It was never a right, merely a delegated power, and merely an implicit one at that —the Commonwealth withdrew the delegation when its mind was directed to it.

The Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council has no such delegated power, so I infer that [reporter Katie] Burgess is making an absurd comparison between the relatively monocultural Canberra city and the NSW state.

A pro-euthanasia majority in Queanbeyan, or even across Monaro electorate, would not be able to bring about euthanasia in NSW.

The reality is that ACT and NT are something between a state and a Brisbane-style town council, so it should be no surprise that their powers reflect that.

Ian Douglas, Jerrabomberra, NSW

Senator Seselja ("I'm a 'no' on suicide bill", August 14, p.18) has wheeled out his cherry-picker prematurely.

Were we actually having a debate about voluntary euthanasia policy, that would be the moment for his arguments.

They would still be selective, decontextualised, emotionally manipulative and dubious, but they would at least be appropriately timed.

However, what he is actually arguing is that because we — the people he was elected to represent — would almost certainly reach a conclusion with which he disagrees, we must not be allowed to have the adult debate that other adults are allowed to have and to enact our own laws to govern our own society.

And they talk about a nanny state ...

Felix MacNeill, Dickson

Zed Seselja is mistaken.

The assisted dying bill is about territory rights and human rights.

If Seselja really wants to stand up for the rights of elderly people like myself he would support the bill.

He should listen to what choices older people actually want at the end of their lives — better aged care facilities and pain management, better funded palliative care, and assisted dying if they so wish (obviously with strong safeguards).

This is the compassionate way to go.

Everyone should write an Advance Care Directive making their wishes about end-of-life treatment known.

Susan MacDougall, Scullin

I heard Alistair Coe complaining on radio about the ACT government lobbying for the ACT to make its own (euthanasia) laws, partly because it is a conscience debate. I object that the conscience of non-affected and non-ACT resident politicians will matter and the vote (conscience) of residents seemingly doesn't matter to him in this case, especially when such inability to make such laws doesn't apply in the Australian states.

Greg Dunstone, Bruce

So Zed Seselja is going to vote no on the assisted suicide bill contrary to the wishes of the people who elected him.

It's reminiscent of Bob Hawke's gift of self government to the ACT despite a massive "no" vote.

Fred Pilcher, Kaleen

Zed Seselja. Senator for the Catholic Church and the rest of Australia. Definitely not for the ACT though.

Doug Hodgson, Pearce

The ink-stained fingers of Barnaby Joyce's former "media adviser" and now life partner are all over his attempts at political rehabilitation.

TV appearances, newspaper interviews, book signings and mea culpas from Barnaby are everywhere.

It is truly gobsmacking when he says, "I would have been re-elected anyway" and that "everybody knew about his problems".

News flash Barnaby, people didn't know, and no, you wouldn't have been re-elected.

At the very least Turnbull wouldn't have "got the band back together" had he known.

E. R. Moffat, Weston

I thank P. Baskett for his/her suggestion as to how I might get hugs by playing rugby (Letters, August 10).

Unfortunately, I am not particularly (to borrow a line from The Thick of It) "touchy, or feely".

So, if I were to resume playing some sort of football, I would probably opt for soccer. In that game, it seems to be a mandatory that when someone scores a goal, he runs as fast as humanly possible away from the rest of the team, who are trying to give him a hug.

Now, that's my kinda football.

Gordon Fyfe, Kambah

Emma Husar (Labor, NSW) decided after a lot of untrue and unfair criticism to leave Parliament at the next election. Barnaby Joyce (Nationals, NSW) after lots of well-deserved criticism decided to stay in Parliament and tell us more about his sleazy behaviour and release a tell all book, Weatherboard and Iron.

Most Australians would rather Husar stay and Joyce put out a one-sentence sequel, "I'll Shut Up & Go".

Rory McElligott, Nicholls

So, the NSW Labor Party believes that it is fair and just for an elected member of our federal parliament to have her reputation tarnished and her career destroyed by anonymous allegations, without having the benefit of knowing who her accusers were or being afforded an opportunity to respond to their accusations ("No report for Emma Husar after workplace investigation saga", canberratimes.com.au, August 12).

Given that the Labor Party is prepared to deny natural justice to one of its own, the rest of us can only wonder how its sense of justice might serve and protect us if we made the mistake of electing them to government.

John Richardson, Wallagoot, NSW

The now sveldt Jessica Irvine ("Personal responsibility not the way to fix the obesity crisis", canberratimes.com.au, August 1) says obesity has nothing to do with personal responsibility.

Not true.

All right, tell me I grew up in brutal Sparta where they left baby girls on the mountainside, sparing only boys – military discipline maybe?

But till 30 years ago parents taught their kids respect for their bodies — God's temple.

God's moved on.

Mums and Dads now don't have time.

Respect your body, keep it in good shape.

Pigging out, turning into a beach ball, was your fault even if it was Mum and Dad who let it happen.

Barrie Smillie, Duffy

Alistair Coe is obviously hitting raw nerves of Andrew Barr as the Public Accounts Committee Inquiry on Rates and Land Tax continues.

The lack of any modelling or analysis by the Barr-Rattenbury government on the impact of the innovative method to escalate rates is serious.

Barr insists it was "not a major policy decision" while Coe highlights "it's certainly a major policy decision for all the people we've heard from" during this public inquiry.

Even though this inquiry was agreed to by the Assembly with the support of the Greens, Barr insists it probably won't change his government's approach.

This does not sound like a Chief Minister who is listening.

For Barr the inquiry is a waste of time.

The back-and-forward jostling of Barr and Coe about "fairness" and "equitable" rates still did not mention the basic "inequitable and unfair rating" where a unit in a smaller strata complex with approximately the same size, similar location, same sale price and rental return pays significantly less rates than the unit in the larger strata complex.

The issue being the units are rated not on their individual value but on the rating value of the two complexes.

Barr-Rattenbury do not seem to get these aspects of fairness and equitability.

Gary Petherbridge, Owners Corporation Network, Barton

Re: "Latest Braddon development The Grounds launching to market", AllHomes, August 8.

It was interesting to read the misty-eyed view of the development and to read of the extensive community consultation prior to submission of the DA.

Lockbridge development manager Jamie Pinkerton was quoted as saying: "The North Canberra Community Council were probably the most active people involved in the consultation".

This may be true but in case anybody should be misled into thinking the NCCC is totally in favour of this development, rest assured the council has objections to the development.

The NCCC has lodged an appeal against the Development Application with ACAT on grounds which include the removal of conservation trees, the lack of traffic impact studies on the nearby Ainslie Primary School and possible detrimental impact on students there and also the pushing of at least 25 visitor parking spots into nearby streets and across the road in the Canberra Centre car park.

Denis O'Brien, Chair, North Canberra Community Council, Lyneham

David Pope's conflation of Dr Strangelove, Barnaby Joyce and the latest solar probe was a masterpiece. (Cartoon, August 14, p.17). Keep up the great work.

M. Moore, Bonython.

Regarding the proposed changes in the ACTION school bus network: I do not think that tax money should be used to subsidise dedicated school buses to any private school. If families choose for their children to go to private schools, the school and/or parents association should pay for transport if they want dedicated school buses. Regarding safety of students using public bus system: If there is some concern about younger children having to change buses, there could be monitors at each major bus interchange during school arrival and departure times to assist children as needed.

From a young age, children and youth should become accustomed to using the public bus system instead of cars for daily transport. Our future depends on it.

Pamela Collett, Narrabundah

A caption to the front-page picture of Saturday, August 11, read in part: "Brindabella Christian College appears to have lost all of its 17 dedicated [bus] services." 17? For one school? I had to read it twice to make sure I wasn't mistaken.

How does one school, and an independent non-government school at that, justify 17 bus services dedicated to that one school alone? I'd love to know what the average student patronage of each of those 17 bus services is.

I'd also love to know what Transport Canberra charges the school – if anything – for each of those dedicated services, or do Canberra taxpayers in general cover the cost?

Don Sephton, Greenway

It is not surprising that public transport tensions in the ACT are simmering again ("The antisocial network? Bus anger at boiling point", August 11, p4). Why is ACTION proposing to take a perfectly good and well-patronised rapid route from Tuggeranong to Woden to Civic to Belconnen and ruin it by requiring all through passengers to Belconnen to change buses at Civic? Is it because passengers from, say, Woden to Gungahlin will have to get off the bus at Civic and on to the tram, and it was decided that passengers from Woden to Belconnen should suffer as well?

David Pederson, O'Connor

How does the ACT government reconcile the new installation of an expensive piece of public art at Henry Rolland Park in West Basin with the reality that a man has been sleeping rough for months under a tarp besides the Parkes Way pedestrian overpass just a couple of hundred metres away?

No matter how interesting the art is, maybe the ACT government would be better spending the money housing people who are obviously in need during Canberra's freezing winter.

Where is ACT Labor's social conscience?

Mike Lawson, Civic

One can only assume that Bill Deane (Letters, CT, August 13) is a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant of British background and that he has not been the subject of the sort of discrimination that he alleges the Race Discrimination Commissioner should not have been pointing out. I have no doubt that Deane would not have written this letter had Tim Soutphommasane had e a surname like "Deane" (and I am not talking about Sir William who would be aghast at the tenor of Deane's letter). When Bill Deane leaves the Letters page of this newspaper, "I doubt that many will miss him".

Roger Terry, Kingston

FAMILY FIRST

Well done, Gai. Family first. But thanks for everything.

Robin Poke, Hughes

TACKLE THE CAUSES

Why is the emissions target scheme failing globally? Does it not concern that it's still dealing with the consequences rather than the causes of climate change? Australia, for example, is a leading coal exporter and as such, a major cause in our climate heating up. Is it not vital that this scheme now address trade and industrial practices, thereby dealing with causes at the base of our carbon emissions?

Laurelle Atkinson, St Helens, Vic

NEW EMISSIONS TARGET

With the Abbott attack on the NEG, kill Bill is out, kill Mal is in.

T.Puckett, Ashgrove, Qld

INSIGNIFICANT SAVINGS

I understand that the NEG will result in significant savings on my power bill of between $110 and $115 each year over the next 10 years. Wow! Ican hardly wait.

Anne Willenborg, Royalla, NSW

HARDLY A CHOICE

It seems that industry is backing the NEG not because it is a good scheme, but because Labor's offerings are far worse. How did it come to this – a choice between the bad and the even worse for something as basic as energy? So much for the Clever Country.

Doug Hurst, Chapman

SILENCE ON YEMEN

Re Dr Rubenstein's latest diatribe against Iran in the Canberra Times ("Australia must be clear in its stance towards Iran", August13, p.17), what are his views on Saudi Arabian behaviour, especially on its the relentless bombing campaign killing thousands of innocent civilians, including children, in Yemen?

Rod Holesgove, O'Connor

CAPTAIN'S CALLS

Two jokes people will recall. Prince Philip receives a knighthood and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation receives $444million. On both occasions, neither party asked for their "gifts". In both instances, the captain's call was foolish. Only difference: one involved taxpayer money without accountability, thereby making it a bigger blunder.

Jeff Bradley, Isaacs

GRAVE INJUSTICE

Thank you for the editorial about Yemen ("Saudi bus bombing is a new low", August13, p.14).

The situation there has been infuriating me, and you put words to it for me.

The fact that US and British are supporting the Saudis with weapons while they cause so much harm to innocent civilians (either deliberately or incompetently) is a grave injustice and a crime.

Most Western media report this as if it were just a cloudy day.

Marc Jericho, Canberra

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.

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