LIKE other journalists, Danielle Cronin ( ''Refugees Hit in Whip of Frenzy'', October 16, p23) appears not to want to mention the elephant on the boat with the Sri Lankan ''refugees''.
The elephant is the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, ancestral homeland of the Tamils and only 45km by sea from Sri Lanka. Why sail to Australia when at low tide you could almost walk to India?
The ''refugees'' would surely find a welcome in Tamil Nadu. For years, these Indian Tamils supplied money, training and weapons for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to continue its civil war against the Sri Lankan Government and its people.
Without aid from Tamil Nadu, the Sri Lankan uprising would have been defeated years ago. The Tamils lost, so it's time to go home and not to set off on a hazardous journey to Australia as economic migrants posing as asylum seekers.
Alan Fitzgerald, Isaacs
Christian hypocrisy
I AM VERY concerned to hear Prime Minister Kevin Rudd referring to people allegedly smuggling displaced Tamils as ''vermin''. Rudd paints himself specifically as a Christian. Presumably, he can reconcile himself to the gospel of St Matthew 25:35 ''I was a stranger, and you made me welcome.''
The Jewish people, in their darkest moments, were led across the desert and, centuries later, from fascist Germany and the oppressive USSR by people smugglers. As Luke says, ''Mary, the mother of Jesus, gave birth to her Son'' (2:1-7). Mary fled to Egypt and was smuggled out to a hilltop town many Christians still visit in Turkey.
For an avowed Christian such as Rudd to refer to those who smuggle genuine refugees as ''vermin'' I see nothing but hypocrisy and political opportunism. Many of our post-Second World War refugees were smuggled. As late as the mid-1970s I was involved in a joint program built on a smugglers' route from the Soviet Union in an Australian Government program for Soviet Jews emigrating to the United States, Canada and Australia.
Rudd's language is unbecoming and inappropriate for a leader of a liberal democracy, built to a significant extent by those who have fled persecution and economic deprivation.
Bernard Collaery, Kingston
Time for leadership
HAVING been quite critical of Jack Waterford recently, I'd like to acknowledge his compassionate and proportionate comments about boat people and Australia's continuing fearful and punitive response to them (Times2, October 15, p2). Indeed, it would be nice to see the Prime Minister have the courage to exercise some leadership for once.
Geoff Davies, Turner
A nation to share
WHEN I read about refugees and our federal politicians (October 16, p23) I am reminded of a few lines from our national anthem: ''For those who've come across the seas, / We've boundless plains to share''. This, our national anthem, is sung at footy matches, car races, school assemblies and all manner of gatherings. It's sung with gusto and emotion. Our politicians sing it as a lie.
It seems point-scoring, wedge politics and appealing to the redneck vote is more important than the welfare of fellow human beings.
Joe Murphy, Bonython
Smoked out
WHILE it is 14 months until the new law will apply, at last Canberrans will be able to enjoy al fresco dining at clubs, restaurants and cafes without the food, the drink and the company being smoke flavoured!
Don Sephton, Greenway
Save it for the real thing
MICHAEL RUFFLES must live at quite a rarefied high moral altitude to suggest that the ''brand of racism in Australia most often is particularly insidious'' (''Racism is no cause for pride'', October 11, p24).
Nothing can be more insidious than the brand of racism that allows racial hatred to manifest itself in ethnic and cultural cleansing that continues relentlessly in other countries against Uighers, Tibetans, Bosnians and Rwandans. Ruffles should save his moral judgment for global incidents of real racism that really matter, such as the murder of a Uigher peasant or two.
John Bell, Lyneham
Band-aid solutions
PAUL DALEY is wrong in suggesting the Federal Opposition would start doing its job properly if it ''got behind a new leader''( ''Time is nigh for a new leader'', October 11, p23).
The reasons for the Coalition's enduring unpopularity are less to do with disunity and the political cycle than with the fact that its policies are incredibly unpopular. No credible economist supports its economic policies, fewer than a quarter of Australians share its denialist climate-change policy and its WorkChoices legislation was spectacularly rejected by the electorate.
The Opposition can't just put a new face in front of a camera saying the same old things and expect opinion ratings to skyrocket.
The only policy it's proposed since the 2007 election was the ridiculous pledge last May to cut petrol prices by 5c a litre. It's hardly offering an alternative vision.
The self-serving suggestion from Tony Abbott that the Coalition's woes are due to the political cycle show us just how out of touch the Opposition has become. The Coalition needs to realise it needs to offer actual policies instead of just new leaders.
Simon Leeds, Nicholls
In good hands
LAST week's Sunday Canberra Times told us about something that had gone wrong at Canberra Hospital. While we don't dispute for a minute the enormity of that tragedy our experience at the hospital the previous Sunday could not have been more different.
Without quick thinking from our midwife Ros and dramatic intervention from a team of six health professionals at the birth centre, our newborn girl would not have lived. Their thoroughness, caution, and good humour were a tribute to the Canberra public health system. We were in very good hands.
Peter Martin and Toni Hassan, Hackett
Greens go head-on
I AM IN complete support of the recent Greens' Safe Climate Bill. I'm disgusted at the Rudd Government's handling of the climate-change problem, and the way its emissions trading scheme funnels billions of dollars in compensation to big business, the worst polluters in our country.
The Coalition is in disarray, has no leadership on the climate-change debate and cannot be trusted. I deplore both major political parties for turning this critical issue into a political football.
It is only the Greens who are ready and willing to tackle this problem head-on.
Jeremy Johnson, Melbourne
Thank you, Canberra
THE WEATHER during the week of October 12 was atrocious. Coming from Queensland we had to dress like Michelin tyre icons. But Canberra's friendliness made up for it.
Our first bus driver told us that one could criss-cross the ACT for $1.60 a day (something which should be highlighted on your tourist website). Other passengers went out of their way to point us in the right directions. A lady in the Canberra Centre told her children to stay put while she ran after us when we still took the wrong turn in the labyrinth in and around the centre.
There was too much relaxed kindness to be coincidental! It made our week.
Hans Geissler, Springfield Lakes, QLD