The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that since the fence protests began on March 30, 87 Palestinian demonstrators have been killed, including 12 children; 29 others, including three children, have been killed in other circumstances.

More than 12,000 people have been injured, more than 3500 of them by live ammunition. A vote was taken for an independent international inquiry into possible human rights and international humanitarian law violations – 29 countries were in favour, 14 abstained, and only two were against: predictably the US and, to our shame, Australia.

Julie Bishop should explain how Australia was so embarrassingly wrong-footed.

C. Williams, Forrest

An animal corridor

Wildlife corridors would reduce the number of collisions between cars and animals and preserve the Bush Capital. Collisions with kangaroos are caused by poor infrastructure planning for wildlife corridors, together with inappropriate speed limits and inadequate road safety enforcement.

Robyn Soxsmith, Kambah

Echo of Middle Passage

The live sheep export issue is eerily reminiscent of the former trans-Atlantic slave trade. So many cargoes delivered either dead or in poor condition, it's a wonder how any of these shippers ever made any money. The answer back then was insurance; and maybe it is again now.

How much does insurance contribute to the tolerance of ruined cargo?

What could the insurance industry do to help?

Why am I even bothering to ask when, plainly, it's all GetUp!'s fault?

S. W. Davey, Torrens

Any answers on export?

It is clear that on the subject of banning the live export of sheep, the Greens have the numbers and the desire to make it happen. So what if the exporters reduce the number of sheep on the boat, leaving enough space for them to travel in an acceptable manner while still making a profit? If anyone can come up with a acceptable answer, that will be a really good thing. Any suggestions yet?

Geoff Cass, Tewantin, Qld

A film to move

On Tuesday night the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine hosted a special screening of Australian writer and director Anne Tsoulis' film From Under the Rubble.

Maria Vamvakinou MP spoke on behalf of the group and suggested that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop might benefit from viewing the film.

The clever footage allowed us to see in a thoughtful manner the tragedy of Gaza seen from the point of view of injured children, a bereaved mother and a compassionate Norwegian surgeon.

If Ms Bishop was not moved by the film, nothing in the world would melt that heart of stone.

Spending large sums of Commonwealth money on commemorating the Battle of Beersheba centenary – fought on Palestinian soil with Palestinian allies – and holding hands with PM Netanyahu is obviously more important to the Australian government.

Made before the latest round of terrible events in the apartheid society of Israel, the film is recommended to all people who care.

Claudia Hyles, Kingston

Level nuclear field

Kim must proceed with developing a viable deterrent to prevent further US attacks like on Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The US is not the only country with the right to bear arms. You can't have one principle for one and another for everybody else.

The world will be a much better place if countries such as North Korea and Iran can deter unprovoked attacks from the US and its puppet, Israel.

In the meantime Russia and China need to provide a deterrent to US terrorism by announcing that any unprovoked attack on North Korea or Iran would be met with full force.

The greatest threat we face is from Trump and he needs to be neutralised because he believes he can police everybody else.

He wants to maintain his nuclear superiority so that he can invade countries with impunity and change regimes at will.

The mere fact the US doesn't like your politics doesn't give it the right to stop you from defending yourself and doing so by levelling the nuclear playing field.

Adam Bonner, Brogo, NSW

Grandfather's tax

The Labor proposal to impose a tax of 30 per cent on the dividends paid by Australian companies to superannuation funds in pension phase is harsh.

In many circumstances it will pay retirees to hold Australian shares in their own name rather than inside super. It will discourage many from investing in superannuation atall.

At the end of his address at the National Press Club on May 16 the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, defended grandfathering of Labor's proposed changes to negative gearing and said: "It's fair because those people have made investment decisions based on the rules at the time. Big investment decisions and we respect that. Secondly, it's right because we need to consider the economic flow-through impacts if you didn't grandfather negative gearing. If you took that concession away immediately, it may have some impact on the market which is greater that if it were grandfathered. So it's the right balance to grandfather changes."

Mr Bowen should at the very least consider applying that argument to the proposed 30per cent tax on superannuation funds.

Providing for our retirement was based on the rules at the time. Many of us are well into our retirement. We can't change our expenditures just like that. The investments under attack total at least $300 billion and the economic flow-through will be significant.

Tom Hayes, Campbell

Cry from the heart

The chance to stop shocking live animal exports is enough to tempt a communist to vote Liberal.

We have debated this crisis for many years now.

But I can't stomach another rich serve of religious fruitcake or the Sandstone Warrior's drivel on Radio National.

So-called left-wing bias was really excellent investigative journalism. We've lost Radio Australia, decimated foreign aid.

Instead of dreaming with the source of ideas, we swallow endless repeats, doses of Radio Canada and the ABC TV's program ads.

Squatters might feed and clothe the world but their food and fibre come at a price.

If Australia had any morality left at all we'd fund all the arts properly and curb the greed of agricultural exporters.

Yvonne Francis, Apollo Bay, Vic

Nott left lasting mark

I support the suggestion that our new federal electorate be named after Dr Lewis Nott, a significant figure in the formative years of Canberra.

In 1949 Dr Nott (1886-1951) became the first representative in the then newly established federal parliamentary seat of the Australian Capital Territory. It was largely due to his efforts that the ACT first gained a seat in the Federal Parliament.

Dr Nott had studied for his medical degree at Sydney University and the University of Edinburgh, but when war broke out in 1914 he enlisted and joined the 15th Battalion The Royal Scots.

Seeing active service on the Western Front, he rose to the rank of captain, was wounded, and twice mentioned in dispatches.

After completing his medical degree, he returned to his native Queensland, where he was appointed Medical Superintendent of the Mackay District Hospital, and later became mayor of Mackay.

He contested and won the federal seat of Herbert in 1925, defeating Ted Theodore, a former Premier of Queensland.

Lewis Nott lost his seat of Herbert in 1928, but chose to stay in Canberra, which he had grown to love, and remained here until he died in 1951.

Dr Nott made major contributions to Canberra life, both professionally and in community affairs. including relief for the needy during the Depression, supporting returned service personnel, and involvement in the arts as a founder of the Canberra Repertory Society and the Canberra Philharmonic Society.

Dr Nott campaigned for the creation of the Advisory Council for the ACT, served as an elected member of Council from 1935 to 1949, and was the elected Chair for approximately 13 years. He had been the only member of the House of Representatives to represent both a state and a territory.

Sandy Paine, Griffith

Words of Grand old man

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and MP John Barilaro are planning new strategies for managing horses in Kosciuszko National Park. Apparently, their main policy document is Banjo Paterson's poem The Man from Snowy River.

They live in "virtual reality" where there are no problems, and everything lives happily forever (putting aside marsupials or plants the park is meant to protect).

Paterson also wrote a poem called It's Grand, from which we offer some verses:

It's grand to be a western man,

With shovel in your hand

To dig your little homestead out,

From underneath the sand.

It's grand to be a shearer,

Along the Darling side

And pull the wool from stinking sheep

That some days since have died.

It's grand to be a rabbit

And breed till all is blue,

And then to die in heaps because

There's nothing left to chew.

Is it logical, then, to reintroduce sheep to Kinchega National Park, and prevent rangers from ripping rabbit warrens, to emphasise the cultural heritage of environmental ignorance, which during the Federation Drought damaged the fauna, vegetation and soils of western NSW irreparably?

I suggest a visit to Blue Waterholes at the Murrumbidgee end of the Kosciuszko National Park and a walk along one or two gorges through the karst formations. Stepping around the countless horse dung hills, the parliamentarians could fully appreciate the ever-present stench of horse urine and the waist-high introduced thistles the dung fertilises.

They might ask how they would move horses elsewhere to reduce the mess.

They might also ask: What would we do if horse flu broke out in Australia again, or African horse sickness arrived?

Banjo Paterson's poem gives no insights there.

Brian Cooke, Waramanga

Brumby explosion

The NSW government's intention to legislate for the protection of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park and the end of culling will, if successful, lead to accelerated environmental degradation, particularly in the park's fragile alpine areas.

Given that the estimated horse population of 6000 has doubled since 2008 despite ongoing culling, the end of culling, together with the lack of any natural predator in the park, will see an explosion in horse numbers.

The 2016 Draft Wild Horse Management Plan, now rejected by government, recommended a 60 per cent reduction in numbers over 20 years.

The Deputy NSW Premier, John Barilaro, has stated that should horse numbers grow too high and threaten sensitive areas, resources will be allocated towards "relocation first, followed by re-homings".

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has attempted such programs, and has found them to be largely ineffective and prohibitively expensive. Moreover, promises of resourcing ring hollow given the cuts in recent years to NPWS programs and personnel, including the slashing of park ranger numbers across NSW from 400 to the current level of around 300.

John Barilaro no doubt perceives political advantage in peddling the Man from Snowy River legend rather than facing up to the difficult decisions required to protect KNP's fragile alpine environment. Meanwhile, the NSW Minister for the Environment, whose job it is to protect KNP, remains strangely silent.

Once again, it appears that the Nationals are running the environmental agenda.

Kim Taysom, Far South Coast National Parks Association, Nimmitabel, NSW

Treasure degraded

It is astounding that the NSW government is seeking to provide greater protection for feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park than for native species. The government's proposed bill to provide "national icon" status to feral horses will add to the threats already faced by KNP's fragile high country environment.

The bill proposes inefficient and costly methods to control a feral horse population that is growing at more than 13 per cent per annum. What a joke!

Natural heritage protection should be about conserving and enhancing Australia's environment not for the preservation of animals that are degrading a national treasure.

Rod Griffiths, Environment subcommittee National Parks Association of the ACT

TO THE POINT

MADE IN THE SHADE

Surely, with well over 100 suburbs and many glaring gaps in the current provision of street shading or tree replacement across Canberra, the ACT budget's funding of 1330 new trees barely addresses the increasing need for more trees to help counteract the growing heat sinks created by intensive development.

Hopefully the ACT government can list the locations of these valuable plantings as they occur over the coming year.

Sue Dyer, Downer

SADDLE SORE POINT

Does our Transport Minister expect that people will drive themselves into town centres so that they can ride their bikes? ("ACT budget to fund bike paths for town centres", canberratimes.com.au, May 21.)

Leon Arundell, Downer

IGNORE THE BULLY BOYS

All power to AGL for refusing to comply with the bullying from the government. Why should any business be forced into a sale for the benefit of any government?

AGL are heading in the right direction as they plan to create more renewable sources. If only the government was as progressive as AGL we could then believe they are trying to do something positive for renewable energy and climate change.

Robyn Lewis, Raglan, NSW

A REFRESHER PERHAPS?

Judging by the APS Commissioner's recent less than stellar performance before Senate Estimates, perhaps it's time for him to take one of the Senate's refresher courses on how to give evidence before its committees?

Graeme Rankin, Holder

TAXING AN EMPTY TANK

Politicians are talking about making tax cuts, but in the very near future there will be a changeover to electric cars. In fact, some governments have set a date for the sale of cars with internal combustion engines to stop. This change will result in a large reduction in revenue from fuel excise and taxes. How does whichever government is in power at that time, propose to compensate for the loss ?

A. Blake, Duffy

FATAL ATTRACTION

I have sympathy with some of the arguments in favour of assisted dying. Those of James Allen (Letters, May 22) who suggests it would help younger family members inherit more, and sooner, from ageing relatives, is not one of them.

Michael Duffy, Curtin

LESS WAR MORE PEACE

How can the Australian War Memorial accept funding from war-making manufacturers and not be seen to be supporters of the same companies?

The War Memorial needs to be renamed The War and Peace Memorial and to start being funded by peaceful organisations like the Red Cross, Rotary and Lions.

Karen Dahlitz, Forrest

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