The ACT Medical Board should make public the name of the doctor who is mentioned ('''Shoddy' doctor reaches accord'', July 21, p3) in its review. The cloak of secrecy is not in the public interest. There is a duty of disclosure.
I think it is also the ACT Medical Board which refuses to neither confirm nor deny that it is reviewing the doctor, and lover, of the psychologist who attempted to strangle herself in the back of a police van while being transported from the Woden Psychiatric Centre to the Belconnen Remand Centre.
Such secrecy is more about protecting their profession.
John Winter, Fraser
Afghan crossroad
Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said it could take five years to train Afghan security forces to the point where they would be able to stand alone (''Troops kill top Taliban commander'', July 22, p3). He warned that to pull out foreign troops now would result in a civil war likely to be won by the Taliban.
Will the situation be any different in five years' time? Houston implies that the Taliban are the enemy to be defeated, but they are as much Afghans as are the security forces being trained to fight them. Rather than adding fuel to an inevitably inflammable situation, we should be seeking ways of directly and peaceably influencing the hearts and minds of the Taliban, as we ease ourselves out of the country altogether.
Basil Johnson, Weston
Bus-stop pleasure
The green shoots of recovery are certainly spreading throughout Spence. All over our blessed suburb, front-end loaders have been digging, workers have busied themselves, and hectares of concrete have been poured in enchanting triangles and other sundry geometric shapes, presumably by Pythagoras Constructions. Lego bases have crept across footpaths, and iridescent safety tape abounds.
My local bus stop has been levelled from a gentle slope, steps and a wheelchair friendly path have been installed, an elegant Victorian (or perhaps Edwardian) handrail put in place, and an exposed rock retaining wall built. No expense has been spared in making this site warm and welcoming for the discerning bus traveller.
Local architecture aficionados anxiously await the arrival of a shelter to complete this handsome amenity. Some favour Federation style, others Art Deco, while a minority support a Postmodern design. Our bus stop amenity has revitalised a spirit of individual enterprise. I am contemplating applying for a hawker's licence, to establish a commuter coffee station, with a sideline in newspapers and magazines. But hang on our bus stop is about 500m from the terminus, and no one ever waits for, or boards a bus there, for reasons obvious to everyone.
Still, I suppose that ACTION can probably persuade the Federal Government to suitably enhance the anticipated shelter to become part of the war on homelessness. ACTION and the ACT Government you really have to love the little petals; forever providing endless entertainment and pleasure for the populace.
David Ellis, Spence
Wrong way
What Brian Roberts, an expert on cities with an international reputation, tells us about what's happening to housing density should be ringing alarm bells. Loudly.
The article ''ACT's housing density falling'' (July 21, p1) reports Professor Roberts's finding that the urban envelope of Australia's cities is expanding at well above the rate of population growth (which is running, by the way, at nearly 2 per cent, not the 1.6 per cent reported).
And within 11 years each Canberran will be travelling, on average, 25 per cent more kilometres in cars.
So more traffic congestion, more consumption of diminishing oil resources, more greenhouse gas production.
Is this the road to sustainability and tackling climate change?
Or do I see a large sign: ''Wrong Way: Go Back''?
G. Jones, Torrens
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