If a private landholder had treated brumbies this way, the RSPCA would surely prosecute. Any farmer with a heart would put starving stock out of their misery.

But also the native flora and fauna are suffering grievously from the competition for grass.

I know we have people with a grudge who, because of the politics, will never acknowledge the agony of the starving horses. It's the nature of our environment and its cyclical weather patterns. The extreme drought is going to take a great many more horses in a lingering slow motion death that we could call nature's cull of the unadapted. For the sake of all the other plants and animals that are feeling the results of the over-population of horses, we need to assist the species that cannot regulate its own numbers.

In dread I think of the other carcasses that will keep appearing.

But must we turn our backs on the back country?

Given we haven't had drought-breaking rains in Kosciuszko National Park, what happens if we start getting fires when the weather warms up? Will the fate of surviving brumbies be cooked?

Surely it's time the professional park staff were allowed to do their duty and implement the 2008 Wild Horse Management Plan.

John Blay, Eden

When the right of religious schools to accept or bar children for their sexual orientation is contemplated the average person would find themselves completely bemused.

For a start most church institutions have problems with the sexual orientation of their clergy. In fact a good percentage would not make it to ordination if tendencies towards an over-keen interest in their own sex were banned.

In fact I would guess that being gay is no hindrance to entry to the Catholic Church in particular. Do not ask and do not tell should be the motto.

Sexuality is not something that is firmly fixed in a good proportion of the species that inhabit the earth.

If as most devout Christians believe God made man in His image then it is obvious he incorporated homosexuality in a significant proportion of our own and other species as well.

If a child enters a religious school in primary and develops a liking for his or her own sex in secondary school how illogical that they should be refused entry to that school.

Jesus said suffer the children to come unto me. At no time did he say make children who are different suffer by turning them away. From memory Muhammad said: "Be kind to children, those afflicted by Allah mentally or physically and also women and you will find favour in His eyes".

Howard Carew, Isaacs

"We will wait for that proper process, but one thing you can be sure of is that we will always get the balance right and we will always do what is best for the Australian public." [Treasurer Frydenberg, October 10, on the "Ruddock Review"].

The same "proper process" used to incarcerate asylum seekers and refugees in Manus Island and Nauru detention centres?

The same "right balance" for providing medical care to off-shore detainees?

The same "best for the Australian public" spending billions-upon-billions of dollars (with no end in sight!) incarcerating human beings out-of-sight, out-of-mind, instead of allowing them their one desire: A life free from persecution and giving back to a nation providing asylum?

Trust this government to "get the balance right"? No way; not this government! Nor, sadly, any foreseeable government either.

Judy Bamberger, O'Connor

The Ruddock Review has apparently made several recommendations that will be controversial, particularly around the rights of religious schools to discriminate against non-heterosexual staff and students.

The controversy can only exist in the context of the current school system which permits non-public schools so as to allow parents to educate their children in an environment conforming to the parents' beliefs or ethics.

Beliefs and ethics are excluded from public schools. Change the system: if all children went to public school, and those children were allowed to be taught beliefs and ethics at public school, the need for non-public schools — and any associated discrimination — evaporates.

But sure, let's rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic instead.

Christopher Budd, Turner

I was pleased to read your recent story about a Holocaust survivor who had made a great new life in Canberra ("How Thomas Mautner escaped the Holocaust by the kindness of others", canberratimes.com.au, October 7). Unfortunately not all survivors are so lucky.

My 87-year-old neighbour's "good luck" was that his train to Auschwitz was blown to bits by American bombers before it reached its destination.

Then, after surviving the Russian invasion of Hungary, he came to Australia.

He now lives in an ACT government house that he cannot afford to heat because the heating is over 30 years old and in winter his bills exceed $500, has been broken into, is harassed by drug users banging on his door demanding "charity loans" and cannot access services he is entitled to because he cannot understand the user-friendly telephone systems that government agencies use to weed out callers.

For two years he was unable to eat anything but milk-soaked bread because he was told new dentures would cost him over $3000, and had been washing in the bathroom sink because he could get no one to fix his shower.

Finally, now that our suburb has been NBN-ed he is going to have to buy a new phone as his old phone will soon stop working.

While my friends and I are more than happy to help as much as we can, we should not have to. My friend, and all our older people, deserve better treatment from all governments.

Bill Palmer, Lyneham

As a former resident of, and a recent visitor to, Canberra I was appalled at the state of the once beautiful Botanic Gardens.

On arrival we were met with dead shrubs and ground covers overhanging the pathways.

Further into the garden the once healthy looking "rainforest" included a whole hillside of dead palms.

I know that Canberra is suffering from drought conditions that make the whole city look dusty and tired (especially Floriade) but that doesn't excuse the lack of maintenance of the area.

Jeffrey Leonard Collins, Goolwa South, SA

Kym MacMillan states that the NCA has exhibited "balanced and socially responsible restraint on the right to protest" by not approving a silent peace vigil in Anzac Parade on November 11 (Letters, October11).

The flaw in this assertion is that the proposed silent vigil is not a protest. Those taking part will not be protesting against the commemoration of Diggers who tragically lost their lives in WWI but campaigning for peace.

In the UK "Remembrance Day" is a day of commemoration for service people killed in war, similar to our Anzac Day.

But in 1926 the United States Congress passed a resolution establishing November 11 as a legal holiday "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day".

However, in 1954 president Dwight D. Eisenhower changed the orientation of the day to remembrance of veterans and the name of the day to Veterans Day, proclaiming: "On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly ... to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain."

In Australia where we have Anzac Day to commemorate those killed in military service, it seems entirely reasonable that November 11 should focus on "the task of promoting an enduring peace".

In the words of the Diggers' Requiem performed last Saturday night at Llewellyn Hall to much acclaim (including by War Memorial director, Brendan Nelson), after 100 years of commemoration, it is time to grant our Diggers eternal rest and focus on what they fought for – enduring peace.

Dr Janet Salisbury, Yarralumla

How dare Kym MacMillan (Letters, October 11) equate Dr Sue Wareham and the Medical Association for the Prevention of War with anti-abortion activists.

I would like to think that all Australians would support the prevention of war to some degree if it were possible.

Who knows how many wars could have been avoided if politicians had persevered with just a few more days of diplomacy before unleashing their military forces.

As an admirer of Dr Wareham's contributions to these pages I can attest that she doesn't "... believe that their views and rights somehow transcend those of others", and I would challenge Kym MacMillan to find a single person who was offended by the association's stated objectives.

The shareholders and executives of war-profiteers who would like the Australian War Memorial to one day extend the entire length of Anzac Parade, and would generously support its construction using a small fraction of their profits from the wars that necessitated it, don't count.

James Allan, Narrabundah

There is no doubt that coal exports remain the bedrock fuelling Australia's long-term prosperity. Jettisoning this motherlode on which we depend for our enviable lifestyle, in order to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate global warming prescribed by the most recent iteration of the IPCC, is tantamount to shooting ourselves in the foot.

Australian governments understandably remain obstinate in advocating for coal use and exports because sabotaging Australia's economic prosperity for the sake of the planet is unlikely to win elections.

A world that aspires to renewable energy sources threatens the acute loss of earnings from one of Australia's largest income earners.

Weaning the energy-hungry world's dependency on our coal exports risks voters' employment and wages, as sure a recipe as any for governments being ejected at the polls. Australians professing to care about the environment needs to be tested on the battlefield of convictions.

If de-fossilisation jeopardises our way of life, are we still willing to make the sacrifice?

Dr Joseph Ting, Brisbane, Qld

Nowadays believing in or denying the effects of climate change is part of a political creed apparently.

I agree with John M. Schmidt, Monash (Letters, October 10) when he describes the PM's reactions to the IPCC report as "short-sighted" and "self-centred". In denying climate change and its effects, our government condemns the world's and Australia's children to a grim future. Are they so willing to risk their own children's future for perceived political gain?

V. Saunders, Weetangara

Much has been written about the global temperature rise caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

There has been little discussion about the "human rabbits" that are multiplying like mad. The world population in 1960 was 3billion, today it is 7.6 billion.

The additional one and a half world populations have proportionally increased the demand for electricity, transport, food and all other needs/activities.

As the population continue to increase so will the emissions.

The 2 degree global temperature rise could be the myxomatosis moment for the human race.

John Simsons, Holt

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report clearly shows that the writing's on the wall for climate change deniers.

The rest of the world is moving on, but the flat-earthers in the conservative parties still blindly cling to Tony Abbott's "climate change is crap" mantra.

Just as people today wonder how, centuries ago, anyone could have thought that you could fall off the edge of the world, our descendants in the future will be amazed that so many people in this century could blithely dismiss mainstream scientific analysis of the disastrous effects of filling the skies with carbon.

Phyllis Vespucci, Reservoir

I strongly support Dr Alan Finkel's call for Australia to use its abundant renewable energy resources to produce hydrogen as a fuel ("Leading scientist urges hydrogen revolution", October 10, p4).

As Dr Finkel points out, burning hydrogen for energy produces only water as a byproduct. This very pure water could probably be put to good use.

However, there are some caveats with hydrogen production.

Producing hydrogen from water is very energy intensive and expensive, but as Dr Finkel points out, it could be done using energy from solar, wind or hydro sources ("Bright future is shipping sunshine", October 10, p17).

The costs of solar and wind energy generation are falling quite quickly, making them a potentially viable and economic source of energy for hydrogen generation.

Deriving hydrogen from coal or methane, coupled with carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a different matter.

Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

RENEWABLES' BENEFIT

Geoff Cass states in his letter of October 10 that "Virtually no one" really believes that converting to renewables will actually reduce the cost of electricity to ordinary customers.

That's good, I'd rather that than "Really no one".

For the rest of us, Geoff, "experts" or not, we would like to give it a go.

Quite often the "experts" do get things right.

After all our world isn't flat despite what the virtual experts of the day said.

B. West, Deakin

ALARMISTS AT IT AGAIN

The warming alarmists are at it again. Ad nauseam. The sky is falling and Armageddon is imminent. For how long do we have to put up with this hysterical nonsense that achieves nothing but higher power prices, and nightmares for our children.

Owen Reid, Dunlop

FAIR'S FAIR

I take it that, in light of recent developments, it will soon be permissible for non-religious schools to reject applications from teachers who practise a religious faith.

Allan McFarlane, Garran

POORLY RACED

It was a bad idea from the start, ill-conceived and poorly executed, not helped by a lack of understanding of the mood of a public who clearly didn't like the riding of the shock jockey.

It should have been scratched and put out to pasture ("Racing NSW keen to put promotion 'behind us"',CT page 12, October 11).

Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook, NSW

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