Only a day or so after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's very welcome call for the Commonwealth to take a much greater national responsibility for improving the long-term planning of our major cities (October 28, p6), we have Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner saying he would like to see an agency move to Gungahlin.

But unlike some state and territory governments, the Federal Government does not use its office accommodation needs to contribute to broader economic development objectives (October 29, p1).

Why not? The consequences of unplanned office development should be evident even to those who don't see much more of Canberra than the airport. Employment location is an important strategic driver of urban infrastructure.

Rudd's speech focused on long-term strategic planning as the basis for investment in urban infrastructure.

The Commonwealth joint standing committee's inquiry into the role of the National Capital Authority recognised the need for the NCA to prepare a National Capital Land Use Plan and Implementation Strategy, and a Sustainable Transport Plan in conjunction with the ACT Government.

A year later and the Federal Government has not acted on any of the recommendations. If it is unable to accept its responsibility to improve the long-term planning of Canberra, what hope is there for Australia's other cities?

Richard Johnston

Planning Institute of Australia, Barton

NO CLUE ON TREES

Jon Stanhope (''Managing treescapes emotive but necessary'', October 26, p9) and Peter Kanowski (''Let's respond intelligently to urban forest renewal program'', October 28, p11) pretend they know when each of our trees will die.

But they really don't have a clue. The Atlantic cedars in my street can live for 400 years. What we do know is that tens of thousands of Canberra's street trees died over the past decade, from drought.

That tells us that the survivors are especially tough. So why would we want to change from the successful urban forest management program we had and start cutting down those survivors? It seems simple to me. Just keep cutting down dead trees, and replacing them.

John West,

Reid

For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times