This would take pressure off the environment, remove the justification for increasing the density of older suburbs, reduce commuting delays and traffic snarls, lessen demands on public transport, free-up housing, reduce rates and land tax, and remove the need to queue at most venues.

Those who would obviously not welcome this revolutionary concept would be developers and architects, neither of whom would win a popularity contest with the general public anyway.

As a further benefit, in a downsized Canberra we could probably do away with our expensive 25-member Legislative Assembly and have the city run by a small territory council instead. We could also then do away with local elections.

Come to think of it — pretty much what we had before Bob Hawke foisted self-government on us in 1989.

C. Williams, Forrest

As President of Canberra Refugee Support, I always appreciate publicity for our organisation's work in supporting asylum seekers and refugees.

However the information in the article " Tips to making your festive donations meaningful" (canberratimes.com.au) ended up conveying the wrong message about the priority needs of CRS by suggesting that we were looking for whitegoods and furniture.

Our priority over the past couple of years, and for the forseeable future, is for financial support to ensure asylum seekers can remain housed and pay their rent now that the Australian government is cutting off financial support.

Our website encourages people who wish to donate furniture and whitegoods to send them to the Salvation Army, who provide great support to a wide range of people in need and are equipped to handle these goods. On those occasions when families we are supporting need furniture and white goods, we refer them to the Army or other appropriate charities.

If the Salvation Army gets a flow of extra donations as a result of the article, that's great. If people wish to assist CRS, please go to our website for information on how to donate. We have a PayPal facility that makes it very easy. It's a great time of year to give and there are quite a few families in need of assistance.

Doug Hynd, Canberra Refugee Support, Stirling

Crushed hopes

Restaurants are now highlighting meals that are suitable for coeliacs and patrons who have gluten allergies.

Regrettably I have developed a garlic allergy over the past years with some distressing symptoms.

Dr Google notes that these symptoms may include asthma, contact dermatitis, hives, nausea, sneezing swelling of tongue or lips and anaphylaxis. Add to these the possibilities of banishment from the marital bed and shunning by your Labrador who would eat carrion if allowed.

I certainly suffer severe nausea and asthma after garlic.

Sadly my Dad and I used to deride my poor Mum as a cheap drunk when the three of us shared a bottle of Ben Ean Moselle at an Italian restaurant eons ago . The lovely lady would be violently ill within hours. I am sorry Mum. She blamed garlic right back then.

Seriously , the first thing chefs now seem to start meal preparations with is 2-4 cloves of garlic, a la the TV cooking shows.

What can be done to assist us sufferers?

P. O'Connor, Hawker

I refer to your editorial "Mr Fluffy Trauma" (canberratimes.com.au, December 10).

I would like to make one point very clear. Mr Fluffy families did not receive compensation. Not one cent.

What they did receive was a 30 to 50-year sentence, while they wait to discover if they, or their family members have contracted mesothelioma or an asbestos related disease.

What they did get, in a large percentage of cases, was a new more expensive mortgage. What they did get was dislocation from their community. What they did get was an ever changing playing field with new rules, regulations, contradictions and lies.

What they did get was uncertainty – the government can't even say what is going to happen in 2020.

What they did get was veiled threats "we can't rule out compulsory acquisition". What they didn't get was a fair go.

Successive governments created this mess (federal and territory) and they have the audacity to blame the home owners.

If Canberra is to be cleared of Mr Fluffy, lets make sure the commercial buildings go too.

Felicity Prideaux, Murrumbateman, NSW

Last Saturday marked the end of the epic walk from the NSW Parliament to the summit of Mt Kosciusko – a distance of almost 600 km – protesting about the NSW government legislation protecting a feral animal in Kosciusko National Park.

I was one of just over 200 supporters of this "Save Kosi" campaign who walked to the summit of Mt Kosciusko arriving at midday on Saturday. All were resplendent in bright yellow jackets.

In keeping with what appears to be a new phenomenon, is this perhaps Mr Barilaro's "Yellow Jacket Moment"?

Gary Thompson, Turner

With regard to the discussion on the bush heritage of the ACT, when the Forestry Settlements at Kowen, Uriarra, and Pierces Creek were decommissioned, there was a proposal to turn them into rural villages. Of the three, Uriarra has been established, with the amenities of a school, post office, store and community centre, but the others never took off, although Pierces is individually inhabited.

The concept of a rural village of commuters would seem to be viable if it is allied with public transport to the city conurbation. Kowen Forest did not make it, but who knows? It must have the amenities to succeed, as with Uriarra. However, Kowen is surrounded by forest, while Uriarra is on the edge.

Jack Palmer, Watson

I can strongly sympathise with Angela Walker's concerns about sleep disruption caused by significant overnight noise pollution from the tram construction along Northbourne Avenue (Letters, December 8). Such noise overrides her fundamental human right to have a good night's sleep, a very important issue well recognised in the health literature now. One hopes there are no surgeons living along Northbourne Avenue.

Murray May, Cook

Having read the recent series of articles and letters on the rights of cyclists, it appears that two changes are needed to the current law.

I was recently driving on one of our roads and found myself behind a cyclist.

There was a sealed shoulder on the road, about two feet wide, marked off by the usual white line but the cyclist, instead of using it, rode about a foot to the right of the white line in the vehicular lane. There was a constant stream of traffic coming the other way and double lines in places. So there was no opportunity to pass and I, and a stream of cars behind me, were forced to drive at the cyclist's pace. I have had a similar experience on Belconnen Way, where there is also a sealed shoulder. The corollary to a law requiring drivers to pass cyclists with a metre to spare should be a law requiring cyclists to use the sealed shoulder, or cycle paths parallel to the roads, where these are available.

The other point is that, where there is a double line in the centre of the road, there should, unless physically impossible, be a sealed shoulder where cyclists can ride safely. I am particularly reminded of this on the circuit from Duffy along the Cotter Rd to the Cotter Reserve, then right along the Brindabella Rd and right again at the T-junction on to the Uriarra Rd to Uriarra Crossing and back to Canberra. Many cyclists use this road which often has double lines down the middle and does not always have good edges, resulting in cars being held up by cyclists.

These conflicts can be pretty much guaranteed to result in tragedy at some stage, whether because of impatient drivers or discourteous cyclists. It needs to be fixed. It would cost, but to a government that throws money around like confetti on its pet projects, money shouldn't be an issue.

Stan Marks, Hawker

The "topic of Huawei was raised repeatedly during the meeting between the Australian and Chinese delegations" at Zhongnanhai ("Huawei dominates high-level Australia-China talks", December 9, p11).

China can nag as much as it likes but our contingent will remember China's long-demonstrated determination to dominate global communications, which does not begin and end with Huawei.

In 2010, China mined 93 per cent of the world's rare earth minerals and more than 99 per cent of some of the most prized rare earths. That was the year China first alarmed the world by blocking exports of rare earths for a period.

These minerals are used throughout the ICT industry from telephones to computers but also in electronics generally, including electric cars and wind generators.

Again in 2009 China imposed export restraints on rare earths supposedly prioritising internal customers.

By 2017 China's global production of rare earth minerals had dropped to 90 per cent but its stranglehold on prices had driven a California mine, the sole US source of rare earth minerals, into bankruptcy. A consortium including Shenghe Rare Earth Shareholding Co bought it.

That makes Malaysia's new demands for Australia's Lynas Corporation Ltd for safe disposal of its radioactive wastes from rare earths processing opportunistic but no more than Lynas deserves for building its processing plant there for the sole reason of evading Australia's stringent environmental requirements.

Lynas's survival is of paramount importance strategically and not just to Australia.

Fortunately it will likely be a winner in Donald Trump's trade war.

G. Wilson, Macgregor

Your December 5 editorial ("Lets get the refugees off Nauru", p.12) is a prime example of media bias following the popular topic.

All the angst and hand-wringing about detainees on Nauru disregard the problems that exist within Indigenous communities in northern Australia.

Perhaps if journalists carried out some statistical analysis of problems within northern Indigenous communities they would be inclined to comment about the child abuse and domestic violence within those groups.

My local doctor has a weekly Indigenous clinic to help them assimilate with the general community.

Has Kerryn Phelps ever treated an Indigenous patient and has she ever visited Indigenous communities in the north?

The righteous warriors are always happy to adopt attitudes which will embarrass government, but how happy would they be to promote something which no government has really addressed?

John Reaney, Queanbeyan, NSW

Amanda Vanstone's (CT Dec 10) political opinion pieces have descended into simple tub-thumping cheerleading for Scott Morison and his cronies.

Morrison narrowly avoided the embarrassment of losing a vote in Parliament by having Cory Bernardi and Pauline Hanson filibuster in the Senate, and Amanda sees that as humiliation for Labor. The whole episode highlights Morrison's impotence.

In relation to the security legislation, she just gets her facts wrong, when she says Morrison was determined to prevent Labor from amending the bill. A whole raft of Labor amendments were accepted by the government on Thursday.

Labor did not pursue another set of amendments to allow the bill to pass, because the government agreed to revisit the legislation in the new year.

In her radio program Counterpoint, she frequently bemoans the intensely adversarial nature of Australian politics where neither side is prepared to see any merit in any ideas proposed by the other. It is a pity she loses this perspective when she writes her opinion pieces.

John Hutchison, Coombs

Water off Trump's back

Sure Trump was outclassed at George Bush senior's funeral by his predecessor and he "had to listen to others eulogise a man who was everything he was not and nothing he could ever be" as N. Ellis says (Letters, December 8).

But that does not mean Trump felt any sense of shame.

He is not capable of that either.

Rajend Naidu, Glenfield, NSW

TO THE POINT

WHEELCHAIR BUS TREKS

In its efforts to promote the new Rapid Network bus services, Transport Canberra has now decided to tell us it's introducing more accessible buses, thereby supposedly making the buses available to people in wheelchairs and those with limited mobility. Of course, this seems a very good thing. But what may not be so widely realised is that with the new network passengers are expected to walk up to 500 metres to a bus stop and often now have to change buses to get to where they want to go. I wonder how those in wheelchairs will manage this?

H. Silcock, Narrabundah

WHERE ARE THE WISE MEN?

Rumour has it that there have been the usual difficulties casting this year's Federal Parliament nativity play: too many aspiring saviours and not enough wise men.

M. F. Horton, Adelaide, SA

ILLUMINATING DELAY

How many ACT public servants does it take to change a light switch from on to off? In October, I let Access Canberra know that there was a street light on during the day in Curtin. It is still on, despite a reminder from me in November. And to add insult to injury, the light is also on at night, along with a couple of others, illuminating an empty car park outside a vacant building. How many solar panels on the ACT's solar farms are being used to power that waste of electricity?

D. Byers, Curtin

BETTERED BY STUDENTS

It is understandable that Dan Tehan would want to change the education system. His government is currently getting bettered in debate by 12-year-old students.

Peter Edsor, Bungendore, NSW

MONEY-SCREWING SYMBOL

At last. Canberra may finally get its own Big Thing, to rival Goulburn's Big Merino and Coffs Harbour's Big Banana.

From the artist's impression of "National Museum (2.0), December 7, p.1) the magnificent new boat house at the National Museum of Australia can only be dubbed the Big Screw. What best to symbolise the home of the ATO and a myriad other money-screwing government operations?

G. Murray, Ngunnawal

CARS NOW MUSEUM PIECES

It is indeed interesting that the landscaping for "National Museum (2.0) pictured in the Canberra Times of Saturday, December 8, shows the complete disappearance of any provision for surface car parking. Futuristic indeed.

Ann Smith, Curtin

FLUFFY THINKING

Your Fluffy editorial (December 10) failed to mention there are around 100 unsold Fluffy blocks, some of which have been on the market for three years. They are unkempt and overpriced eyesores. The fence hire contractors are smiling.

Lloyd Williams, Farrer

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