David Stephens, Bruce

It should surprise no one that there is little support from politicians for a referendum to change Section 44.

Its various parts ensures that about 90 per cent of citizens are effectively excluded from standing for preselection for one of the parties or as an independent. This cuts down the competition significantly and ensures that only the often criticised narrow range of backgrounds are represented in the parliament. This insidious section should be subjected to wide debate and thence to a referendum. Where are the constitutional lawyers when the country needs them?

Steve Thomas, Yarralumla

Like many fellow ACT federal public servants over the decades, I have willingly and openly gone through the paper and vetting process where I and we, have declared our own birth place, those of our parents and even on occasion, our grandparents too.

Our personal national security clearances were then granted on the basis of our disclosed and vetted information.

Why are/should our federal representatives be subjected to any lesser vetting?

Peter Hyland, Swinger Hill

A question on the Australian constitutional bar to dual citizens in federal parliament: how was it that an American, King O'Malley, was the federal minister for Home Affairs presiding over the birth of Canberra? Of course, when it suited him, O'Malley claimed to be Canadian. The Australian Dictionary of Biography entry on O'Malley makes fascinating reading, given that the Turnbull government could lose office over the dual citizenship status of a number of its MPs. No fussing over pieces of paper 110 years ago, an MP's statement was taken as fact.

Does this mean that O'Malley's ministerial action must now be judged unconstitutional — will the ACT now revert to NSW, with Canberra becoming part of greater Queanbeyan? Indeed are the name "Canberra" and the actions of our Chief Minister et al now unconstitutional? Fire up the lawyers, the High Court could be about to get a whole lot busier.

Rod Olsen, Flynn

I applaud John Davenport's proposal (Letters, November 7) to run vintage trams on Sundays along the new light rail line.

It would complete Walter Burley Griffin's vision of having trams of his vintage running down Northbourne Avenue. And it would be easy. When the promoters of the Federation Line brought two trams to Canberra to give rides on a demonstration track, one of them was a Melbourne W class. It had been restored in the livery of Canberra's original bus service and emblazoned with the legend "Federal Capital Commission Tramways".

Our research suggested that Canberra would have used the the new Melbourne W class design as most suitable for Canberra's climate, and that had the lines been laid at the time, this is what Canberra's tram service would have looked like. During the demonstrations it became the first tram to run under power in Canberra. It is now part of the collection at the Sydney Tramway Museum.

Why not bring this tram to Canberra to be part of the opening ceremonies of the new line? What could be more historically appropriate? And what an iconic media image.

Ray Edmondson, former chair, the Federation Line Inc., Kambah

Gina Pinkas (Letters, November 7) , asks the very pertinent question of why extreme high rise development can take place in town centres.

The main reason is because both Labor and the Liberals supported legislation that third party objections would not be considered in town centres.

In short ACTPLA and the developer determine what is appropriate. With ACTPLA's track record of falling over backwards to accommodate developers this is not in the public interest.

I hope that at the next election voters will increasingly vote for independents. The present political balance is most definitely not in the public interest. We have two parties that will wring every cent they can out of us and support development at any cost to the beauty of Canberra.

Howard Carew, Isaacs

When will ACTION replace its often-quoted policy that buses only need to be on time at "timing points". I caught one of the new rapid services recently with a driver who travelled so dangerously fast that we were seven minutes ahead of the sign-posted time at the bus stop where I alighted, which was one stop before a timing point.

Receiving the explanation that the bus would have waited at the timing point for seven minutes to get back on schedule does not help the many people who would have already missed this bus. I am told that the NXTBUS system warns the driver immediately if they are ahead of schedule, but not all drivers take notice. How much ahead of schedule will the tram be allowed to run, remembering they will be less frequent than the existing buses?

Chris Emery, Reid

Telstra's pledge to refund money for slow NBN speeds is a good start.

As people are paying for a service they should get that service not just a percentage of it.

A simple solution is to pay for what you get.

If you buy 100mbs and you get an average of 15mbs or 15 per cent over the month then you should get a refund of 85 per cent of your month's cost.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill, Victoria

I write in response to the opinion piece by Professor Jenny Stewart on the NBN and Mr Fluffy overreach reminding us why governments should lead, not command (Public Sector Informant, November 7).

Professor Stewart may be an expert in business, though she is not an expert in asbestos.

She describes the government remedy of the Mr Fluffy homes as a "very drastic, one-size-fits-all solution" where the "risk had not changed but the politics had".

She is dead wrong.

There is no safe level of exposure to asbestos and there is no cure for asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma. It is a devastating life sentence.

Loose-fill asbestos is far more dangerous and it is more uncommon in Australian building than asbestos that is bonded, commonly in walls, and is largely safe until disturbed.

The loose-fill fibres in the MrFluffy product had spread to other parts of the properties after the initial remediation works. The very real and serious risk to those living in the homes remained.

There is no such thing as a "minimal or safely contained asbestos risk" in an area contaminated by loose-fill asbestos. Controlled demolition was the only safe way to protect human life.

The agency does not have an active role in this work, though we monitored it. It is the agency's belief that the work of the ACT taskforce in managing the MrFluffy clean-up is best practice. It has since been adopted by the NSW government as it grapples with the emergence of loose-fill asbestos in suburbs and towns across the state.

Peter Tighe, Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency chief executive officer

Nicholas Stuart is to be congratulated for drawing attention to Defence matters. Unfortunately, the credibility of his latest article ("Terrible defence policy", November8, p16) suffers through a lack of evidence.

The assertion that both an amphibious capability and an armoured force cannot be maintained, is one example. If these capabilities are perceived as unsuited to emerging threats, this is wrong. Neither is geared solely to conventional conflict, quite the opposite.

An element of defence policy overlooked is that of warning times for threats to emerge and lead times for defence capabilities to be developed. Core skills have to be maintained as a basis for contingency planning. Defence industry and equipment policies cannot be viewed as political footballs, they underpin operational planning and the ADF's degree of readiness.

In a previous article ("Defence's age-old habit of buying duds", November1), Mr Stuart asserted the army's planned combat reconnaissance vehicle "won't be able to do the job". He claimed it would snag low-slung electricity wires and only one bridge in Timor-Leste could accept its weight. In fact, the vehicle is lower than Centurion tanks operated successfully in Vietnam (even with radio antennae protruding two metres above the turret). While half the bridges in Timor-Leste are less than 10m wide – well within army's bridging capability – an advantage of a combat reconnaissance vehicle is that it is not confined to roads.

The tag of "dud" Mr Stuart applies to Defence policy and equipment procurement is inappropriate on the basis of evidence presented.

Bruce Cameron, Campbell

Yes, Nicholas Stuart, but why spend all this money on defence? Who wants to grab a southern hemisphere Gobi Desert, with too little water and ancient, infertile soils? In any case our real enemy is our readiness to pitch in with other people's conflicts.

Our view of the future is shaped by what we know of the past, so we have no idea how utterly destructive World War Three will be. There will be few spoils to a victor! We'll have tossed away our mess of pottage, for decades, to no avail. No spoils to the victor.

A better way to spend those trillions would be to be a good friend to our neighbours. Cultural exchanges, especially person-to-person ones, would make us disinclined to kill them.

Barrie Smillie, Duffy

Jennifer Heywood's persistence in spreading misinformation about vaccinations (Letters, November8), even when she's been exposed to the facts, suggests she really has an axe to grind.

She states that "the study being relied on to convince Pharmaceutical Benefits that the meningococcal B vaccine should be free will not look into whether it works or not", as though a single study had been commissioned to assess the vaccine. However, the article she's addressing ("Youngster gone within hours to horror of meningococcal B", November6, p5) clearly states otherwise: "The low incidence of meningococcal B in Australia coupled with the ambiguity over the vaccine's level of protection means the vaccine is only available on private script for $120 per dose."

To understand how vaccines work, you need an understanding of how acquired immunity works. But every individual's immune system is unique and it's harder to coax some individuals into producing certain antibodies than it is others. If vaccines didn't work at all, they wouldn't progress beyond their first round of clinical trials, and Australia's PBAC evidently requires proof of higher efficacy than does Britain's NHS before a vaccine is included in the national immunisation program.

Rather than perpetually naysaying vaccination, Jennifer Heywood should reflect on how fortunate we are to live in a world that, thanks to the hard work of scientists, isn't weighed down by the debilitating rates of child mortality and morbidity of the not-too-distant past.

James Allan, Narrabundah

The Canberra Times wants to hear from you in short bursts. Email 50 or fewer words to letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au.

OH THE AGONY

I really do not know what to make of Donald Trump's address to the South Korean National Assembly, other than to feel truly sorry for the South Koreans who had to endure it.

John Rodriguez, Florey

WHERE THE HEART LIES

Regarding the question of possible allegiance to a foreign power for dual-citizens, the more fundamental question is whether the politicians' allegiance is to our country, the planet and human rights or to big coal mining interests, corporates and the wealthy who contribute to their campaigns.

Pamela Collett, Narrabundah

INACTIVE BUNCH

One trusts that the editorial ("El Nino warning can't be ignored", November 8) was also published in India, China, the US, Africa and the EU – where they may be able to do something about it, rather just in Australia, where we can't.

Michael Warrington, Garran

FOR PETE'S SAKE?

Is it just me, or are others questioning the appearance of the new show on ABC TV "Keeping Australia Safe"?

It smacks of a propaganda effort to support the development of this new gigantic department that Mr Dutton has created, perhaps in an effort to counter the attacks on the treatment of refugees, especially those poor souls on Manus Island.

Australia's position on the UN Human Rights Commission is a joke.

Margaret Lee, Hawker

ANTHEM CONUNDRUM

With all the Pommy citizens in Parliament, should the national anthem revert to God Save the Queen?

Thos Puckett, Ashgrove, Queensland

WHATEVER IT TAKES

To borrow Malcolm X's words, it is right to oppose the concentration camps on Manus Island and Nauru by any means necessary.

John Passant, Kambah

LET'S TRUMP THAT

President Donald Trump's Twitter account was deleted for 11 minutes. It's a start!

Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill, Victoria

NO TREE, NO FEE

I won't pay the $10 (Power bills to jump $10, November 6, p1). In Gungahlin, power lines are underground and the developers knocked out most of the trees.

Ray Atkin, Gungahlin

MULTIRACIAL SOCIETY

The racial abuse of Labor senator Sam Dastyari in a Melbourne pub shows we still have in our midst people who have not got over the end of the White Australia policy.

Rajend Naidu, Glenfield, NSW

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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