RFS volunteers come from all walks of life. Some, I understand, are in receipt of Newstart.

For some inexplicable reason this vital volunteering, so valued by the community particularly at this crucial time, does not count towards the "mutual obligations" Newstart recipients must undertake so as to continue being paid this admittedly paltry sum.

Perhaps the federal minister who administers this scheme, Stuart Robert, might be able to throw some light on this, given his own ability to be granted paid leave from Parliament to take a self funded family trip to Israel during the 2019 Parliamentary annual sitting timetable; an exhausting total of 35 sitting days.

The UK Parliament, by contrast, sits about 150 days per annum.

Definitely smacks of "Do what I say" not "Do what I do".

Justice Peter McClellan says the royal commission was told by "more than one leader" in the Catholic Church that child sexual abuse was seen as a (mere) moral failure and not a crime ("Commissioner condemns Catholic leaders", canberratimes.com.au, December 10).

His speech gave the impression that this was still the common view amongst Catholic leaders. It is not.

Whatever may have been the case for some church leaders in the past, the commission heard from many current Catholic bishops, myself included, that we have always regarded child sexual assault as a crime as well as a grave sin, and treated it as both.

I am appalled by the criminal acts of some clergy, religious and lay church workers in the past, ashamed of the failure of some church leaders to respond appropriately, and committed to doing all we can to ensure these terrible crimes are never repeated.

Tarring all past, present and emerging church leaders with the same brush in this matter, or implying that nothing has changed in the church since these matters came to light, is plain wrong.

It also fails to acknowledge the efforts of many good people who have contributed to this change and continue to do so.

A major limitation of coal power in the energy industry was the lack of flexibility to respond to demand.

This resulted in an excess of power at night with the market creating "off peak" rates as a response. With increasing energy industry reliance on sunlight, when will we see lower rates coinciding with peak demand during the day?

Once upon a time, changes in government did not result in axing successful policies of the previous government. The "carbon tax" was a success, and the "NEG policy" was an additional positive proposal to address the industry capacity to respond to demand.

The energy industry recognises that the future is coming "ready or not", but is paralysed by government proclamations from the pulpit .

Australia could have been a leader instead of a pariah state at COP25 in Spain.

Dominic O'Sullivan ("New colonialism tests its strength", canberratimes.com.au, December 12) argues the Immigration Minister shouldn't be able to deport two men of Indigenous Australian descent despite their having been born overseas and being citizens of foreign countries.

In essence, it's an argument for separate rights based on the men's race. Such arguments have been used to support all manner of monstrous wrongs. The US used such an argument to support the institution of slavery before the civil war. Israel uses such an argument to justify the dispossession of the Palestinians.

For that reason, such arguments should always be carefully examined and, in my opinion, should never be accepted.

Whether or not the High Court allows the men to stay in Australia, I hope it reaches a decision without regard to their race.

International scientists say that dangerous fire conditions are likely to worsen overall if global warming isn't adequately addressed.

With mega bush fires appearing early this fire season, Australia is in urgent need of large water bombing aircraft.

Only around 500 of the 1500 jumbo jets built remain in service. Many of those taken out of service have been mothballed. Where would we find the money to buy some of these, fit them out as giant water bombers and set up water loading facilities along the coast?

Easy. Do a Google search on the enormous amount of federal funding required to purchase our new fleet of submarines, their armaments and necessary infrastructure.

Just a short delay in committing to this expenditure would free up tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars for other purposes.

What could be more important than saving life, limb and property from "mega" bush fires?

All that remains is to find the will. It apparently lives inside an echo chamber buried under the hill called Parliament.

In my letter entitled "The bushfire threat to Canberra is as real as it ever was" (December 11) I referred to a potentially catastrophic bushfire hazard in Isaacs where a carpet of pine needles has been accumulating for about 30 years on a nature strip.

After a few phone calls to relevant agencies, several Community Service members arrived on Tuesday (December 11) and begun clearing the tinder dry detritus.

There are still heaps of pine needles to be removed but it's a start.

No doubt Isaacs' residents, particularly those whose properties back onto that nature strip, would have welcomed this activity.

With climate change linked to the unprecedented number of bushfires in many regions in Australia, we can no longer follow "standard operational procedures".

I strongly agree with almost all of the December 19 editorial "Prepare your bushfire action plan now".

I particularly agree with the statement "bushfires are an inevitable fact of life in the ACT", references to community vulnerability and the need to remove flammable materials.

However I strongly disagree with the statement "Canberra's frontline defence against bushfires is not the ACT government".

The greatest source of flammable materials is the forest of gum trees planted in western Canberra. Everything else pales into insignificance.

Worse, thousands of those trees line the major roads so that fire will travel quickly. It almost seems as if the people responsible for planting those trees wanted to destroy Canberra. Worse, lining the major arterial roads seems designed to cut off all escape routes and thus kill thousands of Canberrans.

I recommend that all gum trees within 50 metres of major roads in western Canberra be immediately removed.

2003 was a clear wake-up call. Not fixing the problem since then is a matter of criminal negligence.

Some recent letters to the editor have likened the Commonwealth's lack of global warming awareness to Nero's inaction. That is wrong: I deplore the Commonwealth's failure to act on climate change, but its inaction has had a negligible effect on global climate change and on Canberra's vulnerability to fire.

I recommend politics be put aside. These trees, the greatest danger to Canberra's safety, should be removed immediately.

As a university student in 1970 I attended the first Earth Day, an international effort to raise awareness of the environmental issues facing our planet.

Many well-informed, intelligent and hopeful speakers outlined practical ways that we could at least begin planning for ways to cope with an increasingly fragile world.

Most suggestions were either ignored or derided as foolishly alarmist by politicians, industry and the mainstream media.

Fifty years later, many of the fears of environmentalists have become our reality, but conservative voices continue to be wilfully blind and ignorant. If only we had listened then we might not be in such trouble now.

It beggars belief that our "leaders" still think they know better than the experts. We must act before it is too late to save the earth.

I note R Silex's "raspberry in the face" letter (Letters, December 13). He complains of sore losers, but it's an education to see a sore winner. I suppose he would also like to tell our fire fighters climate change doesn't exist and we should just "get used to" more and worse bushfires?

What a dismal clutch of politicians we are stuck with. Oh that we had a Bob for the job. Either Menzies or Hawke would do.

NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean says "no one can deny" climate change is responsible for the smoke haze choking Sydney. Unfortunately the letters pages of newspapers demonstrate many do continue to deny this reality. Meanwhile the PM has said: "Our actions on climate change are getting the results they're intended to get". Never has he spoken truer words.

Mere repetitious weasel words Prime Minister. ("PM responds to pressure over NSW bushfires", canberratimes.com.au, December 12). It's time for you and Angus Taylor to try much harder .

Just a thought Fred Pilcher. To save us from any invasion by the Kiwis, perhaps you and any like minded fans of Saint Jacinda could simply pack your bongos and move over to New Zealand. (Letters, December 12).

I agree there is doubt over Churchill's alleged wartime comment about protecting the arts (Letters, December 12). In fact, there's no evidence at all to support it. The International Churchill Society, however, cites the following (pre-war) statement: "The arts are essential to any complete national life. The State owes it to itself to sustain and encourage them....Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the reverence and delight which are their due".

Does Scott Morrison and the LNP have a plan B if the approximately 70,000 RFS volunteers who are tired to the point of exhaustion after fighting fires since September decide they want to go home?

Aung San Sui Kyi says the charge of genocide against Myanmar is "misleading". I agree. She is the one doing the misleading. The evidence is well documented. Sui Kyi is trying to pull wool over the eyes of the genocide hearing in The Hague.

When I saw Greta Thunberg on the front page of Time I thought MAD magazine was back in print. Sadly not.

It's fascinating to watch the Nationals and some Liberals in government fall over themselves to embrace the science that assists their specific interests, think agriculture, but run screaming from science that assists the community as a whole, think climate.

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