Did they take steps to build a strong social fabric with education and employment and housing opportunities for all? Did they recognise the gigantic threat that climate change presents, in terms of more extreme weather, environmental degradation and agricultural damage, by taking every opportunity to transition the country to a zero-carbon economy?

Did they take steps to ensure all Australians, whether born here or a recent arrival, are treated with respect, integrity and equality under the law?

Or did they do their bit to ensure the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, with tax breaks for the wealthy and robo-debt letters for the real strugglers?

Did they pay lip-service to the need to meet our Paris climate commitments, and did they give out the message that supporting an Indian billionaire in his quest to plunder our resources was of greater import than preserving the Great Barrier Reef?

And did they spend inordinate amounts of time on political infighting, undermining and believing the myth about the normal rules not applying to them?

Catherine Rossiter, Royalla, NSW

Your article, "Hired!: the end of merit?" (December 5, p.4, Public Sector Informant) is misleading and I wish to clarify some points which appeared in the article.

For the record, and to report the facts, the department had previously undertaken two procurement processes to engage a program manager. These processes were extensive and involved two separate approaches to market with no successful outcome prior to approaching the Digital Marketplace Panel. This crucial fact was ignored by your reporter.

This was merely the last step in several we had already taken to the open market. The journalist has disappointingly chosen to focus just on this final step.

I would add that this exercise was also entirely compliant with Commonwealth Procurement Rules.

The market for skilled program managers is tight and the department is of course committed to delivering value for money for the taxpayer in delivering the objectives of the Australian government.

Michael Schwager, Chief Operating Officer, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science

"Foreign interference in our democratic system" is being touted as a reason for the ban on foreign contributions to any organisations (whose activities may be deemed political).

The case for charities is being well put by Tim Costello, but the case for other groups has yet to be made.

I have been guilty of donating to foreign bodies like Avaaz and Sum of Us to fund environmental battles like the use of pesticides which endanger bee populations.

I donated to help fund the court costs. That makes me a foreign donor in other countries.

Was I wrong to try to influence their "democracy"?

The world will suffer if the Adani mine goes ahead. It is clear no new coal mines should be opening as we try to stop the rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and draw it back to more acceptable levels.

GetUp often appeals for funds to help the anti-Adani struggle. Funds they get from overseas are as legitimate as the ones I send overseas for environmental issues that affect us all.

My experience with GetUp is that their overt political activities are completely non-partisan.

They draw up a list of issues their members are concerned about, and produce leaflets which show the positions of all parties on those issues, and hand them out at election time for the public to make up their own minds.

This enhances democracy in my opinion.

Margaret Lee, Hawker

The sheer civil absurdity of watching supposedly grown adults morph into snarling beasts, attacking one another and members of the police service, all because of the presence of free-speech advocate Milo Yiannopoulos, is a remarkable display of arbitrary angst.

Are their sensitive ears that precious that they cannot bear the thought of actually having to engage in robust dialogue with a flamboyant and intelligent ideologue, lest they be potentially swayed or won over by a reasonable argument?

One would have thought that a Jewish gay man, married to a black husband, would have ticked all the minority and victimhood boxes for the social justice warriors; alas, his message of giving rational thought to complex social issues is simply too much for them to absorb.

Here's an alternative suggestion for those agitated activists: use all your passion to travel to Canberra and vocally picket the embassies of those respective nations where capital punishment of homosexuals, forced conversions, child marriages, genital mutilation, active disempowerment of females and fatal persecution of religious minorities are either state-sanctioned or ignored.

Such campaigning is not sexy or safe and doesn't lend itself easily to a hashtag movement.

However, it would demonstrate a sliver of genuine moral backbone, which is glowingly absent when you lazily resort to placards and protests.

Peter Waterhouse, Craigieburn, Vic

How are Bill Shorten, Tanya Plibersek, Chris Bowen, Tony Burke, and all the others being wheeled out to support Sam Dastyari, going to be taken seriously when they criticise Malcolm Turnbull for being controlled by the conservative right whilst they in turn appear under the influence of the Dastyari faction of the ALP?

Shorten needs to remove Dastyari completely or his presence will be a continuing sore in the same way a royal commission into the banks was for Turnbull.

Ric Hingee, Duffy

James Massola in his article ("Voters' warning: don't axe Turnbull", December 4, p.1) writes that 71 per cent of the voters think that an elected prime minister should be given a full term to govern.

Do the politicians who elect the prime minister in the caucus think so?

No. They try to stick to a prime minister who could win government.

Sankar Kumar Chatterjee, Evatt

Bill Shorten now wants to compromise on dual citizenship? He is a hypocrite now that some of his are under investigation.

What's good for goose is good for the gander, Bill.

Brian Hale, Wanniassa

Errol Good provides a timely reminder about people riding bikes giving way to people walking on our shared paths (Letters, December 5).

The lake routes in Canberra are popular places for exercising and commuting. This is to be encouraged.

The main problem is not the occasional bad behaviour but the inadequate paths.

When a road reaches capacity, the Government goes about duplicating it. There are numerous cases, such as the Cotter Rd duplication is costing $30 million for 1.5 kilometres. But the same sense is not applied when a shared path becomes so busy users are frightened for their own safety.

Older paths don't meet the modern width standards and their maintenance is under-funded as confirmed by the recent Auditor General's report.

The answer? Maintain the paths properly and duplicate the busy sections allowing for the separation of walking and cycling.

Richard Bush, Curtin

Thank you to Errol Good for his provision of Christmas cheer regarding pedestrian impacts on cyclists (Letters, December 5).

The laughter from cyclists, runners and pedestrians around Canberra has been wonderfully raucous in response.

It was enthralling to read the description of Errol and the good Mrs Good, leaping out of the way of warp-speed cyclists.

In 20 years of riding, walking and running around Canberra's paths, I am yet to be treated to the excitement of pouncing pedestrians but shall keep a keen eye out in future.

I hope the local fauna haven't been startled. Perhaps Errol would identify with the practice of walking side-by-side but one or two metres apart, which appears more common in my experience, a practice that is annoying for fellow pedestrians, runners and cyclists alike.

Instead of opining on the need for cyclists to ring bells, flash lights, sound an alarm, call out, crawl past and show absolute deference, perhaps Errol's next target could be the dark clothing preferred by many pedestrians (and some cyclists) on bike paths at night. Oh, did I say 'bike paths'?

Sorry, I meant, as most of us think of them, 'Shared Paths'.

There's no right of way Errol, only good manners. If you show a bit of awareness yourself, it would undoubtedly be returned in spades.

Brad Allen, Ngunnawal

Good on you Errol Good (Letters, 5 December). I've been meaning to make the same compliant for some time given the reckless riding I encounter almost daily as I walk to my workplace.

As these daredevils whiz past I usually call out "A bell would be good" but few have changed their behaviour.

It's particularly bad in the underpasses and chicane sections though these pressure points make no difference to most riders.

If only they'd consider how strongly they feel about motorists who behave as arrogantly towards cyclists as they do towards pedestrians.

Keith Hill, Kaleen

Peter Dutton will not be Australia's "first Home Affairs minister", but the eighteenth, following William Lyne (1901-03), John Forrest (1903-04), Egerton Batchelor (1904), Dugald Thomson (1904-05), Littleton Groom (1905-06), Thomas Ewing (1906-07), John Keating (1907-08), Hugh Mahon (1908-09), George Fuller (1909-10), King O'Malley (1910-13, 1915-16), Joseph Cook (1913-14), William Archibald (1914-15), Charles Abbott (1928-29), Arthur Blakeley (1929-32), Archdale Parkhill (1932), Robert Ellicott (1977-80) and Robert Ray (1987-88).

But this will be the first Home Affairs portfolio with immigration and security functions. The previous ones were mostly responsible for the federal capital, works, railways, and some administrative services, such as elections, now in the Finance portfolio.

Michael McCarthy, Deakin

In removing Canberra presenter Genevieve Jacobs the ABC has only confirmed what I have been saying in the letters pages of the Canberra Times for over a year.

It is clearly bent on abandoning its traditional audience base and abrogating its prime responsibility to maintain the highest standards of broadcasting in this country.

We're already seeing this with television programming, and now with the loss of the most professional broadcaster in Canberra, the malaise is spreading to radio.

Genevieve Jacobs has set a very high standard, head and shoulders above her radio colleagues, and allowing her to leave shows that ABC management, nationally as well as locally, is bent on turning the ABC into a commercial clone.

This is a fraught strategy which is likely to give political encouragement to those who already see the ABC as a barrier to the profitability of the commercial sector.

I wish Genevieve all the very best in whatever she does next.

I can't, say the same for ABC management.

Eric Hunter, Cook

Professor Jenny Stewart gave a sanitised view of Indonesian people smuggling ("Australia and Indonesia: are we there yet?", The Public Sector Informant, December 5).

She wrote, "Indonesian fishing boats ferried asylum seekers to Christmas Island".

They really are an entrepreneurial lot. Her assessment of the trade potential with this nation of $260million was more disconcerting. She indicated a possible Indonesian policy of exclusion without appreciable political concessions to the nation.

Her closing sentence was, "Unless we can come up with more creative ways of linking overall policy to economic and business interests we will continue to miss out."

This is reminiscent of Indonesia's manipulation of beef import quotas during 2010-12 in an attempt to muscle in on our beef industry.

It is also reminiscent of the name change of its newest province, Irian Jaya, to the Anglophonic West Papua.

So effective has this gambit been that the professor omitted the adjective "West", recalling, "A decade ago, some unfortunate Papuans tried to escape to Australia."

There have been multiple such incidents involving West Papuans going back to at least 2006.

Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

BARTON AND RUSSELL

It is extremely shocking that the first stage of the ACT light rail ignores two key areas of public transport — Barton and Russell.

These areas are critical and need to be immediately catered for given the high number of people and businesses located in these areas.

Please extend light rail immediately as passengers travelling to Barton and Russell are facing inconvenience having to change multiple buses and trams daily.

David Jones, Canberra

JOYOUS ADORATION

Re: Joyce, the bloke is King!

A pollie to adore!

Voters, give thanks and sing, But triumph evermore?

M. F. Horton, Adelaide, SA

TRUMP AND TREASON

Trump's absurd claim that he is not accountable in any court reminds me of the same stunt attempted by King Charles I at his trial for treason.

He, too, asserted that he was sovereign over all and unaccountable in his own courts. The court thought otherwise, convicted him of treason and beheaded him in 1649. Let King Donald take note.

There is an axe over his head.

R. Schwind, Baltimore, Maryland, US

NEW LINGO

Len Goodman's kwaussie cossie (Letters, 5 December) must of course be one size fits all, namely 44. Also, a "Kwaussie Causie" should now be the official term for those things we used to call "by-elections".

Mark Le Couteur, Oxley

MARRYING KIND

I was "delighted" to have read both contributions (Letters, December 4) questioning a quizzical adulation to Harry and Megs' upcoming splice.

It was clearly intended for the Notices pages, yet ended up in Letters by mistake.

Phil O'Mara, Pialligo, ACT

BELIEFS IN QUESTION

Infantile concepts such as belief in the supernatural, will seriously hinder students of Brindabella Christian College reaching their full potential.

They will be entering a world with problems that require logical thought.

Matt Ford, Crookwell, NSW

PLENTY TO CHOOSE FROM

In response to Ian Warden's recent request for names for the new light rail system. The following is offered. "Rats Red Rattlers", "Rats Rattlers", "Red Folly" and "Lie-Trail".

Martin Ryan, Duffy

CAUGHT OUT BILL

After months of telling us how perfect the ALP's vetting processes for its Federal candidates have been Mr Shorten has gone strangely silent.

He isn't doing much of the heavy lifting when it comes to defending Katy Gallagher and the others now caught up in this mess.

Surely it is time for all sides of politics to sort this out.

D. Johnston, Belconnen