The possible axing of the Brumbies from Super Rugby is exactly what he needed.

The gridlock of Parkes Way adjacent to Civic on the evening of Skyfire was the perfect example of why the idea of a stadium in Civic should never have been contemplated in the first place.

Murray Upton, Belconnen

It was interesting to hear Andrew Barr say a new sports stadium would be a white elephant, and unviable unless there were at least three professional football teams playing there.

It is amazing logic from a man who has no qualms about spending close to $1 billion of ACT ratepayers' money on a white elephant from Gungahlin to Civic.

B. M. Cooke, Latham

It is reassuring to read of former chief planner of Vancouver Brent Toderian's support for the ACT government ("Expert urges more density for Canberra", March 25, p2).

His comment that Canberra is "car-centric" is evidenced by the continuing letters to The Canberra Times opposing the forward-looking light rail, a breakthrough in progressive development.

One must conclude that the opposers are locked in an immature cherishing of their car as a status symbol, as it may once have been in the 1950s.

Fortunately, there are enough enlightened voters who supported the light rail, now enhancing Canberra's status as an up-to-date liveable city.

Jack Palmer, Watson

Your editorial writer seems delusional ("Hazelwood has to go for the good of all", March 25).

South Australians might not agree with his or her sentiments.

In the future, when they need electricity from the inter-connector, they will often find it unavailable because Victoria won't have enough to spare.

Our lifestyle is inextricably dependent on cheap, reliable and abundant electricity. South Australians have had a brief introduction to putting up with power outages but things will get much worse without that venerable electricity-generating plant.

With the renewable energy target in place, no one will risk money building a replacement coal-fired plant. The RET is continuing to make electricity more expensive and less reliable.

Yes, the advocates for renewables will claim that renewables are as cheap or nearly as cheap as fossil-fuel powered electricity.

Fine, do away with the subsidies, rescind the RET and see what happens! I dare them.

Yes, I know, all further renewables development would end immediately should that occur!

As Australia is a net CO2 sequester and CO2 is hugely beneficial to mankind anyway, there is no need for the RET at all.

Closing down Hazelwood will do no good at all.

John McKerral, Batemans Bay, NSW

No, Gerry Murphy (Letters, March 24), you are not allowed to say "anything you please".

Free speech has limits, as most people know. The best-known explanation is that of former US chief justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in Schenk v the United States (1919).

The court correctly decreed we are not free to always say whatever we like. The pertinent part of the judgment is: "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic ... The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent."

Unbridled defamatory speech has the potential to cause real "danger" and "substantive evil" to fellow citizens, particularly psychological damage to children unable to verbally defend themselves.

This is why the Australian legislation exists in the first place.

In what hurtful, nasty insults would Murphy like to indulge?

Steve Ellis, Hackett

It would appear Eric Hunter's best argument against free speech is an ad-hominem attack in which he trots out patronising, meaningless, philosophical fluff (Letters, March 24).

That rhetoric neither impresses nor convinces.

Gerry Murphy, Braddon

Gas producers in Australia have now been forced to ensure the Australian market is supplied with the gas it needs to generate power before exporting gas.

At $35 a kilogram for lamb chops and exorbitant prices for beef, why don't we apply the same rules to meat producers as well, instead of meeting China's demands for our produce to the disadvantage of our population?

About the only person able to afford beef or lamb in a country that supplies the rest of the world is someone like our own Prime Minister, who believes in trade at any price.

Add to that the frozen wage levels for years and you have a country whose quality of life is going backwards.

Not a worry, however, to our wealthy Malcolm Turnbull, representing, as he does, the wealthy eastern suburbs of Sydney.

Rex Wlliams, Ainslie

What a masterpiece of economic stimulus: we will soon be replacing our gas appliances. Gas now earmarked for electricity generation or exported overseas, domestic prices forced upward.

Just as bad is that the artificial shortage created by exporting from conventional gas fields is giving momentum to the coal seam industry.

Matt Ford, Crookwell, NSW

For the last 1 years, we have been privileged to have known Evelyn and Ron Bean ("'Farewell dear friends' ... Evelyn's final letter to the editor", March 25, p10).

We met as Evelyn went in her dressing gown to collect our Canberra Times from the Goodwin letterbox.

Little did we know that Evelyn was a very successful writer of interesting, thoughtful "letters to the editor" over the past 40 years.

We will all miss her. I thank the editor for publishing her letters over the years, and Megan Doherty for her very sensitive words.

Caroline and David Nott, Ainslie

Thank you, Evelyn Bean, for your letters. They were always on the bright side, and made my day. I didn't always agree but found what you said was much better than what us whingers were writing about.

V. Harris, Yass, NSW

What a lady! Thank you, Evelyn Bean, for your last civic letter to the editor.

And thank you to The Canberra Times for publishing "most of" this extraordinary lady's thoughts on life in Canberra. Au revoir, citizen of the last 40 years.

Noëlle Roux, Chifley

Oh! Vale! Vale, Evelyn Bean.

Thank you for all your contributions to our city, not just your letters. Thank you also for having the foresight to ask your son to deliver your final message to us.

Your gentle and positive style has always shone through clearly in your writings.

Our city has been enriched by your presence, your actions and the thoughts you have shared with us over the years.

S.A.Simmons, Conder

Ave atque vale, Evelyn Bean.

It was always a pleasure reading you. Always well-written, even beyond the grave.

Well remembered, always.

Peter Graves, Curtin

Jim Derrick (Letters, March 25) identifies a genuine problem, but isn't quite on target: it wasn't John Howard who started sales of Commonwealth airports, but Bob Hawke.

Their devolution into private hands was part of Hawke's strategy of capturing marginal Coalition voters: by adopting some of the Coalition's platform.

The policy worked well for Hawke and Paul Keating, and especially well for escalating the success of conservative politics during later years.

Derrick mentions "a detrimental effect on Canberra planning".

And beyond the nation's capital: Brisbane City Council took, all the way to the High Court, its argument against Brisbane airport's expansion of retail shopping. The court found in favour of the airport lessee: that the lessee's action was in keeping with the law's intention, regardless of state or local government planning for surrounding areas.

Colin Samundsett, Farrer

There is an inescapable logic to the editorial's assertion, "leaving drunks to sort matters out for themselves with minimal intervention from either the state or the licensees is not a good way to go" (March 24).

The problem is that it's what might be called wedge logic. By association with reasonable statement, a false idea is slipped in.

The wedge here is that the degree of licensees' intervention required is not merely equivalent to outsourcing policing but of legislating to enforce licensees to perform such a role.

= Forcing businesses "to install security cameras around their venues" covering public areas is suspect enough, even if their only function is to collect evidence for police investigations without implying any obligations on the part of the venue's employees.

Bars have, for some time, displayed notices to the effect that clients who refuse to accept staff decisions over refusal of service are liable to on-the-spot fines.

To enforce such law, the constabulary must be called. It appears the constabulary are not equipped to perform this function if vendors are to be given "more clearly defined, and therefore stronger, rights to evict drunks".

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

The article "500 years on, it is time to set sail for Utopia" (March 22, p18) should be viewed as a warning for Canberra planners and their vision for the ACT.

A destructive vision, with economies of scale, critical mass and investment purely for profit its core.

This vision can only result in catastrophe of an apocalyptic scale.

It is now more critical than ever for Canberra to be an example of Eu-topia.

Enrico Taglietti, Griffith

At the urban intersection of humans and wildlife, roads present an undeniable obstacle to wild animals.

Vehicular trauma is the most common reason wildlife present at veterinary clinics, reflecting the unfortunate impact of cars on our wild animal populations.

Accidents happen but how we respond is essential to minimising harm.

If you hit a wild animal while driving, pull off the road and, if it is safe to do so, get out of your car to check on the animal.

If the animal has been injured, try to pick it up (with the help of a jumper/shirt/towel) making sure to cover any claws or teeth that might emerge.

Finally, take the animal to a veterinary clinic – even if the animal will likely die, euthanasia at the clinic is far more humane than a painful death by the roadside.

It is distressing to hit wildlife with your car, but taking that next step to ensure the animal's welfare by seeking help is the right thing to do.

Dr Bronwyn Orr, Narrabundah

Must be great to enjoy an international trip on someone else's pay packet ("Rattenbury cops flak for $16k trip to Morocco, resisting FOI requests", March 22, p3).

If Shane Rattenbury thinks his contribution at the world's climate change conference will make one jot of difference, methinks he has his head shoved far up where the solar panels don't work!

Given that we ratepayers paid for his trip, economy class or not, perhaps he can tell what was achieved and how we in the ACT will benefit.

Peter Toscan, Amaroo

FOLLOWING ORDERS

Reading the letters from Sue Wareham (March 22) and Leon Arundell (March 27) reminded me of Rudyard Kipling's famous poem "Tommy". Both chose to denigrate the RAAF, rather than the government of the day that determines the military action required to achieve its foreign policy.

Norman Lee, Weston

LOGIC BLIND SPOT

It defies all logic for the Queensland Premier to dash off to India and pursue Adani to build that monster coal mine, then rush back home to warn Queenslanders of the next monster cyclone. If the Premier has trouble seeing cause and effect, can't anyone in her entourage connect the dots?

Chris Klootwijk, Macarthur

POLICING THE POLICE

Jack Waterford's well-aimed polemic against the federal police ("Nothing to see, move on", Forum, March 25, p1) reminded me that been it's six months since AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said publicly he was "disturbed to read the level of bullying and sexual harassment" within his force and announced a strategy to deal with the problem. Has anyone heard how that's going?

Peter Moran, Watson

In real-world Australia, white-collar criminals serve the same purpose as Harry Potter's invisibility cloak! Forces of law and order, and government watchdogs, seem unable to detect them against backgrounds of bag snatchers and drug peddlers.

Albert M. White, Queanbeyan, NSW

UNEDUCATED GUESS

Last night, I dreamt I was at the checkout of my local supermarket with a small basket of groceries. Without scanning the items, the operator said: "$175 please." "What?" I replied, "How can it be that much? And anyway, you didn't scan anything." "Oh," she said, "we've adopted ActewAGL's policy: that's an estimate based on the last time you shopped with us!"

J. Sever, Higgins

EVEN WORSE TRUMP

Paul McGeough ("Is this man the Fake President?", Forum, March 25, p6) cites a few theories about Donald Trump's obsessive and vicious tweeting, all of them fairly credible. But his attack-dog approach became fully formed under the guidance of the execrable Roy Cohn. Taking on Cohn as his business mentor tells me all I need to know about Trump.

S.W.Davey, Torrens

PUT TO THE SWORD

If we are to have a woman play Richard III, at least the prop department can supply an appropriate sword (Panorama, March 25, p8).

Richard Strudwick, Canberra

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.

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