But, if anything, the Vickerman report highlights the findings of the Grattan Institute. It talks, for example, about "difficulties" in assessing some benefits, says it is "tenuous" to directly link improved job outcomes to the tram and that there are "interesting questions" about putting a monetary value on visual attraction. It says that there is a "big unknown" in whether a completely new transport option would change behaviour (for the better).

The ACT government has to include all of these to get the tram's benefit-cost ratio over one but you have to wonder how these vague benefits can seriously be considered when looking at the value of the tram. It is also clear why these vague benefits are not normally included in the calculation of BCRs. Which leaves the tram's BCR at 0.5.

That is, to build it, at a cost of $700 million would mean putting $350 million of our money down the pan. Even if you accept the government's claim the tram has a BCR of 1.2, that would be wiped out by a 20 per cent cost overrun, which is highly likely.

Stan Marks, Hawker

I was heartened to read in the Manuka Green March 31 Newsletter that all the heritage features surrounding Manuka Oval "will be retained". Chief operating officer of the Giants, Richard Griffiths, recognises the history surrounding Manuka Oval "goes beyond sport, deep into the fabric of the Canberra community".

I take these expressions of respect for the environs of the oval to mean a readiness by Giants and Grocon to scale back their proposed amount of unit development. In doing so, they show a better understanding of Canberra's community values than our present government, which appears willing to compromise heritage places around the oval, and happy to give away our public land for private use.

Ian W. Morison, Barton

I am perplexed by the arrogance of the Grocon consortium in assuming that locals who resist a "world-class stadium" in the Manuka precinct are irrational. We are talking here of the most historic and valuable residential area in Canberra, including the Manuka Pool and Telopea Park.

My husband and I live directly opposite the Manuka Oval. Neither we nor anyone else in our apartment block has received any information about this proposal, not even in the form of a letterbox flyer. So much for a four-month "community engagement process".

Don't the locals who would be the most affected count? Horror at reading the article headed "GWS bosses slam community opposition to plan" (April 4, p1) when at our apartment general meeting this week was universal. The idea of housing 1000 units in a block towering over the heritage-listed Manuka Pool is incredible.

Already, car space all the way down Manuka Circle to the foreshore is chock-a-block every weekday. We have accepted the huge lights on the oval quite happily. We are resigned to the present level of noise every time a large sporting event is held. But the line has to be drawn somewhere.

The government has squandered taxpayers' money and now wants to trade on these assets owned by us all, seeing the dollars in front of its eyes. Let us rethink how to tidy Manuka Oval without sacrificing the surrounding precinct.

S. Bury, Griffith

It is refreshing to see some sense at last as presented by the ACT opposition regarding a valid bus transport plan for Canberra. It must be even more appealing for the great majority of Canberrans, particularly those south of the lake, to know that they could have the benefit of an integrated and flexible system covering the whole of the ACT in short time.

The Liberals' proposal at $160 million for the full system leaves no doubt that the Barr government's proposal of $1000 million for the tram to serve only Gungahlin is a lemon.

The light-rail debt will leave us with an ongoing yearly deficit which will ensure the tram is never extended. It should be noted they have no plans to cross the lake without hanging cables through the Parliamentary Triangle which the NCA has said is unacceptable.

The tram is obsolete technology and the Liberals are to be congratulated for considering the use of battery electric buses which have been proven in use all around the world. One with a guaranteed range of 250 kilometres between charges was in Australia on demonstration for most of 2015, but Barr did not bring it to Canberra.

Robert Adams, Ainslie

Bungendore IGA owner Darren Heathcote is probably right when, in trying to stop Woolworths operating a competing store in Bungendore, he says the market in which he operates is not only Bungendore, but includes Queanbeyan and Majura Park (where Woolworths, Costco, and – soon – Aldi operate) ("Bungendore battler takes Woolies to ACCC", April 5, p3).

His evidence was a council survey which showed that only 4.6 per cent of Bungendore residents shop at Bungendore. I doubt that will help his case, because competition in the market he defines is so intense that, if Woolworths operate another store in Bungendore, competition would probably become even more intense, not "substantially lessened" (the test for illegality).

But the point is that this case shows how wrong the ACCC was recently in refusing Superbarn permission to sell two suburban Canberra shops, on the grounds that it would "substantially lessen competition" in those (local suburban) markets.

The reality is that, in Canberra with its addiction to car travel and its excellent road network, there is no such thing as a "local suburban" market; anyone dissatisfied with a supermarket in one suburb can easily travel to a supermarket in another suburb or in a town centre.

R.S. Gilbert, Braddon

I'm pondering over the article regarding the approval of Australia's biggest coal mine ("Huge coal mine project gets Qld green light", April 4, p4). . With all that extra billions of tons of CO2 emissions I'm wondering what's so green about it?

Michael Calkovics, Lyons

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and many commentators, including The Canberra Times Saturday editorial ("The widening political disconnect, Forum, April 2, p5), have drawn the conclusion that we state and territory voters have an appetite for better schools and hospitals but are not willing to pay for them. This conclusion is based on the PM's ruse in which he offered the states the ability to raise income tax and then noted their predictable dislike of the idea. It is completely wrong.

We are perfectly willing to pay for now-urgent improvements in health, education and other areas by the means promised by the PM himself – by reform of the tax system, including money-saving simplification, ending unfair and distorting deductions for superannuation, housing negative gearing and capital gains, and most especially, by ensuring that wealthy businesses and individuals pay their fair share of tax.

What is it that the government doesn't understand about the community's desire for these changes? They have been raised so many times they are now in the bleeding obvious class, yet Mr Turnbull and his government do nothing but dither, duck and obfuscate.

By suggesting the stupefyingly complex dual-income tax idea he demonstrates the worst of his predecessor's failings – a preference for playing self-serving tactical political games in place of the promised consistent, well-explained strategy and policies that would give voters what they actually want.

Julian Robinson, Narrrabundah

Malcolm Turnbull says the states should "live within their means". Otherwise they should raise more revenue.

But it's the current government that has increased spending (as a share of GDP); that has increased taxes (as a share of GDP); and that has reduced the states' and territories' promised share of the bounty. The $80 billion was real enough for the government to claim in the budget papers, so the current claim that it wasn't really there is just political flannel.

It's easy to call on someone else to live with their means, while reducing their means to improve your own. Turnbull wants to live within the states' and territories' means.

Turnbull gave no guarantee that if the states and territories substituted a share of income tax for (equal in amount) Commonwealth grants then the Commonwealth would not make any changes to remaining grants. So the Commonwealth wanted the states and territories to take on the political cost of tax increases – but the Commonwealth wanted to be free to keep pocketing more of the tax take, at state and territory expense, by changing other grants.

No wonder the current government's popularity is declining again.

Christopher Hood, Queanbeyan, NSW

If I was a member of the audience expected to listen to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at Westpac's 199th Birthday bash on Wednesday, I would wonder why he thinks he can lecture me about ethical and moral behaviour ('Malcolm Turnbull lashes banks over trust and standards following ASIC allegations', canberratimes.com.au, April 7).

Why do our politicians think that they can shamelessly lie, deceive and cheat the entire nation daily, sanction the most heinous behaviour against the most defenceless, while enriching themselves from the public purse, and still expect anyone to listen to, let alone respond to their hypocritical, self-righteous lectures?

Bah humbug.

John Richardson, Wallagoot, NSW

Tony Abbott demonstrated that a drover's dog can head (not lead) a nation, Ian Morison (Letters, April 7), nevertheless we can but hope people won't vote on the superficiality of either the ineffectual Malcolm Turnbull or the well-meaning but limited Bill Shorten.

But since you raised it: the choice could, more accurately, be considered to be between a toff who invests in tax havens, kowtows to right-wing extremists, and fails to walk the talk on almost every issue – and a lacklustre but genuine bloke who believes in a fair society with opportunity for all.

Jon Stirzaker, Latham

T. Leslie (Letters, canberratimes.com.au, April 5) advances the proposition that "the primary motivation of the left is hate". As a member of the so-called "left", I have to agree.

I hate a world where the sweat of many is turned into the gold of a few; where the air, water and soil is poisoned for private profit; where access to medical care is determined not by your condition but the size of your bank balance; where someone is paid $2 a day to produce multiple pairs of shoes that retail for hundreds of dollars a pair; where the US government foments wars so its armaments industry can sell $3 billion worth of death products monthly to the Middle East alone; where women and children have to make a choice to sell their bodies or starve; where corporates like Nestle can advance the claim that access to water is not a human right; where basic human rights are denied to people because of their race, gender or sexual orientation. I could go on: there are so many things of this ilk that I hate.

I breathlessly await T Leslie's advice as to why I should love these building blocks of corporate feudalism.

Paul McElligott, Aranda

E. Haddock (Letters, April 5) suggest Julie Bishop's decision to OK uranium sales to Ukraine lacks logic. There is nothing wrong with Australia's selling uranium to Ukraine. It holds no nuclear weapons having given them all up in 1996. Ukraine is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as is Canada, China, France, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Britain and the US to which countries Australia already supplies uranium for nuclear power.

The comment of G. W. Johnson, of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, on the NPT is instructive: "The NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote co-operation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament".

Sal Emmanuel, Kaleen

I am encouraged that the ACT government may support a proposal to take a very fast train connection to the airport rather than into Civic ("Airport route urged for high-speed rail", April 4, p1).

I recall how in about the early 1980s Dr Paul Wild, formerly of CSIRO, proposed a VFT running from Sydney to Melbourne via Canberra. The philosophy behind this was that rather than following the present rail and road route it should follow a route that would take the train to Canberra and then on south through the Monaro and Eastern Victoria to an independent terminal, probably in the vicinity of Caulfield Station, though that idea may have come along later.

The next development was led by Sir Peter Abeles. He set about implementing a scheme based on the acquisition of land along the route south of Canberra and beyond which would enable the generation of income to support the train's development. Unfortunately this plan did not develop.

Dr Wild and Sir Peter could embrace new concepts, but not everyone had the same vision, unfortunately. I recall with despair hearing that the then Victorian premier asserting that "trains go through Albury".

The VFT is a very much larger concept than one dealing just with Canberra's needs, important as they are. What is involved is a great national purpose, in which it is entirely appropriate for the national capital to play a central role.

Robert Todd, Mawson

My son's two children, aged 13 and 15, go to an expensive private college that invariably loads them up with homework of quite astonishing complexity. Even their father and mother (one an engineer the other a teacher) struggle to help them, as a I found on a recent visit to Canberra.

And those children having difficulty are advised to get a tutor. The fees would be enough to employ a full-time teacher at home, so it makes one wonder what they pay for.

Brian Doherty, Beenleigh, Qld

PM IS A SLOW ARRIVER

Why has the media turned against Malcolm Turnbull? In the game of bridge, sometimes a useful parallel to life, there is a very sound dictum, the principal of slow arrival. Perhaps Mr Turnbull plays this game.

Cynthia Moloney, Yarralumla

SAGA IS JUST A SOAPIE

As Ross Fitzgerald ("Failure to heed Labor lessons", Times2, April 6, p4) highlights, the federal government saga makes a riveting soap opera. Ifonly the Coalition soap opera was not costing the rest of us an arm anda leg.

Dr Peter Smith, Lake Illawarra, NSW

COSTLY MISTAKE

Anyone who thinks cancelling the contract for the tram system in Canberra is a good idea might want to take a look at what it cost the citizens of Ottawa, Canada, when a new mayor did just that.

Wendy Limbrick Schmidt, Monash

PARKS TOO SMART

The smart parking program being rolled out at Manuka appears to be a classic case of a solution searching (in vain) for a problem.

My initial thoughts are that this is yet another example of politicians and public servants being more focused on what's sexy, rather than on what's needed.

How much has the ACT invested in this initiative? And what's the estimated benefit to ACT taxpayers?

Gary Thomas, Griffith

RUBBISH SOLUTION

What's with the six or eight commercial waste bins that have been "parked" in a disabled car parking space in Civic (outside 1 Hobart Place) for at least the last week and a half?

Fintán Ó Laighin, Narrabundah

RE-HASH THAT IDEA

Your article, "Recycling helps 'disadvantaged' workers bounce back" (April 5, p2) reported on a mattress recycling plant at Hume. It states wire springs were "re-furnaced".

Excuse me while I re-oven last night's leftovers.

Roy Bray, Flynn

DEAD WRONG

Imagine being pleased someone is dead because they disagree with you politically! T. Leslie (Letters, canberratimes.com.au, April 5) needs to be careful of developing cancer herself.

Helen Davies, Weston

To say it's a natural fate for people like Bob Ellis to develop cancer is probably one of the most appalling and hateful things I have ever read in the CT's letter pages. Please keep your dreadful thoughts to yourself, T.Leslie.

Jan Gulliver, Lyneham

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