Apparently, any attack upon the idea of free health care would be the end of Medicare, and many say that the answer to better community health is to spend more taxpayer dollars.

Such an approach is not a sustainable policy position, and the continued grooming of community expectations towards the belief that we all have free rights and precious few responsibilities will do long-term damage to both Medicare and future standards of living.

The billions of dollars spent by Australian consumers on fizzy drink, chocolate and lollies, takeaway food, gambling, coffee, alcohol, bottled water and pay TV, etc, gives the complete lie to the idea that the average family couldn't afford a small out-of-pocket payment for their health-care, by the appropriate winding-back in some discretionary expenditure.

We don't need another public campaign about healthy eating. We need everyone to understand that nothing is free in this life and that individual choices can have a marked effect on one's health.

Buying votes using the cheap slogan of "free health care" may be successful, but it would be the hollow victory of greed over common sense and set Australians up for a fall that will take more than a band-aide to fix.

Peter Middleton, Stirling

So a new government passes a law to rid us of the tram tracks that, alas, we can't afford this generation. How much will closing down a beautiful financial folly cost? Not much, and but a smidgin compared to a debt on all our shoulders for years.

"Just compensation" is payable. Let's look at what is just. Imagine that this year you buy the car of your dreams, second-hand, with the seller telling you that at election time the gear box is going to fail. You buy it anyway and sure enough, at election time it fails, so you take the bus home. Any whinging about this outcome engenders: "You entered this arrangement knowing the full risk. No compensation".

Likewise the contractors for the shiny trams running on shiny rails set in concrete. Their bid price reflects an assessment for the well publicised risk that come the election, there are no shiny rails.

"Just compensation" for them is no more than their outlays until the contract is set aside.

That said, the real unknown is not how much compensation. The real unknown is whether an incoming Liberal government would honour its commitment to rid us of this travelling disaster or find ways to hand-wringingly change its mind.

H.Selby, Lyneham

I was disappointed to see an example of the latent sexism so common in the media in The Canberra Times. The article "Jilted brides: Canberra newlyweds left out of pocket by phantom videographer", canberratimes.com.au, June 12) featured the stories and perspectives of only the relevant seven brides, with barely a mention of their husbands.

Articles like this perpetuate unhelpful gender stereotypes – in this case, that only women care about, or are responsible for, weddings. It may seem a small thing but these little assumptions about the roles of men and women add up and can limit the possible roles we "allow" men and women to play in our community.

Leah Horsfall, Lyneham

The interesting colour photograph "South Curl Curl, March 2015" ("Photos far from digital", Arts, June 11, p17) shows an interesting phenomena of layering in the atmosphere (which is worldwide). It produces nice colours.

However, there is a more sinister side to the layering. The lower band is more obvious and can be seen morning and night if there are clear views are across oceans, or landscapes horizontal to the horizon. Sometimes the layering can be seen with clouds "sitting" on the upper layer.

This phenomena appears to have developed in my lifetime as it was not apparent when I was younger some 70 years ago. The fact also that the banding is higher, and more obvious, in the northern hemisphere all points to this layering being produced by human pollution. While this atmospheric layering is attractive colourwise, it should also be a signal of future dangers to come.

C.Simpson, Torrens

Sad to see director of Catholic Education in the archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn Moira Najdecki upset ("Catholic Education furious at 'disdain' shown in budget", June 9, p1).

However, I have a suggestion which might help: simply sell some more coastal and smaller community schools.

It worked for the Diocese closing down and selling St Joseph's at Eden in Mary McKillop's canonisation year – lest we forget.

Perhaps diversify and sell some coastal churches to boot? Star of the Sea Eden Parishioner numbers are down – less than the number of children attending at St Joseph's when that was shut down.

Time for some auctions, Moira. Sell, sell, sell.

Pat Neville, Eden, NSW

You reported ("Hospital reforms sparked by death", June 11, p1) that, following a maternal death, the coroner recommended that all staff, including specialist obstetricians, receive additional training in the recognition and management of pregnancy hypertension, pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. This is bread and butter stuff, basic obstetrics. Obstetricians see and deal with this on a daily basis. For the coroner to consider that, following one tragedy, every specialist needs further training is amazing enough. Your splashing this all over your front page must do wonders for patient confidence.

Martyn Stafford-Bell, Yarralumla

Canberra was colder than Thredbo on June 13 ("Canberra even colder than Thredbo", June 14, p3). However, The Canberra Times did not report that on June 9, the temperature in the capital of Greenland, Nuuk, was 24 degrees, the warmest June temperature on record, and warmer even than New York City on the same day.

If people are going to get an understanding of global warming trends, which is highly important in terms of policy and political action, I hope the Times and the media more generally adopt a practice of regularly reporting on global climate trends.

Roy Darling's amusing portrayal of Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten (Letters, June 14) was a bit harsh.

On watching Bill Shorten field questions on Q&A we found he explained his position clearly, risking to "tell it like it is" with a degree of toughness. He was decisive – the quality of a good leader.

Malcolm Turnbull comes across as a very nice man who wants to please everyone, struggling with a divided party.

His woeful inconsistencies, the second-rate NBN mess he delivered us, the inability to acknowledge we have a revenue problem, leaves us nervous as to where he will take us after July.

Rob and Sylvia Miners, Isabella Plains

It wasn't "religion" or the lack thereof that caused the Orlando massacre ("No room for hypocrisy in condemning attack", Times2, June 14, p5). Nor was it just that victims were targeted for being gay or lesbian.

It was the Islamic faith of the murderer. His faith, and consequently his hatred of our tolerant Judea/Christian way of life which motivated him to kill.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been excoriated in some quarters for not uttering the words to describe those who were murdered. More importantly why couldn't he utter the word Islam?

Owen Reid, Dunlop

Michael Lane (Letters, June 12) thinks that expenses on property investments, including existing housing, should continue to be deductible against taxable income.

From his other recent correspondence, it is clear that he would include interest on borrowings among these deductible expenses. Mr Lane associates opposition to his position with ignorance on the part of Labor and the Greens.

He may be interested to hear they have recently been joined by the Morgan Stanley corporation. Their Sydney-based economist Daniel Blake has been reported as saying that Australia should urgently find sources of growth that are less debt-intensive, particularly outside the "hugely leveraged property market".

It seems that Australia last year used up more than $9 of debt for every $1 of extra gross domestic product, which is around three times more than the debt needed to produce the same amount of growth in the US economy.

Blake is reported as saying that the tax incentives which encourage this 'debt fuelled investment' should be withdrawn and attached instead to investment in entrepreneurship, start-ups and innovation.

Paul Feldman, Macquarie

One part of the answer to H. Ronald's puzzle (Letters, June 11) is that "renewables" and even ultra-supercritical steam plants are competing against old sub-critical steam plants that were subsidised during establishment and for many owners of them the cost has already been amortised.

An up-to-date comparison should be forward looking, and compare ultra-supercritical steam plants including their fuel supply and by-products disposal chain with sets of 'renewable' sites of comparable generating capacity. I think the economic life costs of establishing, running, maintaining, dismantling and remediation of all associated sites will increasingly favour units that don't use coal or oil but natural gas (not CSG) may hold its own against "renewables".

That is because the cleaner the fuel the less the deterioration of heat transfer over time, the cleaning never gets the tubes quite as clean as the previous time. Ultra-supercritical steam generators are much more efficient than supercritical and sub-critical ones and therefore produce less pollution but they are extremely expensive to design and build.

A sub-critical unit boils the water but a supercritical unit converts the water directly into steam at the came density as the water.

Typically such plants operate above 24 Mpa (3500 psi) with steam temperatures of 538-5660C (1000-10500F). Ultra-supercritical steam generators operate higher still and have only been made possible in recent years by new very expensive metal alloys. That is as much as I can explain in fewer than 250 words.

John F. Simmons , Kambah

A.R. Taylor (Letters, June 9) makes some strange claims in his letter. His statement that renewables are now cheaper than coal is patently false. Just google a comparison of price between coal, wind and solar and the answer is clear – coal is cheaper by a mile. The only way wind or solar can compete involves massive taxpayer subsidies, and also ensures a higher electricity cost which hurts families and business.

Most energy industry reports will argue that solar and wind cannot replace base load electricity sources due to the intermittent nature of production and that the necessity to maintain unused base load power generation increases the cost of any substantial shift to renewables.

So, with renewables, you end up paying twice. Taylor mentions morals and shame, but says a lot about his morals by ignoring 600 million-plus people in poverty in China and India who simply want the things we have – guaranteed electricity, fridges, washing machines and flushing toilets.

Whether you like it or not, China and India are sovereign independent countries who must commission dozens of new power stations (nuclear and coal) to solve this problem. China and India are not going to listen to suggestions from overpaid bureaucrats in New York and Brussels or from trendy lefty, tree hugging, latte sipping, Chardonnay swilling Balmain basket weavers.

If Australia was to close its coal industry, two side effects would be the closure of our steel industry, and also our aluminium industry, which requires a guaranteed 24/7 electricity supply. China and India would then simply buy their coal elsewhere, and we would have thousands of jobs lost plus the loss of billions in income and taxes.

Any decrease in Australian CO2 emissions would be tiny, but at a savage cost. Our economy is not in great shape now, closing our coal industry would cause incalculable harm. What employment could be arranged for the workers who would lose their jobs? We only need a limited number of baristas to serve you a soy latte.

John Burns, Hall

I do not understand the fuss, even indignation, about military people using their career photos in their election material. Military service is a significant aspect of their life and it is reasonable to be shown.

I remember that my father (and his opponent) properly used their service photos in their election contest in 1946.

No fuss. That was certainly appropriate after the 1939-45 war and since Australia is now almost continuously at war somewhere or other, it remains appropriate. In any case, the military, which well defends Australia's democracy, should only be pleased if its members seek to continue to serve our democracy in Parliament.

Bill Wood, Greenway

As I understand it, Mike Kelly ("Kelly quits reserves, soldiers on after uniform demand", June 11, p1) while in the army, fought all his battles with a Biro. Electioneering in a pinstriped suit might therefore be more appropriate for him.

Rod Tonkin, Scullin

Regardless of their party affiliations, Andrew Hastie, Pat O'Neill and Mike Kelly have all served our country proudly in the armed services. It is part of their life history. While I agree plastering images of themselves all over roadside billboards is over the top, Mike Kelly has never done anything like that.

As a voter in Eden-Monaro, I certainly do not object to receiving flyers showing him in uniform in my letterbox.

There would be few readers of The Canberra Times in Queensland or WA, so I assume Mssrs Hunter, Gardiner and McPhan (Letters, June 14) are directing cross-border fire into Eden-Monaro with the object of saving sitting member Peter Hendy's bacon.

I regret to inform them that I am not inclined to vote for someone who has displayed gross disloyalty to the leader who got him into the Parliament and his party into government.

Nigel Thompson, Queanbeyan East, NSW

ON THE JOB HUNT

The Liberal Party has me confused. A search of the Australian Electoral Commission's published names of the candidates for all electorates and the Senate in each state failed to find any reference to that Liberal candidate we have been hearing so much about – GROATH, Jobson.

John Widdup, Lynehan

IT'S ONLY NATURAL

Ashley Fruno (Letters, June 13) states that "just like us, animals want and deserve to live their lives as nature intended". I wonder how PETA thinks nature intended us to live.

Steve Thomas, Yarralumla

LAY DOWN THE LAW

Julian Cribb ("The real issue: politicians", Times2, June 13, p1) is correct about the sort of people who get elected. One obvious change would be to bar lawyers from standing for election to Parliament. For lawyers to make the laws is a blatant conflict of interest.

Charles Hirst, Latham

HEROES TO HOMELESS

Soudalay Thammavongsa and Emma Madsen ("Campaign's hot success warms homeless", June 14, p2) are to be commended for their efforts in helping to keep Canberra's estimated 1800 homeless people warm. We often forget that charity begins at home.

John Milne, Chapman

NO SAFETY IN NUMBERS

Does Nathan Edwardson ("Laws to punish people who target cyclists and cars", June 14, p3) realise the dangers inherent in cyclists riding in large, close-knit groups? I suspect that such foolish behaviour was a major cause of the Amy Gillett tragedy several years ago. I recommend that cycling groups and traffic authorities co-operate in taking action to have this common practice eliminated.

Robert James, Melba

MILITANT TENDENCY

The United States has two particularly nasty militant groups to deal with: the fundamentalists of Islamic State and the "gundamentalists" of the National Rifle Association.

Peter Day, Queanbeyan, NSW

A BIRTHDAY WISH

My birthday is after the federal election. Will Senator Zed Seselja remember me too, or will he be back in hibernation by then?

John Davenport, Farrer

Zed Seselja's defaced electioneering signs have been replaced on Southern Cross Drive with "Malcolm Turnbull for Prime Minister" signs. Will we find Malcolm's name on our ballot paper? I don't think so.

Pam Nicolson, Latham

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