I had the privilege of introducing him to ABC audiences on This Day Tonight's second night, April 11, 1967 (shortly before he joined us) in an interview that created TDT's first political storm.

While others, such as Richard Carleton and Kerry O'Brien came close, none have had quite the same intuitive nose for asking the right question at the right time in the way Mike did.

Politicians soon feared, but couldn't resist, a Willesee interview request because they thought this might be the time they bested him.

None did, of course, but it wasn't too long before Mike, being ambitious, sought greener pastures and persuaded Kerry Packer to take on a new commercial concept, namely, A Current Affair, which exceeded everyone's expectations.

It was in this regard that my best recollection of Mike came about, because of his disappointment that the ABC wouldn't adequately recognise his talents.

He told us, after a contract meeting with general manager Talbot Duckmanton, that the GM was horrified when he named a figure to which Duckmanton replied, "Dear me Mike, if I gave you that amount, you'd be getting more than me!" (an unthinkable idea in the halls of a then very bureaucratic ABC). Shortly after, Mike made his move to even greater fame and certainly fortune. Vale Mike Willesee!

Eric Hunter, Cook

As a member of the NRMA, I have been following the roll-out by the NRMA of 20 electric car recharging stations at a quoted cost of $10 million.

The most recent Open Road included more back slapping from the NRMA that Jaguar Australia was extremely happy about the NRMA use of members' funds to provide charging stations for electric vehicles, including those from Jaguar.

I wrote a letter to the editor of Open Road asking for some statistics about the number of members who had electric vehicles and received a reply from the customer service department, which advised that they did not have those statistics, which left me wondering what evidence formed the basis of the decision to use members' funds in this way to meet an expressed need.

Alternatively, rather than more propaganda in the NRMA information streams maybe the organisation could have used the $10 million to buy some of the Woolworths petrol stations to provide discounted fuel to its members, the majority of whom drive petrol vehicles.

The organisation could also lobby governments about a requirement for vehicle manufacturers such as Jaguar to fund the provision of one electric charging station for every electric vehicle they sold in this country.

Rohan Goyne, Evatt

I refer to the article on "How Canberrans watering their lawns could help pygmy possums" implying that this could assist in the production of Bogong moths for possum food. Bogong moths do not breed in the Southern Tablelands but in the western slopes and plains of NSW and northern Victoria and possibly further afield. The moths return to these areas after spending the summer aestivating in crevices in granite outcrops of alpine mountain peaks.

Watering frosty Canberra lawns in winter, when the larvae feed, would have no impact on Bogong moth numbers and is a waste of a finite resource.

The Bogong moth, Agrotis infusa, belongs to the cutworm group of noctuid moths (this refers to the larval behaviour of cutting off the stems of newly emerging grasses and forbs to feed, usually at night). Several cutworm species, notably the black cutworm, Agrotis ipsilon, that is frequently seen on Canberra grasslands in spring, can be serious crop pests in some seasons.

Bogong moth populations, like those of Christmas beetles and plague locusts, wax and wane with seasonal conditions.

The females are very fecund, laying up to 2000 eggs, so good sustained pastoral conditions in the inland are followed by a rapid increase in numbers over a couple of winters, and their mountain retreats will be re-occupied.

Mountain pygmy possums have had to adapt to this boom and bust cycle throughout their evolutionary history.

Sustained global warming and the expansion of groomed skiing areas may be a greater threat to their survival than the current temporary lack of Bogong moths.

Dr Roger Farrow (entomologist), Urila, NSW

Our spruiker Prime Minister is bluffing about the women he has corralled as his last-gasp ministry ("Lucky seven for women in cabinet", canberratimes.com.au, March 3). One still chooses to dance around the edges of a federal court case, refusing to provide witness statements to the AFP, another has just brazenly appointed an old friend and political ally to a very pleasant nearby diplomatic post, and yet another remains mainly in hiding at a time when this country needs strong, inspired and co-ordinated policies on emissions reduction and climate change.

These female ministers are hardly good role models or suitable mentors for women coming into the Liberal Party or considering a political career. The party certainly has a "woman problem" and it is not just about numbers.

Sue Dyer, Downer

M. Flint (Letters, March 1) states that "companies pay tax on dividends in advance (30per cent) on behalf of shareholders".

This is not the case. A company is a separate legal entity, distinct from the individuals who own shares in the company. This is more or less the point of incorporation as a company. A company pays tax to meet its own tax obligation, not the tax obligations of its shareholders. When it distributes its earnings as dividends to shareholders, each shareholder is then obliged to meet his or her own tax obligation which will be different for each shareholder. If for one reason or another a shareholder does not have an obligation to pay tax on the dividends received, the fact that the company has met its tax obligation should be irrelevant.

Marlene Hall, Kingston

Some unfortunate motorist will be the first to collide with a Canberra tram.

I suggest the government present this person with a suitable memento, to be presented by the Chief Minister. It could be a presentation cup with a ding on it, or a little Lego sculpture of a car and tram locked together and blocking an intersection, or a plaque inscribed "Winner, Round One, Canberra Light Rail v Car, x/x/2019".

Dallas Stow, O'Connor

The school chaplaincy program is a relic of the Howard era, spawned by an anachronistic ideology that says only Christians can truly provide pastoral care and that public schools are otherwise "values-neutral".

The program has been dogged by a fundamental and now fatal flaw: that non-religious work must be performed by the religious. The confusion and blurriness around this is there for all to see in Monday's article "ACT school chaplains face uncertain future".

Our union welcomes the ACT government's decision to finally end the program and to offer direct employment in secular youth work roles to those outgoing chaplains who are suitably qualified. Based on their positive relations with these undoubtedly good people, some in the public school community, including some of our members, may find it difficult to digest the news of the program's demise.

However, the AEU's position on this matter has been democratically determined after careful intellectual consideration by 190,000 public education professionals across the country and 3700 here in the ACT. The long overdue return to a truly secular public education system is a return to the 130-year-old vision of public education's founders like Henry Parkes: that the nation will benefit when a child's education is "free, compulsory and secular".

A. Burroughs, president, Australian Education Union, ACT branch

When Energy Minister Shane Rattenbury signed off on a $195/MWh feed-in tariff for 20 years of Solar Share's electricity he should have known that within a few years electricity from solar farms at larger scale and in a sunnier location could supply electricity into the ACT grid at less than $95/MWh ("Residents switch on to solar farm project at Majura", February 12, p7).

Over the 20 years Canberra electricity consumers will pay $70 million, roughly half of that a subsidy tacked on to our electricity bills, for 360,000MWh of Solar Share electricity. In the first half of last year ACT-contracted wind farms produced 346,000MWh.

The subsidy required was $4 million.

Along with a $73,000 grant from the ACT government, Solar Share's parent organisation SEE-Change receives gratis 5 per cent of Solar Share.

Rattenbury's Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development directorate has supported the organisation with numerous grants. Still, what's a few tens of millions of other people's money?

John Bromhead, Rivett

It is possible to accept that franking credits are a recognition of tax paid by a company's shareholders, and still agree with Labor's policy to restrict credit refunds to full and part pensioners. Ideally, as the Motley Fool's Scott Phillips argued in a recent article, the government should introduce progressive taxation of superannuation fund pensions. But this is politically impossible, so another option is to end the refund of franking credits to those who are better equipped to cope with a reduction in income. Some seek to portray this as "double taxation" and a violation of some sacred principle, when it is primarily a way of stopping an outrageous rort on the ordinary working taxpayer.

Attempts to badge Labor's policy as an attack on struggling retirees are less than honest, considering the very high incomes of those who reap most of the benefits from current government policy. It is also strange to see the trope of the "proudly self-funded retiree" being deployed by investment professionals who would normally work to ensure that their less wealthy clients remain eligible for part age pensions. Those facing a decline from comfortable to modest lifestyle as a result of Labor's policy should consider shifting some of their assets into home equity. They could then apply for the age pension and make full use of the new Pension Loans Scheme, which will be open to anyone of pension age and will provide a tax-free income stream which is not means tested against the pension.

Paul Feldman, Macquarie

So a wage earner decides to invest post-tax income to become part owner of a company. The company makes a profit and pays 30per cent tax on behalf of that individual or other entity. The individual entity receives the franked dividend.

Tax has been paid. The individual has a tax credit against that profit, to the tune of 30per cent before any other income is considered. The mix of credits and claimables is then calculated to determine the amount of tax to be paid or refunded based on the individual's gross income. Therefore, individuals whose gross income is below the tax threshold, are certainly entitled to a refund. The dividend imputation debate becomes confusing when assumptions are made that companies and investors are one and the same – which they are not – regarding tax payable. Which part of "no double-dipping" does Labor not comprehend?

Phil O'Mara, Pialligo

It is hardly surprising that Simon Cowan of the Centre for Independent Studies should come out with a series of non-sequiturs regarding excess imputation credits ("Frankly it's about fairness", March 2, p10).

He is wrong to claim that company tax is paid by companies "on behalf of shareholders". Company tax is no more than the tax a company is obliged to pay to consolidated revenue.

Dividend imputation is designed to ensure that shareholders are taxed only on the net dividends they receive and not on the total dividend before tax. But if the imputation credits exceed the amount of tax otherwise payable by a shareholder there should be no return of tax where no tax is actually paid. Cowan seems to believe that retail and industry super funds operate under different rules to self-managed super funds.

This is simply not so. Cowan also implies that imputation credits represent tax paid by individuals so that withholding of any part of this is unfair. This is not so – it is the current arrangement which is illogical and unfair.

T.J. Marks, Holt

FAUSTIAN BARGAIN

Freedom of Information documents disclose the government "strongly welcomed" and is an enthusiastic supporter of disruptive technologies via divisive household delivery drones ("Flights of fancy over delivery via Skywhale", March 1, p8). Barr's Faustian bargain, embracing "Wing", Alphabet's spawn, with its rent-seeking, free-loading and tax avoidance "agility" may prove toxic.

Albert M. White, Queanbeyan

WONG FOR PM

Penny Wong is a very sensible person. I'd like to see her PM of Australia eventually.

Susan MacDougall, Scullin

BISHOP A STANDOUT

The only reason Julie Bishop didn't win the Liberal Party leadership was because she was a female candidate. While I didn't always approve of her actions she had been the best performer among the ministers in the Abbott and Turnbull governments by a country mile. I assume there won't be a female Liberal leader for a long time to come.

Sankar Kumar Chatterjee, Evatt

JUMPING SHIP

Why are so many Liberal politicians leaving the party?

Like rats, Liberal politicians are jumping ship before it sinks.

Graham Macafee, Latham

NAMING ISSUE

Your report ("Thirty years ago history was made", March 4, p6) is wrong in stating that the elected body which preceded the Assembly elected in March 1989 was called the Advisory Assembly. It was called the House of Assembly from 1979 to 1989. That was preceded by the elected ACT Legislative Assembly from 1974 to 1979. I was a member and Jim Pead was the president.

Peter Hughes, Curtin

TOTALITARIAN MOVE

There is a worrying aspect of the ACT law requiring priests to report anyone confessing acts of paedophilia. That is making it legally binding to act as an informer. Isn't that a bit, well, totalitarian?

Reg Naulty, Hawker

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Why do we allow the Catholic Church to continue to operate schools? Worse still why is it showered in ever greater levels of government funding? Is this some kind of sick joke?

Warwick Bradly, Weston

RECORDS LINKED?

Press reports in The Canberra Times have indicated that both record summer temperatures and record population growth have been recorded in the ACT. No problem. Let's have a scientific study to see if there is any correlation.

Jeff Day, Greenway

KIM TRUMPED AGAIN

It looks like Kim Jong-un has been Trumped, yet again.

N. Ellis, Belconnen

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