It's possibly the finest example of 1960s commercial "brutalist" modern architecture in Canberra. It was designed by architects Romberg and Boyd with Neil Clerehan.

It sits in a magical landscape setting and is in need of restoration.

The authority, with the ACT government, should put in place financial incentives to enable owners to preserve and restore such buildings.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

Glenn Fowler of the Australian Education Union ("Catholic schools in ACT 'overpaid' ", September 12, p1) states that in the ACT private schools are "more than fully funded" by the federal government, and that "the rest of the money they get just gives them more swimming pools and bigger gates".

He doesn't reveal that in the ACT the proportion of ACT government funding for schools allocated to non-government schools is the lowest of any territory or state in the country, an average of $2000 per annum per student, compared to $12,000 per government school student.

Peter D. Hughes, Curtin

Having compared the market, I advised ActewAGL that its electricity prices were not the cheapest.

One month later my ActewAGL electricity and gas bills both came with a brochure which claimed "ActewAGL still has the country's lowest retail electricity prices".

So which statement is true.

Well apparently ActewAGL has just ceased distribution of the brochure which contained the claim of lowest electricity prices.

Robert Wilson, Jerrabomberra

The collective effort of the AFL and NRL to bring the two football codes closer together was evidenced by last weekend's NRL qualifying semi-final between the Melbourne Storm and Parramatta Eels played at AAMI Park in Melbourne and the "sudden death" semi-final between the Sydney Swans and Essendon played at the SCG.

Both games attracted bumper crowds and (apart from the usual bleating about the officialdom) were a treat to watch.

We can be confident that there is room in both capital cities for both codes of football to work together and flourish.

My only concern was the timing of the two games.

The rugby league game was scheduled to commence at 4.10pm and the AFL at 4.30pm. One could watch one or the other game live, but not both.

I have always preferred to watch major sporting events live, rather than via a replay.

Given the status of these two games, it may have been more appropriate for the authorities to schedule one game in the morning and then other one in the afternoon.

Andrew Rowe, Florey

Voluntary voting in the forthcoming postal ballot on same-sex marriage is proving to be highly problematic.

Firstly, optional voting undermines legitimacy, as occurred in the 1922 federal election when less than 60 per cent participated. If that rate applies at the forthcoming ballot, the "yes" vote could be carried courtesy of a small percentage of the electorate.

Secondly, treating that as a green light, politicians would conveniently overlook the fact that many voters will not have participated, being genuinely afraid to vote conservatively on this deeply divisive issue.

Thirdly, it is thoroughly anti-democratic when all our media personalities, the intelligentsia and influential political leaders are pressuring for a "yes" vote.

In contrast, a compulsory ballot would have required timid electors to steel their resolve, in a process involving public spending for a "yes" and "no" case. Instead a well-funded "yes" case is dominating.

Voters might wish to ask themselves, as a matter of conscience, whether it is proper to vote "yes" to win a contest in which others are effectively disqualified.

David D'Lima, Sturt, SA

For once I find myself in agreement with Barnaby Joyce in his objection to the "in your face" supporters of same-sex marriage.

I am a regular contributor to GetUp, largely because of its opposition to Adani, but now I am being asked to host a "calling party" to cold call unsuspecting voters and encourage support for a "yes" vote.

For what it is worth, I am of the view that GetUp should ease off. Its hyper-activism on this matter is very likely to be counter-productive.

As a senior Australian, I certainly do not want to be rung up and harangued by some wet-behind-the-ears-know-it-all activist and I am sure that that goes for many other people of my generation.

There is a risk that everybody will be totally sick of hearing about this issue over the next few weeks and many will vote, if at all, for the side from whom they have heard the least.

The issue is simple enough.

Let's move on.

James Gralton, Garran

I listened to Zed Seselja defend on Q&A his government's proposed high standard of English test to qualify for citizenship. But with his solecisms like "There's less people" (HSE: There are fewer people), I'm not sure he would pass it.

Michael McCarthy, Deakin

Anybody who can't bring themselves to vote "yes" in the SSM postal survey should just abstain.

Nobody has the right to prevent same-sex couples marrying based on their own personal antipathy to the idea.

Keith Hill, Kaleen

It is high time someone called out the frankly ridiculous proposition that the fate of South Pacific Islands (or for that matter the Great Barrier Reef) somehow hinges on the level of Australia's carbon emissions.

It is an uncontested scientific fact that, in global climate terms, Australia's emissions are essentially trivial.

To suggest otherwise is – like the government's messaging on this point – pathetic.

Michael Warrington, Garran

If Peter Dutton's proposed citizenship bill goes ahead, thousands of schoolchildren visiting Canberra in future may want to ask why their parents are excluded from what Andrew Leigh describes as "the joy of voting" ("Engaging children in nation building" , September 11, p15).

If older than 16, they may themselves be denied this "joy".

The answer will lie in their failure to reach the English level necessary for citizenship (including in essay writing), determination of which is to be outsourced to commercial English tests, including one set at Cambridge University.

These potential nation builders (and those excluded) might want also to ask about the key democratic principle of the "separation of powers".

A nice teaching point could be its proposed violation in this bill, which seeks to exempt the minister from scrutiny by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, a key function of which is examining whether the Executive has acted according to law.

Of course, some children born in Australia may never get to Canberra if the Immigration Minister gains the powers he seeks. If their parents have made a mistake in their applications, or even broken the law, or taken them to visit sick or dying relatives in another country, these children may be confined for years to a detention centre because the minister has made them stateless and they have no rights elsewhere.

We've heard enough about the circus of parliamentarians' citizenship. The untold citizenship story is this bill's attack on fundamental democratic principles in Australia.

Helen Moore, Cook

There is one perspective on this energy business and the AEMO report that seems mostly to have escaped notice.

It is the view that AGL, in apparently not favouring the government's bid to extend the life of its coal-fired power station at Liddell, is actually responding to the wishes of its shareholders. In 2015 at AGL's AGM, some shareholders put a resolution suggesting that it be more transparent and concerned about its fossil fuel involvements.

Subsequent to lodgment of that resolution, AGL joined a world movement called "We mean business", which in a series of stages commits its member companies to moving away from coal as an energy source. As the past convener of the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility I am pleased to discover that companies like AGL are responding to their shareholders who are rightly concerned that coal will become a stranded asset in a world fast moving towards alternative energy sources. It is a great pity, on the other hand, that governments don't listen to their citizens in the same way and legislate a clean energy target as soon as possible.

Jill Sutton, Watson

Notwithstanding the inappropriateness of our government requiring an IELTS Band 6 result for citizenship purposes, your reporter Tony Wright is wrong in stating that "The test is administered and marked inEngland at Cambridge University". ("Language test from Gaelic to Dutton", Forum, September 9, p2).

IELTS is jointly owned and tests developed by IELTS Australia, the British Council and Cambridge University Language Assessments. Tests are administered and marked locally in some 140 countries and approximately 1100 accredited test centres worldwide, mostly by locally trained and experienced EFL teachers accredited as IELTS examiners.

The problem is not the test, the test instruments or the administration and marking thereof, but rather the cynical use to which it is being put by our government in an effort to target those it wishes to keep out. In linking to the discredited dictation test under the White Australia policy, Tony Wright hit that nail squarely on the head.

Keith Hill, former IELTS examiner, Kaleen

Greg Cornwall (Letters, September 12) seems to be pointing out what he sees as inconsistency because of the royal Cambridges having received from environmentalists criticism for having their third child and a refugee who has seven children receiving none.

This can be partly explained as a result of nobody having praised the refugee for having seven children, whereas the Cambridges were congratulated for their efforts.

Greg, however, is correct in saying that overpopulation is everyone's concern, and for the survival and wellbeing of future generations, and to set an example to the rest of the world, we need to reduce Australia's population. This means stopping immigration, discouraging Australians from having more than two children and exiting a failed economic system that encourages continual "growth".

Nancy Tidfy, Chisholm

How Christina Faulk (Letters, September 9, p8) transited from royal procreation to swans, royal or otherwise, is not clear but I share the view the planet is suffering a pestilence of people.

The wealthy have special responsibility because they consume a greater proportion of the world's resources.

Dick Varley, Braidwood, NSW

If Rod Matthews (Letters, September 4) is upset at anti-vaxxer Kent Heckenlively being denied entry to Australia on the basis "nobody should be prevented from speaking in Australia or any democracy, no matter how obnoxious, incorrect or dangerous", would he have been happy for Osama bin Laden to have done a speaking tour in the wake of September 11, 2001?

It's quite clear which ideology is responsible for more deaths.

James Allan, Narrabundah

PARTY OF FOSSILS

The National Party wants to remove all subsidies to renewable energy sources ("Renewables get thumbs down from Nationals", September 10, p8). Will these fossils also oppose subsidising Adani to open up a new coal basin, refuse to put any money into 50-year-old power stations and advocate for removal of the diesel fuel rebate?

Peter Campbell, Cook

TIMES A CHANGIN'

All this preventative living (medicine) will be the death of me. Was the time that everything I liked was either illegal, immoral or married.

Now everything I like is either illegal, immoral or unhealthy.

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

GET IT OVER WITH

Why is 5 per cent of the population, if that, receiving 90 per cent of the media coverage over the issue of same-sex marriage? Let's all say "yes" and get it over and done with — heterosexual couples will always know they are married in the "traditional sense" and please, can we get on with the important issues facing this country?

J. Hanfield, Narooma, NSW

POLLIE GOES MISSING

Is there a Leader of the Opposition in the ACT? If there is, has he gone into hibernation until the next election?

John Milne, Chapman

LET'S SAVE $122M

I know it is a bit too late, but I am also a little slow like Mr Trump. Why didn't our government just assume that a non-binding postal vote or a plebiscite on marriage equality will bring a "yes" vote and proceed straight to a vote in the Parliament?

At least this way we could save $122million.

Mokhles K. Sidden, South Strathfield, NSW

INSIGHTFUL SONGS

In these polarising times, I reflect on what five famous people have espoused in earlier times: imagine, let it be, here comes the sun, don't pass me by, and que sera.

Greg Simmons, Lyons

SOLAR PANELS PAY OFF

Stan Marks (Letters, September 12) doesn't understand the economics of solar panels. The US Department of Energy found that the time taken for solar panels to repay the energy cost of manufacture is between two and four years. In Australia it is likely to be closer to two years.

Paul Pentony, Hackett

BABY STEPS

I daresay Malcolm Turnbull is very clever, being able to show himself kissing babies without having to actually mingle with a crowd. But does it really count when it's your own baby?

S. W. Davey, Torrens

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