Labor is apparently proposing that franking credits from investments in Australian companies for most taxpayers will only be usable against other tax liabilities and any excess credit lost, not taken as a refund as now.

Fully refundable franking credits are like PAYG for retirees and other investors and they similarly should not have the ATO take too much tax from them over the year and refuse to refund it.

As Scott Philips explains in "The glaring problem with Labor's dividend franking policy" (The Canberra Times, January 16, p.27), removing the franking credit refund is double taxation which unfairly disadvantages investors in shares against other types of investment.

Also, according to Citigroup "ALP policy 'could wipe billions' from the banks" (The Canberra Times, January 9, p.1).

Labor's proposed franking credit grab will similarly devalue every other Australian company which pays franking credits such as BHP, Origin, Santos, Telstra, Wesfarmers and Woolworths.

SMSF (self-managed super fund) members would be big losers as many are invested entirely in the Australian stock market, rely on franking credits for almost 30 per cent of their income, and have limited flexibility to retrospectively change their investments.

Devaluation of Australian companies would increase this loss.

Dividend imputation was introduced in Australia by the Hawke/Keating government in 1987 to eliminate double taxation.

In 2000 the Howard/Costello government made franking credits fully refundable.

This is fair and reasonable.

Labor should drop this retrospective, unfair and destructive proposal.

Bruce Porter, Palmerston

Congratulations to the CT for Wednesday's Motley Fool article. ("The glaring problem with Labor's dividend franking policy", January 16, p.27).

It is an excellent exposure of why Labor's franking credit policy is a mess that suggests that Labor has a lot to learn about good fair-minded, even-handed, tax policy.

As presently proposed Labor will put an end to the revenue lost in allowing franking credits on Australian shares that support a zero taxed pension account held in a self-managed super fund. Why then is Labor prepared to tolerate the revenue lost in allowing franking credits on exactly the same Australian shares that support the same zero taxed pension account held in an industry or retail super fund?

Labor's policy is not even-handed tax policy. It tilts the table to big super funds, either industry based or corporation based. That is not what any fair-minded Australian should want. Our society is already too much under the thumb of large self-interested elements.

The Motley Fool has suggested several alternatives to reining in the cost to revenue of the present policies. There are others. As the Motley Fool says "Labor's policy of penalising a subset of a subset of the population — either because of a poorly formed policy or rank political opportunism — is a terrible solution to a legitimate problem."

Tom Hayes, Campbell

I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments expressed by R. Salmond and A. Richardson (Letters, January 17) regarding pill testing.

There is a very sound reason why certain substances are classified as illegal. They are injurious to one's health.

Pill testing gives a young person the impression that their pills are "safe". There is no such thing as a safe pill. Instead of giving teenagers the illusionary confidence that the pills they are about to consume are safe, the government should legislate that these teenagers be given a significant penalty to discourage them from consuming such pills.

The providers of these pills, if caught, should be given a much more severe penalty.

To give a teenager the impression that their pills are safe is sheer lunacy, and may even be interpreted as criminal negligence.

Jim Coats, Fadden

No, James Allan of Narrabundah (Letters, January 14) the egregious state of the world today is not inevitable. Nor is it inevitable that intelligent life on other planets would be as limited as we are.

If we'd listened to Einstein, we wouldn't be faced with galloping climate change.

Einstein wrote, "The pursuit of scientific truth detached from the practical interests of everyday life ought to be treated as sacred by every government."

If we continued the cooperation inherent in true democracy instead of sacrificing all other values to competitiveness and financial profit as we have for the past 30 years, we wouldn't have the toxic workplaces, stressed workforce, unemployment rates and polarised population we have today.

Democracies from about the 1920s to the 1970s seemed to work well and both the rich and the poor were happier.

What we have now is an oligarchy to make the rich richer.

If we had paid attention to achieving intellectual, emotional and spiritual balance instead of focusing entirely on utilising the brain's power for financial profits, we'd have a sane, safe planet full of peaceful, balanced people instead of the polluted insane asylum we live in now.

It does not take much expansion of the imagination to see that if intelligent life does exist on other planets, they're probably more intelligent than we are.

It's even easier to imagine why they would not want to make contact with such narrow, primitive beings as our leaders.

Penny Hanley, Downer

Councillor Kevin Mack (Letters, January 17) is horribly wrong with his comments that halting population growth is not the answer to the crippling issues facing many cities throughout the world and especially in Australia.

Continual population growth will not continue to provide economic growth in the long run, and increasing our regional populations will be akin to moving the deckchairs on the Titanic.

This country is already facing extreme regional problems due to the lack of adequate water and the best scientific advice is that we are already close to the maximum population that this country can sustainably maintain.

I find it incomprehensible that no one wants to discuss the world's unsustainable growth rate.

Kenneth Griffiths (Letters January 16) provides the answer as to why this is.

The intelligence gene is indeed proving to be lethal.

Murray Upton, Belconnen

Ah, Goyder Street — beautiful one day, superb the next. Nestled between Red Hill and Narrabundah, its European and Indigenous trees are a safe, cool haven for rosellas, galahs, currawongs, magpies and ravens. Many proudly maintained homes share this little piece of Eden with restful retirement villas and serene places of worship.

The seasons are kind to the folk of Goyder Street, with playful breezes wafting along its length and dappled sunshine blessing the many gardens so lovingly tilled and nurtured.

Am I a real estate agent spruiking for commission, you ask? No. I am a bus traveller who has come to know the street intimately thanks to decisions made without genuine communication by the ACT government.

Like other residents of Narrabundah, I was shocked when the ACT government, in its wisdom, ditched our direct bus route to Woden without a word of apology. A few days after the announcement, the government, as an afterthought, attached flimsy notices to the bus stop signage poles in Narrabundah advising residents to change buses in Goyder Street to get to and from Woden. So, we thought, our No.4 would seamlessly link with the No.6.

Not so. The timetabling to Woden from Narrabundah and from Woden to Narrabundah has proven to be as flimsy as the notices yellowing on the bus stop poles. NXTBUS, offering "real time passenger information", has become an instrument of torture with magical properties – one look at the app and steam often comes out of one's ears.

You see, the No.4 doesn't run as frequently as the No.6 but that thought hasn't troubled those who schedule the buses.

So a connecting bus often leaves a minute or two minutes before the bus you are on and that's when you find yourself with up to 25 minutes or so on weekdays to wait and contemplate the many attributes of life in Goyder Street. At weekends it's worse as our bus runs through Narrabundah only hourly.

Ah, Goyder Street – frustrating one day, infuriating the next.

V. R. Condon, Narrabundah

Bruce Porter (Letters, Jan 14) is the latest to whinge about Labor's proposed changes to dividend imputation.

As Mr Porter explains, dividend imputation was first introduced by Hawke/Keating to eliminate double taxation, so that company profits were only taxed once.

But changes introduced by the Howard government to try to buy the votes of self-funded retirees meant that franking credits could be refunded as cash, and, more importantly, that most retirees, and their super funds, paid almost no tax.

The combined effect of these two measures mean that many company profits are taxed as if they were the earnings of a retiree who pays no tax.

So we have gone from double taxation to no taxation at all.

Labor's proposed changes restore the balance, to ensure that company profits are taxed once. The changes are long overdue and merely take us back to the situation that existed between 1987 and 2000.

The current system is a rort that Labor seeks to end. Naturally, when a rort is legally available, many people organise their affairs to get the most benefit. When it comes to end those people need to reorganise their affairs and thank their lucky stars they were able to get away with the (legal) rort for so long.

For the record, I am a self-funded retiree and a shareholder, and Labor's plans will cost me money.

John Hutchison, Coombs

It appears that Tony Abbott is not content with interfering in Australian political decision making. According the report "Abbott slapped down over 'embarrassing' Brexit claim" January 18, p19), Mr Abbott has now interfered – or tried to interfere – in British politics.

Shortly after the UK government's Brexit withdrawal plan was rejected by Parliament on January 15 — making it more likely that the UK would leave the EU without a "deal" — Abbott tweeted: "What's wrong with no deal? Australia does $100 billion a year in trade with the EU without a deal." However, the comment was criticised by Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King's College London. Professor Portes said that Australia's trade with the EU is about 7.5per cent of Australian GDP, while the UK's is more than 30per cent of its GDP. He commented that "anyone with a basic grasp of economics (not @TonyAbbottMHR it seems) should spot the problem." Mr Abbott's comment was also strongly criticised by Dmitry Grozoubinski, an Australian trade negotiator during the Abbott and Turnbull governments. Mr Grozoubinski is reported to have said: "You are embarrassing. Stop." It seems that Mr Abbott is suffering from relevance deprivation syndrome and just can't help himself.

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

My husband works in health care. He is abused on a regular basis by not only patients but the relatives.

My question to the relatives is, "would you change their pads, administer the drugs while the patient is yelling abuse at you, enjoy being punched, threatened and attacked?"

If you can do what my husband does, and every other nurse, oh and don't forget having to deal with patients dying. Then please show these wonderful people how it is done.

They are worth more money.

V. Harris, Yass

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton's announcement that he had agreed to remove Neil Prakash's Australian citizenship seems premature at best.

Prakash is undoubtedly the subject of terrorist allegations, but has not yet been found guilty of any offences by a court anywhere. However, there is no evidence either of any judicial finding anywhere that Prakash has citizenship elsewhere.

Indeed, the Fiji government has stated clearly that Prakash is not eligible for citizenship in Fiji. By making such an unsubstantiated announcement at this point, without any clear purpose, Dutton is pursuing an ideological agenda.

The Australian government is not helping bring Prakash's case any closer to a fair resolution for anyone.

Trevor Wilson, Chifley

MINISTER'S BUS MISS

Steve Thomas and Maria Greene (Letters, January 16), Minister Fitzharris should try catching the 775 leaving the city at 4.38pm and see how encouraged to use the bus network she would feel afterwards. A very aged orange bus so no aircon and — surprise surprise — can't handle the current hot weather. Stopped running several times and eventually gave up altogether in southern Banks. What would Minister Fitzharris have done? Call a staffer to pick her up in a taxpayer-funded airconditioned car or wait an hour for the next bus (which was airconditioned but still very warm).

Louisa Murphy, Gordon

CITIZENSHIP ADVICE

Presumably the PM instructed the Fijians to get their citizenship laws in order.

T. Puckett, Ashgrove, Qld

TIPS FROM FRANK

In visiting Frank Bainimarama in Fiji this week, our PM will be well placed to get a few much-needed tips on how to retain government in the face of a lack of electorate support.

M. F. Horton, Adelaide, SA

MORAL POSTURING

Fiji PM Frank Bainimarama's pressure on Australia to further reduce our CO2 emissions has a hollow ring to it. Chinese emissions are 20 times higher than ours and rising fast. When I hear that he is knocking back Chinese aid until they cut emissions I will take him seriously. Until then, I will call his actions political moral posturing based on ignorance.

Doug Hurst, Chapman

POPE NAILS IT AGAIN

David Pope has captured the humorous yet deadly (sorry Bernie, didn't mean to speak ill of the departed) nature of a deal that may bring the demise of a prime minister (Editorial cartoon, January 16).

Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook, NSW

DUTTON'S VISA DELAY

I'm sure I'm not the only person to suspect that the obfuscation and delay by Peter Dutton to granting a visa to Rahaf Mohammed was because she isn't an au pair.

Dallas Stow, O'Connor

LET VOTERS JUDGE

A little tip from a humble punter for all you politicians. Push your good points and policies if you will, but do not denigrate other parties or individuals.

Yours is not necessarily bigger or better. That's for us to determine come "judgment" day.

Greg Simmons, Lyons

NO SELF-RESTRAINT

I'm glad that I'm 80 so I won't see what seven billion human beings are doing to the planet via burning fossil fuels. But the next generations will.

Hello Armageddon.

Blame God or evolution but human beings are the only species that are born without a self-restraint gene.

Graham Macafee, Latham

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