This was the explanation by one of its officers when I asked why I had been sent a land tax notice despite advice by me on May 2 that this charge no longer applied. He said emails sent later than April were not yet being actioned.

Since its re-election last October, the ACT government has systematically reduced or cut funds from worthy community organisations and, it seems, its own agencies.

If only there were an effective opposition to this smug and developer-driven government.

This community is paying dearly for the ill-advised billion-dollar tram folly with cuts to far more worthwhile services. There can be no justification for rate increases of about 55 per cent in five years.

There is no apparent improvement to the amenity of the city.

Indeed much maintenance is neglected and the government continues to thumb its nose at the needs of those who pay for its waste and neglect.

Our paying for seven more politicians has done nothing to improve the management of this city or the contempt for its citizens by its rulers.

Graham Downie, O'Connor

The ACT government has guidelines for placing signs for events, commercial activities and during elections.

Predictable attacks on the use of signage, letterboxing, canvassing and compulsory voting during ACT elections by the small l liberal autocrats on local radio and other platforms recently demonstrates the contempt some hold for democracy.

The point of canvassing voters, using social media, signage and letter boxing is to engage with those disengaged from politics to try to inform them.

Sadly, insecure work, excessive hours for those in work and caring responsibilities mean many don't regularly engage with politics or their community. Hence politicians and parties work so hard to engage with people even if it's as basic as signage and letterboxing.

So perhaps show less hubris when thinking about political advertising and reforms to our democracy — it's not all about you.

It's about everyone having an opportunity to be informed and have a say about their community.

Also, let's not forget that media outlets have their own editorial agendas (and how wrong were they last election).

Get a grip, or why not move to the USA or China if democracy bothers you that much.

Ben Halliday, Belconnen

Your editorial of Saturday, July 22, (Forum, page 8) points out that "the closeness of the links between the government and the unions has been the cause of grief to the local ALP".

There's a deal you didn't mention: namely a commitment with the CPSU not to introduce a needle-syringe program in the prison without the approval of corrections officers.

So we have the Minister for Justice, Greens' Shane Rattenbury, abdicating to a handful of union votes the government's public health responsibility to prevent blood-borne diseases.

The union-unfriendly Liberal opposition happily rested its own anti-NSP stance on this CPSU agreement, thus being quite prepared to countenance its federal counterparts having to pay for a fresh course of treatment at $66,000 each to the more than 100 ACT prisoners cleared of hepatitis C who are likely to be re-infected because of a lack of sterile injecting equipment.

Politics are a sad business.

Risk avoidance all round sees the buck passed to the community.

Bill Bush, Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform, Turner

Alex White's reported letter to all ACT Labor Assembly members ('Unions want to be told', July 21, p.6) is another insight into the influence that Unions ACT thinks it has over members of the ACT Assembly.

The report that only three of the 14 Labor-Green coalition members attended the MBA awards suggests Unions ACT's view of their influence is well placed.

Where was Andrew Barr?

Voters have more than three years until the next ACT election to think whether this influence is good for the community as a whole.

Nothing is likely to change until then.

Unless the three reported attendees are sufficiently disenchanted with the current situation and are willing to bring an independent mind to government for the ACT. That would be a breath of fresh air.

And for the record, I have similar concerns about the influence of developers and constructors.

Bruce Paine, Red Hill

I wholly agree with Julia Ryan (Letters, July 24) that the enforced sale of ARHS carriages and other railway items would be a tragedy for the national capital.

Prospective loss of the Railway Museum at Kingston and of those popular heritage train journeys offered by ARHS until recently, is not something Mr Gentleman and the ACT government (July 15, p12) should so readily accept.

The cost of a few hundred metres of light rail track would easily bail ARHS out of its recent financial difficulties.

If the ACT government is too unconcerned to come to the rescue, maybe our airport owner could demonstrate some community spirit?

He might even get to display a historic railway carriage at the Airport, rather than ads promoting warfare.

Garth Setchell, Mawson

The ABC's Four Corners program of July 25 reported that there was widespread malpractice in the extraction for irrigation of water in the Darling River and its main tributaries.

Water meters were being tampered with or rendered inoperable, some intake pipes and pumps were far larger than allowed in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan (MDBP), and there were instances of pumps that were not permitted at all under the plan.

Most of the water being extracted was for growing cotton, a water-hungry crop, using open-channel irrigation which is very wasteful, losing much water to evaporation and seepage.

To make matters even worse, there were several examples of huge amounts of water – measured in the billions of litres – being stored in unauthorised, vast, shallow dams.

The losses to evaporation and seepage from these dams would be huge.

All of this seemed to be happening with the tacit approval – even encouragement – of at least one very senior NSW official who allegedly spoke of NSW opting out of the MDBP, a "Plan B".

Meanwhile, people living downstream, particularly in towns such as Broken Hill, were having to put up with meagre supplies of below-standard water, and environmentally sensitive areas such as the Macquarie Marshes, which the MDBP was designed to restore and protect, suffer badly.

This is all, quite simply, outrageous.

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

The evolution of the water "market" is the beginning of the water corruption scandal.

If we go back over 17 years we discover that the corporatisation of Snowy Hydro is linked through legislation and agreements to the water "market". At the same time, the Water Management Act (2000) was introduced with a strong focus on sustainable water use and water extraction compliance.

When Tony Burke mentioned on ABC Radio that the integrity of the water "market" was compromised (or words to that effect) he immediately underscored the lack of commonsense in water sharing.

Water does not need a market. Water – clean and potable water – needs healthy catchments, basins, rivers, floodplains and estuaries. Water management needs people with commonsense and an understanding of hydrology and the value of environmental services (for example, a healthy catchment has economic value).

People, in water-dependent communities, also need a strong spirit of co-operation to look after the environments that support and sustain them and to share water fairly and reasonably, most effectively through a licensing system.

Corruption of the water market by public servants or water users or any other entity will no doubt run deeper and longer than the Murray River in flood.

Acacia Rose, alpine riverkeeper, Thredbo, NSW

The recent Four Corners program has blown corrupt government officials and cotton growers out of what water remains in the Murray-Darling Basin.

In a drought-prone continent with increasingly erratic rainfall, plundering water and tampering with meters is criminal and totally against the public and national interest.

Against this background a private conversation about domestic water supply at a Bushfire Management Symposium in Canberra on the weekend was brought into sharp relief: plans are already afoot to buy Murrumbidgee water from irrigators (big money for them) to bolster Canberra's water supply.

Don't be fooled into thinking that the enlarged Cotter Dam will suffice for years to come. It won't. We face lower rainfall, prolonged droughts, and rapid population growth in the ACT including near Ginninderra Falls, across the border in NSW.

The ACT will supply infrastructure and essential services.

The Murrumbidgee, which flows into the Murray-Darling, will be reduced in volume. At this rate, unless planners, legislators and politicians take immediate and effective action on several sides, the Murray-Darling Basin doesn't stand a chance.

Judy Kelly, Aranda

Now that a bipartisan approach to fixed-term elections is on the cards, here are some suggestions for those thinking about it:

John F.Simmons, Kambah

Our politicians are very talented in manipulating words and sugar-coating harsh realities.

Frankly speaking, voluntary assisted dying is another name for suicide.

I am appalled by the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' decision to introduce a bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill patients.

The Premier believes that this is about dignity, choice and giving Victorians the support and care they deserve in their final moments.

I call it a failure of our humanity, and lack of compassion for vulnerable members of our society.

Usman Mahmood, South Bowenfels, NSW

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart had a lot to say about some of the decisions handed out to the Raiders.

He mentioned the referees, the bunker and the linesman. He made no mention of Cameron Smith, surely the most influential person on the field.

Any Melbourne game, both central referees seem to take advice from Cameron.

Rod Frazer, Garran

COMPLEX MATTER

Four-year terms for the House of Representatives is one thing. Eight years for the Senate is quite another.

To change the term of one house without the other will be very complex indeed.

Philip Benwell, Australian Monarchist League, Sydney, NSW

MASTERS OF SPIN

Apart from both being masters of spin, what do Shane Warne and Matt Canavan have in common? Mum's the word.

R.D. Blakey, Belconnen

RATHER A WOOD BURNER

A quarter's gas bill nudging $700 worth – not counting my electrical warmth. Only consolation? It makes me hot round the collar. Give me a wood burner any day. Splitting wood? Good exercise for an old coot.

Barrie Smillie, Duffy

INVALID CONSTITUTION?

If Australia's first parliament included 54 members born overseas, is the constitution invalid?

Paul Mathews, McLaren Flat, SA

CHILDREN IN DANGER

Anti-vaxers believe they don't need to immunise their children. What this actually means is they don't need to immunise the children that they don't want to keep.

Harri Keinonen, Spence

BRITISH PASSPORT

Have any parliamentarians ever used a British passport? It made getting around Europe easier but surely would constitute dual citizenship.

Peggy Spratt, Ainslie

TOO MANY ALREADY

We can't possibly increase the number of MLAs by 40per cent yet again ("Growth prompts call for more MLAs", July26, p.8). There are not enough developers to support them.

Bruce A. Peterson, Kambah

ONE BIG PYRAMID SCHEME

The condescending line that is "trickle down" is the reverse of reality. The world more closely resembles a "pyramid scheme".

Gary Frances, Bexley, NSW

GIVE ME THE FACTS

It is hard to differentiate climate facts from opinion. Could someone point me to a reliable source of measurements of concentrations of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere over say the past 100 years.

Drewe Just, Campbell

ADULT TREATMENT

If 16-year-olds are to be considered capable of making adult judgments in polling booths, then they would have to be considered capable of facing legal and prison systems as adults. That might even solve some of Bimberi's problems.

Bernard McMinn, Mawson

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