A Grattan Institute report (Mapping student progress) presents numerous measures that do not reflect well on the ACT's relative performance, either in private or public schools.

For example, the report notes that "ACT (and another jurisdiction) primary schools make the least progress", and the report singles out the ACT for some searching questions.

While measuring student performance and identifying reasons for it is undoubtedly difficult, the Grattan Institute, not remotely a conservative commentator, presents enough evidence to call into marked doubt the column's assertion that "the ACT doesn't have a performance or achievement problem".

The column is consistent with the ACT government's predilection to do a 'snow job' in any area where its performance is lacking.

I suggest the government puts the facts on the table. That should help to improve education standards, spend our money wisely, improve equity, and most importantly give our young people the best opportunity in life.

Bruce Paine, Red Hill

It seems my letter of March 6 about the clogged grate and sullage trap where Village Creek flows into Lake Tuggeranong has not pressed any buttons in the ACT government.

Almost three weeks later the grate/trap remained clogged and ineffective in stopping rubbish flowing into the lake.

It rained on Thursday night, quite heavily for a short while, which meant there was a fresh flow from Village Creek into the lake.

With the grate/trap still clogged, a new load of polluting rubbish went over the top and now floats on the lake.

Not only is there now a fresh white scum atop the green algae, and it covers almost the entire lake, but its northern end is dotted with lots of plastic and other rubbish floating in that scum.

This will eventually make its way down the lake and over the dam wall into the Murrumbidgee River, making a mockery of the ACT government's clean waterways projects.

I've lived adjacent to Lake Tuggeranong for almost 20 years. This is by far the worst state the lake has been in for all that time.

Come on ACT government, take some effective action now to clean up Lake Tuggeranong.

Regular cleaning of the grate and sullage trap where Village Creek enters the lake would be a good start.

Action also needs to be taken to prevent Village Creek being used as a rubbish dump.

Don Sephton, Greenway

Recessionary indicators are numerous ("House prices tumble even faster than during the GFC, as RBA's concerns grow over jobs market", canberratimes.com, March 19).

Tighter monetary policy by the RBA. Weaker housing activity. Softer consumer spending. Low wage growth. Rising energy costs. Rising household, corporate and government debt. Disconnect between Main Street and Collins Street.

Recession ahead? Surely. But when?

Victor Diskordia, McKellar

Kathryn Spurling (Letters, March 18) refers to a recorded message on her landline advising she needed to connect to the NBN soon.

I recall seeing some advice from NBN Co to the effect that these calls are scams, and if you press 1 you may be connected to someone who tries to obtain personal details, perhaps bank or credit card information.

It might be advisable for Kathryn, or anyone else receiving such phone calls, to ignore them and make inquiries directly to NBN Co about connection dates.

D. Edwards, Weston

Both Michael McCormack and Scott Morrison have repeatedly refused to rule out doing preference deals with One Nation.

Both seem to be of the belief preference deals, no matter how odious, struck in individual electorates don't reflect on the party at the national level.

Who are they kidding? Just themselves I suspect.

John Howard, if I recall correctly, rightly refused to preference One Nation when he was running the shop.

That was a good stance and it should still apply.

N. Ellis, Belconnen

Re: "Previous delays have been mitigated through the resequencing of logic and acceleration of activity durations, which has ultimately resulted in parallel execution of design and testing activities and a back-end compression of the program" ("Minister warned over light rail start date", March 18, p9).

Is it possible the delays occurred because nobody could understand what anyone else was talking about?

Bill Deane, Chapman

Attention Mr Barr. Please note that when I take my small dog for an on-leash walk I also intend to carry a baseball bat. If I, or my dog, are approached by an off-leash dog, I will attempt to hit a home run.

C. Johnston, Duffy

Jeremy Hanson needs to explain how his proposed anti-consorting bill will prevent drive-by shootings, or other shootings and firebombings, where there is no consorting going on.

John Widdup, Lyneham

M. Silex ("Don't punish Coalition", Letters, March 21) makes a strong case for the Coalition to make M. Silex their roving ambassador.

Sankar Kumar Chatterjee, Evatt

Conservatives claim to be better economic managers than the ALP. But they encourage minimum wages, promote tax evasion, and reward the casualisation of work. This is all evidence of economic mismanagement.

Trevor Wilson, Chifley

The ultimate irony is that the real threat to the security of Australians are safely ensconced in Parliament House surrounded by guards and fences, while they pursue division and hate for their political gains. Bravo Waleed Aly and all the journalists who have been calling them out this week.

H Tan, Deakin

Robyn Coghlan (Letters, March 15) describes Canberra's public infrastructure as being in a "Third World" state.

Please express your concerns but spare us the hysterics.

Those struggling in actual Third World conditions don't do so just to provide you with a throwaway line within your First World bubble.

Michael Bakos, Franklin

As the Morrison government scrambles to explain its failure to monitor Australian right-wing extremists, the real reason is in plain sight.

Just two days before last week's Christchurch terror attack, Department of Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo addressed the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

He listed the seven "gathering storms" facing Australia in the 2020s, as he sees them.

He stressed that "this is not a randomly generated list of scares. It is an evidence-based risk framework ... for making decisions about capabilities, strategies, plans, operations and resource allocation."

Number six on Pezzullo's "gathering storm" radar was radical extremist Islamist terrorism, among which were "home-grown terror cells and lone wolves, and returning foreign terrorist fighters".

Incredibly, however, the threat posed by right-wing racist terror did not rate a mention — not on Pezzullo's "big seven" security risks, nor anywhere else in his speech.

Yet two days later that was what we all saw in Christchurch.

Those seeking a reason for the government's blind spot when it comes to the danger posed by the radical right need look no further than Pezzullo's speech.

They don't see the danger, because they're not looking for it.

Phillip Tardif, Lyneham

There is no adequate way for many of us to express how we feel about what has been perpetrated on individuals and Aotearoa New Zealand as a whole by another Australian.

It is not enough for us here to say collectively that this is not who we are. We have to own that the person who has done this is one of us. He has sprung from our society and what we have let fester in it.

Australians have facilitated the election of some people with extreme and divisive views.

The same divisive views are repeated and expanded on by some elements of our media. When we continue to listen to and read what they say without challenging them at every turn, we only encourage and legitimise them. For this we have to take responsibility.

We must accept and embrace the differences and work together, no matter what our skin colour or religion, if any, to create a safe, welcoming and inclusive society.

To everyone in Aotearoa NZ and those abroad, I want to say I am so sorry.

Catherine Moore, Braidwood, NSW

Apart from Michael Daley's intention to sack Alan Jones from the SCG board, the starkest difference between Labor and the Coalition is in their attitude to the natural environment.

If Labor wins the election, Penny Sharpe will become deputy premier and environment minister, giving nature its highest government profile in NSW for decades.

Compare this to the Coalition, where National Party leader John Barilaro has protected feral pests in Kosciuszko National Park, and other Nationals are intent on revoking the redgum national parks, while the no-profile Liberal environment minister, Gabrielle Upton, says and does nothing to defend these wonderful places.

It's obvious who Mother Earth would be voting for.

Bruce Gall, Nicholls

Despite your editorial "Making Brexit work for us" (canberratimes.com.au, March 16), Brexit is none of our business given Britain is now taking only 1.4 per cent of our exports.

More to the point, Australia is far from being the imperial colony it once was.

We must behave accordingly, in business and beyond.

That is, we should declare and enact our total legal and constitutional independence from the United Kingdom and the Crown.

We must establish Australia as the democratic republic it may appear to be in the eyes of other nations.

Bryan Lobascher, Chifley

John Burns (March 18) makes the oft-cited observation that because "Australia's carbon dioxide emissions represent but a fraction of global carbon dioxide emissions" why should we destroy our economy by trying to reduce them.

It's true that Australia's emissions represent about one per cent of the global total.

Similarly, France, Turkey, Italy, Britain, South Africa, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil each contribute a mere one per cent.

Coming in at a mere two per cent are countries such as Germany, Canada and Saudi Arabia. Need I go on?

According to the Burns logic, all of these countries should just give up on reducing emissions because individually they would each make such a small difference.

In other words, no one should do anything.

Perhaps we should focus on those countries with high per capita emissions.

That puts Australia at the top of the list.

Robert Duffield, Carwoola, NSW

What an excellent article by Sean Kelly ("Our PM is telling fairytales", canberratimes.com.au, March 18), referring to the horrendous Christchurch massacre.

Kelly highlighted some of the political rhetoric targeted at asylum seekers which provides the chilling backdrop to this slaughter.

Our federal government is cynically engaged in whipping up fear of refugees and asylum seekers, defaming them as paedophiles, murderers or rapists, and potential robbers of housing and social security.

The federal opposition does virtually nothing to call the government out.

Little wonder that right-wing extremists are flexing their muscles.

While ostensibly condemning racism, the government has for more than five years locked up people seeking our help on small offshore islands.

The rationale that offshore detention prevents drownings at sea and foils the dreaded people smugglers is spurious.

There is another way that was used by Australia decades ago to bring Indochinese refugees safely to Australia.

This involves working with transit countries and UNHCR to fast-process asylum seekers and then fly refugees to Australia.

It is humane, safe and far less costly in human life and taxpayer dollars than the current policy.

Bewilderingly though, neither the government, nor the opposition, nor the Greens are pursuing this.

It is time they did.

Noel Pratt, Kambah

Following the recent massacre in Christchurch, the Prime Minister has begun to shift his ground away from the right wing of his "conservative" Coalition.

I think he now knows that they are not his friends.

In fact, they are his enemies.

He knows now that to them he is only a stopgap spokesman for the right generally, and not their preferred leader.

That would be Abbott or Dutton.

They will depose Morrison, just as they deposed Turnbull, as soon as it is convenient.

They don't care if he loses this year's federal election to the moderate-conservative Labor party of Bill Shorten.

The loss of government will give the right-wing "conservatives" an excuse to purge the Coalition of all who are not totally with them.

That is why Chris Pyne and other moderate conservatives are quitting the ministry.

They know they have no future in the now grossly-misnamed Australian Liberal Party.

Morrison will not denounce his brutal right wing, he doesn't dare. Instead he will condemn extreme right-wingers like Senator Anning, who are not in his party, and of course white supremacist Christian terrorists like the Christchurch mass murderer.

A. Moore, Melba

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