It is a pity that Mr Abbott cannot be bothered directing his energies towards more constructive pursuits, such as convincing his home state's Liberal government to follow the ACT's lead and legislate to provide contract workers with protection from discrimination if they air their religious beliefs ("Teen who lost job over 'No' vote has grounds for legal discrimination claim", Canberra Times online, September 21).

Sue Dyer, Downer

If I were a parent of kids at Brindabella Christian College I would be concerned. ("Abbott slams ACT minister, September 21, page 1). Not because they had been advised by the school to vote NO. They were probably always going to. But because the school showed such poor reasoning for that advice. Just think about abortion. The state permits abortion. Has this law influenced or prohibited the Christian belief that abortion is morally wrong? Not one bit. And they still teach this in their schools and to their congregations.

In the same way, religious bodies will still be able to adhere to and teach their beliefs about marriage. How about just letting the rest of us get on with it?

Judy Aulich,Giralang

Apart from her seemingly somewhat tenuous grasp of grammar, Madlin Sims totally demonstrated by her action to "let go" a young Christian teenage employee, the kind of hypocrisy and virtue-signalling brought about by those who seek to demonise people – especially young people courageous enough to stand up for what they believe to be right and true.

Bravo Madeline and nuts to Madlin Sims — I wouldn't want my grandchildren anywhere near Capital Kids Parties as run by this woman.

Christina Faulk, Swinger Hill

Like an answer to prayer the people in the pew are saying YES to marriage equality in defiance of the pulpit.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, former governor Dame Marie Bashir, Brendan Nelson and Michael Kirby have appeared like angels pointing in the right direction when the navigation equipment of religious institutions has crashed.

The Christian lobby Cathedral and Mosque are joined in marriage of convenience but they have some very plain children. To be united in messages of qualified acceptance, attitudes compromising mental health and wellbeing is a parody of the Good Samaritan, but it is beautiful to see the compassion and intelligence of individuals overcoming the traditional limits of institutions.

Religious institutions rail against government policies on treatment of asylum seekers while promoting messages that turn children of our own community into refugees within our own country.

The freedom to injure another citizen should not be required by any institution receiving tax exemptions and should not be guaranteed by our own government.

Religious freedom should allow individuals to see their neighbours and act in their best interests. Institutions demanding control with a tragic record of misdirection and consequent injury should instead celebrate the courage of individuals protecting humanity from faith-based prejudice and misunderstanding.

Peter MacLeod-Miller, Archdeacon of Albury and the Hume

The cover photograph of the fence being erected around what I call Quisling Castle demonstrates one of the major problems we face today in our country today.

Firstly it purely demonstrates that the "elite" (note the small e) simply do not wish to mingle with the "plebs" of our now deeply divided society and are willing to demonstrate this, especially when they spend the peasants' tax money to ensure this constructing of a physical barrier.

As a further example, consider the flagpole in the background. Has anyone ever seen a multi-footed standard bearer anywhere else?

This of course purely demonstrates that these so-called leaders conduct their business under a standard that is designed with the ability to have feet planted in many camps at the same time. How appropriate for this mob.

Alan P. May, Isabella Plains

The mood of the men on Manus is increasingly sombre, as the date for the closure of the camp – the end of October – draws closer.

Australian officials are urging the men to go back to where they came from, even though 600 of them have been officially accepted as refugees.

They are being threatened that if they don't go voluntarily, they will be deported – deported to a country they fled because of a well-founded fear for their safety.

In short, our government is threatening to force them back into harm's way.

This is unconscionable callousness and a flagrant disregard for international law and conventions.

I am in regular contact with one of the men on Manus and I cannot help but feel a deep sense of foreboding.

It is hard to imagine what it must be like to live day in, day out with this prospect.

Andrew Hopkins, Lyneham

I wish to strongly support Julian Cribb in his desire to end the madness of becoming unwittingly involved in a disastrous war ("Australia must stay out of the madness of a war against N Korea", Letters, September 2).

There is absolutely no place in a modern democracy for the power to go to war to be in the hands of the executive.

This especially at a time when we read that our Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is not only backing Donald Trump's fiery rhetoric but agreeing to go to America's aid under the ANZUS Treaty – a treaty under which America has twice refused to help Australia when asked.

This power must revert to the Australian Parliament as soon as possible.

The Australian people also should look to Bill Shorten to take the appropriate steps to make this happen as a matter of some urgency.

Murray Upton, Belconnen

The renewal of Stuart Flats is a further chapter in our own version of a tale of two cities.

The first city was Walter Griffin's' vision of a small inner city surrounded by equal town centres divided by green belts and each town centre independent of the others. The second vision was developed by the Labor Party primarily and is of a central city with the surrounding town centres acting in most cases as dormitories to house the people working in Civic.

This latter vision is playing out disastrously. If we take Bega Flats as an example, the replacement for them will price the original tenants out of the market. They will have to shift out to apartments on the outskirts and life will be more difficult.

The worse part is apartment life has never been that successful for most who experience it. When you cram many people into close proximity the result can be very traumatic. We have pulled down Melba Flats and Burnie Flats for that reason.

The other main negative is traffic congestion. Instead of a Canberra of the '70s when driving through Canberra was a pleasure, we will have at peak hours semi-gridlock. If we have a serious accident on Commonwealth Avenue at 5.30pm on a wet Friday, traffic will pile up traffic for kilometres.

Walter Griffin has been dead for many years. However, his vision for Canberra is infinitely more modern than our real estate focussed Chief Minister. Andrew Barr's solution of light rail costing at least $1 billion would have been far better spent on decentralising Canberra.

Howard Carew, Isaacs

As a train nut, according to my friends, with a long-standing interest in British railways, especially in the steam era, I was interested but not surprised at the account, quoted by James Gralton (Letters, September 21), of his uncle's trip by train from London to Holyhead (north-west Wales) in 1916 that covered 270 miles in 4 hours 50 minutes at an average speed of 57.857mph.

The speed is actually slightly overstated, it was closer to 56. But that 1916 train ran non-stop except for the locomotive change at Crewe. Had it had nine stops, including the stop at Crewe, it would have taken closer to six hours and that is an average speed of about 45mph.

Stan Marks, Hawker

I too want a faster rail service between Canberra and Sydney (Letters, September 20). The ageing XPT train is at the end of its life, and if we contain our ambitions for travel time to, say, less than three hours, the replacement chosen is the key to trimming the time.

Yes, there are nine stops and they necessarily add around 30 minutes to the trip (although I question the need for three stops within 12 minutes at Moss Vale, Bowral and Mittagong), but the real speed killer is the inability of the XPT to handle the gradients and curves. The XPT can get up to 160km/h, but a gradient of 1 in 33 knocks that back to 50km/h, and as well as that the line has a lot of curves.

There is one imperative here that doesn't get enough attention: it is that the speeds on the slowest part of the journey are far more important in determining travel times than the maximums reached on the fastest, so getting up those hills and around the curves is vital. The run to Sydney has enough curves to warrant a good hard look at a train designed specifically to handle them, like the Talgo.

Right now the typical travel time (achieved, rather than timetabled) of 4 hours gives us an average speed of below 70 km/h, highlighting just how slow the XPT is when the going is tough. That speed was achieved in other parts of the world in the 1800s and it would seem high time that we readjusted our sights. As a starting point we should be looking to a journey time of less than three hours, with nothing spent on track improvements.

It does make the Talgo offer of a free trial very attractive, especially given that we are looking for a replacement for the XPT right now.

Sydney wants it, Canberra wants it. Let's just do it.

Terry Werner, Wright

Well, forget about those Russians – President Trump is clearly working for the North Koreans, and possibly even Iran.

What's the one thing that keeps the North Koreans driving towards nuclear weapons – a clear and present threat. And that's just what they're getting, which reinforces the regime's present strategy. If you were threatened, what would you do – disarm?

As Theodore Roosevelt said: "Speak softly and carry a big stick". A negotiated solution that addresses North Korea's security concerns, and the national interests of South Korea, China, Japan and the US, is far more likely to reduce the risk of war than the nonsense that the current occupant of the White House enunciates.

Tim Field, Barton

The Canberra Times states triumphantly that we will be able to swap cans for cash early next year. Whoopee! All that really means is that we will be paying at least 10¢ more for already expensive soft drinks and water. What is the point of having recycle bins if not for that very purpose? In Victoria they have three bins – one for household rubbish, one for recycling and one for green waste. This works very well and could be introduced in the ACT to advantage.

Geraldine Hodges, Campbell

EVs can help manage demand

Peter Martin ("Electricity prices on rise", September 21, page 16) describes the "death spiral" that could occur if consumers with their own solar generation and storage defect from the electricity grid.

I suggest that as soon as people get an electric vehicle, most will decide to stay on the grid. Our roof could fit enough solar generation to run our house or fuel our cars but not both. EVs can soak up electricity at times when renewable generation and/or low demand push the price down. Then those same EVs can avoid charging when price and demand are high. Thus EVs can provide a flexible load for demand management.

Peter Campbell, Cook

END BECOMES CLEAR

Finally, the overarching strategy of the Donald Trump/Malcolm Turnbull regimes has become clear: nuclear winter will cancel out global warming – and vice versa. Then we'll all live happily ever after. "Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice ..." (Read Frost).

David Richard, Flynn

TOO MUCH ON ABBOTT

I think you're giving too much space to Tony Abbott's prejudices. After all, this is a man who believes in virgin births and the trickle-down economic theory. Possibly the two most ridiculous concepts ever to come out of the human mind.

John Walker, Queanbeyan

OUR WALTZING MATILDAS

The footy finals are on. The Wallabies were in town. The cricketers are slogging away in India.

But by far the most exciting is watching the Matildas playing. They've flogged Brazil twice in the past few days and are without doubt our best national sports team.

No prima donnas to be seen, just honest, talented sports women enjoying playing for each other and their country. Awesome girls!

Doug Hodgson, Pearce

WAITING UNTIL CHRISTMAS

Why must we wait until Christmas for the promised letter from the power companies telling us that we may be entitled to a somewhat better deal than we have received in the past?

Surely, the Prime Minister with an army of scientists, Treasury officials, mathematicians and economists at his disposal is in the best position to assess all of the energy providers' offerings and tell us which one is the best. And before Christmas!

Ray Armstrong, Tweed Heads South

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