Canberra Times letters to the editor: Breath of fresh air

The first part is a running balance sheet between the UK's energy needs and the extent to which renewable energy can meet those needs and envisages, as I recall, a considerable reliance on distributed pumped hydro systems from sites like the 22,000 so far identified in Australia.

Even if you are a climate change denier this book should be mandatory reading for anyone purporting to be interested in energy cost and reliability of supply. For the acceptors it has the enormous further advantage that it eliminates carbon pollution while putting paid to concerns about baseload power.

These systems can be implemented more quickly and more cheaply than more major projects and should be part of an integrated national grid where High Voltage Direct Current cables [like the one connecting Tasmania to Victoria] could be run from one end of the country to the other if necessary.

The only barrier is political intransigence, which may be partly due to faith in the free market system but, as more and more people are contending, as does Clair Brown in Buddhist Economics, that "the wealthy fossil fuel companies and the organisations and politicians they fund ... spread lies and misleading information to confuse people [and voters] about climate change and what causes it".

MacKay's book is available free online at withouthotair.com.

Dick Varley, Braidwood

Many thanks to Professor Williams for describing so clearly several reasons why "parliamentary prayers should be confined to history" (Comment, September 24).

More than 100 years of prayers have been hopelessly ineffective. We witness disgraceful disrespect, shameful behaviour (e.g. question time), low-calibre debates and unworthy decisions.

Outcomes demonstrate parliamentary prayers are insincere. It is an expensive misuse of time that would not withstand cost-benefit analysis.

Don Burns, Mawson

As an analogy for answering "yes" to the question in the survey currently being conducted by the Bureau of Statistics, Zoo Group's slogan, "Vote YES to Vegemite" ("Ad over the rainbow", September 28, p12) seems to me to be rather inapt.

While I am perfectly happy to have voted "yes", both to the survey question and to Vegemite, and to allow those who prefer other similar products, such as Marmite and Promite, to consume them in the privacy of their own homes, I would strenuously object to the purveyors of those other products being allowed to foist them off on us as being proper Vegemite.

David Wilson, Braddon

Mr Barr's reported blaming of the "prevailing culture" in the development industry ("Barr takes aim at industry 'culture"', September 29, p5) for various deals done by the former LDA ignores that he, at least formally, heads the government and should therefore ensure that appropriate standards of behaviour are maintained.

A more plausible explanation may be that the people involved, at least on the government's side of the transactions, knew what was expected of them by the government and proceeded accordingly (or got sacked, as apparently happened in at least one instance). Prospectively it is not obvious that "the necessary safeguards" or only appointing people from outside Canberra to the new boards will improve the situation, since there still is no commitment by the government to ensuring transparency around the boards' transactions.

Mr Barr has recently claimed his government is the most scrutinised in Australia. That claim ignores that scrutiny is largely rendered ineffective unless all the relevant information is disclosed to allow meaningful scrutiny to occur. If Mr Barr is sincere about improving standards, he will instruct the two boards to make public all the information on their proposed transactions. Sunlight and meaningful scrutiny will do the rest.

Bruce Paine, Red Hill

When one thought politics in this country could not sink any lower – at a time when our elected "representatives" ignore the real problems assailing us – politicians and the commentariat bicker over the merits and meaning of a few unmemorable words to be warbled at the beginning of the 2017 NRL grand final by someone who most people had never heard of, until now. Get a grip.

N. A. Whiddett, Forrest

I note that our PM is blaming everyone for the shortage of gas ("PM pressures gas companies – energy crisis growing as states take the heat", September 26, p1).

Perhaps our PM should examine the geology below his Sydney harbourside house for an easy solution. Some of Australia's best quality (clean!) coal seams lie at shallow depths below Sydney Harbour and the CBD. The coal is ideal for Coal Seam Gas (CSG) or Coal Bed Methane (CBM) and even Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) exploitation – of course, all aided by fracking technology.

There will be no need to build expensive pipelines as there is a thirsty market on the doorstep.

The federal Coalition and gas operators are adamant that fracking is clean and safe, so if CSG and fracking is good enough for Chinchilla then surely it should be good enough for Sydney. Or is there a NIMBY problem?

P. R. Temple, Macquarie

While the Prime Minister professes to have saved the nation from a massive shortfall in gas in order to secure its energy needs, he allows the burglars who gave us export parity pricing to continue laughing all the way to the bank.

Having been conned into paying the same price for gas as overseas customers ($17.50 a gigajoule), Australians are being conned a second time by having to continue to pay that higher price after those overseas contract prices have collapsed (now $8.70 a gigajoule) and then a third time by having to cover the cost of shipping the gas Malcolm has "rescued" for us from Queensland to the south-eastern markets.

And then, to add insult to injury, this snake oil salesman masquerading as a prime minister would have us agree to give the same crooks access to even more gas, so they can rip us off some more.

Australian jail are full of people doing time for less than this.

John Richardson, Wallagoot, NSW

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