understands what the wider community's expectation of the application of law is. The law applies to everybody, equally and without favour.

If a poor man and a rich man are both convicted of murder they can both expect to be imprisoned. If indigenous people are convicted of a crime that carries the penalty of incarceration, then they go to jail, the same as anyone else.

We cannot have a two tier system whereby if I commit a crime, I go to jail, if an indigenous person commits the same offence, they then get a slap on the wrist. Not fair.

Having koori courts is not the answer, self-policing does not work and creates a two state system.

Having justice targets for imprisonment will not work either. Let's say you have an imprisonment target of 25per cent, what happen when you reach that figure? Do you simply not imprison people who have committed imprisonable offences because the target has been met? Ridiculous. We are all Australians governable by law, the same law.

Ian Jannaway, Monash

In their article "PM's man to focus on economy" (December 1, p1) Peter Hartcher and Latika Bourke report that the incoming secretary of PM&C, Michael Thawley "has been tasked with rethinking [the government's] overarching economic strategy ... to bring coherence to an economic agenda seen by many in the government to be in disarray". This will be onerous for even a "hard-driving" secretary because history suggests the seeds of disarray lie in Parliament House.

Prime Ministers Hawke, Keating and Howard were seen as competent economic managers. In contrast to Rudd, Gillard and Abbott, they brought vast economic policy experience to the prime ministership.

Keating and Howard had had extended periods as treasurer, and Hawke had spent years arguing about wages, inflation and employment before arbitration commissions, as well as seven years on the board of the Reserve Bank and membership of two committees of inquiry into industry policy.

Moreover, the longest serving chiefs of staff for Keating and Howard were former senior treasury officers Don Russell and Arthur Sinodinos. In Hawke's case he always chose senior public servants to head his office to ensure harmonious and productive working relations with his department and the broader public service. In addition, their offices included senior economic advisers, including Ross Garnaut, Rod Sims, John Edwards, Ric Simes and Peter Crone.

At a minimum, Michael Thawley may require the support of a "hard-driving" economic adviser in the prime minister's office if he is to contribute to achieving a more coherent economic strategy.

Alan Henderson, Bruce

Brad Sherman's letter (December 2) on the funding cut to the ABC and SBS was completely incorrect. Sherman states that the ABC funding is going to be cut by 25per cent and as such he will miss out on many of his favourite programs. In actual fact the cut is 1per cent and can easily be offset by savings by both the ABC and SBS who receive billions of dollars from the government and advertisers.

At present both those entities are heavily subsidised by the Australian taxpayers and while giving some good presentations I believe they are both very biased against the government and are lucky to have been treated so leniently.

Trevor Willis, Hughes

Your article "DHS says more bosses will ease its woes", November 28, p6 is another fine example of the bureaucratic bungling that regularly goes on at Australia's largest government department. It's laughable that Secretary Kathryn Campbell would even hint at hiring more managers because the ones she already has can't do the job.

Why is it that when the federal government chooses to cut the public service it never makes the right cuts, that is, culling the incompetents within executive ranks? Perhaps the aforementioned secretary could answer this question – it appears she is adept at coming up with some pretty creative solutions.

Declan McGrath, Gordon

On Thursday, December 3, dozens of Canberrans queued at Dymocks Belconnen to have John Howard sign copies of his new tome on Robert Menzies.

This the man who would not live in Canberra while Prime Minister for 12 years. Who was responsible for thousands loosing their jobs and causing a recession in Canberra, and who did not turn up to the unveiling of the statue to Robert Menzies on the lake foreshore. Canberrans are certainly a forgiving people. The Mormons should round up this lot: they are living saints.

Peter Best, Weetangera

Credit to Frank Brassil for his article on how climbing property prices are excluding lower-income earners from obtaining their own housing ("Four walls and a roof the key", Times2, December 1, p1). The Housing Industry Association appear to regard cities with the fastest rising housing prices as having 'best performance' and interpret a rise in the ABS Housing Index as an 'improved situation'. The Canberra Times ("Canberra house prices drop 3.3per cent, sharpest dip of capitals cities", December 2, p2) refers to a downturn in ACT housing prices as slippage while increased prices are considered as growth, implying that rising housing prices are good and more affordable housing is bad.

It is not just low-income earners who are effectively locked out of owning their own homes but singles and moderate-income families.

It is ridiculous that the ACT government continues to raise in the order of half its revenue from the housing sector, thereby increasing the cost of housing and the number requiring government provided housing. At the same time, the federal government provides massive negative gearing tax advantages to investors who are in competition with those saving for a house to live in.

I get no pleasure in seeing the value of my house increase while my children struggle to get into the market or to pay off high mortgages. The value of my house is of no use to me unless I sell it, in which case I have to re-purchase in the same market. It is time for governments at all levels to stop pushing up the cost of housing.

Geoff Rohan, Kambah

LIES AND PERSISTENCE

I am afraid that Prime Minister Tony Abbott's persistence with his rather unpopular commitments – explained nicely in your editorial "Abbott suffers first-year blues" ( Times2, December 2, p2) – gives much credence to Winston Churchill's definition of a fanatic: as someone who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.

Sam Nona, Burradoo, NSW

"Feral"? Tony Abbott leads the most negative, obstructive, abusive opposition this country has ever suffered. We don't all have amnesia, Mr Abbott.

Janet Rickwood, Greenway

Why is it necessary for us to "move on" from Tony Abbott's multiple lies but it was never OK, in his eyes, to "move on" from Julia Gillard's "lie" when circumstances had really changed with the election resulting in a hung Parliament.

Jenny Handke, Kambah

BURY THAT BONE

Christopher Pyne is like a terrier dog with a bone. It is time he buried the bone permanently.

Robyn Lewis, Raglan, NSW

MASSIVE TRAFFIC JAM

I don't know whether the ACT needs an ICAC, but somebody should ask who authorised the re-asphalting team to close two west-bound lanes of Parkes Way at 7pm on Tuesday evening, which resulted in a massive traffic jam.

Kevin Rattigan , Berremangra, NSW

LEGAL DETENTION?

If the two pregnant refugees were not "detained" on the bus as N Bailey (Letters, December 3) asserts, why were they only allowed to disembark behind the wire of the Darwin Detention Centre? Compounding the injustice is that these women are refugees and no longer asylum seekers, and definitely not "illegal immigrants".

It's hard to understand how their detention is legal.

Peter Marshall, Captains Flat, NSW

MORE THAN ONE VIEW

Robert Gascoigne (Letters, December 2) asserts that Senator Zed Seselja is ignoring his ACT constituency in expressing continuing opposition to same-sex marriage. Mr Gascoigne's assertion ignores two facts.

Firstly, the reason that the territories elect two senators is so more than one view on any issue can be put.

Secondly, not everyone in the ACT supports gay marriage and those who don't are entitled to have their opinion expressed in public forums.

Heather Nash, Kingston

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