Among his many good points are: (1) When the light rail is up and running, numerous existing feeder bus services in Gunghalin will be cancelled, presumably to encourage patronage of the light rail. Patrons will have much further to walk to get to the station.

(2) The Capital Metro project has developed a life of its own, as the Barr/Corbell government presses on with its plans to spend a large amount of its available funds on a facility that only a small minority of us will ever use, and in the face of massive community reservations/objections.

(3) The government has legislated to prevent "any formal public objection to the project".

(4) An alternative, a dedicated busway, has not been evaluated, despite its being more effective, more flexible, and better value.

(5) Use of buses would eliminate the need for costly replacement of existing Northbourne Avenue architecture.

If Canberra had a greater population density, then a metro might be justified. As things stand at present, it seems that it can't. Our current government needs to treat us with considerably more respect, and it has a moral obligation to pull back from this glamorous project, and allow time for the best transport solution to emerge from all the known facts.

Sandy Paine, Griffith

My initial enthusiasm for an ACT light rail system has been dampened on both ecological and economic grounds by Graham Downie's article. The ACT, with its dispersed housing development, needs a population of at least 500,000 to make light rail economically, equitably and structurally viable.

For a much smaller cost than light rail, the existing bus service could be streamlined by additional reserved transport lanes, and routes passing from town centres via the main line rail terminus to the airport.

A computerised flexible telephone booking system could be established for concession card holders (including capacity for wheelchairs) for mini-buses to collect passengers from home at a lower cost than for taxis.

Thinking outside the square, we could emulate wartime Brussels buses which were fuelled by ammonia, when diesel became unavailable. There is already a well established infrastructure for ammonia manufacture for agriculture.

These adaptations would reinforce the ACT's leading reputation as a low -hydrocarbon sustainable city.

Bryan Furnass. Hughes

The triumvirate of Barr, Corbell and Rattenbury have the arrogance to prevent formal objections to the light rail project by the people who elected them. I sincerely hope that these self-aggrandising mini dictators will be ejected at the next election.

Susan Cowan, Yarralumla

I congratulate Mike Kelly's candidacy for Eden-Monaro ("Kelly back to reclaim seat, labels Hendy extremist", May 5, p4). By all accounts, Dr Kelly is a fine decent person; so too the sitting Member, Mr Hendy.

What vexes me is the futility of Eden-Monaro voters continuing to deliver the seat into the hands of the two major parties.

Having lived in Berridale and now Bungendore, I see little advancement in Eden-Monaro's economic fortunes.

Political short-sightedness closed the Queanbeyan-Cooma rail line, strangling residential development and business opportunities in communities along the train line. Williamsdale is dead. Michelago is stagnating. Bredbo and Cooma look to "snow season" to survive.

Why no government policy to stimulate business opportunities, jobs and community services? Imagine the benefit of a fast commuter service to Canberra from affordable housing developments?

Having worked for two independent MPs, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter, I can only urge voters in Eden-Monaro that if they want change to happen in their lives, then at the very least, vote in a good and decent independent. Then let the negotiations begin.

Tony Windsor's great line is; "the world is run by those that turn up". I would add, "and fight!" A forgotten backwater is a poor outcome for a place with such potential.

B. Clarke, Bungendore, NSW

Steve Garlick (Letters, May 6) descends into self-mocking satire by arguing the cull should be axed because it costs money. On that basis all government programs should cease. Most people include an analysis of benefit, in this case — saving other species, to inform their judgment.

As an insider in the anti-cull movement Garlick is well placed to reduce the costs of the program. He could lobby his cohorts to refrain from vexatious litigation, vandalism and harassment of government staff and contractors.

While he's at it, he might like to introduce some ethical questions for his comrades to consider, eg, why are rabbits and NSW kangaroos less worthy of advocacy than ACT kangaroos?

Peter Robinson, Ainslie

Professor Garlick (Letters, May 6) uses the high cost of the kangaroo cull in the ACT as a reason for not culling.

I would like to ask how much of the cost is directly attributed to combating the actions of those who try to stop this process. Kangaroos are culled around the country with little or no protests and at little cost.

It would be the same in the ACT if the shooters were quietly allowed to do their job. The bad national and overseas press reports he mentioned are the direct result of the megaphone antics of the anti-cull protesters.

Robert Knight, Bywong, NSW

I expect a dramatic increase in my telecom bills when I am forced onto the NBN. Unlike Stewart Holman (Letters, May 4), I pay about $50 per month for a land line, internet (100 GBytes per month at 2.5 Mbits per second), and mobile phone.

I use voice over internet protocol (VoIP) for outgoing calls with a WiFi app on my mobile phone (untimed national calls $0.12 each, timed overseas calls from $0.02 per minute.) Of course, if you call mobile phones, or use the mobile phone network to make calls, or use data on the mobile phone network, you can run up a large bill. The mobile phone network is quite separate from the NBN, so an NBN connection will not change the high cost of using the mobile phone network.

Bruce A. Peterson, Kambah

Struggle Street on SBS shows parts and sections of Australia that really exist. This federal Liberal government should be ashamed of itself for its lack of genuine action for people living in Struggle Street.

Tony Abbott can jump on a plane and go to France, leaving behind money for a war museum and memorial. Abbott can give Western Australia $500 million to build roads.

When is the community going to get rid of this nasty government that puts up the pretence of sharing and caring for the community, but doesn't really give a toss about anybody but the (big) business community and its ideologies?

E.R. Moffat, Weston

The Australian Federal Police have again sought to justify their actions in the case of the Bali nine and have failed. Their actions, lawful but discretionary, led directly to the deaths of two men and a major diplomatic disruption.

The federal police still appear to believe that these outcomes were worth it to avoid risk to their own investigation and international police co-operation. That belief is why such judgments cannot be left to the federal police. They must no longer be allowed to trade the death penalty against their other considerations, except where there is an imminent and specific threat to life that cannot otherwise be avoided.

The secretive federal police guidelines, directions and memoranda give the lie to claims of transparency. They must no longer make the death penalty merely one of several competing considerations, in which their own interests and culture are likely to have primacy.

Australia claims opposition to the death penalty. That, not a generalised consideration for the drug-using victims of the crime, must explicitly circumscribe our international police co-operation as it does our extradition law. If that makes law enforcement more challenging, then that is a price worth paying.

Mike and Stephanie Hutchinson, Reid

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin is quoted ("AFP says execution risk still on cards", May 5, p1) as pointing out that it is the fundamental job of the police to fight crime. It should not be so. Their purpose is to prevent crime, to reduce crime.

Fighting crime is one of the means of doing so and not always the most effective. In the case of the Bali nine, the most effective way of preventing crime would have been to speak to the young men before they left Australia.

We should insist that the police explain why they didn't do that. In the forthcoming discussions we should bear in mind that the police are likely to find capital punishment less repulsive than average members of the community.

Jim Jones, Charnwood

Stuart Yorston (Letters, May5), has become excited about my observation, "We do expect a social conscience in Labor". So, sadly, he thought it necessary to erect a straw man, Labor's Graham Richardson, to take me down with a shameful Richardson quote.

There are influential, sometimes noisy people in Labor of whom Labor electors are ashamed. Richardson, of course, is one, but right now we have Bill Shorten, lying low, to encourage us to look desperately for somewhere else to vote.

Stuart misunderstood my point. I was lauding a Labor great, not the party's Abbott lookalikes.

Clive Banson, O'Connor

Katherine Powers (Letters, May 5) asserts that if we ever sanction same-sex marriage, we must then wrestle with the questions of whether to allow incest and bigamy as well.

I haven't the foggiest idea why she thinks this would be necessary, but I would have no objection to Ms Powers marrying as many gentlemen (or women) as her heart desires, provided that all parties to the arrangement have given their fully informed consent.

David Wilson, Braddon

I had a vision of Sir John Monash talking to Tony Abbott after hearing of his plan to spend $100 million on the war memorial to be named after him at Villers-Bretonneux in 2018. I imagined him saying, as the most successful allied general in World War I and acelebrated Australian: "Please, Tony, forget spending $100 million of taxpayers' money on my war memorial. Instead, restore the money you took away recently fromthe women's shelters, rehabilitation centres, youth job training programs and regional rehabilitation facilities. Even $100 is too much to spend on a memorial for a war that ended a century ago. Spend it on Australians or Nepalese who need help now!" Then I woke up to grim reality.

Byron Kaufman, Dickson

T.J. Marks (Letters, May 2) says: "The fact is that before 1953 no Digger fought under what is now our national flag." According to the It's An Honour website, following an international competition: "The Australian national flag was flown for the first time in September 1901 at the Exhibition Building in Melbourne, which was then the seat of the federal government. The Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. 8 of 1903 announced that King Edward VII approved designs for the flag of Australia, known as the Commonwealth blue ensign, and for the flag of the merchant navy, known as the Commonwealth red ensign.

"Confusion developed surrounding the use of the two Australian flags. The blue ensign was intended for official and naval purposes only and the red ensign was to be used by the merchant fleet. However, the general public also began using the red ensign on land. In 1941, Prime Minister Robert Menzies issued a press statement recommending the flying of the blue ensign as a national emblem. The Flags Act 1953 ended confusion about which ensign to use." The navy has used the Australian national flag since its inception. It was used by the 2/4 Australian Commando Squadron at Tarakan in May 1945, and atthe Japanese surrender at Bougainville in 1945.

L.I. Roberts, Kaleen

Mushroom roulette, roulette all the same

A mushroom that passes the smell or garlic test ("A mushroom to top 25 pizzas, and the garlic says it is safe", Gang-gang, May 5, p8) need not be safe to eat. Mushrooms have been eaten and studied in Europe for centuries. Based on that accumulated knowledge, European guidebooks and health authorities have long warned that such simple tests do not guarantee safety.

Given what we know about mushrooms worldwide, you are more likely to find toxic species in some genera than in others.

Many mushrooms collected by foragers happen to belong to genera in which there is a low probability of picking a toxic species and in Canberra mushrooms of such genera are very common.

You pick a mushroom at random, test it via smell or garlic, feel reassured, eat it and live. You have survived, not because of your test, but because the odds were in your favour at collection time.

Mushroom roulette gives you better odds than Russian roulette but, if you rely on smell or garlic, you're still playing roulette.

Heino Lepp, Macquarie

Further to Katherine Powers' thoughts on marriage (Letters, May 5), why should the meaning of the word "marriage", which has stood for centuries to signify the union between a man and a woman, the basis for human reproduction, be changed to suit the wishes of a vocal minority?

It is difficult to understand the opposition of the homosexual community to a ceremony with the same legal status as marriage, but with a different name. After all, they go to great lengths to proclaim their difference in their annual procession in Oxford Street in Sydney.

Henry Lawrence, Belconnen

ALREADY FOSTERED

So teachers don't fancy yet another load – this time children's mental health ("No time for mental health: teachers", May 4, p5). Hardly surprising. They cop an increased workload with every new fad. But don't schools already contribute hugely to the sound mental health ofour future citizens? Surely the curriculum fosters both self-esteem and respect for others?

Olle Ziege, Kambah

PINK OUT FOR MUM

Is a pink-free zone or product available this Mother's Day? Sadly, this is still inconceivable in the 21st century.

Ann Villiers, Scullin

DEATH PENALTY

How feeble were the statements of senior AFP officers attempting to weasel their way out of responsibility for putting Australians in thrall of the death penalty. One cannot help the impression that these people were simply unprepared to allow the offenders to incur the lesser penalties of an Australian court.

T.J. Marks, Holt

TOUGH TALKER

The tweets by ex-Labor MP Steve Gibbons ("'Toughen the f--- up': Former Labor MP attacks Bill Shorten over Abbott story", canberratimes.com.au, May 6) indicate Labor should hire him back quickly as a strategic adviser. The party is sadly lacking sensible advice.

Julian Robinson, Narrabundah

Bill Shorten is sweet-natured. Weneed more of his type in politics, and fewer of Steve Gibbons' type.

Michael McCarthy, Deakin

CHARLOTTE'S BURDEN

Surely someone in London will have enough sense to have a quiet word to William and Kate about the choice of Charlotte for their daughter's name. The poor girl will be lumbered with the name of an infamous song from drunken university and rugby football celebrations.

Baden Williams, Lyneham

PROUD ROYALIST

Whether Eric Hodge (Letters, May 6) likes it or not, Australia is part of the British Commonwealth and Princess Charlotte is fourth in line to the throne. I am proud Australia is part of the Commonwealth, and let's remember that in the referendum of 1999, Australians voted convincingly to retain the monarchy.

Anne Prendergast, Reid

NEW NAME UNSUITABLE

I'm not very impressed with the new name for ACTEW Water. "Icon" will rapidly become "I con". In other words, "I cheat".

Daryl Powell, Griffith

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