The article uses data from a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

The study reported that for a number of specialties, the out-of-pocket cost was highest in the ACT compared to other states.

What the study does not take into account is the amount of time and care that a specialist puts into a consultation.

According to MBS data not used in the study, in the ACT, there were just over eight specialist consultations per 100 residents in 2016, compared to 11 per 100 in Victoria and a whopping 13 per 100 in NSW.

ACT specialists are spending a lot more time in a single consultation with their patients, and resolving health problems without the need for multiple visits.

More specialist visits are more expensive, involve more travelling, more waiting, and more time away from work.

The ACT has some of the most highly regarded medical specialists in Australia. It is also a place notorious for the cost of running a business.

We should be very proud of the quality of both our specialists and GPs in Canberra, and recognise that the care provided is second to none, as the broader MBS data show.

Professor Steve Robson, president, Australian Medical Association (ACT)

The shooting community is both frustrated and dismayed by the Police Minister's move to impose new restrictions on firearm owners, despite there being zero evidence to demonstrate that it will make the community safer, and even ignoring evidence that does not support this decision.

It is a de-facto attack on lawful firearm ownership in the very suggestion that increasing laws against lawful ownership will decrease crime.

The continued misinformation and outright lies surrounding both lever-action shotguns and firearm ownership in general are an outright disgrace, and the assertion that the new laws "strike an appropriate balance" is an absolute joke.

Emotive buzzwords, such as "rapid fire" and "devastating effects", used by both Mr Gentleman and this article, are a clear demonstration that there is no clear or genuine reason to impose further restrictions on firearm owners, other than to appear to be doing something about gun crime.

Lever actions are not rapid fire and are no more "devastating" than any other shotgun.

There are plenty of other countries that allow this technology and more, yet their streets fail to flow with blood. NewZealand and Canada are prime examples.

Shane Bennett, Rivett, ACT representative Firearm Owners United Leadership Team

The Independent Competition and Regulation Commission (ICRC) was set up to ensure competitive neutrality. Its charter says "Competitive neutrality is about removing the potential advantages that government-owned businesses might have when they compete with the private sector by virtue of their public sector ownership".

The ACT government owns 50per cent of ActewAGL.

Most of the cost of electricity is in the wholesale price and network distribution.

Organisations both private and public outside the charter of the ICRC supply these goods andservices.

The ACT government is paying to get a report about electricity prices where ACT government ownership affects about 7per cent of the total costs. For electricity customers in the ACT, the ICRC is worse than a waste of money, as it accepts the prices imposed on us by the National Electricity Market.

The ACT government should stop wasting money on the ICRC or change its charter. What ACT customers want is an advocate who can bargain with the wholesale suppliers and the network providers to get lower prices.

We, the buyers of electricity, need someone on our side when it comes to negotiating prices in the NEM.

Kevin Cox, Ngunnawal

Glenys Hammer (letters, April3) suggests Origin may no longer read meters but simply estimates usage.

She also notes the many complaints suggesting that ActewAGL may have already adopted this measure. If true, surely this is fraud?

Customers are being charged for a product they may or may not have received. Failure to pay the account results in correspondence from a debt collector and threats to cut off supply.

Yet we have heard nothing from ActewAGL on whether or not this is true. By the way has anyone been undercharged, or do the alleged estimates always err in ActewAGL's favour?

Further, our local politicians seem disinterested in the complaints. Did we not recently increase the number of politicians in this town?

What are these people doing? Will we face a future request for more politicians?

C.J. Johnston, Duffy

I received a phone call from ACTewAGL after my letter was published (letters, March29).

It appears that my meter was not read at all, but they had estimated my usage from a similar period last year.

As a gesture of goodwill they are going to credit my next account. May I suggest to ACTewAGL that householders who provide them with pictorial proof of their gas usage be given a small discount, thus allowing obviously overworked employees to provide their boss with accurate readings of metersin the homes of the elderly and disabled.

Many of us are physically no longer able to perform said task ourselves.

Judith-Ann Sjostedt, Higgins

Vincent Zankin lauds Judy Bamberger's claims to have beaten the Israeli anti-boycott law (Letters, April 3), but what she really did is prove that it is not as broad as she claims.

The law is intended to catch the leaders of boycott movements dedicated to Israel's destruction.

If she really wants to show bravery standing up for the downtrodden, perhaps she should go to any other Middle Eastern country, or to the West Bank or Gaza, and protest about the lack of civil rights there.

That would take actual courage, as opposed to attacking democratic Israel, where the worst thing that could have happened to her would have been getting put on a plane back to Australia.

Zankin claims that Israelis think their right to a state is based on religious grounds, but it is really just the right of the Jewish people to their own state in their homeland, a right held and exercised [by] many other peoples.

He states Muslims have the same right as Jews to the land, and indeed, Israel has 1.5million Muslim citizens with equal rights.

I'd be curious to know what he thinks of the Palestinian Authority's demand that their new state must be completely free of Jews.

Alan Shroot, Forrest

Contrary to the Reverend Dr Zankin's claims (Letters, April 3) the Israeli legislation gives the relevant authorities the right to deny entrance to Israel on similar grounds to those available and exercised by most Western democratic countries.

This includes Australia, the UK, the US and Canada (all of which) have the discretion to deny entry to those it considers have malevolent intent against itself and its citizens.

The Australian government can refuse an entry visa to a person who failed the character test. "A person is deemed to have failed the character test if ... they are likely to incite discord within the community, or a segment of the community within Australia".

The Israeli legislation requires discretion in the denial of entry. It does not, as Ms Bamberger had hoped in her quixotic endeavour, result in arrest.

Her right to express her views was not grounds to deny her entry into Israel.

If a person had already entered Israel and undertook behaviour that would have resulted in the denial of entry, that person could then simply be required to leave.

Israel's law is as democratic as Australia's.

J. White, Griffith

On almost a daily basis we are exposed to evidence of inhumanity.

News reports show unimaginable devastation. The fate of the millions displaced seems inconvenient to ponder.

With this ever evolving background, the Reverend Dr Vincent Zankin (Letters, April 3) finds fault with Israel and its alleged "most non-democratic law" in relation to those foreign nationals who would enter Israel to promote BDS.

His point of view is based on faulty information and conclusions. Further, it smacks of anti-Semitism, particularly in the sweeping statement that says that Jews "consider themselves to be divinely chosen". The State of Israel has the right to decide who enters the country, just as Australia does. The Reverend alleges that the Israeli Knesset has passed a law in "flagrant breach of democracy" and that Israel is engaged in oppression. Perhaps he should do his research about countries in the Middle East and the rest of the world who are engaged in oppression so great that their citizens flee in horror, even as we leisurely read The Canberra Times while we sip our morning coffee.

Y. Goode, Yarralumla

Where's Tim Flannery? asks Brian Hale (Letters, April 1).

(I think) he's tearing his hair out that there are still people who think that global warming has nothing to do with the changes in the weather we are experiencing – the massive cyclone Debbie, devastating communities all down the east coast, the tornadoes that blew down the transmission towers in South Australia earlier this year, the drought in the Sahel in Africa.

And on Monday (Letters, April 3) Robert Brooks asks why all the Arctic ice hasn't disappeared. The vivid images of large chunks of Antarctic ice breaking away from the shelf, the opening up of the North West passage between Canada and the North Pole, and the fact that the Arctic ice sheet, though not entirely gone, is rapidly vanishing, along with the Greenland ice sheet, which is melting at an ever-increasing rate, as are the glaciers all around the world, should be enough warning that something is amiss.

Margaret Lee, Hawker

So the PM is off to flood-stricken areas to offer people support and a series of platitudes. The flood-stricken people are not really helped by his presence and words of encouragement.

He would do much better to legislate to reduce the carbon emissions which are putting an additional 7 per cent of moisture into the atmosphere as well as raising the temperature of the oceans and making cyclones a probability rather than a possibility.

He is hostage to the mining lobby and the big end of town. And at what cost? We see every night the devastation of the flood areas, the cost to insurance companies, the loss of the Great Barrier Reef.

This country does not need platitudes no matter how generous and sincere they are in spirit. We need action to reduce the influence of climate change so that we witness fewer cyclones and less flooding.

John Quinn, Spence

While the news is fresh, while the images are still powerful, let's just suppose that anthropogenic climate change is a reality, and let's just suppose that the severity of the latest cyclone and the latest floods, is a small warning of what might be to come.

Let's add in the latest coral bleaching. Let's add in record high temperatures summer after summer.

What sort of motivation do we need to stop gambling with our future? Why do so many in power continue to wager blindly and dangerously, that climate change with all its huge environmental and economic and human impact, is not already a looming reality?

IN SEARCH OF PRAISE

A close scrutiny of the quite damaging imbalances in the Free Trade Agreements with South Korea and China, and the recent botched attempt to ratify an extradition treaty that would squarely put Australia at odds with all its commitments under international law, is perhaps indicative of the lengths a political party is willing to go to score dubious kudos.

Luca Biason, Latham

CHANGE REVIEWER

I see that The Lego Batman Movie got a one-and-a-half star review (Arts, March 30, p.19), but also note that the reviewer was Jake Wilson. I know to take that with a grain of salt, particularly given his second swipe at it in the Smurfs review. Maybe you could put him on costume dramas for a while.

Mark Chapman, Palmerston

THE STAR NEVER SHONE

Malcolm has faded

From rising star to poll black hole

There was no shining

Tony Judge, Woolgoolga

McMANUS HERE TO STAY

Unlike Malcolm Turnbull, Sally McManus will be around for a long time. And unlike him, she will be re-elected.

John Passant, Kambah

THE SURVIVAL MISSION

Bravo Julian Cribb (Letters, April 3) for his strong support for Professor Bob Douglas' plan for human survival as a central element of the ANU's mission. We need to be alert and alarmed about the threats facing humanity.

Ed Highley, Kambah

HELP SHOUT OUT, BARR

Regarding the lack of a few dollars to help SHOUT continue its good work ... Heaven forbid that Mr Barr might need the help of one of SHOUT's support groups in the future, should he fall ill with Parkinson's ... or need a new kidney!

Janet Bedloe, Stirling

NOT SO SWEET VICTORY

Re: "Rules in frame after Wisil beats Breen" (April 3, p.40).

Much as I sympathise with Melissa Breen, she and her coach should ask themselves do they really want a national title for coming second?

Ed Harris, Bonython

'UBER' METER READING

Perhaps "uber" meter reading is the way of the future. Might actually create a new industry and an alternative for users.

Val Musgrove, Weston

GAS BILL CONVERTED

"Jumping jack flash, it's a gas, gas, gas". The gas Judith-Ann Sjostedt (letters, March 28) was incorrectly charged for was probably exported or converted to electricity.

Matt Ford, Crookwell, NSW

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