Nearly always they result in similar key recommendations. While waiting for the next one, many more older people are suffering waiting for the good recommendations from past inquiries to be implemented.

The greatest need is for adequate and well-paid carers.

I have spent many months in aged-care facilities watching loved ones and others suffering from inadequate care in quite modern, lovely facilities.

A few simple, costly, but necessary actions in aged-care homes will rectify most issues of concern.

Regulate a minimum staff to number of residents ratio; mandate the employment of an activities co-ordinator; provide good pay to attract good carers and then train them; pay aged-care nurses the same as hospital nurses; require an on-site nurse; don't give prior warning of site audit visits and make the results of those audits public.

It is also necessary to ensure payments to nursing home operators differentiate between care funding and facility and other funding.

Instead of rationing home care packages, the government must provide sufficient budget funding to enable all ACAT home care-assessed people to access home care packages immediately on assessment.

You didn't have to wait 10 years ago. Now, depending on where you live, you can wait over a year or more and need to transition to residential care instead, at a much greater cost than home care.

The time to act is now. Federal politicians don't need to wait on the outcome of a royal commission.

Gina Pinkas, Aranda

Do we really need a royal commission into the aged-care sector? The main cost of high-quality services in aged care is an adequate, trained, professional and dedicated labour force.

If you want qualified and dedicated people you have to value their role both in remuneration and standing. As the ABC Four Corners program indicated, costs can only be reduced in aged care by reducing levels of qualified staff and amenity.

As the banking royal commission demonstrates, the profit incentive acts counter to the provision of quality personal services. Is there really a role for profit in the aged-care sector?

What we really need is for government to do the hard "yakka" of working with the community to ascertain what it means to deliver quality aged-care services and to take governance responsibility for the quality of community services funded by the taxpayer.

It needs to enter an honest dialogue with the community about what it means for levels of taxation to provide these and other services.

I have no doubt a royal commission will give a much needed voice to those traumatised by the aged-care system and that useful recommendations will ensue. But what we really need is a fundamental rethink of the way the government spends our taxes in the provision of community services.

Trevor Powell, Bruce

A number of recent press reports, including two in Thursday's Canberra Times, refer to the finding of the Endeavour as "solving one of the world's great maritime mysteries".

While it may be a newsworthy event in the context of the anniversary of Cook's travels in the Endeavour, it can hardly have been a great maritime mystery.

The Royal Navy accurately recorded the fact that on August 4, 1778, the Lord Sandwich 2, formerly the HM Bark Endeavour, was one of 13 ships sunk off the waters of Newport harbour to deter French naval forces from aiding the American rebels.

While there might be some debate as to which pile of rotted timbers is actually the Sandwich/Endeavour, it can hardly be described as a great maritime mystery.

Kym MacMillan, O'Malley

While I applaud The Canberra Times' dispassionate assessment of James Cook's achievements (Editorial, September 21, p22), I fear that the news from Rhode Island has raised expectations that are unlikely to be met.

Assuming that the ship said to be the Endeavour has been correctly identified from among the many sunk as blockships at Newport during the American War, its remains will be mainly a ballast mound with some metal fittings and timber.

The ship would have been stripped of anything useful before being sunk.

The odds against there being an 'Endeavour's hulk' to raise like, say, that of the Mary Rose at Portsmouth, are extremely high.

Allen Mawer, Acton

Thank you Ms Peart, a pensioner, from Hawker. Your presentation on August 8 to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry into the rating of multi-unit complexes was compelling. You clearly explained why the new rating methodology is unprincipled and inequitable.

Reading the transcript is pure theatre.

You can literally hear the coin drop when one committee member grasps the nub of the problem – your rate is now being determined on the value of land you don't own.

Anyone interested in how government works should read the Hansard. Alas Ms Peart, the Treasury decision-makers exited the room just before you stepped onto the stage.

Sadly they will never know how brightly you shone, nor I fear, will they have any regrets.

Mike Buckley, Barton

I am increasingly concerned for the future of our country if we allow Scott Morrison to continue on this crusade for religious privilege; one which he is trying to disguise as religious freedom.

He is claiming to be protecting us from future issues of freedom of religion. What issues you ask? Well even he can't answer that question. I strongly support the right to worship as one sees fit but freedom of religion must include freedom from religion as well.

Christianity is already heavily over-represented in our government and we don't need extra protections against an imagined future persecution.

Tony Wall, Bardwell Park, NSW

I was very pleased and excited to read Peter Burrett's letter in The Canberra Times (Letters, September 18). So excited, in fact that this is the first time I've written a letter to a newspaper. Since first hearing I Am Australian many years ago (maybe at the Sydney Olympics) I have wondered why it was not our anthem instead of our current dirge, which does not reflect a contemporary Australia in my view. Hearing it again recently on the ABC reminds me how inclusive it is and what a wonderful, uplifting, sing-along tune it has. It's a great song and I strongly support any efforts to advocate for change.

Philip Constable, ACT

Stopping treatment and care benefits once a driver is convicted of fault, including drink driving, is simply barbaric and on our present system of fault finding would amount to double punishment: ("Speeding drivers paid less under CTP", September 21, p12).

A conviction is now followed by a penalty, sometimes a fine, or jail, or both, sometimes a form of probation.

Magistrates have some discretion on punishment. Stopping medical treatment benefits amounts to interfering with federal benefits through Medicare, part paid for through the Medicare levy.

So that will be a complicated exercise, but our conservative federal government will think it a great idea.

The Feds love punishing those out of line. Injury though fault will be translated as God's will.

The result is a cruel and unusual punishment, not illegal in our Australia without rights.

If capable of implementation this will send some people to the scrap heap, unable to afford treatment, unable to continue the lifetime of rehabilitation required for serious injury.

This from a government devoted to restorative justice. What a nasty joke.

Warwick Davis, Isaacs

The ACT government convened a citizens' jury on compulsory third party insurance. Now it proposes to over-ride the jury's recommendations, by unfairly reducing the amount of compensation available to some drivers ("Speeding drivers to receive lower payments under new CTP scheme," September 20, p12).

Here's what could happen if the government's latest hare-brained thought-bubble goes ahead.

Priscilla the P-Plater stops at traffic lights, on her way home from dinner. She is unaware that her blood alcohol level is slightly above zero because she had her grandmother's trifle for dessert.

Dangerous Dan is very tired after driving non-stop from Adelaide. He is just under the legal limit for blood alcohol, after having a few beers along the way.

He looks up from fumbling with the car radio and sees the red signal. He starts to brake, but his worn tyres slip on the wet road.

As the lights turn green, he slams into the back of Priscilla's car at 80 km/h.

Under the government's proposal Dan would get 100 per cent compensation for his injuries, but Priscilla would get only 75 per cent.

Leon Arundell, Downer

I agree with Mark and Lee-Anne Prevost (Letters, September 19) about the bad driving habits of Canberrans, such as speeding, tailgating and reluctance or refusal to allow one to change lanes. I also agree with their criticism of the placement of speed camera vans, which are often in places where just gathering fines seems more important than road safety.

I have also found that it is wise to look both ways and be prepared to stop when you are about to walk onto a pedestrian crossing.

Tradesmen seem to be the worst offenders in both speeding and tailgating.

They also seem to be the worst offenders in another bad trait of Canberra drivers – impatience. This is of course reflected in speeding, but also in having a car horn blasted at you if you don't take off like a dragster the instant the traffic lights turn green.

Another bad habit is squeezing into small gaps between cars when changing lanes. An example of this was when a car sped past mine, then swerved left in front of me, when there were many car lengths of space behind. The young woman driver then had to brake hard when she found that the cars in front were almost at a standstill, almost causing a series of serious rear-end collisions.

Canberra drivers have an awful lot to learn about safe, courteous and considerate driving.

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

Why are Canberra drivers so angry and aggressive? The other evening about 5.30 PM I was driving into Civic from Woden.

Coming along Adelaide Avenue I was overtaken by someone driving erratically at high speed.

When I arrived at Adelaide Avenue the traffic slowed to a crawl due to the time of day and the chaos that is Civic at the moment.

For the whole length of the bridge I was "tail-gated".

The driver involved first blew his horn at me, then gesticulated with his arms, shook his head angrily and finally flashed his headlights.

All to what purpose I don't know as we were all locked into a monumental traffic jam. Sadly this is not an isolated incident. Canberra drivers seem the rudest and most impatient of any city I know.

Timothy Walsh, Garran

Great to read that Joey Park, close to the Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo nature reserves, is to be the home of two kangaroo sculptures ("Two roos find permanent home in new suburb", September 17, p11). They do look great. But what a shame the ACT government couldn't keep a few real ones for us to admire too. When the Minister for Arts and Cultural Events says the location is a fitting proximity to where many kangaroos once were, I suppose he is right.

Philip Machin, Wamboin, NSW

The letter from Marilyn Shepherd (September 20) about the "racist abuse" of Serena Williams rather misses the point, I think.

If I said that the tantrum thrown by Williams during her US Open final was behaviour typical of black people, that could indeed be called racist.

If I said (as I have, frequently) that her conduct was a typical example of bad American sportsmanship and American (dis)grace under pressure, that would merely be the truth. Deny it who can.

But at least Williams (unlike another well-known female American loser) didn't descend to blaming her defeat on the Russians.

Bernard Davis, O'Connor

Marilyn Shepherd (Letters, September 20) feels the criticism of Serena Williams has far surpassed anything she did on court, and then details her struggles as a black woman in the US. Of the many comments about her meltdown that I have read since the incident none have criticised her for being black (racism) or for being a woman (sexism).

They have been directed at her bad sportsmanship, which took the gloss off Naomi Osaka's first major title win and leaving her distressed and embarrassed.

Frances Cornish, Spence

How fitting that Roman art should be on display in Canberra at the moment. Et Tu, Brutus?

M. Moore, Bonython

RATTENBURY RUMBLER

Here comes the Rattenbury rumbler, replete with naff ruby livery, suppository styling and billion-dollar Barr-code. With its slug-like aspect, wheel bells clanging, gum leaves in its pantograph, and bark in its bogeys, it'll greet you in the adenoidal tones of a private-school prefect.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

SENATE PRAYERS

Regarding the recent decision to keep Christian prayers in the Senate.

It is a bold move to maintain a single religion's rituals in a culture that is increasingly more diverse. Parliamentary prayers are not representative of the diversity of religion and increasing number of secular Australians, and reflect an attitude amongst Christians that their faith has more merit than any other. Christian doctrine appears to favour religious freedom as long as it is available only for Christians.

James Faulkner, Armidale, NSW

'CHAIN GANG' PLEA

With all the letters commenting on the ACT's messy roads, footpaths, parks etc why doesn't the government use the AMC prisoners?

They seem to have a lot of spare time on their hands so why not have a "chain gang" like in the 1960's movie Cool Hand Luke? It would help them get fit and outside in the lovely sunny days. And, by the way, what happened to "hard labour". Isn't it time to bring it back?

Sandra Smith, Macgregor

BOOT FOR FOOTY SHOW

There is no need for Sam Newman to consider leaving The Footy Show as the show will soon be leaving TV.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill, Vic

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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