She described the policy as "always sold too simplistically in political and cynical terms".

It isn't, but Stubberfield's criticism is.

Australia has done more for the asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru than all other nations on Earth collectively have done. Importantly, what has UNHCR done? Nothing.

Despite Australia owing these asylum seekers no preferential treatment over millions of genuine refugees, it has provided them with temporary sanctuary, housing, food, clothing and expensive medical treatment.

I suspect the asylum seekers enjoyed a better standard of living than a large proportion of the population of PNG and Nauru; people Australia has shamefully neglected.

Stubberfield stated that in 2016 UNHCR's consultant medical experts found cumulative rates of anxiety, depression, and PTSD to exceed 80 per cent.

What figures did they obtain for asylum seekers in African and Middle East asylum centres, or among the one million Rohingya refugees?

If conditions were so poor, why didn't UNHCR transport the asylum seekers to UN territory, eg in Geneva or New York?

Why doesn't Stubberfield criticise her own organisation for the harm it has caused by its neglect, and by deliberately generating depression through cruelly raising false hopes?

I recommend that Stubberfield be kicked out of Australia and UNHCR be requested to provide a suitably worded apology.

R. Salmond, Melba

I don't have a letterbox. For a number of reasons, for about 20 years I have had my mail redirected to a post office box.

This is not an inexpensive exercise and the expense could be justified if the service was satisfactory. Unfortunately the service is not satisfactory.

As has happened previously, I was recently sent a letter by a government agency, addressed to the "resident" at my home address.

This is a bridge too far for Australia Post apparently and rather than being redirected to my post office box was delivered to my home address.

When I say delivered, I mean dropped on the driveway.

Apparently, Australia Post only recognises mail as part of the redirection service that is addressed to my wife or myself.

Great service isn't it?

Peter Maher, Gilmore

At the G20 summit in Argentina Donald Trump told Scott Morrison he has done "a fantastic job in a very short period of time" as Prime Minister. I don't know where Trump is getting his information from but in the 99 days since becoming PM the man some refer to as the Steven Bradbury of Australian politics has done bugger all really for Australians.

Apologies to Steven Bradbury for associating him with such Machiavellian goings-on.

Trump went on to say Morrison has "done a lot of the things that they've wanted over there".

I suppose you could say the way Morrison has overseen the relegation of the current Coalition's version of conservative politics to the dustbin of political history has been chaotically "fantastic" and has provided much entertainment.

However, Morrison owes most of the credit for that to the Liberal Party's right wing dinosaurs, Tony Abbott's bloody mindedness and obsessions, and Barnaby Joyce's peccadillos.

Scott who?

Rory McElligott, Nicholls

Cabinet minister Kelly O'Dwyer has said that the Liberal Party is viewed as "homophobic, anti-women, climate-change deniers" by the general public.

I count myself as one who shares this perception.

Scott Morrison, supported by Tony Abbott among other conservatives, has decided to automatically re-endorse all sitting members.

This move is closing off the pre-selection process to moderate candidates and further limiting the prospects for female representation among Liberal parliamentarians.

For those Liberal voters who share the perceptions O'Dwyer referred to, this pre-selection decision will be seen as more evidence that Morrison and his Liberal parliamentary colleagues are out of touch with the electorate generally and moderate Liberal voters specifically.

Harry Samios, O'Connor

Liberal Senator Jim Molan complains "we're driving conservative voters away in droves". I have no doubt that conservatives he's spoken to were critical of Turnbull's leadership and blamed him for the downward trajectory of the Liberal vote.

However, when I look at the Victorian election results I don't see anything to support his statement.

The combined left wing first preference vote for Labor, the Greens and the Animal Justice Party was 55 per cent and the right wing vote for the Liberals and Nationals was 35 per cent with no other parties reaching 1 per cent.

I have to ask where are those conservative votes supposedly going if not to the Coalition?

Surely those voters who dislike Turnbull and more moderate Liberals for being Labor Lite aren't giving their votes to Labor, let alone the Greens, but there was no significant shift to another right wing party.

It's more likely that middle-of-the-road swinging voters are being driven into the arms of Labor by the actions of conservatives like Senator Molan, a Dutton supporter in the leadership change.

James Daniels, Fadden

Mark Sproat (Letters, December 3) seems to be drawing some comparison between politicians and surgeons who perform open-heart surgery.

Surgeons are required to undertake a structured training program, and spend years perfecting the skills required to perform complex operations.

On the other hand, there is no formal training or experience required for the job of politician.

People standing for election just have to be able to convince voters that they have somehow, magically, been endowed with the ability to govern the country.

Is there some research that proves, categorically, that men are better at governing than women? And if there is, where did the evidence come from? The fact that there are more men than women in Parliament indicates men are better at getting themselves elected, often with the help of their cronies who like to be surrounded by clones of themselves.

These men will only consider selecting candidates from the other 50 per cent of the population if they are forced to, through quotas.

D. Edwards, Weston

The breach of a suppression order by a media outlet is a serious transgression, and should not be treated lightly.

However, it is not the court's function to initiate enforcement of its orders. That is for the parties to do.

If there are breaches of suppression orders, as Markus Mannheim alleges ("Does our Supreme Court hold itself in contempt?", The Canberra Times, December 4), the party suffering from such a breach can seek enforcement orders.

It is not appropriate for a respected newspaper to criticise the court in such disparaging terms for not doing something that is not its function.

I would like to add that criticism of court decisions is different to criticism of the court itself, and your journalists should be more aware of the distinction. Your journalists should also be more alert to the fact that court officers are not permitted to defend their decisions in the media. It would reflect better on your newspaper if your journalists adopted a more measured tone when criticising a decision, and were more careful to not also criticise the court.

Chris Donohue, president, ACT Law Society

Recent articles on Canberra's future development make the point that the ACT government does not propose to develop the Kowen Forest area, east of Canberra because, it says, it is too far from the rest of the city.

This is curious as the south-western corner of Kowen Forest is no more than 20 minutes from Civic using present roads and new, direct roads would make it less.

The whole area is very close to the Joint Operational Headquarters of the Defence Force, the airport and the office developments at the airport, and not that far from Campbell Park and Russell.

Even the north-eastern corner is no further from Civic than southern Tuggeranong using current roads and, via a direct freeway standard road instead of the current route via Queanbeyan, would be little more than 30 minutes from Civic.

The area is only pine forest and, in a sensible world, would at least warrant serious consideration.

One wonders what the real reason is for leaving it as it is. There may be other issues but it is not distance unless, Andrew Barr cannot read a map or count.

Stan Marks, Hawker

I refer to Andrew Barr's recent comments about the need to contain Canberra's urban sprawl in order to protect "the unique bush and grassland environments" of our city.

The fact is that many of these environments are already severely compromised.

For example, the Mount Ainslie and Mount Majura nature reserves have become an island surrounded by roads, most recently the Majura Parkway.

This has resulted in a large captive kangaroo population (thousands where the ideal carrying capacity is hundreds).

Too many roos, plus constantly increasing rabbit numbers threaten the yellow box/red gum woodland ecosystem.

They eat any new growth as soon as it appears above ground. Thus, there is no progressive regeneration of trees, shrubs, grasses and forbs to provide habitat for all the other bush creatures.

Instead, the ground is becoming dusty, bare and eroded.

The key to protecting and repairing our reserves is a commitment from government of ongoing resources to control these two damaging species and keep the bush in our capital.

Jeanette Ruxton, Ainslie

Contrary to some political and academic opinions ("Battle for the bush capital", December 4, p1), ACT residents, especially families, can continue to afford living happily and sustainably in suburbs, including across the Murrumbidgee in the south, and in parts of Ginninderry to the north-west, and Kowen to the east, without destroying the bush capital ethos.

This can be achieved by continuing and facilitating our dispersed-town-centre arrangement; encouraging more eco-friendly transport systems, including electric or hydrogen-powered self-driving/parking cars; and having more sensibly designed subdivisions (less space given over to roads, etc); more energy-efficient, generally smaller houses; fewer unsafe "linear" parks that never get used; more autonomy and power for home makers in land purchasing, and in the design and construction of their houses and small to medium multiple-dwelling projects; better noise, vibration, dust, and air-pollution prevention through landscaping; more private open space (mostly decent back yards — shockingly missing in our current new suburbs) for recreational and food gardens, sheds, trampolines, pools, etc; and related to that, more use of steeper land for subdivisions.

A much-loved beneficial lifestyle must not be killed off in the name of retailing commercialism, disguised as sustainability.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

The ACT Planning Strategy Refresh ("Capital's race for inner space," December 5, p1) fails to undertake an analysis of the economic, environmental and social implications of alternative land use distributions or to address housing choice and affordability, housing and employment location and transport choice.

The claim that greenfield infrastructure is many times more expensive than infill is not substantiated by evidence on greenfield costs or the spare capacity in social and physical infrastructure in established areas.

Kowen has significantly higher infrastructure and environmental costs than the preferred western areas.

Given employment growth is occurring in Central Canberra, Kowen may have lower travel costs.

The failure to address detached housing preference will drive demand over the border which will reduce population-based grants from the Commonwealth, reduce conveyancing and ongoing rates revenue to the territory.

Development in NSW also imposes additional costs to the ACT in servicing the NSW populations.

Mr Barr please undertake a real review.

Mike Quirk, Garran

ROCK PAINTINGS A CLUE

The pro and anti-climate change supporters in Australia have failed to address the best sources of climate understanding – the rock paintings and verbal history of the Indigenous tribes whose ancestors have survived catastrophic climate events.

There needs to be an acceptance that modern science is not necessarily the ultimate decider of the truth.

John Reaney, Queanbeyan

BANKS RULE

For governments the banks were too big to fail; for regulators they were too intimidating to nail.

A. Whiddett, Forrest

NOT ABBOTT? DAMN

Your headline "Turkey heads into space" (December 7, p19) initially threw me. I thought it was very unusual for Tony Abbott to be announcing his vacation plans ahead of the Christmas break. It was only when I read the article that I realised you were reporting on the Christmas dinner being sent to the space station.

M. Moore, Bonython

PRIORITIES SKEWED

Bravo pollies. You engage in parlour games to retain "control", while people die.

Bob Gardiner, lsabella Plains

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

I welcome the opportunity to contribute $290 each year to save my beloved ACT from the ravages of climate change. I do, however, seek assurance that the protective umbrella will not extend to cover freeloaders across the border in Queanbeyan.

That said, I do not object to easing the suffering of some friends in Wamboin.

M. Warrington, Garran

DUTTON RATHER QUIET

Is it my imagination or has Peter Dutton gone missing? Either way how refreshing to not have him dog whistling day in and day out about scary foreigners.

Linus Cole, Palmerston

POLITICAL WOES

With federal election votes having become no longer fit for purpose (ie to elect a competent national government from a pool of talented candidates) the Australian Electoral Commission should organise a vote buyback, with the proceeds being used to employ a decent dictator.

M. F. Horton, Adelaide

TURNBULL HELPFUL

Following on from Malcolm Turnbull's latest political shenanigans, the ALP should reward him with an honorary life long membership, for services rendered.

Mario Stivala, Spence

DARE TO BARE

The Patricia Karvelas fiasco has become our own Dreyfus Affair. We desperately need a constitutional amendment, enshrining women's right to bare arms.

Michael Barry, Torrens

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