You know, cut lunch, coffee and bus fares. Thankfully the report indicated that Katy Gallagher and Gai Brodtmann both had enough conscience and self respect to decline this outrageous allowance. Not so, Zed Seselja and Andrew Leigh. Their political antennae were well and truly turned off.

Given that many age pensions have been cut back recently and some Centrelink clients have been hassled over non-existent debts, I trust Zed and Andrew have now reconsidered their "entitlement" and chosen self respect instead.

John Mungoven, Stirling

There are too many people (politicians and ordinary citizens) who are selfish and greedy and spend time getting the maximum they can according to rules and regulations. e.g. Trump paying no tax for years, and politicians organising short meetings at holiday destinations with their families and piloting a plane at vast expense so as to keep a pilot's licence valid.

All need to focus on equity for all, and using available funds for the most needy not for their own benefit.

That they do the latter is especially disappointing when their role is to serve people.

The World Economic Forum this week is discussing a paper on the need to change capitalism so the top 1 per cent does not have most of the world assets.

There is no point just focusing on rules and regulations. Too many people will try and find ways round them.

We need to somehow persuade people to do the moral and ethical thing and not to be selfish and greedy.

All they need is "enough". It is a big ask ...

Caroline Fitzwarryne, Yarralumla

It was interesting reading the letter by Steve Ellis (Letters, January 16). Steve fully blamed Liberal and National Party members and correctly noticed large numbers of people who wasted taxpayers' funds. But sadly Steve had not noticed that nobody in the Labor Party is accusing the spoilers of wasted funds. Why does no one in the Labor Party say anything? Clearly it is because many of them are also guilty too, but they just want to avoid any further blame or explanations.

Frank Longhurst, Batemans Bay

We should all join Rebecca Scouller (Letters, January 18) to thank the many who worked very long hours to restore services after the Friday 13 storm.

She is however probably wrong to describe the event as a "freak storm" because, as global temperatures increase, the frequency and severity of such events will increase.

January 13 must be treated as a timely warning to us all. How lucky we were that no one was killed.

Many parts of the city have ageing trees growing in inappropriate and unnatural conditions.

Canberra must modernise its attitude to, and care of, its urban trees.

Current controlling legislation aims merely to conserve trees, it seems not to weigh the risks that trees can present to people and infrastructure. The present legislation, which calls pruning and removal "tree damaging activity" rather than "tree care and maintenance", was not drafted with serious storms in mind.

Trees should be subject to rules like those controlling other potentially dangerous urban objects; vehicles, buildings, etc.

ACTEWAGL must have charge of clearing trees that could damage power lines.

Local government should focus its resources on trees in public places.

Home owners should be actively advised on the best species to grow in gardens, and where to plant them.

When a tree is assessed by a qualified arborist to be a danger, the owner should be required to remove it.

Adrian Gibbs, Yarralumla,

Mark Gibbs, Curtin

Centrelink's robo-assistant Roxy raises a myriad of issues. Customer-facing: Lack of personality; lack of empathy. Internally: Eliminating employment opportunities; putting people out of work, on welfare, using Centrelink versus working, getting paid, and being self-supporting. Culturally: Deflecting responsibility for unclear, incomplete, incorrect advice.

This last point concerns me the most, especially given Centrelink's recent debacle and inappropriate algorithms determining who does or does not owe Centrelink money and near-robotic, threatening (to some) letters demanding payment. What accountability will Roxy have for inappropriate advice? For decisions people make based on that inappropriate advice? Who will be held responsible?

I have too much experience in IT and government IT departments and their subcontractors to have any faith that such a system would meet its human customers' needs. Efficiency? Perhaps. Efficacy? No way; not in my lifetime!

If Roxy becomes a reality and if I ever need Centrelink assistance, I'll learn the fastest way to "talk to a human" and then use that option exclusively!

Judy Bamberger, O'Connor

On Wednesday night another gentleman and I had to stop on a shared path near Woden to clear it of branches that had been deliberately placed there by someone who presumably thought that was funny.

While we cleared them, (presumably) the same someone decided rolling a tyre down the hill at us was also fun. Well, I would ask that someone to think again.

Think of the older lady that came up on her bike as we cleared all that.

Think of how much injury you could have caused her. Maybe even think you could have killed her. Think of her family's anguish.

Think of the fact you might have faced serious assault or even manslaughter charges.

Just think.

Pete Sharman, Calwell

Now that the fire has been extinguished at Mount Fairy, we enter an almost total communication void. All our landlines are out and unless you have an Optus mobile phone, you have no mobile phone access.

If another fire starts we have no way of notifying anyone of a new threat unless we dial 112 on our mobiles to access the satellite emergency number. This number has not been widely circulated to the public but it is worthwhile to have in your mobile for when you may need to make an emergency call and you have no mobile coverage.

I reported my outage to my telco's Australian call centre on Thursday before I returned home last night. I spoke to a neighbour yesterday afternoon who reported of her interaction with Telstra's call centre in the Philippines, who kept telling her her landline was working because he got her voicemail.

She tried to explain that she had no dial tone and that it did not ring, hopefully other neighbours got through to them that we have no phones.

Perhaps our federal member could finally do something about our almost total lack of mobile phone coverage, as we are only 60 kilometres from Parliament House.

Katrina Chisholm, Mount Fairy, NSW

On Wednesday, January 18, EPIC management posted on Facebook that it was offering short-term emergency accommodation for horses that may have needed evacuation from recent NSW bush fires in areas close to Canberra.

This stands in stark contrast to the chaos of Saturday, January 18, 2003, exactly 14 years to the day, when EPIC staff were refusing this assistance to the desperate horse owners who were ferrying horses there by the float and truckload.

This was because the trigger of a declaration of a state of emergency did not happen until 2.4 pm that fateful day.

By that time, we as owners of a small equestrian centre, had already had a steady stream of such equine refugees.

Suburban Canberrans also rose to the challenge as many who lived through that time will remember, with horses in backyards and local open spaces a common sight for many weeks afterwards.

I don't know if there were any horse owners who needed to take advantage of the emergency accommodation but I would like to sincerely congratulate EPIC management on the decision to offer up their facility — concrete evidence of at least one lesson learnt from a day the capital will never forget.

Ann Darbyshire, Gunning

As someone brought up on a country property in the 1940s, I wonder what has happened to one of the only methods we had then of mitigating fire damage to property and stock — the controlled burning of wide fire breaks.

With no emergency services in those days and little water, let alone high-pressure hoses, we had to rely on the only thing that would deter the onrush of a bushfire through paddocks of tinder-dry grass.

Farmers should not have to suffer the loss of homes and stock nor should emergency services have to put their lives on the line unnecessarily.

Instead, their services could be used to supervise the burning of fire breaks where possible. This year, particularly, with the bumper crop of grasses etc. surely it would have been advisable to have adopted this method of fire retardation prior to the forecasted spell of extremely hot weather.

P. Watson, Red Hill

"Kyrgioser and Kyrgioser", said Alice, in wonderment.

Ted Tregillgas, Flynn

While many of us can appreciate the emotional appeal of doing something, or even anything in the way of extending the search area (for MH370), we are still faced with the questions of where to search and, for what are we to search?

The crew of the Marie Celeste are long gone, as are the crews of Sir John Franklin's ships.

There has to be a point at which we admit that today's technology does not have, and may never have, the answers we need.

I am sorry for the losses that these families have sustained but to extend the time and range of the search area with no guidelines is illogical and would change nothing.

I have taken part in surface searches that totally failed in a 2D area so I know how much more effort that a search in 3D could absorb with no known starting point and no new parameters.

Barring a technical breakthrough we must accept that "the party's over" and there is no where else to go except to cloud cuckoo land.

F. Limacher, Kambah

The Barr government appears to be positioning Icon Water, 50per cent owner of ActewAGL, to be privatised. From the independent bank account, the autonomous iconic branding and website to spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars upgrading dams and plant and equipment. Upgrading infrastructure to benefit the community is non-negotiable. However, if the purpose of the changes and upgrade is to increase the paper value ensuring a higher return when sold then the outcome is extremely shortsighted.

Selling infrastructure and utilities has shown to be more expensive for less return over the long term. Hopefully Icon Water and/or ActewAGL is not being structured for sale.

E. J. Reeves, Kambah

Indonesia's military chief has problems with "the circulation of US marines through Darwin, now under way for two years" ("Why Indonesian general Gatot Nurmantyo halted military ties with Australia", canberratimes.com.au, January 5).

He's quite correct. It was obvious, even in 2013, that 2000 US marines in the Northern Territory are no gesture to China. With the most populous Muslim nation on earth facing yet another secessionist movement just off our northern shores, I, for one, am quite pleased with the US commitment.

We have been at arms with our nearest neighbour twice since 1945. The Indonesian/Malaysian confrontation of 1962-1966 and then East Timor.

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

Ahhh Parliament — the Gift That Keeps On Giving.

James Grenfell, Spence

TO THE POINT

CHICKEN CAUTION

Friends think I am a bad egg for purchasing cage eggs but the chickens are coming home to roost.

New Scientist reports another 800,000 free range ducks and geese are to be slaughtered in France to stop the H5N8 virus.

Exposure of poultry in free range systems has to be balanced against the likelihood of mass killing due to contact with wild birds.

Steve Thomas, Yarralumla

THE CABLE GUY

It's official. The Americans have their first reality TV President.

Rex Williams, Ainslie

THE UNACHIEVABLE

While I quite agree with Barrie Smillie's characterisation of Donald Trump's style (Letters, January 20), I can't agree with him about Theresa May's Brexit "strategy" which looks to be a mix of confusion, deception, bombast and wishful thinking — the delusional in pursuit of the unachievable.

Peter Moran, Watson

OVER THE LIMIT

I want to play a drinking game with you: every time an Australian radio or TV announcer says "inaugeration" take a drink.

And I am not responsible for any alcohol poisoning you may experience.

Fred Pilcher, Kaleen

MAKING SENSE

Japanese whaling removes an animal that eats plankton which is our major source of oxygen.

Rod Matthews, Fairfield, Vic

NATIONAL HOLIDAY

It seems many Aussies are sheepish about Australia Day, while others go "baa humbug".

Peter Baskett, Murrumbateman

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